Clement Greenberg, Late Writings

The outsized reputation of formalist art critic Greenberg, sometimes called the most influential art critic of the 20th century, rests largely on a body of mid-century writings around the work of Abstract Expressionism and the rise of hard-edge minimalism. This collection of essays brings to light the prolific work Greenberg produced after that time, in the 1970s and 80s, when the art world had begun moving away from his powerful, if proscriptive and tendentious, ideals. Among other topics, Greenberg deals with the rise of multimedia art, the state of the avant-garde and the standing of old favorites like Clyfford Still and Picasso. Also included are a handful of interviews he gave. For the most part, the essays and conversations show the critic staying the course on issues of taste and distinction, tinkering out his generally Kantian theory of aesthetic development, with its residually Marxist sense of dialectical improvement, phrased in dense, but always lucid, American prose. ""Taste develops as a context of expectations based on experiences of previously surprised expectations""-that's not such a difficult idea, but it's full of big implications. Always assured, sometimes rebarbative, Greenberg's oeuvre has fallen on hard times in the wake of more semiotic models of visual interpretation. But perhaps this collection, with its sensitive and intelligent introduction by writer and curator Morgan, will go some ways in repairing it. (Mar.)