In this issue of "Parkett," Jan Verwoert describes Tomma Abt's abstractions as "defined by a kind of retroactive temporal logic: the movement that leads to the finished picture is a movement that keeps flowing back on itself in the process of overpainting." Julien Fronsacq calls Mai-Thu Perret's work "a product of a different persona" and suggests that it revolves "around the structure of the novel." According to Johanna Burton, Zoe Leonard uses the predominantly male photographic lineage to "speak in tongues," and to play with expectations--even as she expresses the metaphysical loneliness inherent to the medium: "There is no such thing as a truly entwined gaze," writes Burton, "only ever the promise of one and the deep breach that results from its impossibility." Also: Philipp Kaiser on Richard Hawkins, Josef Strau on Ei Arakawa, Charles Bernstein on art criticism, texts by Philip Ursprung and Jens Hoffmann, insert by John Stezaker and spine by Paulina Olowska.

"Parkett" 85 celebrates the revered nonagenarian Austrian painter Maria Lassnig with new writing by Manuela Ammer, Robert Storr and Ludmila Vachtova; the Brazilian painter of carnival-inspired tropical plants and patterns, Beatriz Milhazes, with texts by Tanya Barson, Arto Lindsay and Barry Schwabsky; the strangely compelling French photographer of birds and bird habitats, Jean-Luc Mylayne, with writing by Josef Helfenstein and Fionn Meade; and the rising New York painter, Josh Smith, with texts by Christophe Cherix, Anne Pontegnie and Ira Wool. Also in this issue: Gabriel Kuri and Damian Ortega in conversation; Mark Godfrey on Sharon Lockhart; texts by Mark Von Schlegell, Andrew Weiner, Rainer Michael Mason and Rachel Price. Insert is by Matthias Uhr and spine is by Josh Smith.