The Painted Word

Jack the Dripper, the king of Abstract Expressionism, an art movement author Tom Wolfe didn't hold in high regard You will be hard-pressed to find a more lively, wittier book on the phenomenon of modern art than Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word, a 100-page romp through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s where t......more

The prose is absolutely brilliant, as always, and the social commentary is 100% correct, but Wolfe's overall argument is unconvincing. He's also wrong on a quite a few historical points -- e.g., Picasso was not languishing in obscurity until 1918 (to say the least). And, incidentally, Picasso had ma......more

I am writing a much longer and more detailed review than usual because I plan to attend a local book club's upcoming meeting to discuss this nonfiction book. Tom Wolfe's small but potent book charts the course of Modern Art. The stylistic writing is as witty and provocative as Wolfe's earlier book "R......more

Tom Wolfe rips the pish out of art critics using their own chosen weapon - the word. This was probably about round 6 of a 12 rounder between painting and theory. Up to this pont Theory had been winning every round and it looked like painting was going to have to throw in the towel and abandon the tit......more

A clear and concise easy to read book about why the contemporary art world is what it is. The author claims that contemporary visual art no longer speaks for itself, but needs an interpreter and justifier to speak for it, something like the Emperor'S New Clothes fable. Why is the intellectualization......more