When Dave Hickey was twelve, he rode the surfer’s dream: the perfect wave. And, like so many things in life we long for, it didn’t quite turn out----he shot the pier and dashed himself against the rocks of Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach, which just about killed him. Fortunately, for Hickey and for us, he survived, and continues to battle, decades into a career as one of America’s foremost critical iconoclasts, a trusted, even cherished no-nonsense voice commenting on the all-too-often nonsensical worlds of art and culture. Perfect Wave brings together essays on a wide range of subjects from throughout Hickey’s career, displaying his usual breadth of interest and powerful insight into what makes art work, or not, and why we care. With Hickey as our guide, we travel to Disneyland and Vegas, London and Venice. We discover the genius of Karen Carpenter and Waylon Jennings, learn why Robert Mitchum matters more than Jimmy Stewart, and see how the stillness of Antonioni speaks to us today. Never slow to judge—or to surprise us in doing so—Hickey powerfully relates his wincing disappointment in the later career of his early hero Susan Sontag, and shows us the appeal to our commonality that we’ve been missing in Norman Rockwell. With each essay, the doing is as important as what’s done; the pleasure of reading Dave Hickey lies nearly as much in spending time in his company as in being surprised to find yourself agreeing with his conclusions. Bookended by previously unpublished personal essays that offer a new glimpse into Hickey’s own life—including the aforementioned slam-bang conclusion to his youthful surfing career—Perfect Wave is not a perfect book. But it’s a damn good one, and a welcome addition to the Hickey canon.

Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy

Arts & Photography

Hickey, Dave

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

<div>&nbsp;A collection of essays by American art critic Dave Hickey, nicknamed "The Bad Boy of Art Criticism." &nbsp; When Dave Hickey was twelve, he rode the surfer's dream: the perfect wave. And, like so many things in life we long for, it didn't quite turn out--he shot the pier and dashed himself against the rocks of Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach, which nearly killed him. &nbsp; Hickey went on to develop a career as one of America's foremost critical iconoclasts, a trusted no-nonsense voice commenting on the worlds of art and culture. Perfect Wave brings together essays on a wide range of subjects from throughout Hickey's career, displaying his breadth of interest and powerful insight into what makes art work, or not, and why we care. With Hickey as our guide, we travel to Disneyland and Vegas, London and Venice. We discover the genius of Karen Carpenter and Waylon Jennings, learn why Robert Mitchum matters more than Jimmy Stewart, and see how the stillness of Antonioni speaks to us today. Never slow to judge--or to surprise us in doing so--Hickey relates his wincing disappointment in the later career of his early hero Susan Sontag and shows us the appeal to our commonality that we've been missing in Norman Rockwell. &nbsp; Bookended by previously unpublished personal essays that offer a new glimpse into Hickey's own life--including the aforementioned conclusion to his surfing career--Perfect Wave is a welcome addition to the Hickey canon. &nbsp;</div>

Newsweek calls him “exhilarating and deeply engaging.” Time Out New York calls him “smart, provocative, and a great writer.” Critic Peter Schjeldahl, meanwhile, simply calls him “My hero.” There’s no one in the art world quite like Dave Hickey—and a new book of his writing is an event. 25 Women will not disappoint. The book collects Hickey’s best and most important writing about female artists from the past twenty years. But this is far more than a compilation: Hickey has revised each essay, bringing them up to date and drawing out common themes. Written in Hickey’s trademark style—accessible, witty, and powerfully illuminating—25 Women analyzes the work of Joan Mitchell, Bridget Riley, Fiona Rae, Lynda Benglis, Karen Carson, and many others. Hickey discusses their work as work, bringing politics and gender into the discussion only where it seems warranted by the art itself. The resulting book is not only a deep engagement with some of the most influential and innovative contemporary artists, but also a reflection on the life and role of the critic: the decisions, judgments, politics, and ethics that critics negotiate throughout their careers in the art world. Always engaging, often controversial, and never dull, Dave Hickey is a writer who gets people excited—and talking—about art. 25 Women will thrill his many fans, and make him plenty of new ones.

