Pretentiousness Why it Matters

Pretentiousness Why it MattersFrom the blurb: What is pretentiousness? Why do we despise it? And more controversially: why is it vital to a thriving culture? In this brilliant, passionate essay, Dan Fox argues that it has always been an essential mechanism of the arts, from the most wildly successful pop music and fashion through to the most recondite avenues of literature and the visual arts. Pretentiousness: Why it Matters unpacks the uses and abuses of the term, tracing its

bronze and copper

Henry Wessel has been awarded two Guggenheim fellowships and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts

The portraits in this book are a portrait of humankind- a focus of attention that mirrors our people-centered approach to banking

Ghirri photographed this fabricated world with a characteristic sensitivity for visual coincidence and irony

Lee and John Pultz engage with Arbus’s claim that she was developing a “family album

1997 i New York City

socialites and bohemian artists

Bringing together works by groundbreaking artists from across Asia

experiences beyond their control

even humanity itself

Moshekwa Langa lives and works between Johannesburg

This publication of almost 180 of Disfarmer’s images