JRP|Ringier

A Brief History of Curating

By Hans Ulrich Obrist

Part of JRP|Ringer's innovative Documents series, published with Les Presses du Réel and dedicated to critical writings, this publication comprises a unique collection of interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist mapping the development of the curatorial field--from early independent curators in the 1960s and 70s and the experimental institutional programs developed in Europe and the U.S. through the inception of Documenta and the various biennales and fairs--with pioneering curators Anne D'Harnoncourt, Werner Hoffman, Jean Leering, Franz Meyer, Seth Siegelaub, Walter Zanini, Johannes Cladders, Lucy Lippard, Walter Hopps, Pontus Hulten and Harald Szeemann. Speaking of Szeemann on the occasion of this legendary curator's death in 2005, critic Aaron Schuster summed up, "the image we have of the curator today: the curator-as-artist, a roaming, . . . . Paperback, 6 x 8 in. / 200 pgs.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Walther König, Köln

Gerhard Richter: Obrist-O’Brist

Gerhard Richter and Hans Ulrich Obrist first met in 1985. Their professional collaborations began seven years later, when the 24-year-old Obrist curated his first Richter exhibition; the following year he published a collection of his writings. Now Gerhard Richter has dedicated an artist's book to this longstanding relationship. The texts in Obrist-O'Brist have been produced by rearranging Obrist's interviews using a random generator, setting the results in blocks without discrete passages or paragraphs. The color plates are made up of photographs—both portraits and mementos—of Hans Ulrich Obrist, from the past 15 years, and photos of Richter's own paintings, which Richter has then painted over using brushes and scrapers. Chiming with many currents in contemporary writing and bookmaking, Obrist-O'Brist is an adventure . . . . Pbk, 6.75 x 9 in. / 184 pgs / 102 color.

Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Walther König, Köln/Koenig Books

Indian Highway

Following the rapid economic and cultural developments on the Indian subcontinent in recent years, Indian Highwayis a timely snapshot of a new generation of artists. Its title indicates the significance of the road in migration, as well as the information superhighway” that has driven India's economic boom. A common thread throughout is the political and social engagement of these artists, who include: Ayisha Abraham, Ravi Agarwal, Sarnath Banerjee, Hemali Bhuta, Nikhil Chopra, Desire Machine Collective, Sheela Gowda, Sakshi Gupta, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, NS Harsha, Abhishek, Hazra Shanay, Jhaveri, Jitish Kallat, Amar Kanwar, Bharti Kher, Bose Krishnamachari, Nalini Malani, Jagannath Panda, Prajakta Potnis, Raqs Media Collective, Tejal Shah, Valay Shende, Sudarshan Shetty, Dayanita Singh, Sumakshi Singh, Ashok Sukumaran, Shaina Anand, Thukral . . . . Pbk, 8.75 x 10 in. / 320 pgs / 290 color.

Edited by Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gunnar B. Kvaran, Thierry Raspail.

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Gregory R. Miller & Co.

In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas

One of the most continuously influential figures of the past half century, Joan Jonas was among the first artists to embrace the forms of video, performance and installation. From her beginnings as a sculptor, and her emergence in the New York art and performance scenes of the 1960s and 70s (including the seminal "Vertical Roll" video piece of 1972, in which the titular television malfunction enacted a memorably fractured female identity), up through her six appearances at Documenta and her performance at the Performa 13 biennial, her work has always been surprising, groundbreaking and necessary. This extensively illustrated volume, containing hundreds of full-color photographs, drawings, scripts and diagrams, presents the definitive collection of Jonas' work. The first and authoritative career-spanning monograph . . . . Clth, 9.5 x 12.75 in. / 536 pgs / 840 color.

Edited with text by Joan Simon. Text by Joan Jonas, Douglas Crimp, Johanna Burton, Barbara Clausen, Richard Serra, Susan Rothenberg.

