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Bibliographic Record Display

• Title:How to write about contemporary art / Gilda Williams.
  
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• Author/Creator:Williams, Gilda, author.
  
• Published/Created:New York : Thames & Hudson, 2014.
  

• Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:MAA LIBRARY (IKB) stacksWhere is this?
    
  • Call Number: N7476 .W544 2014
    
  • Number of Items:1
    
  • Status:Available
    

   
• Library of Congress Subjects:Art criticism--Authorship.
  
• Genre/Form: Handbooks and manuals.
  
• Description:264 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
  
• Summary:How to Write About Contemporary Art is the definitive guide to writing engagingly about the art of our time. Invaluable for students, arts professionals and other aspiring writers, the book first navigates readers through the key elements of style and content, from the aims and structure of a piece to its tone and language. Brimming with practical tips that range across the complete spectrum of art-writing, the second part of the book is organized around its specific forms, including academic essays; press releases and news articles; texts for auction and exhibition catalogues, gallery guides and wall labels; op-ed journalism and exhibition reviews; and writing for websites and blogs. In counselling the reader against common pitfalls such as jargon and poor structure, Gilda Williams points instead to the power of close looking and research, showing how to deploy language effectively; how to develop new ideas; and how to construct compelling texts. More than 30 illustrations throughout support closely analysed case studies of the best writing, in Source Texts by 64 authors, including Claire Bishop, Thomas Crow, T.J. Demos, Okwui Enwezor, Dave Hickey, John Kelsey, Chris Kraus, Rosalind Krauss, Stuart Morgan, Hito Steyerl, and Adam Szymczyk. Supplemented by a general bibliography, advice on the use and misuse of grammar, and tips on how to construct your own contemporary art library, How to Write About Contemporary Art is the essential handbook for all those interested in communicating about the art of today.
  
• Notes:"34 illustrations and 64 source texts."--title page.
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  
• ISBN:9780500291573 (paperback)
  0500291578 (paperback)
  
• Contents:Machine generated contents note: 1. There is no single `best' way to write about art
  2. `International Art English'
  3. Anyone can learn to write competently about art
  Section One Job Why Write about Contemporary Art?
  1. Explaining v. evaluating
  2. Art-words and artworks
  3. Artist/dealer/curator/critic/blogger/`Kunstworker'/journalist/historian
  4. Out of the blue: where art-criticism came from
  5. Art-writing sans frontieres
  Section Two Practice How to Write About Contemporary Art
  1. `Fear is the root of bad writing'
  first time you write about art
  `The baker's family who have just won the big lottery prize'
  three jobs of communicative art-writing
  2. How to substantiate your ideas
  Provide factual or historical evidence
  Extract visual evidence
  Pay attention
  Follow your thinking
  3. audience: grounding specialists and non-specialists
  4. Practical `how-to's
  Be specific
  Do not `explain' a dense, abstract idea with another dense, abstract idea
  Load your text with solid nouns
  Adjectives: pick one
  Gorge on the wildest variety of strong, active verbs
  `The road to hell is paved with adverbs'
  Order information logically
  Organize your thoughts into complete paragraphs
  Avoid lists
  Avoid jargon
  When in doubt, tell a story
  When still in doubt, make a comparison
  Simile and metaphor: use with caution
  Final tips
  Section Three Ropes How to Write Contemporary Art Formats
  1. How to write an academic essay
  Getting started
  research question
  Structure
  `Do's and `don't's
  Further tips
  2. `Explaining' texts
  How to write a short news article
  How to write a short descriptive text
  How to write a press release
  How to write an auction catalogue entry
  3. `Evaluating' texts
  How to write an exhibition review for a magazine or blog
  How to write a review for a newspaper
  How to write a book review
  How to write op-ed art journalism
  How to write a catalogue essay or magazine article
  4. How to write an artist's statement
  ten most common pitfalls (and how to avoid them)
  How to write about a single artwork
  5. Writing formats compared: one artist, many writers
  Conclusion
  How to read about contemporary art
  Notes
  Resources
  Rules of grammar (and when to break them)
  Beginning a contemporary art library
  Bibliography and e-sources
  List of Source Texts
  List of figures.