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Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Expanded Edition Paperback – Illustrated, 16 Jan. 2009

by Lawrence Weschler (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 143 ratings
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When this book first appeared in 1982, it introduced readers to Robert Irwin, the Los Angeles artist 'who one day got hooked on his own curiosity and decided to live it'. Now expanded to include six additional chapters and twenty-four pages of color plates, "Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees" chronicles three decades of conversation between Lawrence Weschler and light and space master Irwin. It surveys many of Irwin's site-conditioned projects - in particular the Central Gardens at the Getty Museum (the subject of an epic battle with the site's principal architect, Richard Meier) and the design that transformed an abandoned Hudson Valley factory into Dia's new Beacon campus - enhancing what many had already considered the best book ever on an artist.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0520256093
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0520256095
  3. Edition
    Expanded ed.
  4. Publisher
    University of California Press
  5. Publication date
    16 Jan. 2009
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    15.24 x 2.29 x 20.32 cm
  8. Print length
    352 pages
  9. See all details
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Review

"Seeing Is Forgetting and True to Life [on David Hockney, UC Press] are not only about the artists talking to Weschler or, through him, to each other; they're about the artists talking to themselves."

"Irwin worked through a series of styles which recapitulate a complete strand in American painting. Figuration was replaced by semi-abstraction. This was followed by Abstract Expressionism, then by color-field painting, conceptual art and land art. As each step can seem a willful rejection of complexity and richness, the reasons for the moves Irwin made must justify as well as explain. Set out in Weschler's book (much of it is direct quotation from interviews with Irwin), they are convincing. Irwin's story is one of aesthetic claustrophobia, of attempts to break out of the limits set by his own work."

"Irwin is one of the great artists and artistic innovators of our day. He is also one of the most eloquent. And he was fortunate enough to find his Boswell. Back in the 18th century, pioneering biographer James Boswell preserved writer Samuel Johnson's marvelous style of conversation. And while we have many other means now of preserving someone's words, Irwin's acquire a special life in Lawrence Weschler's magnetic (now expanded) biography."-- "San Diego Union-Tribune"

"Taken together, Weschler's two books [True to Life on David Hockney, UC Press; and. Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees] amount to an engaging argument about visual culture and its possibilities. They shift the reader several levels above the peevish bickering that often deadens cultural discussion and remind us that contemporary art, on some of its best days, draws us into the midst of debates that are wonderfully creative and crucially important while nevertheless unresolvable."-- "National Post"

"The expanded edition of 2009 adds subsequent conversations and later projects to the volume. With these additions, Wechsler shows how Irwin's work has changed and that his thinking has become more supple. . . . [Weschler's] ability to present and comment upon the artistic process without bogging it down in superfluous critical commentary, allows his essays to help us think about what creativity is in the broadest sense."-- "Leonardo"

"Weschler's ability to concede the book to Irwin does not just attest to his ear for the artist's fluid, if sometimes off-key, dialogue but also confirms that retaining such oddities is often finer than anything a biographer could conjure (it is worth noting that this remarkable book was also Weschler's first). . . . Seeing is Forgetting may not be just the best biography of an artist out there but also one of the best books on contemporary art-making."-- "Frieze"

From the Inside Flap

"Robert Irwin, perhaps the most influential of the California artists, moved from his beginnings in abstract expressionism through successive shifts in style and sensibility, into a new aesthetic territory altogether, one where philosophical concepts of perception and the world interact. Weschler has charted the journey with exceptional clarity and cogency. He has also, in the process, provided what seems to me the best running history of postwar West Coast art that I have yet seen." Calvin Tomkins

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; Expanded ed. edition (16 Jan. 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520256093
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520256095
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 2.29 x 20.32 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 143 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
143 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Rich Munn
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book that I have read many times over
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2016
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A beautiful book that I have read many times over. Anyone with an interest in exploring the relationship between philosophy and creating work as a catalyst will benefit from this book.
2 people found this helpful
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s
5.0 out of 5 stars Deep book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 December 2012
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As I am still reading and considering the book this is a short precise.Irwin has a unique and usual perspective,very refreshing Nd thought provoking for the developing artist
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ines
5.0 out of 5 stars Really nice conditions and excellent costumer service
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2013
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Really nice conditions and excellent customer service. The book didn't arrive on time so the company gave me back a high percentage.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2016
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great book
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rob crawford
5.0 out of 5 stars I am finally getting abstract expressionism
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2019
The abstract art section had always been the one that I skip through whenever I visit modern art museums. Though I knew there was a lot of thinking that went into the blobs of color, the light, and the sheer nakedness of some of the spaces, they did nothing for me. I preferred the pre-WWII art movements in Europe, where I thought that everything had essentially been done in modernism and post-modernism. This book proved to me that I was wrong and should take another look. This is great fun for someone like me, an art aficionado very set in his ways at age 62.

