In line with the works on decorators of the 1940s, '50s, '60s, and '70s, this book plunges us into the world of '80s and '90s. These have witnessed unprecedented experiments in the world of design and architecture. Composed of a rich introduction which gives a synoptic vision and 38 monographs that describe its many faces, this book makes and exceptionally creative period intelligible, and reveals through an abundant iconography, often unpublished, its formidable aesthetic richness. A new generation of designers stands out; among them Shiro Kuramata, Philippe Starck, Ron Arad, Bob Wilson, Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti. All regenerate creation by refusing the elitism of their predecessors and by favouring the use of new materials. Some turn to recovery, such as the Creative Salvage group, and offer inventive and provocative furniture thanks to welding and assembly. Others, gathered in Italy around Ettore Sottsass and Memphis, combine unexpected colours and patterns to the playful use of plastic laminate. Sliding until the end of the '90s, the achievements presented in this book mark the desire for a dialogue between artistic references with a new relationship to the industrial aspect, at the dawn of the 21st century and its technological innovations. Text in English and French.

Painting, ceramics, sculpture, textile works, immersive installations, performances: the third exhibition at MOCO Hotel des collections is an ode to the Amazon Basin seen through the art and the ecological, economic and political stakes that characterise it. This exhibition catalogue showcases more than a hundred works coming from Catherine Petitgas's collection, based in London. Artists: Sol Calero, Anna Bella Geiger, Teresa Margolles, Beatriz Milhazes, Ernesto Neto, Helio Oiticica, Ivan Serpa, Luiz Zerbini. Text in English and French.

The first comprehensive monograph on Mickalene Thomas, a key figure in 21st-century contemporary art Over the past two decades, Mickalene Thomas's critically acclaimed and extensive body of work has spanned painting, collage, photography, video, and the immersive installations that have become her signature. With influences ranging from nineteenth-century painting to popular culture, Thomas's art articulates a complex and empowering vision of aspiration and self-image through gender and race while expanding on and subverting common definitions of beauty, sexuality, and celebrity. This book, made in close collaboration with Thomas, is the first to survey the breadth of her extraordinary career. Publication coincides with the opening of Mickalene Thomas's first global exhibition, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, at Levy Gorvy galleries in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris.

In the years after World War II, artists in Argentinaand Brazil experimented with geo- metric abstractionand engaged in lively debates about the role of theartwork in society. Some of these artists used novelsynthetic materials, creating objects that offered analternative to established traditions in painting-proposing that these objects become part ofeveryday, concrete reality. Combining art historicaland scientific analysis, experts from the GettyConservation Institute and Getty Research Instituteare collaborating with the Coleccio n Patricia Phelpsde Cisneros, a world-renowned collection of LatinAmerican art, to research the formal strategies andmaterial decisions of these artists working in theconcrete and neo-concrete vein.Making Art Concrete presents works by Lygia Clark,Willys de Castro, Judith Lauand, Rau l Lozza, Toma sMaldonado, He lio Oiticica, and Rhod Rothfuss, amongothers with new spectacular photography. Thephotographs, along with information about the now-invisible processes that determine the appearance ofthese works, are key to interpreting the artists' technical choices as well as the objects themselves. Indeed, this volume sheds further light on the social, political, and cultural underpinnings of the artists' propositions, making a compelling addition to the field of postwar Latin American art.

The post-1989 period has seen artists in Central and Eastern Europe embrace socially engaged practices. Reclaiming public life from the ideologies of both communist regimes and neoliberalism, their projects have harnessed the politically subversive potential of social relations based on trust, reciprocity and solidarity. Drawing on archival material and exclusive interviews, in this book Izabel Galliera traces the development of socially engaged art from the early 1990s to the present in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. She demonstrates that, in the early 1990s, projects were primarily created for exhibitions organized and funded by the Soros Centers for Contemporary Art. In the early 2000s, prior to Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania entering into the European Union, EU institutions likewise funded socially-conscious public art in the region. Today, socially engaged art is characterised by the proliferation of independent and often self-funded artists' initiatives in cities such as Sofia, Bucharest and Budapest. Focusing on the relationships between art, social capital and civil society, Galliera employs sociological and political theories to reveal that, while social capital is generally considered a mechanism of exclusion in the West, in post-socialist contexts it has been leveraged by artists and curators as a vital means of communication and action.

