Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art

"A definitive study of a coherent and fascinating set of art practices. Kester makes the concept of dialogical art more textured and complex with each new work he discusses, providing both richness of description and depth of understanding. Without being authoritarian or heavy-handed, the book is definitive, exhaustively researched, and comprehensive. It is likely to remain the premier resource of information on community-based dialogical art for years to come and will be required reading for all courses that deal with the social implications of art."—Norman Bryson, Professor of Art History, University of California, San Diego, and Senior Researcher, Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht, the Netherlands

"Grant Kester has written a book of great insight, compassion, and civic courage. By treating the relationship between art and democracy as pedagogical, performative, and ethical, he revives our understanding of the importance of civic engagement, solidarity, conversation, and public intervention. This book is brilliant, brave, and enormously informative. Read it, buy an extra copy, send it to friends, and make sure every student and adult in North America becomes aware of it."—Henry A. Giroux, Waterbury Chair Professor of Education and Cultural Studies at The Pennsylvania State University and author of The Abandoned Generation

"Equally well-read in theory and contemporary art practice, Grant H. Kester has spent the past ten years analyzing the nature of community and communication in modern art, engaging diverse thinkers, past and present, such as Immanuel Kant and Miwon Kwon. With the publication of this important book, he takes on a new exchange, one between himself and his readers."—Moira Roth, Trefethen Professor of Art History, Mills College