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Clement Greenberg

Clement Greenberg Books

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“The main trouble with avant-garde art and literature, from the point of view of fascists and Stalinists, is not that they are too critical, but that they are too "innocent," that it is too difficult to inject effective propaganda, that kitsch is more pliable to this end.”

ArtEndsLiteratureDifficultViewsTroubleCriticalPoint Of ViewInnocentPropagandaFascistsAvant GardeKitschAvant Garde Art
Book:Art and Culture: Critical Essays
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“Once efficiency is universally accepted as a rule, it becomes an inner compulsion and weighs like a sense of sin, simply because no one can ever be efficient enough, just as no one can ever be virtuous enough. And this new sense of sin only contributes further to the enervation of leisure, for the rich as well as the poor. The difficulty of carrying on a leisure-oriented tradition of culture in a work-oriented society is enough in itself to keep the present crisis in our culture unresolved.”

WellsEnoughCultureSinPoorRichTraditionDifficultyCrisisAcceptedEfficientLeisureVirtuousEfficiencyCompulsionCarrying On
Author:Clement Greenberg
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“Photography is the most transparent of the art mediums devised or discovered by man. It is probably for this reason that it proves so difficult to make the photograph transcend its almost inevitable function as document and act as a work of art as well.”

MenWellsArtReasonDifficultProvePhotographyFunctionPhotographMediumsInevitableWorks Of ArtDocumentsTransparent
Book:The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 2: Arrogant Purpose, 1945-1949
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“Art criticism, I would say, is about the most ungrateful form of 'elevated' writing I know of. It may also be one of the most challenging.. if only because so few people have done it well enough to be remembered.. but I'm not sure the challenge is worth it.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWritingWellsMayArtDoneEnoughFormChallengesCriticismRememberedNot SureWorth ItUngrateful
Book:The Collected Essays and Criticism, Volume 2: Arrogant Purpose, 1945-1949
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