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JRP|Ringier/BDV Bureau des videos

The Secret Files of Gilbert & George

For the last 40 years Gilbert & George have united and divided the international art scene with equal parts insolence and elegance. Their oeuvre, with its repeating figures and reprising themes of shit, piss, blood, tears, nudity, sperm, alcohol and drugs, overturned the conventions of the twentieth century and helped to set the agenda for the twenty-first. This 35-minute film produced, hosted and edited by the influential international curator Hans Ulrich Obrist is the first documentary to follow Gilbert & George inside their creative process, and into their archives and collection. Obrist discovers the couple's intimate life within the interior of their London house, a veritable museum of obsessions. Beyond good and bad, beyond appearances and objects (negatives, books, press cuttings… . . . . DVD video, PAL Multizone, 5.5 x 7.5 in.

Edited by Nicolas Tremblay. By Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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JRP|Ringier

Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge

Film and Video Installations

Though he trained as a painter at the China Academy of Fine Arts, Yang Fudong, one of the most interesting and influential young artists emerging from China today, has always preferred film. His videos and photographs combine and accumulate perspectives, investigating identity through ancient mythology, personal memory and lived experience. His subjects, often in their late 20s and early 30s, seem confused and appear to be hovering between the past and present, or perhaps China's past and present. That split gives them an expectant quality, as if something is going to happen that never quite does. Yang Fudong seeks, through vignettes, a poetics of place and people as an alternative to the politics of power. No Snow on the Broken Bridge . . . . Paperback, 7.5 x 10 in. / 180 pgs / 70 color / 20 b&w.

Edited by Ziba de Weck. Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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JRP|Ringier

Merz World: Processing the Complicated Order

The evolving artwork and early, all-encompassing installation Merzbau was German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters’ obsession. He began building a fantastical structure inside his Hanover studio in 1923, which he conceived as a project without end. It gradually took over most of the house. He continued to work on it in different locations throughout his life, remarking that the Merzbau contained everything that was important to him. This groundbreaking volume results from the first of a series of Zurich-based symposia on the Merzbau and its legacy in contemporary architecture, art and society. The Symposium Merzbau sets a new standard for further research on Schwitter’s influential project. Edited by curator and writer Hans Ulrich Obrist, this book includes contributions by art historians, critics and . . . . Paperback, 4.25 x 6.5 in. / 124 pgs / 20 color.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Adrian Notz. Text by Yona Friedman, Thomas Hirschhorn, Peter Bissegger, Karin Orchard, Gwendolen Webster.

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D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers

On Curating: Interviews with Ten International Curators

By Carolee Thea

On Curating, Carolee Thea's second volume of interviews with ten of today's leading curators, explores the intellectual convictions and personal visions that lay the groundwork for the most prestigious and influential exhibitions in the world today. Among the aesthetic and theoretical issues raised are the relationship between artist and curator, globalism, post-colonialism, capitalism, the future of cultural tourism and the biennial as spectacle or utopian ideal. As Thea notes in her introduction, "the biennial or mega-exhibition--a laboratory for experimentation, investigation and aesthetic liberation--is where the curators' experience and knowledge are tested. As they negotiate venues for artistic expression, intellectual critiques and humanistic concerns in their own societies and others, they are challenged by the certainties and uncertainties of a constantly evolving . . . . Pbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 144 pgs / 50 color.

By Carolee Thea. Edited by Thomas Micchelli. Foreword by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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JRP|Ringier

Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla

Puerto Rico-based American and Cuban-born Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla are known for their playful, socially-involved, sound-based installations, videos and performances. This well-designed volume presents recent works that investigate how power, militarism and war are encoded into sound.

. . . . Hbk, 8.25 x 10.5 in. / 156 pgs / 112 color.

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JRP|Ringier

Hans Ulrich Obrist: Battery City: A Post-Olympic Beijing Mini-Marathon

On January 31, 2008, Swiss curator, critic and historian Hans Ulrich Obrist conducted a "marathon" of conversations in Beijing, after the example of his famous Serpentine Gallery marathons. This marathon called on artists, cultural producers and media practitioners to discuss the post-Olympic state of the city. Participants included internationally renowned artists Ai Weiwei and Cao Fei, writer and publisher Hung Huang, fashion designer Zhang Da and many others. Topics discussed included everyday life in contemporary Chinese society, the impact of the Olympic Games and the role of the internet in daily life.

. . . . Pbk, 4.75 x 8.25 in. / 138 pgs / 30 b&w.

