Dragging Away: Queer Abstraction in Contemporary Art
In Dragging Away Lex Morgan Lancaster traces the formal and material innovations of contemporary queer and feminist artists, showing how they use abstraction as a queering tactic for social and political ends. Through a process Lancaster theorizes as a drag—dragging past aesthetics into the present and reworking them while pulling their work away from direct representation—these artists reimagine midcentury forms of abstraction and expose the violence of the tendency to reduce abstract form to a bodily sign or biographical symbolism. Lancaster outlines how the geometric enamel objects, grid paintings, vibrant color, and expansive installations of artists ranging from Ulrike Müller, Nancy Brooks Brody, and Lorna Simpson to Linda Besemer, Sheila Pepe, and Shinique Smith offer direct challenges to representational and categorical legibility. In so doing, Lancaster demonstrates that abstraction is not apolitical, neutral, or universal; it is a form of social praxis that actively contributes to queer, feminist, critical race, trans, and crip politics.
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Dragging Away: Queer Abstraction in Contemporary Art
In Dragging Away Lex Morgan Lancaster traces the formal and material innovations of contemporary queer and feminist artists, showing how they use abstraction as a queering tactic for social and political ends. Through a process Lancaster theorizes as a drag—dragging past aesthetics into the present and reworking them while pulling their work away from direct representation—these artists reimagine midcentury forms of abstraction and expose the violence of the tendency to reduce abstract form to a bodily sign or biographical symbolism. Lancaster outlines how the geometric enamel objects, grid paintings, vibrant color, and expansive installations of artists ranging from Ulrike Müller, Nancy Brooks Brody, and Lorna Simpson to Linda Besemer, Sheila Pepe, and Shinique Smith offer direct challenges to representational and categorical legibility. In so doing, Lancaster demonstrates that abstraction is not apolitical, neutral, or universal; it is a form of social praxis that actively contributes to queer, feminist, critical race, trans, and crip politics.
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Dragging Away: Queer Abstraction in Contemporary Art

Dragging Away: Queer Abstraction in Contemporary Art

by Lex Morgan Lancaster
Dragging Away: Queer Abstraction in Contemporary Art

Dragging Away: Queer Abstraction in Contemporary Art

by Lex Morgan Lancaster

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Overview

In Dragging Away Lex Morgan Lancaster traces the formal and material innovations of contemporary queer and feminist artists, showing how they use abstraction as a queering tactic for social and political ends. Through a process Lancaster theorizes as a drag—dragging past aesthetics into the present and reworking them while pulling their work away from direct representation—these artists reimagine midcentury forms of abstraction and expose the violence of the tendency to reduce abstract form to a bodily sign or biographical symbolism. Lancaster outlines how the geometric enamel objects, grid paintings, vibrant color, and expansive installations of artists ranging from Ulrike Müller, Nancy Brooks Brody, and Lorna Simpson to Linda Besemer, Sheila Pepe, and Shinique Smith offer direct challenges to representational and categorical legibility. In so doing, Lancaster demonstrates that abstraction is not apolitical, neutral, or universal; it is a form of social praxis that actively contributes to queer, feminist, critical race, trans, and crip politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781478016045
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication date: 11/11/2022
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lex Morgan Lancaster is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations  ix
Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction  1
1. Edging Geometry  34
2. Feeling the Grid  60
3. Flaming Color  86
4. Transforming Everyday Matter  110
Epilogue. Dragging the Flag  133
Notes  147
Bibliography  165
Index  177

What People are Saying About This

Shimmering Images: Trans Cinema, Embodiment, and the Aesthetics of Change - Eliza Steinbock

“Lex Morgan Lancaster reappraises the older generation queer feminist women artists and assesses them in relation to the current edge of queer feminist women artists; this is a power move. Lancaster’s method of looking forward to look back creates startling insights that will be welcome in art history, queer theory, and feminist and gender studies.”

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