Air Guitar : Essays on Art and Democracy ISBN: 9780963726483 Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Art Issues Press Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time Subjects: History; Social Science;
The 23 essays (or "love songs") that make up the now classic volume Air Guitar trawl a "vast, invisible underground empire" of pleasure, through record stores, honky-tonks, art galleries, jazz clubs, cocktail lounges, surf shops and hot-rod stores, as restlessly on the move as the America they depict. Air Guitar pioneered a kind of plain-talking in cultural criticism, willingly subjective and always candid and direct. A valuable reading tool for art lovers, neophytes, students and teachers alike, Hickey's book--now in its third edition--has galvanized a generation of art lovers, with new takes on Norman Rockwell, Robert Mapplethorpe, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol and Perry Mason. In June 2009, Newsweek voted Air Guitar one of the top 50 books that "open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways," and described the book as "a seamless blend of criticism, personal history, and a deep appreciation for the sheer nuttiness of American life." This is the eBook edition of Air Guitar , originally published in print form in August 1997.
Dave Hickey has written for most major American cultural publications. Formerly Executive Editor for Art in America, Hickey's publications include Prior Convictions (1989), The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993), and Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy (1997). Hickey received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism in 1994. He is currently Associate Professor of Art Criticism and Theory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
