Nothing If Not Critical: Selected Essays on Art and Artists

This collection of magazine reviews and essays, first published in 1990, serves as a short course in the development of American and European art over the last few centuries. The eye is keen, the mind is thoroughly grounded in art history and tradition, and the writing is lucid and provocative. Hughes wrote the magazine pieces while working as the art critic for Time Magazine. They tend to be triggered by major exhibitions of modern artists or major retrospectives of dead ones. Hughes always starts from the work, and deals with the constricted space of the magazine format by isolating something essential about an artist: DeKooning's draftsmanship; Hopper's despair held in abeyance; Pisarro's decency; Pollock as aesthete instead of wild cowboy; the mismatch between Rothko's intellectual aims and artistic strategies. Sandwiched between whiskey ads and the pimping of NBC's new sitcom, Hughes' magazine reviews demonstrate an admirable ability to dissect major paintings and analyze artists without talking down to Time's mass audience.The longer essays first appeared in venues such as The New York Review of Books and The New Republic. In these pieces, Hughes lets his critical and rhetorical capabilities off the leash. The opening essay gives us Hughes' take on the 1980s New York art scene, which Hughes saw as a "low, dishonest decade," for several interrelated reasons. First, the art being produced did not serve or surpass the modernist tradition that preceded it; for Hughes, all serious art must grapple with what came before it, and figure out how to move beyond it. ("An artist's every action is judged by an unwearying tribunal of the dead.") Intelligent evaluation of the work produced by emerging artists became supplanted by hype. And it's easier to hype a work - and charge outrageous prices for it - if you unmoor it from any serious critical evaluation of what the work is actually achieving. He's right; it does seem like a very far way from Pollock and deKooning to Basquiat and Koons, and not necessarily progress.Some of the more memorable longer pieces include his take on Warhol's affectless self-promotion, and his dismantling of Baudrillard's bombastic drivel on the essence of America. There's an informative essay on art and money that shows how escalating art prices remove art from the public because museums can't afford to bid against private collectors for major pieces, and because the insurance costs on major works make comprehensive retrospectives fiendishly difficult to assemble. Denied access to visceral experience of a sculpture or painting, aesthetic consensus is increasingly derived from reproduced rather than actual objects. This makes the art world more vulnerable to brilliant promoters like Warhol or clever packagers like Hirsch. As Hughes puts it, "the art world looks more like the fashion industry than itself. . ."There's a wonderful essay on Goya that traces the connection between Goya's artistic output and his life experiences. Goya's career was in essence a long grapple with one of our central conundrums: do the failings of humankind derive from bad laws and bad rulers, or is there something fundamentally flawed at the core of human nature? To which Goya, having made his way up through the realms of craft, ambition, political maneuvering, fame, liberal ideals, illness and dashed dreams, would have replied, and did reply, yes. Over two centuries later, we haven't moved past where he was, which is why Goya's work still retains its immediacy and power to move us.Hughes is an entertaining writer and a discerning critic. Some of his takes on the "contemporary" scene have been dated by events of the past three decades, but his grasp of the past is powerful and sure. His trained eye and sense of history help to ground an art world prone to drift skyward propelled only by its own hot air.

In "Nothing If Not Critical", Robert Hughes's essays run through six sections: from "Ancestors" (think Caravaggio) to "Contemporaries", with stops in the 19th Century, the rise of Modernism, and mid-20th Century American and European artists. Many of the essays were written for museum or gallery shows of note; others are more general thoughts on art and artists. Most were published in Time Magazine or The New Republic.The pieces suggest to me that Hughes appreciates thoughtfully constructed, intelligible, controlled works of art. He lauds classical works, and classicism in modernist art, and, I suppose if there is a classic pose in post-modern art, then he would favor that as well. There is little love lost here for exuberant, careening painting. For instance, his piece on Jean-Michel Basquiat is an only slightly disguised hatchet job; he asserts that Francesco Clemente "...draws like a duffer and seems unable to make a mark that possesses much autonomous grace or power."That said, all of Hughes' essays are worth reading. Hold your own opinions tightly, and simply agree to disagree with him about artists whom you admire and he does not. Well, perhaps you could skip the satirical "SoHoiad" with which the volume closes. It is, to my reading, a faux-Victorian bit of extended doggerel -- rigidly rhymed, clever in a self-congratulatory sort of way, interminable and boring as a field of gray mud. For a better satire on the SoHo art scene, read "The Painted Word" by Tom Wolfe.But let that go. Almost without exception, the important points made about paintings and sculptures are clear, often generous, and spring from intelligent observation of the work at hand. Again, this book is well worth reading.

