Clement Greenberg is widely recognized as the most influential and articulate champion of modernism during its American ascendency after World War II, the period largely covered by these highly acclaimed volumes of "The Collected Essays and Criticism". "Volume 3: Affirmations and Refusals" presents Greenberg's writings from the period between 1950 and 1956, while "Volume 4: Modernism with a Vengeance" gathers essays and criticism of the years 1957 to 1969. The 120 works range from little-known pieces originally appearing "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar" to such celebrated essays as "The Plight of Our Culture" (1953), "Modernist Painting" (1960), and "Post Painterly Abstraction" (1964). Preserved in their original form, these writings allow readers to witness the development and direction of Greenberg's criticism, from his advocacy of abstract expressionism to his enthusiasm for color-field painting.With the inclusion of critical exchanges between Greenberg and F. R. Leavis, Fairfield Porter, Thomas B. Hess, Herbert Read, Max Kozloff, and Robert Goldwater, these volumes are essential sources in the ongoing debate over modern art.

[Greenberg] is widely and rightly regaded as the most important American art critic since World War II. --Barry Gewen New York Times Book Review (12/11/2005)
With the publication of the first two volumes of Clement Greenberg's Collected Essays and Criticism, we are at last on our way to having a comprehensive edition of the most important body of art criticism produced by an American writer in this century. The two volumes now available Perceptions and Judgments, 1939-1944 and Arrogant Purpose, 1945-1949 bring together for the first time Mr. Greenberg's critical writings from the decade in which he emerged as the most informed and articulate champion of the New York School as well as one of our most trenchant analysts of the modern cultural scene.--Hilton Kramer The New Criterion