The monochrome - a single colour of paint applied over the entirety of a canvas - remains one of the more contentious modernist artistic inventions. But whilst the manufacture of these 'pictures of nothing' was ostensibly straightforward, their subsequent theorisation has been anything but. More than a history, Monochrome: Darkness and Light in Contemporary Art is the first account of the monochrome's lively role in contemporary art. Liberated from the burden of representation, the monochrome first stood for emancipation: an ideological and artistic impulse that characterised the avant-garde of the early twentieth century. Historically, the monochrome embodied the most extreme form of abstraction and pure materiality. Yet more recently, adaptations of the art form have focused on a broader range of cultural and interpretive contexts. Provocative, innovative and timely, this book argues that the latest artistic strategies go beyond stylistic concerns and instead seek to re-engage with ideas around authorship, process and the conditions of the visible as they are given and understood through both light and darkness. Discussing works by artists such as Katie Paterson, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tom Friedman, Bruno Jakob, Sherrie Levine and Ceal Floyer, the book shows that the debates around an artwork's form and its possibility for meaning that the monochrome first engendered remain very much alive in contemporary visual culture.

Audience participation has polarized the critical debate surrounding contemporary art's social, moral and aesthetic potential. This incisive collection of essays sheds new light on the political, ethical and artistic capacity of participatory works and tests the most recent theoretical approaches to the subject. Internationally renowned art historians, curators and artists analyse the impact of collaborative aesthetics on personal and social identity, concepts of the artist, the ontology of art and the role of museums in contemporary society. Essays tease apart notions of 'interactivity', 'collaboration', 'performance', 'relational aesthetics' and 'social art' for the purpose of clarifying a range of conflicting approaches to the making and reception of art and promoting a dialogue between art historians, curators, and artists. They ask: what are the ways in which audiences experience contemporary art? Do participatory art forms generate a new type of aesthetic education that is capable of shaping social and political behaviour? What degree of co-operation is required for such artworks to be successful? What approaches do curators take to such works when organizing exhibitions? Through close analysis of interactive artworks in a range of media, Interactive Contemporary Art examines current critical debates in this field and proposes new ways of conceptualizing participatory practices.

In this in-depth analysis, Peter Muir argues that Gordon Matta-Clark's Conical Intersect (1975) is emblematic of Henri Lefebvre's understanding of art's function in relation to urban space. By engaging with Lefebvre's theory in conjunction with the perspectives of other writers, such as Michel de Certeau, Jacques Derrida, and George Bataille, the book elicits a story that presents the artwork's significance, origins and legacies. Conical Intersect is a multi-media artwork, which involves the intersections of architecture, sculpture, film, and photography, as well as being a three-dimensional model that reflects aspects of urban, art, and architectural theory, along with a number of cultural and historiographic discourses which are still present and active. This book navigates these many complex narratives by using the central 'hole' of Conical Intersect as its focal point: this apparently vacuous circle around which the events, documents, and other historical or theoretical references surrounding Matta-Clark's project, are perpetually in circulation. Thus, Conical Intersect is imagined as an insatiable absence around which discourses continually form, dissipate and resolve. Muir argues that Conical Intersect is much more than an 'artistic hole.' Due to its location at Plateau Beaubourg in Paris, it is simultaneously an object of art and an instrument of social critique.

This book tells, for the first time, the story of the Situationist International's influence and afterlives in Britain, where its radical ideas have been rapturously welcomed and fiercely resisted. The Situationist International presented itself as the culmination of the twentieth century avant-garde tradition - as the true successor of Dada and Surrealism. Its grand ambition was not unfounded. Though it dissolved in 1972, generations of artists and writers, theorists and provocateurs, punks and psychogeographers have continued its effort to confront and contest the 'society of the spectacle.' This book constructs a long cultural history, beginning in the interwar period with the arrival of Surrealism to Britain, moving through the countercultures of the 1950s and 1960s, and finally surveying the directions in which Situationist theory and practice are being taken today. It combines agile historicism with close readings of a vast range of archival and newly excavated materials, including newspaper reports, underground pamphlets, Psychogeographical films, and experimental novels. It brings to light an overlooked but ferociously productive period of British avant-garde practice, and demonstrates how this subterranean activity helps us to understand postwar culture, late modernism, and the complex internationalization of the avant-garde. As popular and academic interest in the Situationists grows, this book offers an important contribution to the international history of the avant-garde and Surrealism. It will prove a valuable resource for researchers and students of English and Comparative Literature, Modernism and the Avant-Gardes, Twentieth Century and Contemporary History, Cultural Studies, Art History, and Political Aesthetics.

