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Inside the White Cube

The Ideology of the Gallery Space, Expanded Edition
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( 626 ratings, 31 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Inside the White Cube is a collection of Brian O'Doherty's seminal essays first published in Artforum in 1976, exploring the intricate relationship between the commercial and museum gallery spaces and postwar art. O'Doherty critically examines how economic, social, and aesthetic factors intersect within the gallery, challenging artists to reconsider their work's context within this 'white cube' environment. This edition also features "The Gallery as Gesture," a vital essay from ten years later, enriching the discourse on exhibition practice. With an introduction by Thomas McEvilley and a reflective afterword, the book offers a profound investigation into the core of the art world.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Inside the White Cube is essential for artists, curators, art historians, and anyone engaged with postwar and contemporary art, gallery theory, and the dynamics of art presentation.

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Concerned with the complex and sophisticated relationship between economics, social context, and aesthetics as represented in the contested space of the art gallery, the author raises the question of how artists must construe their work in relation to the gallery space and system.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

When these essays first appeared in Artforum in 1976, their impact was immediate. They were discussed, annotated, cited, collected, and translated—the three issues of Artforum in which they appeared have become nearly impossible to obtain. Having Brian O'Doherty's provocative essays available again is a signal event for the art world. This edition also includes "The Gallery as Gesture," a critically important piece published ten years after the others.

O'Doherty was the first to explicitly confront a particular crisis in postwar art as he sought to examine the assumptions on which the modern commercial and museum gallery was based. Concerned with the complex and sophisticated relationship between economics, social context, and aesthetics as represented in the contested space of the art gallery, he raises the question of how artists must construe their work in relation to the gallery space and system.

These essays are essential reading for anyone interested in the history and issues of postwar art in Europe and the United States. Teeming with ideas, relentless in their pursuit of contradiction and paradox, they exhibit both the understanding of the artist (Patrick Ireland) and the precision of the scholar.

With an introduction by Thomas McEvilley and a brilliantly cogent afterword by its author, Brian O'Doherty once again leads us on the perilous journey to the centre of the art world: Inside the White Cube.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Reviews highlight the book's enduring influence: e-flux describes it as a crucial document linking modern art history to contemporary spatial practices, while Art Journal notes O'Doherty’s incisive analysis of exhibition modes as maintaining a disruptive impact even today.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780520220409

Publisher: University of California Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 14 January 2000

Country: United States

Imprint: University of California Press

Illustration: 28 b-w photographs

Contributors:

  • Introduction by Thomas McEvilley

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 10.0mm

Width: 203.0mm

Height: 203.0mm

Weight: 318g

Pages: 120

About the Author

Brian O'Doherty, a.k.a. Patrick Ireland, is an artist and writer. His work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums in the United States and Europe. His books include Object and Idea (1967) and American Masters: The Voice and the Myth (1973, 1988).

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