DESIGN& CRIME (and Other Diatribes): Hal Foster on Aesthetic Death

Posted by robin on 07/15/2008

At first glance, this tiny tome appears to be a "quick read." The pocket-size collection of short rants spilling forth from art critic Hal Foster took me four months to digest.

From searing analyses of Rem Koolhaas' evolving theory of public architecture to a blow-by-blow of the meltdown of the modernist ARTFORUM crew of writers and editors, Foster maintains incisiveness and acuity through fits of near-dizzying diction, and of course, an occasional stunning/bewildering visual (see below).

André Malraux, 1950 with photographs for

Of Note: Foster delivers some props to our theoretical pal, Walt Benjamin (accompanied by a few sharp kicks). The above photograph was used to illustrate the idea of "a Museum Without Walls whose subject is the Family of Man," a situation feared, yet predicted and pre-empted by Benjamin in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."

Of further note: A fairly brilliant concluding chapter, entitled "This Funeral Is For The Wrong Corpse." Foster reflects on a century of "failed utopias and obsolete technologies," framed by our current state of "design culture." He offers a midly twisted, gray hope for the future of art and art history. Nonetheless, there is, indeed a future for us artmakers of the world. Thanks for the lift, Hal Foster.

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Want your own copy? Pick up Design and Crime (and Other Diatribes) at Amazon. Currently 8 bucks used. How excellent.