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shimmery's review against another edition
4.0
A good overview of the last century’s art movements which provides insight in to the time period and shifting anxieties along the way.
tararoi_'s review against another edition
4.0
Manifestos are essential reading for anyone who wants to know what modern and contemporary artists were thinking.
Some of them are hilarious.
Some of them are hilarious.
j_j_catcrazydragon's review against another edition
3.0
Very full-on, not for the faint of heart. Meant to be read bit by bit, not all in one sitting. More for reference, fact checking, specific look-up. At least, that's how I will use it.
No doubt, there are those who would love reading all, as is.
No doubt, there are those who would love reading all, as is.
dannymason_1's review against another edition
4.0
A weird one to review because obviously a compilation of 100 different texts mostly written by different authors is going to have ups and downs, but as as whole this was a really engaging read and the wide variety of manifestos kept things interesting.
There's a lot of really significant and thrilling pieces of writing in here, some that I'd been meaning to read already and some new discoveries that have me seeking out more about the artists and their ideas. There was a couple of times when I was thinking that a manifesto may have only been included so that they could reach the round number of 100, but for the most part they were worth reading for the historical perspective they provided, even when I radically disagreed with them.
Each manifesto has a short introduction and biography of the author(s) at the beginning. When these are done well they provide sometimes much-needed context and aid the reading of denser passages. Sadly my main issue with the book was that these varied wildly in quality and the amount of effort that seemed to be put into them, with some getting a couple of pages of exposition and others only a sentence or two.
I imagine this is a book I'll keep dipping into in the future whenever I want to refresh my memory of a particular movement or idea, but reading it from front to back also worked really well and gave a unique perspective on the last century of art history.
There's a lot of really significant and thrilling pieces of writing in here, some that I'd been meaning to read already and some new discoveries that have me seeking out more about the artists and their ideas. There was a couple of times when I was thinking that a manifesto may have only been included so that they could reach the round number of 100, but for the most part they were worth reading for the historical perspective they provided, even when I radically disagreed with them.
Each manifesto has a short introduction and biography of the author(s) at the beginning. When these are done well they provide sometimes much-needed context and aid the reading of denser passages. Sadly my main issue with the book was that these varied wildly in quality and the amount of effort that seemed to be put into them, with some getting a couple of pages of exposition and others only a sentence or two.
I imagine this is a book I'll keep dipping into in the future whenever I want to refresh my memory of a particular movement or idea, but reading it from front to back also worked really well and gave a unique perspective on the last century of art history.
rmtbray's review
3.0
A useful and interesting book, but never going to change the fact that Modernism and I do not get on!!
The manifestoes themselves are funny, bordering on the ridiculous at times, but the introductions to the movements and the main introduction tracing the rise of the manifesto are more useful to me as an enforced modernism student.
One point that my modernist lecturer raised and that's really too funny to be ignored: so many modernist movements kept referring people back to their art, saying that it was non-figural because 'everything you need to know about what they're trying to convey is evoked in feelings arising from the art.' WHY then did they feel the need to write so many manifestoes putting their ideas into words?- shouldn't their art have been able to explain it all?
Someone should really make a 'Modernism manifesto generator' already... lots of list, shouting (well, capitals), words like 'bourgeois' and 'academic' in quotes, and sentences that make absolutely no sense, no matter how closely you try to decipher them...
The manifestoes themselves are funny, bordering on the ridiculous at times, but the introductions to the movements and the main introduction tracing the rise of the manifesto are more useful to me as an enforced modernism student.
One point that my modernist lecturer raised and that's really too funny to be ignored: so many modernist movements kept referring people back to their art, saying that it was non-figural because 'everything you need to know about what they're trying to convey is evoked in feelings arising from the art.' WHY then did they feel the need to write so many manifestoes putting their ideas into words?- shouldn't their art have been able to explain it all?
Someone should really make a 'Modernism manifesto generator' already... lots of list, shouting (well, capitals), words like 'bourgeois' and 'academic' in quotes, and sentences that make absolutely no sense, no matter how closely you try to decipher them...