Hot, cold, heavy, light: 100 art writings, 1988-2018

Hot, cold, heavy, light collects 100 key writings by Peter Schjeldahl spanning thirty years, his last twenty as the art critic of the New Yorker. In this unfailingly lucid guide to an art world in constant, dramatic flux, Schjeldahl addresses new artists and old masters with the same pitch of acuity, empathy, and wit. No other writer enhances the reader's experience of art in precise, jargon-free prose as he does, with reviews that are as much essay as criticism. Implicit in Schjeldahl's role as a front-line critic is a focus on artists, issues, and events of urgent relevance to the culture at large. Hot, cold, heavy, light tells us why we still care about Rembrandt and Mantegna, Matisse and Picasso, takes the measure of contemporaries Basquiat and Holzer, Polke and Kiefer, Sherman and Koons, introduces us to newcomers Kerry James Marshall and Laura Owens, and salutes rediscoveries of Florine Stettheimer, Helio Oiticica, and Peter Hujar. The book provides essential knowledge to anyone curious about the character, quality, and consequence of art today. - Book jacket