Jonathan Jones, Abstraction and the Media Speaker: Jonathan Jones, Guardian writer.Abstract art is the opposite of what you might call a good news story, argues journalist Jonathan Jones. Good stories are precise, they have characters, they can be told quickly. None of which abstraction delivers. Yet surprisingly, some of the biggest news splashes in the history of modern art have been concerned with abstraction, from Whistler's court case against Ruskin after the critic denounced him for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face to Jackson Pollock's appearance in Life magazine. Some of the best writing on abstract art, too, has been published in a journalistic context, notably Clement Greenberg's articles in the left wing American magazine The Nation in the 1940s. Jones considers the relationship between abstraction and the media.Further ReadingClement Greenberg: 'The Collected Essays and Criticism / edited by John O'Brian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. vol. 1. Perceptions and judgements, 1939-1944; vol. 2. Arrogant purpose, 1945-1949; vol. 3. Affirmations and refusals, 1950-1956; vol. 4. Modernism with a vengeance, 1957-1969.