Distant Early Warning - by Alex Kitnick (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In Distant Early Warning, Alex Kitnick reveals the story of Marshall McLuhan's entanglement with the art and artists of the twentieth-century avant-garde. It is a story packed with big names: Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik, Tom Wolfe, Harold Rosenberg, Max Kozloff, and more. Kitnick, though, is not focused on celebrity, instead he carefully forges connections between McLuhan, his theories, and the artists of his time with thorough research and superb use of McLuhan's own words. McLuhan's writings on media spread quickly and his provocations about what art should be and what artists should be responsible for fueled then current debates. McLuhan observed that artists are first to act in response to change, and he believed they should be the ones to which we entrust new media and technologies. Thus Rauschenberg's desire to connect with culture through things is met with McLuhan's faith in artists as bellwethers of the networked world. In his postscript, Kitnick overlays McLuhan's faith onto the state of contemporary and post-internet art. This final channeling of McLuhan is a swift and beautiful analysis, with a personal touch, of art's recent transgressions and what its future may hold"--

Book Synopsis

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) is best known as a media theorist-many consider him the founder of media studies-but he was also an important theorist of art. Though a near-household name for decades due to magazine interviews and TV specials, McLuhan remains an underappreciated yet fascinating figure in art history. His connections with the art of his own time were largely unexplored, until now. In Distant Early Warning, art historian Alex Kitnick delves into these rich connections and argues both that McLuhan was influenced by art and artists and, more surprisingly, that McLuhan's work directly influenced the art and artists of his time.

Kitnick builds the story of McLuhan's entanglement with artists by carefully drawing out the connections among McLuhan, his theories, and the artists themselves. The story is packed with big names: Marcel Duchamp, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik, and others. Kitnick masterfully weaves this history with McLuhan's own words and his provocative ideas about what art is and what artists should do, revealing McLuhan's influence on the avant-garde through the confluence of art and theory. The illuminating result sheds light on new aspects of McLuhan, showing him not just as a theorist, or an influencer, but as a richly multifaceted figure who, among his many other accolades, affected multiple generations of artists and their works. The book finishes with Kitnick overlaying McLuhan's ethos onto the state of contemporary and post-internet art. This final channeling of McLuhan is a swift and beautiful analysis, with a personal touch, of art's recent transgressions and what its future may hold.

Review Quotes

"Each chapter puts McLuhan into context with individual artists... This is a good way to revisit McLuhan, particularly as his work is too often reduced to enigmatic bons mots... [Kitnick] makes a compelling case..." -- "Literary Review of Canada"

About the Author

Alex Kitnick is assistant professor of art history and visual culture at Bard College.