Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art

Galenson combines social scientific methods with qualitative analysis to produce a new interpretation of modern art.

David W. Galenson (Author)

9780521129091, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 September 2009

460 pages, 25 tables
22.8 x 15.3 x 2.5 cm, 0.63 kg

“A fascinating and highly readable explanation of why the art of the 20th century changed so dramatically from that which came earlier. David Galenson goes further in using innovative methods of analysis to change our concept of modern art than anyone I know. Entertaining and informative.” – Don Thompson, author of The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art

From Picasso's Cubism and Duchamp's readymades to Warhol's silkscreens and Smithson's earthworks, the art of the twentieth century broke completely with earlier artistic traditions. A basic change in the market for advanced art produced a heightened demand for innovation, and young conceptual innovators – from Picasso and Duchamp to Rauschenberg and Warhol to Cindy Sherman and Damien Hirst – responded not only by creating dozens of new forms of art, but also by behaving in ways that would have been incomprehensible to their predecessors. Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art presents the first systematic analysis of the reasons for this discontinuity. David W. Galenson, whose earlier research has changed our understanding of creativity, combines social scientific methods with qualitative analysis to produce a fundamentally new interpretation of modern art that will give readers a far deeper appreciation of the art of the past century, and of today, than is available elsewhere.

Introduction
1. The back story of twentieth-century art
2. The greatest artists of the twentieth century
3. The most important works of art of the twentieth century
4. The greatest artistic breakthroughs of the twentieth century
5. The greatest women artists of the twentieth century
6. Creating new genres: conceptual artists at work and play in the twentieth century
7. And now for something completely different: the versatility of conceptual innovators
8. You cannot be serious: the conceptual innovator as trickster
9. Painting by proxy: the conceptual artist as manufacturer
10. Co-authoring advanced art
11. Language in visual art
12. Portraits of the artist: personal visual art in the twentieth century
13. The rise and (partial) fall of abstract painting in the twentieth century
14. The globalization of advanced art in the twentieth century
15. Artists and the market: from Leonardo and Titian to Warhol and Hirst
16. The state of advanced art: the late twentieth century and beyond.

Subject Areas: Art techniques & principles [AGZ], Art treatments & subjects [AG], Art forms [AF], Art & design styles: Conceptual art [ACXJ5], History of art / art & design styles [AC], Theory of art [ABA], The arts: general issues [AB], The arts [A]