Overview
In Dragging Away Lex Morgan Lancaster traces the formal and material innovations of contemporary queer and feminist artists, showing how they use abstraction as a queering tactic for social and political ends. Through a process Lancaster theorizes as a drag-dragging past aesthetics into the present and reworking them while pulling their work away from direct representation-these artists reimagine midcentury forms of abstraction and expose the violence of the tendency to reduce abstract form to a bodily sign or biographical symbolism. Lancaster outlines how the geometric enamel objects, grid paintings, vibrant color, and expansive installations of artists ranging from Ulrike Muller, Nancy Brooks Brody, and Lorna Simpson to Linda Besemer, Sheila Pepe, and Shinique Smith offer direct challenges to representational and categorical legibility. In so doing, Lancaster demonstrates that abstraction is not apolitical, neutral, or universal; it is a form of social praxis that actively contributes to queer, feminist, critical race, trans, and crip politics.
Full Product Details
Author: Lex Morgan Lancaster
Publisher: Duke University Press
Imprint: Duke University Press
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9781478016045
ISBN 10: 1478016043
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 11 November 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Reviews
""Lancaster's study represents an important contribution to scholarship on queer art in particular and contemporary art more generally. For those new to the field, the judiciously illustrated, lively text offers a generous introduction to a range of timely debates about the politics of abstraction and queer representation. For those well acquainted with these debates, Lancaster presents compelling and at times nonintuitive arguments with nuance."" -- Sarah Louise Cowan * Woman's Art Journal *
"""Lancaster's study represents an important contribution to scholarship on queer art in particular and contemporary art more generally. For those new to the field, the judiciously illustrated, lively text offers a generous introduction to a range of timely debates about the politics of abstraction and queer representation. For those well acquainted with these debates, Lancaster presents compelling and at times nonintuitive arguments with nuance."" -- Sarah Louise Cowan * Woman's Art Journal *"
Author Information
Lex Morgan Lancaster is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
