David Robbins’ latest book, High Entertainment, argues for a new kind of cultural production that combines the experimental ethos of art with the accessibility of entertainment. It eschews the specialized language on which art has increasingly come to depend, in favor of a communication model that elevates the vernacular mores to which we are exposed from our earliest years. Bringing together a selection of essays, an interview and artwork which explore the development of this philosophy, this book touches upon four decades of Robbins’ engagement with the idea of “High Entertainment”: beginning in the 1980s through its moment of clearest resolution with the advent of digital technology, all the way to the present.
Artist and writer David Robbins (born 1957) worked at the studios of Andy Warhol, George Plimpton and Diana Vreeland in the 1980s. Embracing the intersection between art and celebrity, he incorporated entertainment references into his artwork and created biographic profiles of his contemporaries. His previous books include Concrete Comedy, The Velvet Grind, The Camera Believes Everything and more.