Tom Wolfe Skewers Modern Art in his Book: The Painted Word

Tom Wolfe’s skewering of the modern art world and all its absurd isms in his book The Painted Word is a great little read. This is a first edition copy (1975) I found affordably on ebay. Artist Chris Kolupski brought this quirky book to my attention in his interview in episode 56 of the Artful Painter.

The inside jacket cover says: “The Painted Word charts the erratic course of the social history of Modern Art from its beginnings in revolution – a revolution against literary content in art – to its present state, in which it has become, quite unconsciously, a parody of itself, obsessedly devoted to the pronouncements of certain guru-critics, to the point of reductio ad absurdum, to the point where – turnabout being fair play – it has become literary, as academic, as clubby, as the salon painting against it first rebelled.”

In other words, Tom Wolfe exposes the absurdity of the modern art world where a large canvas painted white with one tiny dot of black paint on display in a Modern Art museum requires a placard with several paragraphs of long explanation of art theory in order for museum visitors to understand it. And most visitors won’t understand it anyway since they do not have art degrees in modern art theory! Wolfe in particular targets the pomposity of art critics who have built this intellectual house of cards.

Needless to say, the Modern Art world did not receive this book well.

Look, I personally like some abstract expressionism - Brian Rutenberg’s paintings come to mind for example. However, the over-the-top faux intellectualism of Modern Art “experts” and apologists is simply too much to stomach. The presentation of a duct-taped banana on a wall as fine art is beyond absurd (though it was funny when someone ate the banana!).

It’s wonderful to see so many representational artists embrace representational art. It would take me decades to interview every artist that just wows me with their personal interpretations of what they see before them.

Interestingly, the book contains a few pen and ink sketches by Wolfe himself such as the caricature of Warhol.

Here’s a link to Amazon for the book:

The Painted Word (author Tom Wolfe)
https://amzn.to/2PIVTfx (paid link)