About the Author
Patricia Rosoff was the Academic Dean of Humanities at Kingswood Oxford School, where since 1975 she taught studio art and art history. She was a long-time contributor to Art New England and art critic for the Hartford Advocate newspaper from 1994-2007. Her essays frequently appeared in Art New England and the magazine Sculpture.
Advanced Praise
“As an artist and art critic, Patricia Rosoff knows that audiences often feel stymied by contemporary art that seems to them ugly, unskilled, inaccessible, or gimmicky. ‘I hope by this book,’ Rosoff writes, ‘to loan you my eyes and my empathy, professional and personal, as I bring you with me through the galleries and museums in which I have grappled with ideas and questions that are not yet codified into art history books.’ She’s also a teacher of art and art history, which makes her the perfect companion. In these essays, Rosoff is both expert guide and life-long student, working out her own struggles with contemporary art in prose that’s as clear as it is insightful.”—Anne McDuffie, Colorado Review
“An eye-opening and revealing study. … I have always been drawn to ‘realistic- art and certainly have not given contemporary art a fair shake. I was fascinated by many stories in [Rosoff’s] book, stories such as Mierle Laderman Ukeles with the New York City sanitation workers, both the shaking of 8,000 hands to express thanks and the ballet for street-sweeping machines. And I loved the article on Benny Andrews and his ‘Revival Meeting’ piece. [Rosoff’s] writings have always lifted me and stretched me and her book did that for me again. It is a book which I will read again, but first I have promised to lend it to a friend.” — Flo Hare
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-936797-16-5