Radical Coherency: Selected Essays on Art and Literature, 1966 to 2005

Description

“We got to talking”—so David Antin begins the introduction to Radical Coherency, embarking on the pursuit that has marked much of his breathless, brilliantly conversational work. For the past forty years, whether spoken under the guise of performance artist or poet, cultural explorer or literary critic, Antin’s innovative observations have helped us to better understand everything from Pop to Postmodernism.  Intimately wedded to the worlds of conceptual art and poetics, Radical Coherency collects Antin’s influential critical essays and spontaneous, performed lectures (or “talk pieces”) for the very first time, capturing one of the most distinctive perspectives in contemporary literature. The essays presented here range from the first serious assessment of Andy Warhol published in a major art journal, as well as Antin’s provocative take on Clement Greenberg’s theory of Modernism, to frontline interventions in present debates on poetics and fugitive pieces from the ’60s and ’70s that still sparkle today—and represent a gold mine for art historians of the period. From John Cage to Allan Kaprow, Mark Rothko to Ludwig Wittgenstein, Antin takes the reader on an idiosyncratic, personal journey through twentieth-century culture with his trademark antiformalist panache—one thatwill be welcomed by any fan of this consummate trailblazer. Contents Preface Introduction Art Essays Warhol: The Silver Tenement Alex Katz and the Tactics of Representation Jean Tinguely's New Machine Lead Kindly Blight "It Reaches a Desert in which Nothing Can Be Perceived but Feeling" Art and the Corporations Video, the Distinctive Features of the Medium Have Mind, Will Travel the existential allegory of the rothko chapel Duchamp: The Meal and the Remainder Allan at Work Literary Essays Modernism and Postmodernism: Approaching the Present in Modern American Poetry Some Questions about Modernism radical coherency The Stranger at the Door The Beggar and the King "the death of the hire man" Fine Furs Wittgenstein among the Poets john cage uncaged is still cagey Credits Index