Hypermental: Rampant Reality 1950-2000 From Salvador Dali to Jeff Koons Published by Kunsthaus Zurich. Contributions by Bice Curiger, Christoph Heinrich, Sibylle Berg, Norman Bryson, Paul D. Miller, Griselda Pollock, Thomas Tode, Gero von Randow, Peter Weibel. Hypermental tracks, with unprecedented insight, the unfinished project of surrealism, exploring the visual art of the modern era not in terms of genres, schools, or media, but through the lens of subjectivity. This new catalogue explores how the modernist critique of the subject--exemplified by the art and philosophy of the Surrealists--has continued on through the postwar period and through to the present day. From Merit Oppenheim and Yayoi Kusama in the 1950s and 60s to Cindy Sherman and Matthew Barney in the 90s, we find works that interrogate the construction of the subject, and the body, through sexual difference. From the Pop-era pieces of Richard Hamilton and James Rosenquist to the more recent work of Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger, we find a narrative of the production of desire, one that refers explicitly to the elevated status of the commodity. Hypermental presents work by these artists and many more, juxtaposing their work with that of the original surrealists, and the resulting book is an exceptionally unique history of the most radical trends in the history of 20th century art.
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