In 2019, Wolfgang Laib entered into a dialogue with masterpieces by Fra Angelico, Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi and Benozzo Gozzoli in his philosophical and poetic installations of pollen and beeswax. The publication documents impressively this unique and spectacular art event. Following an invitation from the Museo Novecento in Florence, Wolfgang Laib - one of the outstanding artists of the present day - created five works in four of the city's main sights, including the convent of San Marco and the Pazzi Chapel. In their juxtaposition with the historic masterpieces, the delicate pollen sculptures and the imposing beeswax ziggurat cause the contrast between present and past, physical place and endless space, and real and spiritual life to become blurred and lead us towards the central questions of life.

"John Cage (Los Angeles 1912-New York 1992), by many considered the most influential musician in the second half of the 20th century, has decisively shaped our notion of artistic avant-garde--in music as well as in literature and the visual arts.
John Cage studied architecture, ethnic music and composition, taking free private counterpoint and analysis lessons under Arnold Schonberg. Influenced by Marcel Duchamp and Dada, Cage studied Zen Buddhism with Zen master Daisetsu Suzuki and staged spontaneous activities and happenings in the early fifties. In his later life he became a creator of fine visual art works, predominantly on paper. Vol.I of the John Cage Catalogue Raisonne of Visual art work features his Ryoanji works for the first time published in a book. Referring to the Kyoto Ryoanji Garden and executed in pencil or etching on paper that is evocative of raked sand, they depict the contours of fifteen stones. "

In 1926 22 year - old Dutchman Willem de Kooning (1904 - 1997) travelled to the USA on a British freighter - without papers and hidden in the machine room. The young art student eked out a living by painting houses, signs and facades, before he was able aft er eight years to dedicate himself entirely to painting. In the United States he established contacts with the art scene and forged friendships with artists such as Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Clifford Still, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Today De Ko oning belongs to the outstanding painters of Abstract Expressionism and together with Jackson Pollock is regarded as a pioneer of Action Painting. This publication vividly examines De Kooning's life, marked by self - doubts, successes, new beginnings, excess es, and scandalous paintings, as well as the evolution of his artistic work. In addition, author Corinna Thierolf opens up exciting perspectives on De Kooning's work by revealing entirely new, surprising relationships with the works of fellow artists such as Franz Marc, Piet Mondrian, or Wassily Kandinsky.

The Bavarian State Painting Collections hold 31 masterpieces by Georg Baselitz from all the artist's creative phases. The volume analyses for the first time these important paintings and sculptures within the context of the history of the collection, which has been shaped not only by the artist's out-standing supporters and collectors, including Duke Franz von Bayern, but also by the passionate commitment of the directors and curators of the museums. In 1972, when Sea Swallow became the first work by Georg Baselitz to join the Bavarian State Painting Collections, this represented the first step towards the establishment of an epoch-making collection. Today, 46 years later, the museum is dedicating this extensive publication to this main focus within its holdings which has been built up over the past decades. It spotlights one of the highlights of its collection of art after 1945, whose outstanding profile in the international museum landscape is also charac -terized by unique holdings of works by Joseph Beuys, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Anselm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke, Arnulf Rainer and Fred Sandback.