"In 1962 the magazine Artforum was founded on a shoestring in San Francisco to challenge the East Coast art establishment. Soon thereafter it moved to Los Angeles, then to New York. And suddenly, it was the establishment, influential even beyond the founders' aspirations, setting the terms according to which art was to be judged. In Challenging Art, the participants in this venture tell us how it happened.". "With the appearance of Artforum, a group of passionate, committed, ambitious thinkers, imbued with a fervent desire to promulgate a high culture in the United States, introduced a new form of art criticism. For a brief but seminal moment, their specialized, hermetic vocabulary and framework within which art could be discussed and evaluated became pervasive.". "This oral history, juxtaposing often disparate recollections, demonstrates the complicated and provisional character of an historical episode that is often viewed as simplistic and cohesive. And it suggests that we may have to revise our current understanding of and expectations for contemporary art."--BOOK JACKET.