In his theory of the 'mirror stage', the psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Jacques Lacan argued that the female body is defined by its lack of male attributes. Within this framework, he described female sexuality primarily as an absence, and assumed female subordination to the male gaze. However, what happens if one follows Jean Baudrillard's advice to 'swallow the mirror' and go through the 'looking-glass' to explore the reflections and realities that we encounter in the cultural mirror, which reflects the culture in question: its norms, ideals and values? What if the beautiful is inverted and becomes ugly; and the ugly is considered beautiful or shape-shifts into something conventionally thought of as beautiful? These are the fundamental questions that Basia Sliwinska poses in this important new enquiry into gender identity and the politics of vision in contemporary women's art.Through an innovative discussion of the mirror as a metaphor, Sliwinska reveals how the post-1989 practices of woman artists from both sides of the former Iron Curtain - such as Joanna Rajkowska, Marina Abramovic, Boryana Rossa, Natalia LL and Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkacova - go beyond gender binaries and instead embrace otherness and difference by playing with visual tropes of femininity. Their provocative works offer alternative representations of the female body to those seen in the cultural mirror. Their art challenges and deconstructs patriarchal representations of the social and cultural 'other', associated with visual tropes of femininity such as Alice in Wonderland, Venus and Medusa. The Female Body in the Looking-Glass makes a refreshing, radical intervention into art theory and cultural studies by offering new theoretical concepts such as 'the mirror' and 'genderland' (inspired by Alice's adventures in Wonderland) as critical tools with which we can analyse and explain recent developments in women's art.

In Dragging Away Lex Morgan Lancaster traces the formal and material innovations of contemporary queer and feminist artists, showing how they use abstraction as a queering tactic for social and political ends. Through a process Lancaster theorizes as a drag-dragging past aesthetics into the present and reworking them while pulling their work away from direct representation-these artists reimagine midcentury forms of abstraction and expose the violence of the tendency to reduce abstract form to a bodily sign or biographical symbolism. Lancaster outlines how the geometric enamel objects, grid paintings, vibrant color, and expansive installations of artists ranging from Ulrike Muller, Nancy Brooks Brody, and Lorna Simpson to Linda Besemer, Sheila Pepe, and Shinique Smith offer direct challenges to representational and categorical legibility. In so doing, Lancaster demonstrates that abstraction is not apolitical, neutral, or universal; it is a form of social praxis that actively contributes to queer, feminist, critical race, trans, and crip politics.

A full-color art book showcasing the terrific and terrifying work of Sui Ishida, creator of the hit manga and anime Tokyo Ghoul. Tokyo Ghoul Illustrations: zakki features artwork and behind-the-scenes notes, commentary and ruminations from Tokyo Ghoul creator Sui Ishida. Discover the creative process that brought the hit manga and anime to life, in gloriously ghoulish full color. Features the artwork from the grotesque horror/action story about a reluctant monster that became the definitive smash hit of 2015. * Complete in one volume. * Main series concluded at volume 14 in August 2017 with the sequel Tokyo Ghoul: re launchedin October 2017. * The novels and manga volumes 1–11 have sold more than 400,000 copies ( US Bookscan 2/17). * Volumes 1–11 of the manga have consistently been at the top of both the Bookscan and NYT lists since release, often simultaneously. * Manga review: “...The manga continues to surprise me with its character development and extra backstory that it adds.� —Dustin Cabeal, Comic Book Bastards * Manga review: “This is a great series for anyone looking for unrelenting existential dread.� —Che Gilson, Otaku USA

A vivid and moving celebration of the ways that Black Americans have shaped and been shaped by photography, from its inception to the present day. A Picture Gallery of the Soul presents the work of more than one hundred Black American artists whose practice incorporates the photographic medium. Organized by the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, this group exhibition samples a range of photographic expressions produced over three centuries, from traditional photography to mixed media and conceptual art. From the daguerreotypes made by Jules Lion in New Orleans in 1840 to the Instagram post of the Baltimore Uprising made by Devin Allen in 2015, photography has chronicled Black American life, and Black Americans have defined the possibilities of photography. Frederick Douglass recognized the quick, easy, and inexpensive reproducibility of photography and developed a theoretical framework for understanding its impact on public discourse, which he delivered as a series of four lectures during the Civil War. It has been widely acknowledged that Douglass, the subject of 160 photographic portraits and the most photographed American of the nineteenth century, anticipated that the history of American photography and the history of Black American culture and politics would be deeply intertwined. A Picture Gallery of the Soul honors the diverse visions of Blackness made manifest through the lens of photography. Published in association with the Katherine E. Nash Gallery. Exhibition dates: Katherine E. Nash Gallery: September 13-December 10, 2022.

