Autocritique brings together essays spanning twenty years by one of our most acclaimed art critics. For more than two decades Barbara Rose, author of American Art Since 1900, has been observing and commenting on the current art scene-a scene that she galvanized by her acute perceptions of it. Now she has collected many of her pieces into a volume that is both an important chronicle and a significant contribution to our understanding of the theory and practice of modern art. It is a collection doubly informed, both by the impact the essays made when first published, and by the dynamic of self-evaluation, as revealed in her surprising and controversial title essay. -- from book jacket.