From The Distinguished Art Critic And Historian, Vital Essays On Key Artists And Critics, Revealing How They Redefined Art And Criticism Over The Last Six Decades.serious Art Anticipates The Future As Much As It Reflects The Present, Hal Foster Remarked In A 2015 Interview. By The Same Token Serious Art History Is Driven By The Present As Much As It Is Informed By The Past. In Fail Better, Foster, An Art Critic And Historian Whose Influential Work Spans Disciplines And Decades, Brings This Peripatetic Perspective To Contemporary Art, Art Criticism, Art History, And His Own Work Over The Past 50 These 40 Texts, Foster Reviews Artists From Richard Hamilton And Jasper Johns To Gerhard Richter And Ed Ruscha; Considers Contemporaries From Louise Lawler And Cindy Sherman To Jeremy Deller And Adam Pendleton; And Traces The Development Of Criticism Since The Early 1960s, With Essays On Such Influential Figures As Susan Sontag And Rosalind Krauss And Institutions Like Artforum Magazine And The Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.taking His Title From Becketttry Again, Fail Again, Fail Betterfoster Notes That, Etymologically, An Essay Is Always An Attempt, More Or Less Failed.