25 Women: Essays on Their Art

The Invisible Dragon made a lot of noise for a little book When it was originally published in 1993 it was championed by artists for its forceful call for a reconsideration of beauty—and savaged by more theoretically oriented critics who dismissed the very concept of beauty as naive, igniting a debate that has shown no sign of flagging.
With this revised and expanded edition, Hickey is back to fan the flames. More manifesto than polite discussion, more call to action than criticism, The Invisible Dragon aims squarely at the hyper-institutionalism that, in Hickey’s view, denies the real pleasures that draw us to art in the first place. Deploying the artworks of Warhol, Raphael, Caravaggio, and Mapplethorpe and the writings of Ruskin, Shakespeare, Deleuze, and Foucault, Hickey takes on museum culture, arid academicism, sclerotic politics, and more—all in the service of making readers rethink the nature of art. A new introduction provides a context for earlier essays—what Hickey calls his "intellectual temper tantrums." A new essay, "American Beauty," concludes the volume with a historical argument that is a rousing paean to the inherently democratic nature of attention to beauty.
Written with a verve that is all too rare in serious criticism, this expanded and refurbished edition of The Invisible Dragon will be sure to captivate a new generation of readers, provoking the passionate reactions that are the hallmark of great criticism.

The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty, Revised and Expanded

The Invisible Dragon made a lot of noise for a little book When it was originally published in 1993 it was championed by artists for its forceful call for a reconsideration of beauty—and savaged by more theoretically oriented critics who dismissed the very concept of beauty as naive, igniting a debate that has shown no sign of flagging. With this revised and expanded edition, Hickey is back to fan the flames. More manifesto than polite discussion, more call to action than criticism, The Invisible Dragon aims squarely at the hyper-institutionalism that, in Hickey’s view, denies the real pleasures that draw us to art in the first place. Deploying the artworks of Warhol, Raphael, Caravaggio, and Mapplethorpe and the writings of Ruskin, Shakespeare, Deleuze, and Foucault, Hickey takes on museum culture, arid academicism, sclerotic politics, and more—all in the service of making readers rethink the nature of art. A new introduction provides a context for earlier essays—what Hickey calls his "intellectual temper tantrums." A new essay, "American Beauty," concludes the volume with a historical argument that is a rousing paean to the inherently democratic nature of attention to beauty. Written with a verve that is all too rare in serious criticism, this expanded and refurbished edition of The Invisible Dragon will be sure to captivate a new generation of readers, provoking the passionate reactions that are the hallmark of great criticism.

How do you tell a story that's about baseball and jazz...Civil War battles and Cold War paranoia...love and death...true stories and lies...and a boy growing up on the flat sprawl of West Texas? Acclaimed visual artist and singer-songwriter Terry Allen created a multimedia work—Dugout—that combines writing and painting, video/sculpture installations, and musical theater to narrate, in his words, "a love story, an investigation into how memory is invented...a kind of supernatural-jazz-sport-history-ghost-blood-fiction." A three-part work based loosely on the lives of Allen's parents, Dugout has been exhibited and performed in Texas, California, and New Mexico, as well as on National Public Radio.
This volume adds another dimension to the Dugout corpus by presenting the work in book form. The heart of the book is Dugout itself. Dugout I incorporates poetry, prose, and images of two- and three-dimensional artworks to evoke the memories of Allen's parents, a retired baseball player and a former jazz pianist. Dugout II: Hold On to the House universalizes Allen's West Texas roots by fictionalizing his childhood memories into a series of video tableaux projected upon an archetypal house structure. Dugout III: Warboy and the Backboard Blues presents the script of a musical theater piece that describes his parents' shock at the unexpected outer space arrival of their "whatsit" son—a boy growing up in a world so different from their own that he might as well be an alien.
Juxtaposed among the three parts of Dugout are essays by David Byrne, artist and cofounder of the Talking Heads; Dave Hickey, art critic and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant; Dana Friis-Hansen, Director of the Austin Museum of Art; and Terrie Sultan, Director of Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston. The book also includes a CD of a live performance of Dugout III. This lively combination of Allen's work and others' responses adds an intriguing layer to the evocative, atmospheric, multisensory experience of Dugout.

