Artscribe

Title first published in 2003. What happened to art in Britain when the balance began to shift from public to private subsidy following the IMF crisis in 1976? In this polemical book, Neil Mulholland charts the political and cultural shifts in art in Britain from the mid-1970's to the end of the twentieth century. His account covers the key trends and artists of this extraordinarily diverse period, including critical postmodernism, feminism, neoconservatism, object sculpture, the new image, Brit Art, and Scottish neoconceptualism, and traces the development of critical thinking from the opinions of critics such as Richard Cork, John Roberts and Matthew Collings to tabloid press art scandals. The Cultural Devolution offers a broad critical and historical framework within which to understand public debate on the merits of young British artists such as Damien Hirst while looking beyond such celebrities to re-discover the wealth and range of work produced. Essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary art in Britain.

A critical study of the life of art criticism in the 1970s, this volume traces the evolution of art and art criticism in a pivotal period in post-war British history. JJ Charlesworth explores how art critics and the art press attempted to negotiate new developments in art, faced with the challenges of conceptualism, alternative media, new social movements and radical innovations in philosophy and theory. This is the first comprehensive study of the art press and art criticism in Britain during this pivotal period, seen through the lens of its art press, charting the arguments and ideas that would come to shape contemporary art as we know it today. This book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, British cultural history and history of journalism.

Met lit. opg. Met reg. The author argues that the rupture of post-modernism with the critical culture of modernism, realism and Marxism is in the ligt of the still determining power of many of the aims and concerns of the modernist and realist projects. Also included is a description of the production, distribution and criticism of the visual arts in Britain since the late 1970s and the rise of Thatcherism.

The independent voice of the visual arts.