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Podcast: New Books in Art
Episode: Daniel Neofetou, "Rereading Abstract Expressionism, Clement Greenberg and the Cold War" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
Description: Daniel Neofetou's Rereading Abstract Expressionism, Clement Greenberg and the Cold War (Bloomsbury, 2021) rereads Clement Greenberg's account of Abstract Expressionism through Adorno and Merleau-Ponty in order to contend that Greenberg's criticism in fact testifies to how the movement opposes the ends to which it was deployed in efforts of U.S. imperialism during the Cold War. With reference not only to the most famous artists of the movement, but also female and non-white figures whom Greenberg himself neglected, such as Joan Mitchell and Norman Lewis, it is argued that, far from reinforcing the capitalist status quo, Abstract Expressionism engages corporeal an...