Cultural Writing. Essays on art. THE SWEET SINGER OF MODERNISM spans nearly twenty years of poet, critic, and professor Bill Berkson's career as an art writer. The essays in this volume include "Thiebaud's Vanities," "Invocations of the Surge Protector," "Hung Liu, Action Painter," "What the Ground Looks Like" and many more. "Bill Berkson's THE SWEET SINGER OF MODERNISM is an indispensable text for anyone interested in late-twentieth-century culture. As a poet and critic of these times, as a witness and intimate participant, Berkson writes out of his own taste and experience, but never about it. His devotion to the seriousness and importance of his subjects is the very essence of modesty and felicity. As a consequence, his most casual opinion bears the weight of thoughtful moral authority. This is a wonderful book"--Dave Hickey.