A fact from The Painted Word appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 December 2007. The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Tom Wolfe's 1975 book The Painted Word, which criticized modern and conceptual art, was so reviled by the art establishment that multiple reviewers compared the book to watching pornography?
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Latest comment: 14 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
The comment that Wolfe had made some correct observations such as re the 'de-objectification of art' gives the strong impression that he had identified certain trends for the first time. But The Painted Word came two years after Lucy Lippard's extremely influential survey of the same topic, Six Years: The Dematerialisation of the Art Object. I firstly suggest the replacement of the term 'de-objectification of art' with Lippard's, as what he describes has been taken into art language via Lippard's term. But also I just suggest removing this point altogether. Wolfe is a journalist - basic descriptive accuracy should go without saying, and it wasn't anything more revelatory than that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.232.59.224 (talk) 08:59, 28 March 2010 (UTC)Reply