I've read many of Hughes' books and have followed his television programs closely (especially "The Shock of the New", "The New Shock of the New", "The Curse of the Mona Lisa", and "Visions of Space") and this book of essays ranks near the top.Hughes' sagacity and eclectic, boundless vocabulary coupled with his singular determination--one might argue "need"--to properly, concisely and _constructively_ argue the value and merit of art is perhaps best encapsulated in these pages.As a composer, the study of visual art and criticism of it is as much a revelation about the processes and outcomes of drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture as it is about the craft of music. (Hughes wisely and correctly points out that late 20th Century American art became more about the theory of it than of the practice of it--of getting down to the task of being a maker-of-art and not just one who theorizes about it.)To the uninitiated his tone might sometimes translate as pompous, but with some perseverance one begins to form a big-picture perspective of art and artists that only a collection of independently-composed criticisms like this can evoke.

wide-ranging reviews, dated to the 80's but mostly of lasting quality. sometimes felt like I was going back to my SAT Verbal test, but it's always good to learn new words and he kept me on my toes - also a big reason I love Kindle, so easy to look these up. he sensitised me more to the presence of money in the art market, and his take on contemporary art representing "the Academy" rings so true with me. he's simply hard to beat in his extreme erudition, taste, and ability to bring out concepts and nuances of art.

Everything the late Mr. Hughes has to say is razor sharp and true.The major problem with this book is the SIZE OF THE TEXT, which is minuscule to the point of being straining, and the terrible quality of the paper on which it's printed.I miss him already and as an artist I only wish he were still here to critique and correct the ludicrous state of today's art "scene". There are many days of the year that reading a few words from Robert Hughes is the only thing that gets me to work.

This is a fine collection of Robert Hughes` essays on art and artists, still very pertinent today and often illuminating and instructional.Hughes was one of the finest commentators on art and one with whom I often agreed with; his sharp wit, blunt intolerance of novelty and eloquent praise or deconstruction of art was almost always a marvel to read or listen to.This presents a treasury of his writing mainly dealing with individual artists, some historically important, some underrated and some grossly overrated. Some of those he deliciously subjects to critical demolition are now regarded as big names; false gods then, false gods now – perhaps even more so; Hughes isn`t around to remind us, but this excellent book is.When he praises, he clearly explains why an artist or artwork is worthy of our attention and admiration; he doesn`t gloss over the human flaws or varnish the truth about some individuals or flatter; he is the most insightful writer on the arts I have encountered in my own lifetime and I doubt that will change.Articulate, amusing and passionate in defining good art, these essays are a pleasure to dip into, to reference and enjoy.

It is not that there are no critics, today, who have the eye and discernment such as Robert Hughes had in his lifetime, but that so little is heard from them. In a way, Hughes had little time for the business of art - certainly not for the way it was going - and consistently warned of the consequences of giving in to the art of celebrity that is ignorant of core skills or the inherent difficulty in making good art. He had a good feel for depth in works of art and scorn for anything shallow and no-one was wholly immune; late Picasso's a case in point. This volume represents a hearty read, entertaining at times and always informative; even convincing, where his objectivity and sympathy can make you look again at works you might otherwise be prejudiced against - in my case the works of Morandi whose art I will definitely look at afresh. Many of the emerging artists of the eighties do not come out well and here is where Hughes departs, in large part, from the critical mainstream, but the rest is History and Hughes is no longer around to counterbalance the weight of uncritical support for "High art Light" and the power of the auction rooms

In a world of vacuous, inane, asinine opinions that are the ephemera of our modern digital existence, this book is a Joy. It's a book for deep thinkers. Robert wasn't afraid to expose the king's new clothes as fraudulent, to tell it how it is. He was the best art critic of the 20th/21st century in my humble opinion. Don't buy this book if you are a semi-literate cretin, you won't understand it nor like it. If you are sick of the malaise of contemporary art then it is a feast.

The book was in excellent condition an the essays are insightful and written with Hughes' characteristic flair.

Great book, great read, nice.