The new chemistry Book

For those who "still crave the thrilling experiences that only art can offer," New Republic art critic Jed Perl brings to this collection of twenty-six essays his uncompromising critical engagement with the contemporary art world. Perl presents bold, amost novelistic explorations of contemporary artists—including Balthus, Jasper Johns, Bruce Nauman and Joan Snyder—within the braoder context of a lively discussion of museum and gallery goings-on. Anointing the '90s "The Age of the Deal Makers," Perl laments the collapse of a system that once enabled artists—and especially painters and sculptors—to develop slowly over time. Sparing no one in his examination of the way our culture looks at art, Perl investigates how those charged with the responsibility of fostering artists' careers have deferred matters of taste and quality to the marketplace—with disastrous results. Eyewitness offers a generous survey of the last decade of museum and gallery going, paying particular attention to the cultural context in which art is made, exhibited and discussed. Perl focuses on developments at institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum and the Getty Center in Los Angeles and shows how hype and context have conspired to exlipse tradtion and content. He details the artists and exhibitions that have thrived in the current market-dominated art world, as well as the deserving work which has received far too little attention. Eyewitness is the product of a rare critical mind. Jed Perl offers both a passionate engagement with art and a critical assessment of its social context. This book, and its stirring belief in the power of art, will inspire a new understanding of how we look at art and what that says about our culture. About the Author: Jed Perl is the art critic of The New Republic. He has been a contributing editor of Vogue, a columnist for Salmagundi and a regular contributor to Modern Painters and The New Criterion. His books include Paris Without End: On French Art Since World War I and Gallery Going: Four Seasons in the Art World. He lives in New York City with his wife, the painter Deborah Rosenthal.