Barbara Novak

Barbara Novak's Nature and Culture is both a sweeping look at mid-19th century American landscape art and a pinpointed analysis of how American artists arrived there. Each aspect of American and European culture gets its own angle -- from the divine to music to geology and evolution to travel art and even European aesthetics and politics. Many spheres of public and private life touched each of the artists discussed, and so, each piece they painted of the American landscape embodies (to some show more degree) those spheres. My only gripe is that the art is reprinted in this book in black and white, so the vibrant descriptions sometimes fall on deaf ears. I read the Third Edition of this book and I can tell why the art world keeps revisiting this topic. Any scholar of art will find this one very interesting. show less

This rich but ultimately heartbreaking novel tells the story of Angelica Bookbinder, a fictional professor striving for tenure at Harvard, and her research subject, real-life feminist and New England intellectual Margaret Fuller. As Angelica researches Fuller's life, her own life begins to mirror Fuller's romantic struggles. Occasionally, this novel reads like a biography (leading me to wonder why Novak didn't just write one) but at the same time, the academic formality melts well with show more Novak's staccato narrative. Novak's strength does not come from her characters; often, she relies on thin stereotypes (I find the rapacious lesbian women studies professor to be a tired caricature, which Novak sadly trots out). Angelica is painted sparsely and develops best when ruminating over Fuller's life; it is when Novak forces her to interact with her contemporaries that the story feels a bit over-the-top (some readers, I've read, found Novak's depiction of Angelica's attempts at lesbianism to be homophobic while others found it more satirical). Instead, it is the poem-like prose that grabs the reader. As a geography major and Bostoner, I found Novak's use of place as character to be a satisfying element, but those not from Boston might find her emphasis on street names and Harvard landmarks tiring. In the end, this is a tasty novel about a fascinating and little known historical character. show less

Paper thin, if the movie is half as bad as this I hope never to watch it.

A result of Brian O’Doherty and Barbara Novak’s friendship with outstanding artists in the New York Milieu , particularly of the 60s and 70s, this book includes works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Christo, Edward Hopper, Sonja Sekula, Sol Lewitt, Mel Bochner, George Segal, Hans Namuth, John Coplans, Diana Mitchener and many others.