Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy

Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy - Paperback

$18.00
$18.00
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Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy
  • Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy
Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy - Paperback

Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy - Paperback

by Dave Hickey
$18.00
$18.00

Book Overview

A collection of essays by American art critic Dave Hickey, nicknamed "The Bad Boy of Art Criticism."

When Dave Hickey was twelve, he rode the surfer's dream: the perfect wave. And, like so many things in life we long for, it didn't quite turn out--he shot the pier and dashed himself against the rocks of Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach, which nearly killed him.

Hickey went on to develop a career as one of America's foremost critical iconoclasts, a trusted no-nonsense voice commenting on the worlds of art and culture. Perfect Wave brings together essays on a wide range of subjects from throughout Hickey's career, displaying his breadth of interest and powerful insight into what makes art work, or not, and why we care. With Hickey as our guide, we travel to Disneyland and Vegas, London and Venice. We discover the genius of Karen Carpenter and Waylon Jennings, learn why Robert Mitchum matters more than Jimmy Stewart, and see how the stillness of Antonioni speaks to us today. Never slow to judge--or to surprise us in doing so--Hickey relates his wincing disappointment in the later career of his early hero Susan Sontag and shows us the appeal to our commonality that we've been missing in Norman Rockwell.

Bookended by previously unpublished personal essays that offer a new glimpse into Hickey's own life--including the aforementioned conclusion to his surfing career--Perfect Wave is a welcome addition to the Hickey canon.
ISBN9780226333144
Author Dave Hickey
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
GenreEducation and Arts
FormatPaperback
PublishedOctober 2023
LanguageENG- English
Pages240
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Art Nonfiction Social Science

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More by Dave Hickey

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About Dave Hickey

Dave Hickey is a distinguished American art and cultural critic and the author of The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993), Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (1997), and Pirates and Farmers (2014). His most recent book, 25 Women: Essays on Their Art, is just out from the University of Chicago Press. Hickey was Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Distinguished Professor of Criticism for the MFA Program in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of New Mexico. Julia Friedman is a Russian-born art historian, writer, and curator. Her book Beyond Symbolism and Surrealism: Alexei Remizov's Synthetic Art was published by Northwestern University Press in 2010. She is currently working on a monograph about the California artist Wally Hedrick.

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