“If the great European artists of the past were alive today, what kinds of statements would they need to write to explain and justify their work?” HuffingtonPost Arts blogger John Seed answers this question for 24 great European works of art, satirizing the language of Postmodern art writing in the process.
In Seed’s hilarious sendup, Old Master artists make pretentious comments that sound a lot like those made by today’s postmodern academics and MFA candidates. For example, the 18th century painter Fragonard talks about "the callipygian forms of a complex homosocial nexus in an anti-Lacanian context.” The Northern Renaissance master Hieronymous Bosch “investigates a lexicon of parafictional erotic proclivities."
McArthur Prize winning critic Dave Hickey says:
“No young art-historian should be without this book. It fills a gaping hole in Old Master Studies.”
Art Dealer and critic Mat Gleason comments:
“A great takedown and easily the best art world satire in a decade.”