“抽象艺术有什么好处？对我们个人或任何社会来说，没有任何东西的画、绘画、雕塑、版画或素描有什么用处？它们似乎只展示它们自己？”在这篇关于杰克逊.波洛克（Jackson Pollock）之后抽象艺术的振奋人心的报道中，艺术史学家柯克.瓦内多（Kirk Varnedoe），现代艺术博物馆（Museum of Modern art）前绘画和雕塑首席策展人，坦率地面对过去50年中非具象艺术的不确定性，提出了这些和其他问题。他对它的历史和价值进行了令人信服的论证，就像E.H.贡布里奇50年前在《艺术与幻象》一书中探讨的再现一样，这本书是A.W.梅隆的另一部里程碑式的演讲集。瓦内多意识到这些讲座可能是他的收关的一部作品，他把这些讲座看作是他对现代艺术信念的一种表述，也是他对艺术史的清晰务实和哲学态度的一个高典范。2003年春天，就在他去世的几个月前，他在华盛顿国家艺术馆向人满为患的观众发表了演讲，并在这里编辑和复制了这些演讲及其插图。
"What is abstract art good for? What's the use--for us as individuals, or for any society--of pictures of nothing, of paintings and sculptures or prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except themselves?" In this invigorating account of abstract art since Jackson Pollock, eminent art historian Kirk Varnedoe, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, asks these and other questions as he frankly confronts the uncertainties we may have about the nonrepresentational art produced in the last five decades. He makes a compelling argument for its history and value, much as E. H. Gombrich tackled representation fifty years ago in Art and Illusion, another landmark A. W. Mellon Lectures volume. Realizing that these lectures might be his final work, Varnedoe conceived of them as a statement of his faith in modern art and as the culminating example of his lucidly pragmatic and philosophical approach to art history. He delivered the lectures, edited and reproduced here with their illustrations, to overflowing crowds at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in the spring of 2003, just months before his death.
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