Clement Greenberg between the Lines

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The late critic Clement Greenberg remains best known as the man who almost single-handedly put Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still on the map of modern art. His formalist conception of art was violently contested by the succeeding generation of artists and critics, who found Greenberg's approach narrow and dogmatic. In this aptly titled study, art historian Thierry de Duve offers a long-overdue reassessment of Greenberg's work, stripping the mask off the familiar icon of modernism. Giving his seminal essays the most careful rereading in years, de Duve reveals an unexpected Greenberg, a passionate art lover open to changes in judgment, a cultured student of modernity and a subtle theorist at odds with nascent postmodernity. An invaluable reference for anyone interested in how critics help to shape the culture they write about.