Dugout

Sultan, Terrie

ALLEN, TERRY

Byrne,David

University of Texas Press

Icons and Legends spans the career of American photographer Michael Childers, including many photographs that are published for the first time. Childers was one of the founding photographers for Andy Warhol’s magazine Interview; he photographed magazine covers for Elle, Life, and Vogue; and he worked as a special photographer for films and London National Theater productions. 
Working mostly with black and white film, Childers has captured the icons and legends of popular culture and the art world. His stunning portraits include Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Clint Eastwood, Catherine Deneuve, Rock Hudson, and Carol Channing. Several portraits are of special importance because they were taken early in the actors' careers, before they became celebrities: Sissy Spacek, Demi Moore, Mel Gibson, John Travolta, Richard Gere, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Equally important are portraits of the great film industry legends who helped establish and build the stars' careers, including film directors Billy Wilder and John Schlesinger and costume designer Edith Head. 
In addition to stars of the film world, Childers has produced portraits of contemporary artists, architects, writers, and musicians. These include a series of photographs of Andy Warhol in his New York studio and Paris apartment, and a series of David Hockney in his Hollywood and London studios. Other portraits include artists Sam Francis, Edward Ruscha, Robert Graham, and Ed Moses; architects Richard Meier and E. Stewart Williams; musicians Ringo Starr, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones, and Rod Stewart; and writers Tennessee Williams, Micky Spillane, and Christopher Rice.

Icons and Legends: The Photography of Michael Childers

Childers, Michael

Giles, Christine

Palm Springs Desert Museum

HOCKNEY, DAVID

Photography & Video

Univ of Washington Pr

Many of today's emerging artists are using portraiture or self-portraiture to explore complex issues of identity. At the same time, these artists are also testing the boundaries of the genre of figurative art. Others are finding success through a renewed attention to classical training in representational art. Artists who regularly create portraits on commission are also experiencing a higher level of interest in their work. The Outwin Boochever Competition 2006 brings together work that exemplifies these trends. Selected from more than 4,000 entries--from every state in the union--by a jury of experts, the fifty-one portraits included provide clear evidence of the strength of portraiture in today's world, and signal the National Portrait Gallery's increased commitment to contemporary art and today's Americans.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, 2006

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute

George Herms: The River Book is the first-ever comprehensive publication on acclaimed and pivotal California assemblage artist George Herms (born 1935). The handsome, two-volume slipcased book covers his earliest works from the 1960s, through his influential assemblages from the 1970s to today, as well as his work on such films as Easy Rider, his set designs for poet and playwright Michael McClure and dancer/choreographer Fred Herko, and his fascinating collaborations with, among others, Diane di Prima and Wallace Berman, for his LOVE Press series of hand-printed books. Interspersed throughout are comments by Herms on various works and on his creative ethos. Also included is a trove of never-before-seen archival photographs of Herms' friends, such as Wallace and Tosh Berman, Fred Herko, Diane di Prima, Kirby Doyle and Ray Johnson, as well as of Herms himself. A bonus DVD showcases the entirety of Herms' opera The Artist's Life. Renowned art critic Dave Hickey provides an insightful look at the artist and his milieu, and the artist himself offers witty and informative text throughout. This is truly an essential book for anyone interested in California art, the Beats, avant-garde theater and film, and fine-art printing.

George Herms: The River Book

Herms, George

Individual Artists

Hamilton Press

Andy Warhol Giant Size

Phaidon Verlag GmbH

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hickey, Dave. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hickey, Dave

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hickey, Dave. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy

Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy

25 Women: Essays on Their Art

The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty, Revised and Expanded

The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty, Revised and Expanded

Dugout

Icons and Legends: The Photography of Michael Childers

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, 2006

George Herms: The River Book

Andy Warhol Giant Size