Video Art

Abundantly illustrated with frames and sequences, this updated edition offers a history of the medium from its early practitioners, such as Bruce Nauman and Vito Acconci, who used the video camera as an extension of their own bodies, through the vast array of conceptual, political, personal, and lyrical installations of the 1980s and 1990s by Gary Hill, Bill Viola, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Mary Lucier, Michal Rovner, and others up to the present day.

A new chapter, "Video Ascending," explores the recent use of video in what might be called "the new cinematics"—not only multi-screen installations mixing sound and visuals but also immersive environments, including Virtual Reality, and alternative sculpture that combines solid forms with moving images. 383 illustrations, 296 in color.

The most complete and up-to-date overview available of an art form born some forty years ago and now ubiquitous internationally.

Video art has moved from brief showings on tiny screens in alternative art spaces to dominance in international exhibitions and artistic events, in which vast video installations sometimes occupy factory-sized buildings or video projections take over the walls of an entire city block. It embraces all the significant art ideas and forms of recent times—from Abstract, Conceptual, Minimal, Performance, and Pop to photography and film.

Abundantly illustrated with frames and sequences, this updated edition offers a history of the medium from its early practitioners, such as Bruce Nauman and Vito Acconci, who used the video camera as an extension of their own bodies, through the vast array of conceptual, political, personal, and lyrical installations of the 1980s and 1990s by Gary Hill, Bill Viola, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Mary Lucier, Michal Rovner, and others up to the present day.

A new chapter, "Video Ascending," explores the recent use of video in what might be called "the new cinematics"—not only multi-screen installations mixing sound and visuals but also immersive environments, including Virtual Reality, and alternative sculpture that combines solid forms with moving images. 383 illustrations, 296 in color.

Library Journal

In this overview of a still relatively new art form, Rush (director, Palm Beach Inst. of Contemporary Art) asserts that video art emerged as an important medium just as artists embraced conceptual and performance-based art. The popularity of video art marked a shift within contemporary art toward ideas and away from an interest in any specific medium. A key strength of Rush's analysis is his explanation of the link among performance, conceptual art, and video. Rather than exploring the technical qualities of film, artists stage performances on film to communicate ideas. Rush organizes this history around three major themes: the use of video cameras as an extension of artists' own bodies, the time-based qualities of video making way for new kinds of stories, and the combination of video with electronic, digital media to form new hybrid installations. Illustrated with examples from some of the best-known artists in the field, this thematic approach provides a clear conceptual grid to the potentially confusing world of film-based art. A beautifully illustrated book that builds upon the author's earlier, more general scholarship in New Media in Late 20th-Century Art, this is suitable for specialized public library collections and academic libraries.-Katherine C. Adams, Bowdoin Coll. Lib., Brunswick, ME Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Michael Rush is the author of New Media in Art. His writings on video, film, and other media appear regularly in the New York Times and Art in America.