Formless: A User's Guide

Abstract

Published following an exhibition held in 1996 at Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), this monograph reconsiders 20th century art (particularly the Modernist period) through the notion of “the formless” (based on G. Bataille’s philosophical use of the term “informe”), thus offering an alternative to the dominant form/content binary. Presented in the form of a lexicon divided into four sections or “operations” (Base Materialism, Horizontality, Pulse and Entropy) and 26 headings (each beginning with a letter of the alphabet), Bois and Krauss analyze artworks by artists such as Pollock, Warhol, Twombly, Fontana, Sherman, Oldenburg and Beuys. Index of names and concepts (6 p.); circa 300 bibl. ref.

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