2019 marked the 40th anniversary of Barbara Nanning's graduation in ceramics from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Over those forty years, Nanning (b.1957) has become an internationally respected artist with work in countless public and private collections in the Netherlands and around the world. Originally, her reputation was due mainly to her pioneering ceramics and installations, which had completely abandoned the container form that had so long dominated studio pottery. But for the last 25 years Nanning has worked chiefly in a different medium: glass, in which she has created an amazing and multi-faceted oeuvre. Each year she spends an extended period in the Czech Republic, where expert glassblowers help her to conjure up the most extraordinary and thrilling objects in that material.

In this book, Dan Adler addresses recent tendencies in contemporary art toward assemblage sculpture and how these works incorporate tainted materials - often things left on the side of the road, according to the logic and progress of the capitalist machine - and combine them in ways that allow each element to retain a degree of empirical specificity. Adler develops a range of aesthetic models through which these practices can be understood to function critically. Each chapter focuses on a single exhibition: Isa Genzken's "OIL" (German Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2007), Geoffrey Farmer's midcareer survey (Musee d'art contemporain, Montreal, 2008), Rachel Harrison's "Consider the Lobster" (CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, 2009), and Liz Magor's "The Mouth and Other Storage Facilities" (Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, 2008).

Morgan Howell paints classic 7" singles and takes into account every crease, every tear, every imperfection-producing a one-off, truly unique artwork, almost identical to the owner's original copy, but blown up, supersize, to 70 by 70 cm, and three-dimensional, with the spindle in the centre, as if the record is ready to play. This completely original approach has resulted in Howell attracting a cult following amongst art collectors and musicians alike-with paintings commissioned by the likes of Neil Diamond, Jude Law, Edgar Wright, and The Stone Roses' Ian Brown, and major music labels selecting the artist's work for display in their headquarters, indeed, Howell's painting of David Bowie's The Jean Genie is displayed at the Sony Music Building in London, and Yesterday by The Beatles has been shown at the Capitol Building in L.A. Morgan Howell at 45 RPM, published by Black Dog Press, beautifully documents 95 of Howell's creations, from 'Tutti Frutti' by Little Richard to 'Heart of Glass' by Blondie, to 'Gimme Shelter' by The Rolling Stones, to 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks. The artworks are shown in full, alongside evocative commentaries from fans of Howell's work, including The Smiths' Johnny Marr, Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp, comedian Al Murray, journalist Tony Parsons, actress Kay Mellor, Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder, producer William Orbit and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The book features Forewords by Sir Peter Blake and Andrew Marr, plus an in-depth interview with Morgan Howell, exploring his process as an artist and why, for him, music and art are intrinsically linked. With a format perfectly designed to fit on record shelves, this book is a must for vinyl junkies, music heads and art lovers everywhere.

The fourth publication of Krzysztof Wodiczko with Black Dog Press, exploring the artist and writer's distinctive oeuvre. Transformative Avant-Garde and Other Writings is a comprehensive collection of Wodiczko's writing from the 1970s to the present day, providing a new perspective on this often controversial artist. An in-depth book which represents the many political, social and theoretical motivations and concerns of Wodiczko's work, this is a must for art and culture theorists and fans alike. This overarching publication highlights the equal merits of Wodiczko's writings in respect of his artistic practice, demonstrating the overlapping influences and considerations that run throughout his life. Wodiczko is famed for his large-scale, politically-charged video and slide projections, projected onto prominent architectural structures. Since the 1980s his work has been engaging marginalised residents of cities to make their voice and experience public. He is Professor in Residence at Harvard University, and was awarded the Hiroshima Prize in 1998 for his contribution as an artist to world peace.

Memory as a dynamic process has been the underlying theme of Sabine Moritz s drawings and paintings since the early 1990s. In her work the Cologne-based artist has captured remembered images from her childhood in the GDR; drawn flower compositions; and in recent years has engaged with the motif of war. This publication presents Moritz s latest work: a collection of drawings and paintings of helicopters created between 2002 and 2013. The Helicopter series has arisen from Moritz s interest in the shift in their symbolic meaning. They are based on images of helicopters from newspapers and television that the artist transferred into her own language.The outcome is a series of beautiful drawings and paintings that range from objective depictions of helicopters to more poetic compositions. The works are accompanied by poems by Adam Zagajewski and Friedrich Holderlin, alongside a text by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Marking the occasion of Didier Vermeiren's eponymous solo exhibition at WIELS in Brussels, this book illuminates the recurrent strategies of repetition, reversal, doubling and inversion that the artist explores in his work Published to mark the occasion of Didier Vermeiren's (b. 1951) eponymous solo exhibition at WIELS in Brussels, Double Exposition takes its name from a photograph by Vermeiren that refers to its own double exposure ("exposition" in French, which also translates as "exhibition"). The title thus evokes the recurrent strategies of repetition, reversal, doubling, and inversion that Vermeiren explores in his work. Conceived by the artist and containing a rich array of his striking photographs, this book also features an in-depth analysis of Vermeiren's most recent sculptures written by long-term commentator on his practice, Michel Gauthier; an essay on the central role of photography in his studio practice by Susana Gallego-Cuesta; and a look at the shifts and continuities in his oeuvre over the past four decades by the exhibition's curator, Zoe Gray. Distributed for Mercatorfonds