As a response to the ubiquity of drawing in contemporary consciousness and a corresponding dearth of critical engagement with the medium, these collected essays provide original interpretations of artists' drawing today. Questions of process, politics, scale, and community raised in the work of the diverse group of artists are situated within the historic discourse on drawing and demonstrate the extent to which contemporary practice challenges previous definitions of the medium. From the room-encompassing drawings of Monika Grzymala and Barbara Bernstein or Sophie Calle's expansive exploration of the Jerusalem eruv to Andrea Bowers's graphite renditions of protest to Ellsworth Kelly's proposal for a memorial to September 11, the essays explore the implications of drawings' departure from the confines of a sheet of paper. Essential reading for both the academic and general audience, this book provides in-depth discussions of artists and projects that have never been treated in a sustained, analytical way; each essay will interest the wider contemporary art audience, as well as students of drawing. Taken as a whole, the volume represents a pertinent and stimulating engagement with issues of paramount importance to our understanding of contemporary art and its place in museums, galleries, and the public sphere.

Studies in Ephemera: Text and Image in Eighteenth-Century Print brings together established and emerging scholars of early modern print culture to explore the dynamic relationships between words and illustrations in a wide variety of popular cheap print from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century. While ephemera was ubiquitous in the period, it is scarcely visible to us now, because only a handful of the thousands of examples once in existence have been preserved. Nonetheless, single-sheet printed works, as well as pamphlets and chapbooks, constituted a central part of visual and literary culture, and were eagerly consumed by rich and poor alike in Great Britain, North America, and on the Continent. Displayed in homes, posted in taverns and other public spaces, or visible in shop windows on city streets, ephemeral works used sensational means to address themes of great topicality. The English broadside ballad, of central concern in this volume, grew out of oral culture; the genre addressed issues of nationality, history, gender and sexuality, economics, and more. Richly illustrated and well researched, Studies in Ephemera offers interdisciplinary perspectives into how ephemeral works reached their audiences through visual and textual means. It also includes essays that describe how collections of ephemera are categorized in digital and conventional archives, and how our understanding of these works is shaped by their organization into collections. This timely and fascinating book will appeal to archivists, and students and scholars in many fields, including art history, comparative literature, social and economic history, and English literature. Contributors: Georgia Barnhill, Theodore Barrow, Tara Burk, Adam Fox, Alexandra Franklin, Patricia Fumerton, Paula McDowell, Kevin D. Murphy, Sally O'Driscoll, Ruth Perry

Traces the feminist icon Carolee Schneemann's prolific six-decade output, spanning her remarkably diverse, transgressive, and interdisciplinary expression Carolee Schneemann (1939-2019) was one of the most experimental artists of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This book traces six decades of the feminist icon's diverse, transgressive and interdisciplinary expression through Schneemann's experimental early paintings, sculptural assemblages and kinetic works; rarely seen photographs of her radical performances; her pioneering films; and groundbreaking multi-media installations. Contributors shed new light on Schneemann's work, which addressed urgent topics from sexual expression and the objectification of women to human suffering and the violence of war. An artist who was concerned with the precarious lived experience of both humans and animals, this book positions Schneemann as one of the most relevant, provocative and inspiring artists in recent years. Published in association with Barbican Art Gallery Exhibition Schedule: Barbican Art Gallery, London (September 8, 2022-January 8, 2023)

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)

An evocative chronicle of the power of solitude in the natural world I’m often asked, but have no idea why I chose Iceland, why I first started going, why I still go. In truth I believe Iceland chose me.—from the introduction Contemporary artist Roni Horn first visited Iceland in 1975 at the age of nineteen, and since then, the island’s treeless expanse has had an enduring hold on Horn’s creative work. Through a series of remarkable and poetic reflections, vignettes, episodes, and illustrated essays, Island Zombie distills the artist’s lifelong experience of Iceland’s natural environment. Together, these pieces offer an unforgettable exploration of the indefinable and inescapable force of remote, elemental places, and provide a sustained look at how an island and its atmosphere can take possession of the innermost self. Island Zombie is a meditation on being present. It vividly conveys Horn’s experiences, from the deeply profound to the joyful and absurd. Through powerful evocations of the changing weather and other natural phenomena—the violence of the wind, the often aggressive birds, the imposing influence of glaciers, and the ubiquitous presence of water in all its variety—we come to understand the author’s abiding need for Iceland, a place uniquely essential to Horn’s creative and spiritual life. The dramatic surroundings provoke examinations of self-sufficiency and isolation, and these ruminations summon a range of cultural companions, including El Greco, Emily Dickinson, Judy Garland, Wallace Stevens, Edgar Allan Poe, William Morris, and Rachel Carson. While brilliantly portraying nature’s sublime energy, Horn also confronts issues of consumption, destruction, and loss, as the industrial and man-made encroach on Icelandic wilderness. Filled with musings on a secluded region that perpetually encourages a sense of discovery, Island Zombie illuminates a wild and beautiful Iceland that remains essential and new.