Homelessness is a growing global problem that requires local discussions and solutions. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, it has noticeably become a collective concern. However, in recent years, the official political discourse in many countries around the world implies that poverty is a personal fault, and that if people experience homelessness, it is because they have not tried hard enough to secure shelter and livelihood.   Although architecture alone cannot solve the problem of homelessness, the question arises: What and which roles can it play? Or, to be more precise, how can architecture collaborate with other disciplines in developing ways to permanently house those who do not have a home? Who’s Next? Homelessness, Architecture, and Cities seeks to explore and understand a reality that involves the expertise of national, regional, and city agencies, non-governmental organizations, health-care fields, and academic disciplines.  Through scholarly essays, interviews, analyses of architectural case studies, and research on the historical and current situation in Los Angeles, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, São Paulo, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Tokyo, this book unfolds different entry points toward understanding homelessness and some of the many related problems.  The book is a polyphonic attempt to break down this topic into as many parts as needed, so that the specificities and complexities of one of the most urgent crises of our time rise to the fore.

"Hassan Massoudy's calligraphies are arranged to loosely follow the seasons, beginning and ending with autumn: sombre, wintry hues at one end, brilliant tones full of vibrant reds at the other."--Venetia Porter

Hassan Massoudy's elegant calligraphy depicts the four seasons of the garden. From the icy palettes of winter and the fading hues of autumn to delicate spring growth and the dazzling sunshine and blooms of summer, he captures in calligraphy what countless poets have wrought with words.

Massoudy draws his seasonal inspirations from writers and artists, including Kahlil Gibran, Henri Matisse, Lao Tzu, William Blake, and Victor Hugo, as well as from Hungarian, Spanish, Turkish, and Japanese proverbs.

Hassan Massoudy was born in Najaf, Iraq. He moved to France in 1969, where he studied at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and is in the permanent collections of the British Museum and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, among others. Nineteen books of his calligraphy have been published in France, along with his autobiography, "Si loin de l'Euphrate: Une jeunesse d'artiste en Irak."

What do new technologies taste like? A growing number of contemporary artists are working with food, live materials and scientific processes, in order to explore and challenge the ways in which manipulation of biological materials informs our cooking and eating. 'Bioart', or biological art, uses biotech methods to manipulate living systems, from tissues to ecologies. While most critiques of bioart emphasise the influences of new media, digital media and genetics, this book takes a bold, alternative approach. Bioart Kitchen explores a wide spectrum of seemingly unconnected subjects, which, when brought together, offer a more inclusive, expansive history of bioart, namely: home economics; the feminist art of the 1970s; tissue culture methodologies; domestic computing; and contemporary artistic engagements with biotechnology.

In Drifting Studio Practice, artists Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan discuss their participatory documentaries Episode of the Sea (2014) and Stones Have Laws (2018), which they made in collaboration with the Dutch fishing community of Urk and with the Saamaka and Okanisi maroons of Suriname, a former Dutch colony in the Amazon. The artists outline how they experimented with collective script writing and performative storytelling, including both human and other-than-human actors. Starting from their earlier artwork Monument of Sugar (2007), the account develops into a practice-driven exploration of co-authorship and (non)human rights as strategies to cope with the plantationocene. Languages: Dutch and English

This book celebrates and seeks to understand the overlooked appearances of hybrid forms in visual culture; artefacts and practices that meld or interweave incongruous elements in innovative ways. And with an emphasis on the material aspects of such entities, the book adopts the term 'mixed form' for them. Focusing on key phenomena in the last half millennium such as the cabinet of curiosities, the broadside ballad and the chapbook as early forms of image-text, the scrapbook, assemblage, and, in digital times, so-called 'mixed reality,' the book argues that while the quality of inconsistency is traditionally dismissed, its expression nevertheless plays a vital role in social life. Crucially, Mixed Forms of Visual Culture relates its phenomena to the emergence of the division of labour under capitalism and addresses the shifting relationships between art and life, when singularity and uniformity are variously valued and dismissed in the two arenas, and at different points in history. Two of the book's chapters take the form of visual essays, with one comprising an anthology of found scrapbook pages and the other offering an analysis of artists' scrapbooks. The book is richly illustrated throughout.

Newly revised and updated, this authoritative book presents the exciting, ironic, and often subversive work of Yinka Shonibare MBE, one of the stars of the international art scene. Born in London and raised in Nigeria, Shonibare employs a diverse range of media--from sculpture, painting, and installation to photography and film--to probe matters of race, class, cultural identity, and history. He is perhaps best known for his signature use of a colorful "African" batik fabric that actually originated in Indonesia and was introduced to Africa in the19th century by British and Dutch colonizers. Incorporated into Victorian costumes, covering sculptures of extraterrestrials, or stretched like canvas for paintings, these vibrant textiles cleverly challenge issues of origin and authenticity. This book--the most comprehensive resource available on Shonibare--presents the best work of the London-based artist's career, including his high-profile project for the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square and other innovative public sculptures. Whether lampooning Victorian propriety or commenting on what it means to be an "alien," Shonibare makes art that challenges straightforward interpretations.

