The term Neo-Dada surfaced in New York in the late 1950s and was used to characterize young artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns whose art appeared at odds with the serious emotional and painterly interests of the then-dominant movement, Abstract Expressionism. Neo-Dada quickly became the word of choice in the early 1960s to designate experimental art, including assemblage, performance, Pop art, and nascent forms of minimal and conceptual art.
An Audience of Artists turns this time line for the postwar New York art world on its head, presenting a new pedigree for these artistic movements. Drawing on an array of previously unpublished material, Catherine A. Craft reveals that Neo-Dada, far from being a reaction to Abstract Expressionism, actually originated at the heart of that movement’s concerns about viewers, originality, and artists’ debts to the past and one another. Furthermore, she argues, the original Dada movement was not incompatible with Abstract Expressionism. In fact, Dada provided a vital historical reference for artists and critics seeking to come to terms with the radical departure from tradition that Abstract Expressionism seemed to represent. Tracing the activities of artists such as Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, and Jackson Pollock alongside Marcel Duchamp’s renewed embrace of Dada in the late 1940s, Craft composes a subtle exploration of the challenges facing artists trying to work in the wake of a destructive world war and the paintings, objects, writings, and installations that resulted from their efforts. Providing the first examination of the roots of the Neo-Dada phenomenon, this groundbreaking study significantly reassesses the histories of these three movements and offers new ways of understanding the broader issues related to the development of modern art.

An Audience of Artists: Dada, Neo-Dada, and the Emergence of Abstract Expressionism

Arts & Photography

Craft, Catherine

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

The work of Robert Rauschenberg has had a profound impact on avant-garde art from the 1950s onwards. A pioneer of multimedia are, this book explores his experimentations from his Combines (works melding painting and sculpture), prints, silkscreen paintings to his use of technology and his collaborations with choreographers such as Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown. This book explores his work.

Robert Rauschenberg: Phaidon Focus

Phaidon Press

Exploring the recent sculptural innovations of prominent contemporary artist Carol Bove Carol Bove: Collage Sculptures presents an extensive look into the contemporary artist's work over the past five years and her ongoing exploration of scale, color, material, and artistic traditions of the twentieth century.&nbsp; &nbsp; Bove's recent work engages the conceptual concerns of mid-century sculpture, such as spontaneity, industrial materials, and the potential of painted sculpture. However, within this space of familiar sculptural traditions, Bove has discovered new approaches that lead to places previously unknown. Bove's "collage sculptures" are created from scrap metal and stainless steel that has been carefully worked into sinuous forms and are frequently painted. Considering the hard rigidity of the steel, the works possess an appearance of almost impossible softness, as if steel could become as pliable as clay. Such works range from small pedestal sculptures to large, imposing compositions. Bove's interest in scale and how a viewer's understanding of an artwork shifts depending on its context are explored through a selection of small works from the collection of the Nasher Sculpture Center. &nbsp; Published by the Nasher Sculpture Center, the catalogue features beautiful reproductions of Bove's work and an introduction as well as an essay by curator Catherine Craft on the development of the collage sculptures and their relationship to other artists and traditions of modern sculpture. Also included is an essay by Lisa Le Feuvre that explores Bove's complex work by means of a thematic alphabet related to the artist's interests.&nbsp;

Carol Bove: Collage Sculptures

Le Feuvre, Lisa

Individual Artists

Nasher Sculpture Center

The book not only displays the artist's tremendous catalogue of artworks but also discusses both his influence within the art of the 1960s and later, and his personal and artistic relationships with other major artists from the period. Offering at once a retrospective of Johns's art and a portrait of the American artistic landscape over the past sixty years, this study allows the reader to experience both the historical and contemporary significance of one of their favorite artists.

Jasper Johns (Temporis)

Parkstone Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Craft, Catherine. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Craft, Catherine

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Craft, Catherine. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

An Audience of Artists: Dada, Neo-Dada, and the Emergence of Abstract Expressionism

Robert Rauschenberg: Phaidon Focus

Carol Bove: Collage Sculptures

Jasper Johns (Temporis)