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.
Galenson combines social scientific methods with qualitative analysis to produce a new interpretation of modern art.
David W. Galenson is Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His other published works include Painting Outside the Lines (2001) and Old Masters and Young Geniuses (2006).
“To Mr. Galenson markets are what make the 20th century completely
different from other eras for art. . . . [B]reaking the rules
became the most valued attribute. The greatest rewards went to
conceptual innovators who frequently changed styles and invented
genres.” – Patricia Cohen, The New York Times
“David Galenson brings the insights of an economic historian to
this fascinating study of innovation in modern art. He shows how
changes in the structure of the market for new art altered the
innovation process itself and how the nature of innovation
developed in the lives of many 20th century artists. Anyone
interested in the development of 20th century art and any economist
interested in the general process of innovation will want to read
this book.” – Martin Feldstein, Department of Economics, Harvard
University
"With this book, David Galenson burnishes his reputation as one of
the most interesting economists at work today. Once you've read
Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art, you'll never look
at modern art – or the creative process – quite the same way." –
Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind
“David Galenson has written the most inventive, surprising, and
illuminating book on modern art to appear in my lifetime. I can
think of no other book on modern art that remotely resembles
Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art. Yet it is a
surprising book because Galenson draws much of his evidence from
what artists and art historians have been saying about modern art
for more than a century. What Galenson has done is to take often
over-familiar material and to reshape it by asking simple questions
about artists’ behavior and then systematically setting out to
explain them. Most importantly, I know of no artist, and certainly
no art historian, who has seen so clearly the connection between
the variety and pace of 20th-century artistic innovations and the
increasing autonomy granted to artists by a richly competitive
market. After introductory chapters on innovation and artistic
importance, Conceptual Revolutions describes with unsurpassed
clarity artistic behaviors new to recent art. Each chapter can be
read independently of the others, but taken together readers will
find clearly explained much of what often seems mysterious not only
to the layperson but even to the art professional. Conceptual
Revolutions offers new explanations for many familiar phenomena in
modern art and challenges many received ideas held by scholars of
20th-century art, all presented in a prose style that is accessible
to any intelligent reader. Conceptual Revolutions should change any
open-minded reader’s basic perceptions about art today.” – Robert
Jensen, Department of Art, University of Kentucky
“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
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