An eclectic group of 84 international artists guide us on a journey of beauty and art through 477 inspiring sculptures. Enjoy the variety of sculptures from the traditional to the avant garde, the serious to the whimsical. Artists employ a variety of media, including bronze, clay, glass, stone, and wood, as well as some less common materials such as ice, sand, and even food. The diversity of the their work and the range of their creativity and resourcefulness provides insight into the international trends in art today. The result is an eye-catching and wonderfully informative look at contemporary art. A must-have reference for serious art collectors and enthusiasts.

Looking and Listening: Conversations between Modern Art and Music invites the art and music lover to place these two realms of creative endeavor in an open dialog with one another. While the worlds of music and visual art often seem to take separate path, they are commonly parallel ones. In Looking and Listening, conductor and art connoisseur Brenda Leach takes unique pairings of well-known visual art works and musical compositions from the 20th century to identify the shared sources of inspiration, as well as similarities in theme, style and technique to explore the historical and cultural influences on the great artists and composers in the 20th century. For readers, Looking and Listening asks and answers: What does jazz have in common with paintings by Stuart Davis and Piet Mondrian? How did Gershwin s Rhapsody in Blue impact the work of artist Arthur Dove? How did painter Georgia O Keeffe and composer Aaron Copland capture the spirit of a youthful America entering the 20th century in their works? What did Kandinsky and Schoenberg share in their artistic visions? Leach takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the lives of these artists and others, surveying many of the key movements in the 20th century, from pop art to minimalism, cubism to atonalism, by comparing representative works from modern master of the visual arts and music. Leach s refreshing and innovation approach will interest those passionate over 20th century art and music and is ideal for any student or instructor, museum docent or music programmer seeking to draw the lines of connection between these two art forms."

For Kurt Jackson (b.1961), 'Painting the sea could become an obsession, an entire oeuvre in its own right, an endless life absorbing task.' And, as this book attests, Jackson's dedication to capturing its constant shape shifting - stillness to thundering force, shallows to mysterious depths - have brought forth paintings that communicate the sea's ebb and flow, its magic and elusiveness. Kurt Jackson's Sea captures the beauty of the artist's constantly evolving relationship with one of nature's most challenging subjects. Two hundred colour images complement Jackson's reflections on his interactions with inspirational coastal landscapes - largely experienced in his native Cornwall, but stretching way beyond the county too.

The Art of Resistance surveys the lives of seven painters-Ding Cong (1916-2009), Feng Zikai (1898-1975), Li Keran (1907-89), Li Kuchan (1898-1983), Huang Yongyu (b. 1924), Pan Tianshou (1897-1971), and Shi Lu (1919-82)-during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a time when they were considered counterrevolutionary and were forbidden to paint. Drawing on interviews with the artists and their families and on materials collected during her visits to China, Shelley Drake Hawks examines their painting styles, political outlooks, and life experiences. These fiercely independent artists took advantage of moments of low surveillance to secretly "paint by candlelight." In doing so, they created symbolically charged art that is open to multiple interpretations. The wit, courage, and compassion of these painters will inspire respect for the deep emotional and spiritual resonance of Chinese art. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/art-of-resistance

Rana Begum RA (b.1977) is an artist known for her wide ranging works, from the intimate to the monumental. Using a variety of materials and exploring the use of light, she blurs the boundaries between sculpture, architecture, design and painting to create works that are both playful and ambiguous. This comprehensive monograph expands on previous writings to investigate the ideas behind the artist's varied use of materials, including wood, metal, ready-made industrial components and MDF. With a focus on her processes, the ways in which Begum's work intersects with architecture and design are drawn out, while key sources of inspiration - from the environments in which the artist works, to Islamic art and minimalism - are discussed. Combining contextual essays and an extensive interview with the artist, the development of Begum's work - from painting and furniture design to installations and light sculptures - is traced to present an in-depth overview of the multifaceted, complex work of this fascinating artist.

A landmark book documenting the first-ever art amusement park - launched in 1987 in Hamburg, Germany - in anticipation of its global reintroduction In the late 1980s, more than 30 of the era's most acclaimed artists - including Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dali, and Keith Haring - designed unique and fully operational fairground attractions specifically for the original park, including rides, interactive sculptures, games, performances, and music. Each artist's contribution is documented in photographs that show the artist at work, with details of the artworks, and showing the art in the context of the exhibition. Giving access to rare artworks that have not been widely viewed in 35 years, this book is being published for the first time in English with an updated preface.

A selection of works by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau, including some never previously released, together with his latest creations, come to life through the work of a large group of military miniaturists who have found inspiration in his paintings for their models. One of the most famous artists of historical realism at both a national and international level, the artist's work can be seen along with the figures and dioramas based on them. These works have been crafted by some of the most outstanding Spanish miniaturists, which today are among the best in the world in this field and can rightly join the world of the arts.