cover image New Art

New Art

Phyllis Freeman. ABRAMS, $19.95 (205pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-2443-7

The more than 100 artists in this oversized survey of recent work are certainly worthy of serious study, but you won't find the effort made here. Each artist is represented by one or two bold reproductions of his or her work--and no text. Because so much of contemporary art relies upon an underlying concept to convey meaning, not to offer even a brief discussion of the artists' ideas severely limits the value of this book. There is a fair attempt to show a disparate group of styles and media, including work in video and installation modes, and the authors, who are editors at Abrams, have chosen artists from around the country to represent the art scene of the moment, but they rarely left New York to find them. Their selections essentially exhibit the art world as validated by the New York gallery system and focus for the most part on firmly established American artists, such as Peter Halley, Jeff Koons, Ross Bleckner and the Starn twins. This is the second New Art volume. (June)