The Essential New Art Examiner

The New Art Examiner was the only successful art
magazine ever to come out of Chicago. It had nearly a three-
decade long run, and since its founding in 1974 by Jane
Addams Allen and Derek Guthrie, no art periodical published
in the Windy City has lasted longer or has achieved
the critical mass of readers and admirers that it did.
The Essential New Art Examiner gathers the most
memorable and celebrated articles from this seminal
publication. First a newspaper, then a magazine, the New
Art Examiner succeeded unlike no other periodical of its
time. Before the word "blog" was ever spoken, it was
the source of news and information for Chicago-
area artists. And as its reputation grew, the New Art
Examiner gained a national audience and exercised
influence far beyond the Midwest. As one critic
put it, "it fought beyond its weight class."

The articles in The Essential New Art Examiner
are organized chronologically. Each section of the
book begins with a new essay by the original editor
of the pieces therein that reconsiders the era and larger issues
at play in the art world when they were first published. The
result is a fascinating portrait of the individuals who ran the
New Art Examiner and an inside look at the artistic trends
and aesthetic agendas that guided it. Derek Guthrie and Jane
Addams Allen, for instance, had their own renegade style.
James Yood never shied away from a good fight. And Ann
Wiens was heralded for embracing technologies and design.
The story of the New Art Examiner is the story of a constantly
evolving publication, shaped by talented editors and the
times in which it was printed.

Now, more than three decades after the journal's founding,
The Essential New Art Examiner brings together the best examples
of this groundbreaking publication: great editing, great
writing, a feisty staff who changed and adapted as circumstances
dictated--a publication that rolled with the times
and the art of the times. With passion, insight, and editorial
brilliance, the staff of the New Art Examiner turned a local
magazine into a national institution.