A timely reassessment of some of the most daring projects of abstraction from South America Emphasizing the open-ended and self-critical nature of the projects of abstraction in South America from the 1930s through the mid-1960s, this important new volume focuses on the artistic practices of Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Tomas Maldonado, Alejandro Otero, and Lygia Clark. Megan A. Sullivan positions the adoption of modernist abstraction by South American artists as part of a larger critique of the economic and social transformations caused by Latin America's state-led programs of rapid industrialization. Sullivan thoughtfully explores the diverse ways this skepticism of modernization and social and political change was expressed. Ultimately, the book makes it clear that abstraction in South America was understood not as an artistic style to be followed but as a means to imagine a universalist mode of art, a catalyst for individual and collective agency, and a way to express a vision of a better future for South American society.

Raqib Shaw is one of the most extraordinary and sought-after artists working in the world today. Born in Calcutta in 1974 and raised in Kashmir, he came to London to study in 1998 and has lived there ever since. Inspired by a broad range of influences, including the old masters, Indian miniatures, Persian carpets and the Pre-Raphaelites, his paintings are infused with memories and longing for his homeland in Kashmir. His technique constitutes a completely unique kind of enamel painting. Spending months on preparatory drawings, tracings and photographic studies, he then transfers the composition onto prepared wooden panels, establishing an intricate design with acrylic liner, which leaves a slightly raised line. He adds the enamel paint using needle-fine syringes and a porcupine quill, with which he manoeuvres the paint. The finished works are intricate, magical and breathtaking in their colour and complexity. This book accompanies an exhibition of eight paintings by Raqib Shaw at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, alongside two paintings which have long obsessed him and have influenced specific works: Sir Joseph Noel Paton's The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania, 1849 (National Gallery of Scotland) and Lucas Cranach's An Allegory of Melancholy, 1528 (private collection). The book includes the first full-length biographical study of the artist.

This new title celebrates 50 years of the creative force of nature that is the artistic partnership of Gilbert & George. Published in cooperation with the LUMA Foundation in Arles, France, on the occasion of their retrospective exhibition on show from 2 July to 23 September 2018. The book will feature five interviews with Gilbert & George by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Daniel Birnbaum, one for each decade of their practice. This title will be heavily illustrated with examples of Gilbert & George's artworks from their early years to their most recent series. Designed by Gilbert & George themselves, The Great Exhibition will feature their trademark style and panache. Introduced by a text co-authored by Obrist and Birnbaum, this publication will also feature several extracts from Michael Bracewell's 2017 publication What is Gilbert & George?. All text will be presented in both French and English.

A richly illustrated history of self-taught artists and how they changed American art Artists without formal training, who learned from family, community, and personal journeys, have long been a presence in American art. But it wasn't until the 1980s, with the help of trailblazing advocates, that the collective force of their creative vision and bold self-definition permanently changed the mainstream art world. In We Are Made of Stories, Leslie Umberger traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, they redefined who could be rightfully seen as an artist and revealed a much more diverse community of American makers. Lavishly illustrated throughout, We Are Made of Stories features more than one hundred drawings, paintings, and sculptures, ranging from the narrative to the abstract, by forty-three artists-including James Castle, Thornton Dial, William Edmondson, Howard Finster, Bessie Harvey, Dan Miller, Sister Gertrude Morgan, the Philadelphia Wireman, Nellie Mae Rowe, Judith Scott, and Bill Traylor. The book centralizes the personal stories behind the art, and explores enduring themes, including self-definition, cultural heritage, struggle and joy, and inequity and achievement. At the same time, it offers a sweeping history of self-taught artists, the critical debates surrounding their art, and how museums have gradually diversified their collections across lines of race, gender, class, and ability. Recasting American art history to embrace artists who have been excluded for too long, We Are Made of Stories vividly captures the power of art to show us the world through the eyes of another. Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum Exhibition Schedule Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC July 1, 2022-March 26, 2023

Known for his colourful, irreverent, and often politically charged paintings, Halim Flowers is a contemporary visual artist, spoken word performer, and author who has become one of the hottest newcomers in the contemporary art scene. As a minor, Flowers was arrested and wrongfully sentenced to two life sentences in Washington, DC, later to be released under a new juvenile lifer resentencing law. His experiences aired on HBO in the Emmy award-winning documentary Thug Life in DC, as well as Kim Kardashian-West's film The Justice Project. Since his release, Flowers has produced a stunning spectrum of paintings expressing his ardent advocacy for human rights, and his resonant, up-lifting mantra "Love is the vaccine". This beautifully illustrated volume provides the first full treatment of Flower's artistic vision, with insightful interpretation from leading scholars of this star on the rise.

