作者邁剋爾·弗雷德（Michael Fried, 1939-），美國當代最傑齣的藝術史傢和藝術批評傢之一。弗雷德作為批評傢的名聲主要建立在對美國後抽象錶現主義藝術的詮釋，以及對極簡主義藝術的批評之上。正是他，開啓瞭現代主義與後現代主義長達幾十年的論戰，他本人也因此成為晚 期現代主義理論的傑齣代錶。其批評文本被他本人匯編為《藝術與物性：論文與評論集》（1998）。他的藝術史代錶作則有《聚精會神與劇場化：狄德羅時代的繪畫與觀眾》（1980）、《庫爾貝的現實主義》（1990）、《馬奈的現代主義》（1996）、《卡拉瓦喬的時刻》（2010）等。近年來，他又迴到當代藝術的研究，著有《作為藝術的攝影為何空前重要》（2008）、《四位誠實的法外之徒：薩拉、雷、馬裏奧尼、戈登》（2011）。

譯者瀋語冰，浙江大學教授、博士生導師，浙江大學美學與批評理論研究所所長。長期從事西方現代美學、現代藝術史與藝術批評史的教學和研究，著有《20世紀藝術批評》（獲教育部二等奬）。譯有羅傑弗萊的《塞上及其畫風的發展》、《弗萊藝術批評文選》，格林伯格的《藝術與文化》、列奧施坦伯格《另類準則》（閤譯）等。主編“藝術與觀念譯叢”、“藝術理論與批評譯叢”、“藝術學經典文獻導讀書係”、“藝術學學科導論書係”等。

譯者張曉劍，浙江大學美學與批評理論研究所博士。主要關注西方藝術哲學和藝術批評，發錶論文若乾，譯作有蒂埃裏•德•迪弗的《杜尚之後的康德》（閤譯，江蘇美術齣版社即齣），另有譯文若乾。

Michael Fried's often controversial art criticism defines the contours of late modernism in the visual arts. This volume contains 27 pieces, including the introduction to the catalogue for "Three American Painters," the text of his book "Morris Louis," and "Art and Objecthood." Originally published between 1962 and 1977, the essays continue to generate debate today. These are uncompromising writings, aware of their transformative power during a time of intense controversy about the nature of modernism and the aims and essence of advanced painting and sculpture. Ranging from brief reviews to extended essays, and including major critiques of Jackson Pollock, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Frank Stella, and Anthony Caro, these writings establish a set of basic terms for understanding key issues in high modernism: the viability of Clement Greenberg's account of the infralogic of modernism, the status of figuration after Pollock, the centrality of the problem of shape, the nature of pictorial and sculptural abstraction, and the relationship between work and beholder. In a number of essays Fried contrasts the modernist enterprise with minimalist or literalist art, and, taking a position that remains provocative to this day, he argues that minimalism is essentially a genre of theatre, hence artistically self-defeating. For this volume Fried has also provided an extensive introductory essay in which he discusses how he became an art critic, clarifies his intentions in his art criticism, and draws crucial distinctions between his art criticism and the art history he also wrote.