Genres High and Low
Writings on Art
A landmark collection of essays exploring contemporary art, criticism, and curatorial practice from one of Canada’s most influential art writers.
Genres High and Low brings together three decades of Philip Monk’s writing on international contemporary art, tracing the ideas, artists, and movements that have shaped modern criticism. Spanning essays on the American avant-garde, Toronto’s downtown art scene, and changing approaches to history, archives, and curating, the collection offers a wide-ranging view of contemporary artistic practice. As Canada’s first independent art critic, Monk helped redefine art writing by combining critical insight with literary experimentation and philosophical inquiry. His essays demonstrate that criticism can be as creative, inventive, and thought-provoking as the art it examines. Together, they reveal the lasting influence of one of Canada’s most original voices in contemporary art.
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Philip Monk, former Director of the Art Gallery of York University in Toronto, has written fourteen books over his career, as well as scores of articles, reviews, and essays, plus dozens of catalogues on international and Canadian artists. Dedicated to setting in place the theoretical conditions for writing the history of contemporary Canadian Art, and of Toronto in particular, Monk’s writing set the terms of debate on art in Canada for decades. His most recent book, Is Toronto Burning? is a history of the conflicted creation of Toronto’s downtown art scene in the late 1970s.