A celebration of the diverse world of American watercolors from the late nineteenth through the twentieth century, featuring works from the Harvard Art Museums’ collection Watercolor holds a special place in the history of American art. For generations of artists, the medium has provided a space for innovation and experimentation, allowing practitioners to let their imagination loose and to reflect on process and perception. Its rise to the status of fine art in the decades following the Civil War is well documented, yet its continued role as a testing ground and means of generating new ideas throughout the twentieth century has received comparatively less attention. This volume considers continuity and change in the American watercolor tradition over a century of production through the lens of the Harvard Art Museums’ collection. Works by well-known watercolorists such as Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler are included, as well as surprising additions from Zelda Fitzgerald, Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg, and many others. In the spirit of the medium, the authors take a fluid and open-ended approach to the topic, offering both personal and scholarly reflections that invite readers to ponder the influence of these works on their own experience of the world. In addition to contextual essays, there are close readings of singular works and examinations of the unique material characteristics of the watercolor medium. Distributed for the Harvard Art Museums Exhibition Schedule: Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA (May 20–August 13, 2023)

Narcissus Quagliata is considered one of the most significant contemporary artists in glass. He has defined a new pathway in this field by combining painting with light, and he is best known for his spectacular artworks in public spaces, which have drawn world-wide attention. These include The Dome of Light: Wind, Fire, and Time in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the largest illuminated glass dome in the world. Contrasted with this, MUTANT is perhaps his quietest, most personal and most intimate book, in which, for the first time, readers will come to know the person behind the artist through his thoughts, poems, sketches and his latest artworks - an impressive exploration on the relationship between dreams, words and images. Text in English, Italian and Spanish.

Robert Gober rose to prominence in the mid-1980s and was quickly acknowledged as one of the most significant artists of his generation. Early in his career, he made deceptively simple sculptures of everyday objects--beginning with sinks and moving on to domestic furniture such as playpens, beds and doors. In the 1990s, his practice evolved from single works to theatrical room-sized environments. In all of his work, Gober's formal intelligence is never separate from a penetrating reading of the socio-political context of his time. His objects and installations are among the most psychologically charged artworks of the late twentieth century, reflecting the artist's sustained concerns with issues of social justice, freedom and tolerance. Published in conjunction with the first large-scale survey of the artist's career to take place in the United States, this publication presents his works in all media, including individual sculptures and immersive sculptural environments, as well as a distinctive selection of drawings, prints and photographs. Prepared in close collaboration with the artist, it traces the development of a remarkable body of work, highlighting themes and motifs that emerged in the early 1980s and continue to inform Gober's work today. An essay by Hilton Als is complemented by an in-depth chronology featuring a rich selection of images from the artist's archives, including never-before-published photographs of works in progress.
Robert Gober was born in 1954 in Wallingford, Connecticut. He has had numerous one-person exhibitions, most notably at the Dia Center for the Arts, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Schaulager, Basel. In 2001, he represented the United States at the 49th Venice Biennale. Gober's curatorial projects have been shown at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; The Menil Collection, Houston; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in New York.

The first comprehensive look at the nearly seven-decades-long career of contemporary Mexican American artist Virginia Jaramillo Over the course of her career, Virginia Jaramillo (b. 1939) has forged a pathway to exploring ideas and concepts of space through abstract paintings and handmade paper works influenced by her myriad interests including physics, the cosmos, mythology, ancient cultures, and modernist design philosophies. This beautifully illustrated volume demonstrates that despite having been historically excluded from the canon of American abstraction, Jaramillo has made profound contributions to the field. Virginia Jaramillo: Principle of Equivalence documents more than 60 works including early paintings that pushed the depth of the painted surface to its very limits; her innovations in the centuries-old practice of handmade papermaking; and recent bodies of work, where Jaramillo engages in deep investigations into antiquity and architectural ruin through large-scale paintings. In addition to an overview of Jaramillo’s life and work, this comprehensive catalogue includes in-depth essays on the artist’s formative years in Los Angeles, her forty-year devotion to hand papermaking, and the recent resurgence of her painting practice. An interview with Jaramillo rounds out the volume. Distributed for Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Exhibition Schedule: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (June 1–August 27, 2023)