Out of Time

“Robert Slifkin deploys a glaring paradox—the fact that the standard art history of the 1960s largely ignores the unruly cultural phenomena that so vividly define the decade—to launch exactly the kind of book I've been hoping for. Out of Time is the work of a brave young scholar willing and able to change the terms by which a previous generation has framed the understanding of later twentieth-century art.”—Thomas Crow, author of The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Era of Dissent

"Slifkin proposes nothing less than a rethinking of art historical scholarship on the late 1960s. Elegantly wielding theoretical and literary terms, Slifkin points to the complex ways in which Guston’s paintings both acknowledge and mourn the demise of action painting and the ideals that sustained it. At the same time this dazzlingly rich analysis offers a revisionist and historical account of the cultural landscape of the late 1960s."—Cécile Whiting, author of Pop L.A.: Art and the City in the 1960s

"Out of Time moves Guston’s late paintings from the periphery to the center of art production around 1970 and saturates them with period culture—the culture of the art world, to be sure, but also that of music, films, fiction, and scholarship; of Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait, Bonnie and Clyde, The Book of Daniel, Armies of the Night, The Shape of Time. The expansive viewpoint and lively writing give us a new view of Guston as an artist very much of his time but still profoundly pertinent in the 21st century."—Michael Leja, author of Reframing Abstract Expressionism and Looking Askance

“[Out of Time is] the first major critical evaluation of Guston’s late work. Its contribution to the history of postwar American art is significant.  Its style is both scholarly stimulating and enjoyable to read.”—Klaus Ottmann, Director of the Center for the Study of Modern Art and Curator at Large, The Phillips Collection