ABSTRACT

Bringing together twenty-nine of Lawrence Alloway’s most influential essays in one volume, this fascinating collection provides valuable perspectives on the art and visual culture of the second half of the twentieth century.

Lawrence Alloway ranks among the most important critics of his time, and his contributions to the spirited and contentious dialogue of his era make for fascinating reading.

These twenty-nine provocative essays from 1956 to 1980 from the man who invented the term ‘pop art’ bring art, film, iconography, cybernetics and culture together for analysis and investigation, and do indeed examine the context, content and role of the critic in art and visual culture.

Featuring a critical commentary by Richard Kalina, and preface by series editor Saul Ostrow, Imagining the Present will be an enthralling read for all art and visual culture students.

chapter |38 pages

Imagining the Present

Context, Content, and the Role of the Critic

chapter 1|3 pages

Quick Symbols

chapter 2|4 pages

Technology and Sex in Science Fiction

A Note on Cover Art

chapter 3|3 pages

Design as a Human Activity

chapter 4|3 pages

Personal Statement

chapter 5|5 pages

The Arts and the Mass Media

chapter 6|4 pages

The Long Front of Culture

chapter 7|6 pages

City Notes

chapter 8|5 pages

Artists as Consumers

chapter 9|4 pages

Junk Culture

chapter 10|7 pages

‘Pop Art' Since 1949

chapter 11|7 pages

Six Painters and the Object

chapter 12|9 pages

The American Sublime

chapter 13|5 pages

The Critic and the Visual Arts

chapter 14|7 pages

Art and the Communications Network

chapter 15|15 pages

Systemic Painting

chapter 16|9 pages

Art and the Expanding Audience

chapter 17|4 pages

Pop Art

The Words

chapter 18|5 pages

The Spectrum of Monochrome

chapter 19|13 pages

Position Paper

chapter 20|6 pages

Anthropology and Art Criticism

chapter 21|5 pages

Systems of Cross-Reference in the Arts

On Translation

chapter 22|9 pages

On Style

An Examination of Roy Lichtenstein's Development, Despite a New Monograph on the Artist *

chapter 23|6 pages

Photo-Realism

chapter 24|11 pages

The Function of the Art Critic

chapter 25|15 pages

Artists as Writers, Part One

Inside Information

chapter 26|4 pages

Realism as a Problem

chapter 27|9 pages

De Kooning

Criticism and Art History

chapter 28|10 pages

The Complex Present

chapter 29|6 pages

Problems of Iconography and Style