The painted word
"America's nerviest journalist" (Newsweek) trains his satirical eye on Modern Art in this "masterpiece" (The Washington Post) Wolfe's style has never been more dazzling, his wit never more keen. He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. The Painted Word is Tom Wolfe "at his most clever, amusing, and irreverent" (San Francisco Chronicle).
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- Frederick Hart, Thomas Kinkade, Norman Rockwell. None too well respected, I suppose.
The problem is that there are thousands (or more) young people with all the technical ability of Michelangelo, and so they absolutely need something else to distinguish them. Thus many artists go through their "Michelangelo phase" to get to their "weird scribbly splotchy phase" which is the real lottery ticket.
Perhaps more importantly, the critics needs something to say about art, or they won't say anything. See "The Painted Word" by Tom Wolfe
- "The talent required for modern art is not in creating it, but in describing it."
There's a short, funny book called The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe that goes into this quite nicely, that it's not about art at all in today's contemporary art world.
- I've enjoyed an amazing book of calligraphic art for many years, The Painted Word. Beautiful and colourful designs, some of which also incorporate (how to describe?!) paper carving/cutting.
- For anyone remotely interested in the sense and nonsense of modern art amd and architecture I strongly recommend Wolfe's "The Painted Word" and "From our House to Bauhaus". Both extremely funny and sharp.
- RIP. Feels like the end of an era for New Yorkers. A certain longform vigor. Jimmy Breslin on JFK's assassination. Peter Maas and Serpico. Norman Mailer running for mayor of the "51st State"
In addition to all the excellent suggestions on this page. Also check out The Painted Word (1975).
Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Tom Wolfe and The Painted Word
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5NBoe5qHRE
Art of Fiction Interview with George Plimpton
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05/15/tom-wolfe-193...
- An informative read is The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe (yes, that white suit wearing writer). It's a fairly short book, and written from personal experience in the art world.
He talks about the evolution of art toward something that can only be appreciated if you know the theory behind it, and also about the interplay of the (poor) artist and the (rich) patron and the psychological aspects of what the patron it buying (often: they get to be an "insider", with the whole notion of being an insider being something that the artist has constructed.)
