The art world has become a point of contention within a range of debates and yet, strangely enough, while art criticism has been discussed at length, very little is said about art critics. Following in the footsteps of Lionello Venturi’s History of Art Criticism, in the current volume Lorente provides an updated reassessment of the great art critics from the Enlightenment down to the turn of the millennium. Conceived as a didactic handbook with a recommended bibliography at the end of each chapter, this concise work tells the history of a profession in permanent crisis, while also paying homage to its most infl uential practitioners in different cultural contexts.

In The Politics of Taste Ana María Reyes examines the works of Colombian artist Beatriz González and Argentine-born art critic, Marta Traba, who championed González's art during Colombia's National Front coalition government (1958–74). During this critical period in Latin American art, artistic practice, art criticism, and institutional objectives came into strenuous yet productive tension. While González’s triumphant debut excited critics who wanted to cast Colombian art as modern, sophisticated, and universal, her turn to urban lowbrow culture proved deeply unsettling. Traba praised González's cursi (tacky) recycling aesthetic as daringly subversive and her strategic localism as resistant to U.S. cultural imperialism. Reyes reads González's and Traba's complex visual and textual production and their intertwined careers against Cold War modernization programs that were deeply embedded in the elite's fear of the masses and designed to avert Cuban-inspired revolution. In so doing, Reyes provides fresh insights into Colombia's social anxieties and frustrations while highlighting how interrogations of taste became vital expressions of the growing discontent with the Colombian state.

Throughout the 1920s, a remarkable number of young writers and artists lived and worked in Madrid, creating an atmosphere of effervescence and an upsurge in creativity that has rarely been equalled. These young people, acquainting themselves with one another within the span of only a few years, came together to form a tightly woven network of both personal and artistic relationships. In Configurations of a Cultural Scene Andrew Anderson explores this growing community of artists and writers with a focus on how sites of face-to-face interaction in Madrid fostered creative work and forged young identities. Organizing locations into places of sociability, learning, and residence, Anderson offers five case studies that exemplify the significance of these three points of intersection: Rafael Barradas and his tertulia at the Café de Oriente; an artists’ studio located on the Pasaje de la Alhambra; women art students at the Academia de San Fernando who lodged at the Residencia de Señoritas; the artist and writer Gabriel García Maroto; and the close relationship between artist Maruja Mallo and poet Rafael Alberti. Departing from conventional approaches that foreground the trajectories of individual careers, Anderson privileges the lived experience of artists and writers in his analysis of a rich cultural scene held together by cooperation, exchange, and interpersonal connections.

The artist, the critic and the academic: feminism's problematic relationship with 'Theory'/ Janet Wolff -- Preaching to the converted? Feminist art publishing in the 1980s / Frances Borzello -- The sphinx contemplating Napoleon : black women artists in Britain / Gilane Tawadros -- Reading between the lines: the imprinted spaces of Sutapa Biswas / Moira Roth -- Modernism, art education and sexual difference /Pen Dalton -- Eyewitnesses, not spectators/activists, not academics: feminist pedagogy and women's creativity / Val A. Walsh -- Exhibiting strategies / Debbie Duffin -- The situation of women curators / Elizabeth A. MacGregor -- Afterthoughts on curating 'The subversive stitch' / Pennina Barnett -- The cult of the individual / Fran Cottell -- On women dealers in the art world / Maureen Paley -- Where do we draw the line? An investigation into the censorship of art / Anna Douglas --Women's movements: feminism, censorship and performance art / Sally Dawson -- Why have there been no great women pornagraphers? / Naomi Salaman -- Just jamming: Irigaray, painting and psychoanalysis / Christine Battersby -- Border crossing: womanliness, body, repre-sentation / Hilary Robinson -- (P)age 49: on the subject of history / Mary Kelly -- Models of painting practice: too much body? / Joan Key --Text and textiles: weaving across the borderlines / Janis Jefferies --Kinda art, sorta tapestry ... / Ann Newdigate -- Sewn constructions / Dinah Prentice -- Penelope and the unravelling of history / Ruth Scheuing.

Aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia reúne diversas perspectivas sobre el estudio del español como lengua de herencia en el contexto de los Estados Unidos. El volumen presenta una amplia gama de enfoques lingüísticos, modelos pedagógicos e innovaciones programáticas. Dirigido a investigadores noveles y experimentados, al igual que a estudiantes y profesionales de la enseñanza, es un volumen ideal para aquellas personas que desean actualizar sus conocimientos del campo y obtener una perspectiva panorámica sobre la investigación y la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia. Características principales: temas que incluyen, entre otros, la fonología/la fonética, la morfosintaxis, la pragmática, la enseñanza mediante el enfoque por tareas, la literacidad múltiple, el translenguar, los programas de community college, el español para fines específicos y la investigación-acción; contenidos teóricos, empíricos y pragmáticos relevantes para la enseñanza del español como lengua de herencia; descripciones y ejemplos que facilitan la adquisición de conocimientos sobre la materia; diferentes secciones que permiten la flexibilidad en cuanto al orden de lectura del volumen; preguntas de reflexión al final de cada capítulo para facilitar la comprensión de los temas presentados. Escrito de manera clara y accesible, Aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia es un recurso indispensable para cursos de grado y posgrado en español sobre el español como lengua de herencia. Aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia brings together a number of diverse scholarly voices and perspectives on the study of Spanish as a heritage language with a focus on the United States context. The volume presents a comprehensive view of this growing and dynamic field with the latest on linguistic approaches, pedagogical models, and programmatic innovations. Directed to beginning and seasoned researchers as well as to students and practitioners who wish to update their knowledge of the field and gain a fresh perspective on different approaches to researching and teaching Spanish heritage bilinguals. Written in Spanish for a wider audience in the Spanish-speaking world and for the teaching of undergraduate and graduate courses in Spanish. Key features: A broad range of topics including phonology/phonetics, morphosyntax, pragmatics, task-based language teaching, multiliteracy, translanguaging, community college programs, Spanish for specific purposes and action research among others; Clear overviews of theoretical, empirical and pragmatic issues relevant to the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language; Every chapter builds on specific core questions central to current understandings of research and practice; Concise descriptions and examples throughout provide readers with the tools they need to understand the subject matter; Organized into three sections that allows for flexibility regarding reading order; A section of reflection questions at the end of each chapter to help readers gain a deeper understanding of the issues at stake. Written in clear and accessible Spanish, Aproximaciones al estudio del español como lengua de herencia is a critical resource for those interested in understanding Spanish heritage speakers’ multifaceted linguistic experience in tandem with providing a meaningful educational experience that supports their personal, professional, and learning goals.