Dave Hickey

The bestselling visual biography of one of the twentieth century's most innovative, influential artistsAndy Warhol "Giant" Size is the definitive document of this remarkable creative force, and a telling look at late twentieth-century pop culture. A must-have for Warhol fans and pop culture enthusiasts, this in-depth and comprehensive overview of Warhol's extraordinary career is packed with more than 2,000 illustrations culled from rarely seen archival material, documentary photography, and artwork.Dave Hickey's compelling essay on Warhol's geek-to-guru evolution combines with chapter openers by Warhol friends and insiders to give special insight into the way the enigmatic artist led his life and made his art. It also provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the New York art world of the 1950s to the 1980s.From the publisher of The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, Volumes 1 - 5.

The definitive monograph on the wide-ranging career of a pioneering sculptor and musician Years in the making, this definitive monograph presents nearly six decades of work by the pioneering San Francisco–based ceramic sculptor Ron Nagle (born 1939). The plates section features 51 sculptures made since 1958, all reproduced in full color. Critical essays by Joel Selvin and David Pagel and a foreword by Dave Hickey offer diverse perspectives on Nagle’s accomplishments as both an artist and a musician. An illustrated chronology provides an overview of his life and work, including his apprenticeship with ceramicist Peter Voulkos, his seminal role in San Francisco’s psychedelic music scene, his sound design for the film The Exorcist, and his obsessive devotion to intimately scaled sculpture. Nagle’s irrepressible personality comes through in the book’s innovative design, which includes a jacket that unfolds into a poster of the artist dressed as his film hero Charlie Chan. Also included is a CD of 21 songs spanning Nagle’s musical career, from the 1960s to the 2000s.

From the legendary and iconoclastic critic Dave Hickey, a collection of twenty of his most emblematic essays on art“We really don’t need to know the aesthetic and moral parameters of a work to love it—­only to know they are there.” —Dave HickeyThe late Dave Hickey was a singular voice on art, music, democracy, and culture. Known for his radical criticism, he united different worlds through a range of literary styles and techniques to ultimately explore what it means to be human. Complementing his iconic collections Air Guitar and The Invisible Dragon, Feint of Heart unites twenty of Hickey’s characteristically astute essays on art from over twenty years, most of which were originally published in exhibition catalogues that are long out of print. The result is a volume that shows the writer at his most creative and incisive in an ever-relevant exploration of beauty and value. Compiled and with an introduction by the writer and critic Jarrett Earnest, this latest book is ideal for cult followers and new readers of Hickey, for artists and art critics, and for thinkers across all disciplines.Including essays on Terry Allen, Karen Carson, Sarah Charlesworth, Vija Celmins, Vernon Fisher, Robert Gober, Ann Hamilton, Luis Jiménez, Hung Lui, Josiah McElheny, Elizabeth Peyton, Lari Pittman, David Reed, Bridget Riley, Norman Rockwell, Ed Ruscha, Steve Schapiro, Richard Serra, and Andy Warhol, as well as Hickey’s 2002 text “Buying the World,” an incisive and ever-relevant exploration of beauty and value.

An expanded edition of Hickey's controversial and exquisitely written apologia for beauty—championed by artists, reviled by art critics, and as powerful as ever 30 years on "If this book of shocking intelligence and moral hope is read widely and above all well, word for word, it will help the world." —Peter Schjeldahl The 30th anniversary cloth edition brings back into print Dragon's four essays on beauty and commingles them with newly discovered essays by the MacArthur Foundation "genius." Art by Caravaggio, Bellini, Velázquez, Raphael, Warhol and Mapplethorpe is complemented by Hickey's tributes to Dolly Parton and Richard Pryor, outing of John Rechy's gay novel Numbers, essays on the art of writing and witty analysis of paintings by Ed Ruscha. An afterword by Hickey's friend and Dragon's editor queers the brash, heterosexual gambler as it situates the creation of Dragon squarely within the AIDS plague. At the time, the book made beauty visible under the looming presence of death and bodily decay. Today, Hickey's prescient diagnosis of the "therapeutic institution" resonates even louder and artists respond by harnessing beauty as a source of meaning and of joy. Dave Hickey (1938–2021) was one of the preeminent arts and cultural writers of the turn of the 21st century. A MacArthur "Genius" Fellow known as the "beauty guy" in the popular press, Hickey opened A Clean, Well-Lighted Place gallery in Austin, Texas, in the 1960s, before becoming executive editor at Art in America magazine. In the 1970s, he was a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, where he coined and helped create the "Outlaw country" music movement. By the 1990s, Hickey had made a home in Las Vegas, from where he regularly traveled to speak with audiences worldwide.

