Richard Shiff

Art" has always been contested terrain, whether the object in question is a medieval tapestry or Duchamp's Fountain. But questions about the categories of "art" and "art history" acquired increased urgency during the 1970s, when new developments in critical theory and other intellectual projects dramatically transformed the discipline. The first edition of Critical Terms for Art History both mapped and contributed to those transformations, offering a spirited reassessment of the field's methods and terminology.Art history as a field has kept pace with debates over globalization and other social and political issues in recent years, making a second edition of this book not just timely, but crucial. Like its predecessor, this new edition consists of essays that cover a wide variety of "loaded" terms in the history of art, from sign to meaning, ritual to commodity. Each essay explains and comments on a single term, discussing the issues the term raises and putting the term into practice as an interpretive framework for a specific work of art. For example, Richard Shiff discusses "Originality" in Vija Celmins's To Fix the Image in Memory, a work made of eleven pairs of stones, each consisting of one "original" stone and one painted bronze replica.

Robert Mangolds gently curving, majestic paintings are among the most beautiful abstract works of the late twentieth century. Emerging in the 1960s, Mangold is often associated with Minimalism for his non-hierarchical compositions and use of simple geometric forms. His subtle colours and soft, hand-drawn figures also recall other sources, from traditional Greek pottery to the frescoes of Piero. Among the most accomplished painters working today, Mangold is collected in the worlds pre-eminent museums. This first comprehensive monograph assesses Mangolds contribution to contemporary painting, with essays by some of the most distinguished writers on contemporary art. Richard Shiff, Chair in Art at the University of Texas, Austin, interprets Mangolds art in the context of its broad cultural history; Robert Storr, curator at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, analyses the work in relation to late twentieth-century painting; Arthur C Danto, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, New York, examines in depth the Zone Paintings series; and art critic Nancy Princenthal presents a chronological history of the concepts in the work. Also included is a conversation with the artists wife, painter Sylvia Plimack Mangold, on the sources behind his work, and artists statements accompanied by photographs of the artist in his studio by their son, the noted filmmaker James Mangold.

Shiff analiza la obra de Cézanne en el marco de lo que denomina"fin del impresionismo", un momento de la historia del arte europeo en el que coinciden impresionismo, naturalismo y simbolismo, además de artistas que, como el propio Cezanne, son inclasificables. Un momento, ademas, en el que los problemas de la percepcion y de la representacion son sometidos a estudios y planteamientos originales. El autor se ocupa con atencion y rigor de la recepcion y las diferentes interpretaciones de la obra de Cezanne, de su tecnica pictorica y de la que llama "materialidad de Cezanne", un aspecto que abre un modo nuevo de ver la obra del artista.

Shiff analiza la obra de Cezanne en el marco de lo que denomina "fin del impresionismo", un momento en la historia del arte europeo en el que coinciden impresionismo, naturalismo y simbolismo, además de artistas que, como el propio Cezanne, son inclasificables. Un momento, ademas, en el que los problemas de la percepcion y de la representacion son sometidos a estudios y planteamientos originales. El autor se ocupa con atencion y rigor de la recepcion y las diferentes interpretaciones de la obra de Cezanne, de su tecnica pictorica y de la que llama "materialidad de Cezanne", un aspecto que abre un modo nuevo de ver la obra del artista.