The Shock Of The New, by Robert Hughes, is an overview of modern art, starting with the impressionist and continuing to the late 1980s. This is perhaps the most intellectually stimulating book I have ever read. The author effectively follows the sinuous path of modern art, including its impact on thinking in the arts and society.
What captured my attention was Hughes’ exceptional contention, for an art critic, that “… (in)the time of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, the visual arts had a kind of social importance they can no longer claim today”. (Hughes, Robert. The Shock of the New (Kindle Locations 110-111). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
For an art critic to say that the importance of art has diminished since 1870 is astonishing in itself. I began to believe that Robert Hughes would deliver an honest appraisal of modern art while explaining what was going on at the same time. Mr. Hughes came through with flying colors. This is a brutally honest appraisal of modern art, where it has come from, and what happens now that it seems to have died a convoluted death.
“What has our culture lost in 1980 that the avant-garde had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism, confidence, the belief that there was plenty of territory to explore, and above all the sense that art, in the most disinterested and noble way, could find the necessary metaphors by which a radically changing culture could be explained…” (Kindle Locations 117-119).
Mr. Hughes correctly observes that the most important event in the history of modern art was World War I, the first industrial war in history. Masses of men were thrown against defenses that were all but impossible to breach. As offensive after offensive died on the Western Front the generals and politicians lied about what was going on. It was this unmitigated slaughter coupled with the lies of governments that incited modern art after WWI.
Impressionism was part of the triumph of middle-class society. First showing in 1874 it caused a major upheaval in art and French society, and became the most popular of all art movements. Note this was pre-WWI. “An Impressionist ‘view’ was the essence of realism: it represented one thing at a given moment in time.” And “the chaos of the ‘view’ must be made to reflect order, structure, and system.” After WWI this ‘view’ of a world with structure and order was gone.
Modern art obviously includes architecture, and the author does a masterful job of showing the reader how modern architecture fits into modern art.
In his final chapters the author describes the death of the avant-garde in the 1970s, crushed by media driven art. The 1970s, says the author, was the decade that modernism became the official culture of America and Europe. But, it became clear that painting and sculpture would not be the primary forms of social speech after the rise of the mass market. The modernist condemned themselves to a self-deception about the limits of art. Mr. Hughes points out that in fact the world changes itself, but the artist cannot claim to have caused the change. Thus, the death of the avant-garde.
Mr. Hughes contends money impacted modern art after the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the international super-rich who could pay enormous amounts of money for art. This created the largest art market boom in history, but did not result in an increase in artistic quality. Modernism failed to provide radically new forms to emote new feelings. The new lax thought processes weakened the ideal of mastery and thereby damaged modern art forms.
The author’s descriptions of various art movements and artist are excellent. My only complaint was the narrative was choppy. I could not follow which art movement he was discussing as he jumped between eras and artists very quickly. Also, the pictures being discussed are often nowhere near the page the text is on, but this is probably a fault of the electronic book and not the author.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
This item: The Shock of the New: The Hundred-Year History of Modern Art--Its Rise, Its Dazzling Achievement, Its Fall
$34.19
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jul 2
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
+
$15.65
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jul 2
In Stock
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start over
About the author
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2009
- Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2018
- Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2016
Top reviews from other countries
- AmandaAReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2024
Excellent book for art history
-