"The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by 'the disenchantment of the world.'" Max Weber's statement remains a dominant interpretation of the modern condition: the increasing capabilities of knowledge and science have banished mysteries, leaving a world that can be mastered technically and intellectually. And though this idea seems empowering, many people have become disenchanted with modern disenchantment. Using intimate encounters with works of art to explore disenchantment and the possibilities of re-enchantment, Arts of Wonder addresses questions about the nature of humanity, the world, and God in the wake of Weber's diagnosis of modernity. Jeffrey L. Kosky focuses on a handful of artists Walter De Maria, Diller + Scofidio, James Turrell, and Andy Goldsworthy to show how they introduce spaces hospitable to mystery and wonder, redemption and revelation, and transcendence and creation. What might be thought of as religious longings, he argues, are crucial aspects of enchanting secularity when developed through encounters with these works of art. Developing a model of religion that might be significant to secular culture, Kosky shows how this model can be employed to deepen interpretation of the art we usually view as representing secular modernity. A thoughtful dialogue between philosophy and art, Arts of Wonder will catch the eye of readers of art and religion, philosophy of religion, and art criticism.

The first monograph conceived for the international market devoted to one of the most important Chinese contemporary artists. Wang Guangyi is considered one of the emblems of new China, because his work underlines, through new expressive language forms, the deep social changes the country is experiencing. This monograph reveals for the first time the entire oeuvre of the artist, whose works are classified in China under the genre of Political Pop, and are kept in the collections of the most important museums and foundations in the world. Born in Heilongjiang Province in 1956, Wang Guangyi became one of the great stars of contemporary Chinese art through his Great Criticism series. Through the juxtaposition of two definitely opposing ideologies, each represented through iconic symbols, Guangyi criticises Communism and consumerism while negating both by combining them skilfully. Stylistically merging the government-enforced aesthetic of Agitprop with the kitsch sensibility of American Pop, Guangyi's work adopts the cold-war language of the 1960s to ironically examine the contemporary issues of globalisation. Through their critique, Guangyi's paintings weave intricate narratives, implying the role of the artist as an active participant (both as subjugator and subservient) in economic and social policies. Guangyi treads a very delicate line between moral dictum and capitalist endorsement; the interpretation of his paintings alternates with the subjectivity of context. Amalgamating, confusing and blurring opposing ideological beliefs, Guangyi's billboard-sized canvases readily sell out national valour, while simultaneously devaluing status symbol luxury for the proletariat cause.

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)

In 2013 Georg Baselitz declared that 'women don't paint very well'. Whilst shocking, his comments reveal what Helen Gorrill argues is prolific discrimination in the artworld. In a groundbreaking study of gender and value, Gorrill proves that there are few aesthetic differences in men and women's painting, but that men's art is valued at up to 80 per cent more than women's. Indeed, the power of masculinity is such that when men sign their work it goes up in value, yet when women sign their work it goes down. Museums, the author attests, are also complicit in this vicious cycle as they collect tokenist female artwork which impinges upon its artists' market value. An essential text for students and teachers, Gorrill's book is provocative and challenges existing methodologies whilst introducing shocking evidence. She proves how the price of being a woman impacts upon all forms of artistic currency, be it social, cultural or economic and in the vanguard of the 'Me Too' movement calls for the artworld to take action.

How can social theory help us all design solutions to address the social, political and ecological challenges that confront us, and build more sustainable communities? Design professions have typically been associated with intervention and action, while social science has long been associated with thought and reflection. Design and social thought are too frequently considered distinct in terms of how theories can be applied in practice. Design and the Social Imagination brings together the creative, action-oriented sensibility of design with the reflective, analytical capacities of the social sciences to offer models, ideas and strategies for shaping the future of the world we live in. In a world of global economic inequality, racism, and environmental degradation, designing with an understanding of our social reality is increasingly crucial to our survival. Matthew DelSesto explores current practices and discourses in areas of urban design, design for social innovation, environmental design, co-design, service design, and more, illustrating how thoughtful design can contribute in a more productive way. Drawing on a range of theory and practice from radical social thinkers C. Wright Mills, Patrick Geddes, Jane Addams and W. E. B. Du Bois, his book shows us how design and the social sciences can interact in order to intervene in the crises we face today.

