Art and Pluralism: Lawrence Alloway's Cultural Criticism (Liverpool University Press - Value: Art: Politics)

Lawrence Alloway (1926-1990) was one of the most influential and widely respected (as well as prolific) art writers of the post-war years. His many books, catalogue essays and reviews manifest the changing paradigms of art away from the formal values of modernism towards the inclusiveness of the visual culture model in the 1950s, through the diversity and excesses of the 1960s, to the politicisation in the wake of 1968 and the Vietnam war, on to postmodern concerns in the 1970s. Alloway was in the right places at the right times. From his central involvement with the Independent Group and the ICA in London in the 1950s, he moved to New York, the new world centre of art, at the beginning of the 1960s. In the early 1970s he became deeply involved with the realist revival and the early feminist movement in art -- Sylvia Sleigh, the painter, was his wife -- and went on to write extensively about the gallery and art market as a system, examining the critic's role within this system. Positioning himself against the formalism and exclusivism associated with Clement Greenberg, Alloway was wholeheartedly committed to pluralism and diversity in both art and society. For him, art and criticism were always to be understood within a wider set of cultural, social and political concerns, with the emphasis on democracy, social inclusiveness, and freedom of expression. Art and Pluralism provides a close critical reading of Alloway's writings, and sets his work and thought within the cultural contexts of the London and New York art worlds from the 1950s through to the early 1980s. It is a fascinating study of one of the most significant art critics of the twentieth century. Cover 1 Half-title 2 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of Plates 12 Acknowledgements 14 Section A: Introduction 16 Chapter 1 18 Chapter 2 22 Chapter 3 26 Chapter 4 29 Section B: Continuum, 1952–1961 34 Chapter 1 36 Chapter 2 40 Chapter 3 43 Chapter 4 47 Chapter 5 53 Chapter 6 58 Chapter 7 62 Chapter 8 65 Chapter 9 68 Chapter 10 71 Chapter 11 74 Chapter 12 77 Chapter 13 87 Chapter 14 93 Chapter 15 97 Chapter 16 101 Chapter 17 106 Chapter 18 110 Chapter 19 114 Chapter 20 121 Chapter 21 126 Chapter 22 130 Chapter 23 133 Chapter 24 136 Chapter 25 140 Chapter 26 143 Chapter 27 147 Chapter 28 153 Chapter 29 156 Chapter 30 162 Chapter 31 169 Chapter 32 174 Section C: Abundance, 1961–1971 180 Chapter 1 182 Chapter 2 186 Chapter 3 190 Chapter 4 192 Chapter 5 195 Chapter 6 201 Chapter 7 204 Chapter 8 211 Chapter 9 216 Chapter 10 222 Chapter 11 228 Chapter 12 235 Chapter 13 238 Chapter 14 242 Chapter 15 246 Chapter 16 252 Chapter 17 254 Chapter 18 259 Chapter 19 263 Chapter 20 267 Chapter 21 273 Chapter 22 278 Chapter 23 285 Chapter 24 289 Chapter 25 294 Chapter 26 301 Section D: Alternatives, 1971-1988 304 Chapter 1 306 Chapter 2 311 Chapter 3 319 Chapter 4 322 Chapter 5 328 Chapter 6 335 Chapter 7 341 Chapter 8 349 Chapter 9 353 Chapter 10 358 Chapter 11 363 Chapter 12 371 Chapter 13 375 Chapter 14 379 Chapter 15 383 Chapter 16 387 Chapter 17 391 Chapter 18 393 Chapter 19 400 Chapter 20 407 Chapter 21 415 Chapter 22 424 Chapter 23 428 Chapter 24 434 Chapter 25 437 Chapter 26 441 Section E: Summary and Conclusion 446 Chapter 1 448 Chapter 2 456 Chapter 3 462 Chapter 4 466 Chapter 5 472 Chapter 6 479 Chapter 7 484 Select bibliography 488 Index 506 Lawrence Alloway (1926–1990) was one of the most influential and widely respected (as well as prolific) art writers of the post-war years. His many books, catalogue essays, and reviews manifest the changing paradigms of art away from the formal values of modernism towards the inclusiveness of the visual culture model in the 1950s, through the diversity and excesses of the 1960s, to the politicisation in the wake of 1968 and the Vietnam War, on to postmodern concerns in the 1970s. Alloway was in the right places at the right times. From his central involvement with the Independent Group and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London in the 1950s, he moved to New York, the new world centre of art, at the beginning of the 1960s. In the early 1970s Alloway became deeply involved with the realist revival and the early feminist movement in art — Sylvia Sleigh, the painter, was his wife — and went on to write extensively about the gallery and art market as a system, examining the critic's role within this system. Positioning himself against the formalism and exclusivism associated with Clement Greenberg, Alloway was wholeheartedly committed to pluralism and diversity in both art and society. For him, art and criticism were always to be understood within a wider set of cultural, social and political concerns, with the emphasis on democracy, social inclusiveness and freedom of expression. This book provides a close critical reading of Alloway's writings. Annotation Lawrence Alloway (192690) was one of the most influential and widely respected art writers of the postwar years. A key interpreter of pop art, abstraction, and land art, he was also involved with the realist revival and the early feminist movement in art. Art and Pluralismprovides close and critical readings of Alloways writings and sets his work in the context of the London and New York art worlds from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Nigel Whiteley underlines the particular importance of pluralism and its relationship with the artistic value systems that bookended itformalism and postmodernismshedding new light on postwar visual culture as a whole This book examines the writings of Lawrence Alloway (1926-1990), one of the most influential and widely-respected art writers of the post-War years. Art and Pluralism provides a close and critical reading of Alloway's writings, and sets his work in the cultural and political context of the London and New York art worlds of the 1950s to the early 1980s. A invaluable work for all twentieth-century artists and art historians.