This is the first major exploration of the works of American abstract painter and watercolorist Suzan Frecon (b. 1941), critically acclaimed for her sensitive arrangement of color, form, and texture, and for the philosophical resonance of her art. By restricting herself to nonrepresentational forms, earth-based colors, and, in the case of her watercolors, "found" pieces of paper, Frecon achieves an unequaled sense of balance and openness in her work. The book features ten oil paintings and thirty watercolors dating from the late 1990s to 2007. form, color, illumination celebrates the uniqueness of Frecon's painting and articulates how her work distinguishes itself within the history of abstract painting. The authors describe in-depth how her artistic process and materials are an integral part of her focus and aesthetic. Included is an essay revealing the "ethics" of her aesthetics--an argument for abstraction and an attention to truth that is not divorced from social and environmental concerns. Distributed for The Menil Collection Exhibition Schedule: The Menil Collection, Houston (March 6 - May 11, 2008) Kunstmuseum Bern (June 11 - September 28, 2008)

The Greek arte povera artist Nakis Panayotidis was born in 1947 in Athens and was educated in architecture in Turin and in visual arts in Rome. Since 1974 he has been living and working both in Bern and Greek island of Serifos. In the tradition of arte povera, Panayotidis employs a great diversity of materials in his art, such as stone, straw, lead, iron, copper and lamps etc. His art combines light and life and is never static. It always revolves around opposites that have found a moment of equilibrium. In his work, Panayotidis aims to emphasise the intrinsically permanent in momentary incidental images. This new book is published to coincide with a major retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Fine Art Bern. It features work by the artist in painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and photography. Essays are contributed by curators Matthias Frehner and Regula Berger, Italian scholar, curator and art critic Bruno Cora, and also by personal friends of Panayotidis and collectors of his work.

The Kunstmuseum Bern owns one of the most important art collections in Switzerland. Since the foundation of the Staatliche Kunstsammlung in Bern in 1809 and the opening of the first museum building in 1879 the collection has grown continuously and has attained world renown. Over 170 masterpieces of the collection are assembled in a single publication for the first time and made accessible to a broad public through new art-historical analyses and numerous colour illustrations. The Kunstmuseum Bern houses prestigious works of Swiss and international art from the late thirteenth century until the present day. The collection contains over 3,000 paintings and sculptures and 48,000 works on paper and videos, including, for example, masterpieces by Duccio di Buoninsegna, Paul Cézanne, Salvador Dalí, Ferdinand Hodler, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Henri Matisse, Meret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso and Felix Vallotton. The works assembled in this volume are presented with full-page illustrations and are re-examined by some 70 international authors. A historical survey describing the development of the museum and its collection opens and introduces the publication.

"Rectangle and Square" provides a comprehensive view of the holdings of Hermann and Margrit Rupf--one of the most important European collections of modern art, not least because many of the works were acquired in the year of their creation. Pieces by Hans Arp, Joseph Beuys, George Braque, Andre Derain, Lyonel Feininger, Lucio Fontana, Donald Judd, Ilya Kabakov, Wassily Kandinsky and many others are included.