In terms of context, Weschler says that Irwin's work comes straight out of cubism, which sought to portray the deeper forms inherent in images. This was pushed to one extreme by abstract art, Irwin believes, which attempts to create a pure experience of perception of the most basic elements that we see and feel. His work also extended Dadaism, which posited that any object can be considered art if the viewer wished it, to include any situation as a work of art.

In this context, Irwin experimented with generating a feeling or emotion or the guidance of attention. First, he began with paintings, which eliminated objects as subjects and presented color and abstract form as a doorway into pure emotion and energy. Later, he extended this to include the entire room in which his paintings were presented. Finally, he eliminated the paintings altogether, turning the viewers perceptions outward, back into the world rather than into an artificial world within a painting with a subject. At the end of his career, he was exploring architecture from the artists' side in the tug with more commercial and practical architects. At least, that is what understood from the book and I am not sure I got the gestalt.

The book is a kind of 30-year personal dialogue with the artist through every phase of his career, describing what he was trying to do and interweaving it with bits of his biography. Furthermore, Irwin was heavy into philosophy, incorporating phenomenology into his ideas about perception and its manipulation. At its best, it is as charming as it is fascinating. But it can drag at times into an abstruceness that I found a chore to navigate.

This is a hard book to absorb, but very rewarding. The text if very advanced and beautifully written. True, its concerns are recondite, but I will never see abstract expressionism or conceptual art in the same way again. That is a great gift.
2 people found this helpful
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George Levantis
3.0 out of 5 stars Seeing is Forgetting the name of the thing one sees
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2013
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The book began very well and i was so in tune with both author and artist. Then it starts to become sort of repetitive but also as if the great material has been said and there is no more to follow and so we are left keeping company with the author and artist but no longer listening.amazon verified purchase.
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CuriousShopper
5.0 out of 5 stars The service
Reviewed in Canada on 28 December 2021
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This bookshop charmed me, my book arriving with a bookmark and sticker.
The book itself though used and had nary a nick.
Well done !
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MonsoonKing
5.0 out of 5 stars Really Fantastic
Reviewed in the United States on 2 May 2012
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I've read on ton of books of art history and theory, and this one stands out as one of the best.

Through thirty years of friendship and discussions, Weschler traces Bob Irwin's career, from buffing car dashboards in high school to creating monumental gardens and installations in his old age. The benefit of this extended coverage is that we get to see how Irwin develops in every stage of his career, often as these developments are happening. We discover how relationships, environment, the art world, and philosophy influence Irwin's evolution and how each element manifests itself in his work.

Irwin typically deals with abstract, minimalist, and formalist art which is often considered "difficult", even by open minded art viewers. In these interviews, he extensively details his mental and physical process, offering an unparalleled look at just what goes into these works. He recounts staring at a canvas for weeks, trying to decide precisely where a line should go and what impact it will have on the finished work. Even if you don't find yourself mesmerized by the next Agnes Martin you come across after reading this book, you'll at least gain an appreciation of why some people find it interesting and what might have been going through the mind of the artist when he/she created it.

Part of what this makes this biography so compelling is that Irwin is an incredibly appealing character. Most successful artists are pigeonholed as shameless self-promoters or tortured geniuses. Irwin comes across as humble, brilliant, open minded, sincere, and indefatigably dedicated to his work. He seems like an art world version of Richard Feynman; the kind of curious guy you'd love to explore ideas with over a beer. He can talk about betting the ponies and Wittgenstein. He has a soft spot for Cadillacs but doesn't mind living a frugal, almost hermetic existence. He's fascinated by both the mind and the soul.

This book isn't a page turner (though Bob is an excellent story teller). It's really best savored and carefully considered. But, if you're interested in Irwin, abstract art, art theory, the artistic process, hope to increase your art appreciation, or are just looking for an interesting biography, this is well worth a read.
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ZT
5.0 out of 5 stars Großes Buch über einen großen Künstler
Reviewed in Germany on 25 May 2013
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Wer ein bisschen die Welt vergessen machen will, ohne Metaphysik oder sakralen Msytizismus zu bemühen, wendet sich am besten an Irwins Kunst.
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Catherine Hérisson
5.0 out of 5 stars Super book
Reviewed in France on 25 September 2012
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Je recommande à tout amateur d'art contemporain qui souhaite se familiariser avec l'art de la Californie de la fin du C20 et début du C21 de lire ce livre concernant un artiste majeur de cette période. Il s'agit tout aussi bien d'une réflexion sur l'art que d'un récit de la vie d'un artiste.
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Edward Kennedy
5.0 out of 5 stars It is a joy to have read it
Reviewed in Canada on 18 May 2018
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A look into artistic genius. It is a joy to have read it. Thank you!
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