A collection of essays by American art critic Dave Hickey, nicknamed “The Bad Boy of Art Criticism.” 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. 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. 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.

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.

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.

Dust Bunnies is an assemblage of "swept up" fragments that came from a vast digital discourse that took place in Dave Hickey's social media space between June 2014 and March 2015. During that time Hickey posted almost 3,000 comments, prompting nearly 700,000 words in response from art lovers, acolytes, and skeptics. Wasted Words, the resulting volume, is an unedited comprehensive transcript of these exchanges. Its pendant publication, Dustbunnies, distills Hickey's richly aphoristic comments, extracted from various discussion threads. Dustbunnies is an assemblage of "swept up" fragments that came from a vast digital discourse that took place in Dave Hickey's social media space between June 2014 and March 2015. During that time Hickey posted almost 3,000 comments, prompting nearly 700,000 words in response from art lovers, acolytes, and skeptics. Wasted Words, the resulting volume, is an unedited comprehensive transcript of these exchanges. Its pendant publication, Dustbunnies, distills Hickey's richly aphoristic comments, extracted from various discussion threads. Unlike Wasted Words, which is inherently contextual and discursive, Dustbunnies stresses the timeless character of Hickey's unique authorial voice. Always provocative and often shocking, Hickey's pronouncements are perfectly suited for the jab-like nature of the social media platform. In a delightfully ironic twist of fate, some two decades after the onset of the digital revolution, a critic known for his paragraph-long verbal riffs blasts away at digital natives in the under-140-character idiom they understand. Conceived and Produced by LG Williams and The Estate of LG Williams(TM). Edited by Julia Friedman. # # # # # Dave Hickey is a distinguished American art and cultural critic and the author of The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993), Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (1997), and Pirates and Farmers (2014). His most recent book, 25 Women: Essays on Their Art, is just out from the University of Chicago Press. Hickey was a Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and a Distinguished Professor of Criticism for the MFA Program in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of New Mexico. LG Williams is a Los Angeles-based artist and recently the Endowed University Instructor at The Academy of Art University; Robert Hughes Distinguished Visual Artist-In-Residence at The Lodge in Hollywood, CA; and the Emmy Hennings Distinguished Professor at D(D).DDDD University. LG has exhibited in various national and international venues, including The Internet Pavilion of La Biennale Di Venezia, and has appeared in Artforum, The New York Times, Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Japan Times, Los Angeles Times, La Stampa, Bookforum, Purple Diary, Mousse Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail among others. Julia Friedman is a Russian-born art historian, writer, and curator. PCP Press is an independent publisher of avant-garde books and insurgent authors. Founded in 1990 in San Francisco at a time when transgressive and sometimes esoteric international art books had a difficult time making their way into the wider American marketplace, over the past three decades PCP has grown into a consistent publisher of books, special editions and rare publications from an array of the world's most respected authors and cultural institutions - including Raymond Pettibon, Dave Hickey, Wayne Thiebaud, Bryan Reynolds, David Hawkes, Shepard Fairey, LG Williams, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, and Luscerne Kunstpanorama. # # # # #

“As an art critic, [Hickey] doesn’t do what most people want from art criticism. He doesn’t provide his readers with a neat intellectual framework through which to view everything they see, like a Clement Greenberg or a Michael Fried, and he doesn’t really do beautiful description either ... Instead, Hickey gives you intricately structured argument and gorgeous prose ... Reading him you want to forget that the art market is a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos between Ukrainian oligarchs and Qatari princesses ... You want to be the thing you advocate; you want to ride the wave, mount the dais, and speak the truth.” – Los Angeles Review of Books Arguably one of the most astute critics working today, Dave Hickey's multi-decade career as a leading cultural commentator is characterised by his blend of high and mass culture and his fervent critique of the celebrity-driven culture of the 21st-century art world. Following his 2012 announcement of self-imposed exile from art criticism, this new body of essays once again questions and challenges the cultural status quo. With his trademark humour, Hickey has declared that: ‘I miss being an elitist and not having to talk to idiots’ in a field that, he believes, is defined by the commoditisation of art and the self-referential tendencies of criticism itself. This new body of shorter essays by the author of Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy and The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty looks at more contemporary phenomena: super-collectors, the trope of the biennale and the loss of looking.

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.