The Intangibilities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art after the Readymade

This is a difficult, interesting and wideranging reflection surrounding issues raised by the work(and lack of labor)of Macel Duchamp. Roberts', sometimes knotted prose, is full of information and ideas. The effort: rereading sections several times and consulting the dictionary leads to a panoply of argumentative pleasure.

Well worth reading. Its been around long enough to have become an important text among practicing artists who like to have a contextual framework for their practice.

This is a horrid book. Half the words are of the author's invention and he is quite stuck up about his own opinion.

Jargen heavy, but such a handy book for me (as an art student), although content is dense, it is refined and looks at Deskilling in a terms of labour and there are surprisingly few books out there on the subject and I haven't found any so far with the same angle as Roberts. His essay "Art after deskilling" (which can be found as a PDF online) gives a more sucinct summary in around 25 pages. Overall recommended

The theories proposed are easy to understand. I used this book as part of my research towards my BA Art degree show. The most interesting idea for me surrounds the Labour of artists compared to the Labour of craftsmen. It'll be a book I keep for life.

This is a great book but recommended for the student rather than the lay reader who I don't think would get further than the first few pages. But the serious art / art history student would revel in the intellectual arguments and the explaination about ready mades from DuChamp to Andre's bricks in the Tate. Recommended!