How have radical print cultures fostered and preserved queer lived experience from the 1960s to the present? What alternative stories about queer life across Europe can visual material reveal? Queer Print in Europe is the first book devoted to the exploration of queer print cultures in Europe, following the birth of an international gay rights movement in the late 1960s. By unearthing these ephemeral paper documents from archives and personal collections, including materials that have been out of circulation since they were first distributed, this book examines how the production and dissemination of queer print intersected with the emergence of LGBTQ+ activism within specific national contexts. This vital contribution to queer history explores borders and political movements, and the ways in which these materials contributed, through their international circulation, to the creation of a 'post-national' queer community. Illustrated throughout with examples of manifestos, flyers, posters, zines and other forms of print media, it features interviews with those responsible for making, distributing or archiving queer print, alongside a series of new theoretical essays that set particular publications and the individuals and groups that produced them in context. The book isolates specific instances of queer print media and scrutinises their design aesthetics, identifying both the significant contribution that queer print has made to histories of LGBTQ+ struggle and to the history of print design.

The reflections on historical and contemporary positions assembled here shed light on concepts of temporalities in the context of artistic practices. In the 1960s and 1970s the pursuit for the situational, processual and actual stirred up artistic and theoretical fields. Nowadays, contemporary practices expand on these subjects by exploring the notion of anachronism, the impermanence of one's own corporeality together with the performative and ephemeral qualities of the sonic amongst other relevant concepts. The goal of this publication is to offer a deep dive into situation-specific settings and to fundamentally explore how temporality is able to initiate action and structure our perception, thereby affecting our bodies, our senses, how we communicate and how the present moment is shaped.

This exhibition catalogue for a show at the Neue Sammlung (Design Museum) in Munich documents the first solo show by Swiss jewellery artist Therese Hilbert, former student of Max Froehlich in Zurich and Hermann Ju nger in Munich. It features 250 works, going back 50 years and beginning with her earliest, unknown pieces through to her newest work created in 2020. One of her life-long passions is volcanoes: she has climbed many of them and has used them as a theme in her jewellery design for many years. The sense of heat below the surface of her minimalist designs underlines her passion for the subject. Her work is in the collections of the Design Museum (Munich), the National Gallery of Victoria, the Dallas Museum of Art, and Museum of Arts and Design (New York). Features texts by Heike Endter, Otto Kunzli, Ellen Maurer-Zilioli, Pravu Mazumdar, Angelika Nollert, Warwick Freeman and Petra Hoelscher. Text in English and German.

David Lynch is internationally renowned as a filmmaker, but it is less known that he began his creative life as a visual artist and has maintained a devoted studio practice, developing an extensive body of painting, prints, photography, and drawing. Featuring work from all periods of Lynch's career, this book documents Lynch's first major museum exhibition in the United States, bringing together works held in American and European collections and from the artist's studio. Much like his movies, many of Lynch's artworks revolve around suggestions of violence, dark humor, and mystery, conveying an air of the uncanny. This is often conveyed through the addition of text, wildly distorted forms, and disturbances in the paint fields that surround or envelop his figures. While a few relate to his film projects, most are independent works of art that reveal a parallel trajectory. Organized in close collaboration with the artist, David Lynch: The Unified Field brings together ninety-five paintings, drawings, and prints from 1965 to the present, often unified by the recurring motif of the home as a site of violence, memories, and passion. Other works explore the odd, tender, and mincing aspects of relationships. Highlighting many works that have rarely been seen in public, including early work from his critical years in Philadelphia (1965 70), this catalog offers a substantial response to dealer Leo Castelli's comment when he enthusiastically viewed Lynch's work in 1987, I would like to know how he got to this point; he cannot be born out of the head of Zeus." Published in association with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Per Fronth is one of Norway’s most distinctive contemporary artists, dynamically redefining the relationship between painting and photography in influential and innovative works. Painting with photography as his raw material, Fronth’s pictorial universe is captivating, bold, controversial, and seductive. Central to Fronth’s overall artistic practice are the challenging aspects of the human condition. Fronth produces large-format artworks in series and different disciplines that are politically, environmentally, socially, and highly emotionally charged: from the war zones in Afghanistan, to the indigenous peoples’ fight for their own land in the Amazonas region, and back to his own life, in native Norway, where he explores visual narratives of innocence and the coming of age. In his most recent project Fronth creates controversy by introducing paid product placement into his artworks already acquired by museums. In doing so he elevates the discussion as to what art’s value — and the value of art — is. Text in English and Norwegian.

Illuminating the dark side of the American century, The Monster Show uncovers the surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop-cultural counterpart to surrealism, expressionism, and other twentieth-century artistic movements.

Skal explores a broad landscape of cultural expression—from painting, photography, and theater to television, comic books, and novels. Ultimately focusing on film, he examines the many ways in which this medium has played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control engendered by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children and mutants that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in body-transforming special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and a renewed fascination with vampires; and much more. With a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade, The Monster Show is a thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.