This exploration of Frantz Fanon's continuing impact on the visual arts is a woefully maladroit collection of third-rate essays and dialogues. It strenuously defies its subtitle, the English language,, and common sense. The volume grew out of a Fanon conference at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, where editor Read is director of talks. But at this point can you really gather together a collection of reasonable people interested in a psychoanalyst/political philosopher whose marginal ideas faded long ago into musty obscurity? True, there was a brief moment when Fanon's books, such as The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks, enjoyed a trendy popularity in certain leftist circles. But most of the conference participants/essayists seem interested in him (never mind his impact on visual representation) only as a rickety launch platform for their own convoluted pratings. A game few, such as bell hooks and Homi K. Bhabha, do offer elaborate postmodern defenses of the man that try to alchemize Fanon's leaden irrelevance. But the richest irony here is that the once exquisitely politically correct Fanon is now hoist on his own tendentious petard. Academics have become very good at witching out heresies, particularly among the supposedly faithful. So the man who passionately cried out for justice for the oppressed is now revealed by several essayists—using their full deconstructionist tool kit—as a homophobe, and a sexist to boot. As feminist critic Lola Young notes, ``In Fanon's writing there is evidence of a deep seam of fear and rage regarding black women.'' One wishes this postmodern muddle were a pointed satire. Then, at least, it might have something to say. (20 b&w photos)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-941920-43-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1996
The discovery of Frida Kahlo's diary was major news in the art world; its publication in book form, with an introduction by Carlos Fuentes and commentary by Kahlo scholar Sarah M. Lowe, confirms the reasons for the buzz. A few critics with political agendas might ascribe the growth of Kahlo's reputation to feminist promotion of her martyr status—a childhood bout with polio that left one leg shorter than the other, a series of accidents culminating in a brutally crippling bus-and-streetcar crash that led to an unending round of surgeries and a life of constant pain. However, her work speaks brilliantly for itself, a startling and colorful surrealist exploration of woman's pain and the nexus of ancient and modern Mexican cultures. The diary, consisting of both text and art and begun in the mid-1940s, was never intended for public consumption. Although much of what is on display here might be classified as idle doodling by a great artist, it offers a powerful window into the creative process, a record of Kahlo's emotional status over the last decade of her life. Fuentes's essay is a rambling, overly clever affair, but Lowe's notes are succinct and informative. (Book-of-the-Month Club dividend selection)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8109-3221-0
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
Entertaining stories—with some tall tales mixed in, no doubt- -from the life of a renegade Texan artist. Best known, at least in media circles, for building the giant iguana that festooned New York City's Lone Star CafÇ during the 1980s, Wade has had a long and varied career. He begins this autobiography reminiscing about growing up building hot rods, raising hell south of the border, and living the University of Texas fraternity life (where he acquired the ``Daddy-O'' moniker). Wade makes a few interesting observations here: for instance, that hot rod car culture's ideal of the ``custom-built'' influenced him and other budding artists. But his main concern is to establish his bona fides as a wild guy and enfant terrible of the nascent Texas art world in the early 1970s. At this point, Wade and the Zimmerman brothers (coauthors, with John Lydon, of Rotten, 1994) begin devoting each chapter to one or another of the monumental public sculptures that Wade has spent his life creating. His oversize map of Texas, adorned with real dirt and road signs, inspires him to celebrate the American bicentennial with a kitsch-laden model of the USA as big as a football field. The notoriety of the New York iguana brings Wade commissions to build towering cowboy boots in Washington, D.C., and a set of rooftop frogs for a Dallas club. Wade's attitude occasionally wears thin. He seems to hold back intellectual insights in favor of buttressing his devil-may-care persona. But he describes with plenty of detail the nuts and bolts of his projects, the ups and downs of public reaction to them, and all the fun he's had along the way. Those looking to experience the wild side of art will find this a fine map. (8 pages b&w photos, 8 pages color photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 13, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-13459-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
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