Edited and with text by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Hu Fan.

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JRP|Ringier

Subodh Gupta: Common Man

Subodh Gupta (born 1964) agglomerates everyday Indian household objects such as cooking utensils into monumental entities such as mushroom clouds or skulls, often sabotaging the fiction of intrinsic value through witty inversion and conjunction. Among the fruits of his methods are sculptural works such as bronze mangos, Hindu-swastika ceiling fans and worn-out sandals placed alongside three-dimensional Mona Lisas. Gupta's mostly found materials, which range in texture from aluminum, bronze and stainless steel to fiberglass and neon, identify themselves as Indian in origin, but are recomposed into sculptural meanings accessible to all nationalities (one implication of the title's "common man"). This monograph is published on the occasion of Gupta's first solo exhibition in London; alongside full-color reproductions, it includes an interview between . . . . Hbk, 8.75 x 11.5 in. / 88 pgs / 52 color.

Edited by Sara Harrison, Michaela Unterdörfer. Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Martin Herbert.

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Walther König, Köln

Gilbert & George: Art Titles

1967-2010 in Alphabetical Order, Catalogue Raisonné

Gilbert & George Art Titles offers a new spin on the catalogue raisonné: a complete catalogue of the titles of all of the duo's works, from 1970 to the present, in the form of a continuous poetical index. Designed by the artists, it commences with their first performance at Nigel Greenwood Gallery in 1970, "3 Living Pieces"--flanking the title with the year on the left margin and the acronym "LS" ("living sculpture") on the right--and opens out into the more poetical titles for which they are known. The catalogue of works is also printed alphabetically, and each title is identified with an acronym indicating its format. Spanning more than 40 years of exhibitions, pictures, postcards, books and other formats, this volume . . . . Pbk, 6 x 8.5 in. / 180 pgs / illustrated throughout.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Inigo Philbrick.

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Walther König, Köln

Elmgreen & Dragset: Trilogy

In their latest monograph, the Danish-Norwegian duo Elmgreen & Dragset address the world of celebrity: rumor-mongering, life in the public eye, the mechanisms of the media, its formation of myths and how those myths endlessly bombard us with staged presentations of the self. Two allegorical installations on celebrity and its implications of "the one" (the celebrity) and "the many" (the rest of us) were devised for the duo's exhibition at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, and are here documented across 100 color plates. In one of the museum's atriums, Elmgreen & Dragset installed a full-scale high-rise apartment block; the other atrium was converted into a neoclassical ballroom. Also documented in this volume are The Welfare Show . . . . Clth, 8 x 10 in. / 384 pgs / 100 color.

Edited by Andreas F. Beitin, Peter Weibel. Text by Tony Benn, Hubert Burda, Tom Mole, Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Wolfgang Ullrich, et al. Interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Elmgreen & Dragset. Interview by Sacha Goldmann with Paul Virilio.

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Walther König/Koenig Books

Jean Nouvel: Red Summer in Kensington Gardens

Renowned French architect Jean Nouvel designed the Serpentine Gallery's pavilion for 2010, and created a commanding, eye-catching all-red structure designed to mimic the moment "when the summer sun catches you full in the eyes and, as you blink, the world dissolves into red." Also inspired by London's red buses and telephone boxes, this dramatic and seductive pavilion consists of a cantilevered glass wall supporting a central frame, with retractable red canvas awnings, a red rubber floor and, to accommodate its many visitors, a red café bar, red table tennis tables and red hammocks, tables and chairs. "It's architecture on holiday," Nouvel has joked, also describing the pavilion as a "big sunglass." This similarly striking publication, designed by Nouvel, records the project . . . . Pbk, 9 x 10.25 in. / 44 pgs / illustrated throughout.

Edited by Kathryn Rattee. Text by Paul Virilio, Samantha Hardingham. Interview by Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Walther König, Köln

Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint Vol.1

This insightful book features a clear PVC cover designed by the artist, printed in silver ink. Barney's sometimes ominous and sometimes sexy black-and white work is highlighted by a 12-page high gloss full color insert--the centerfold, if you will.

. . . . Paperback, 6.5 x 9.25 in. / 96 pgs / 9 color / 46 b&w.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Essay by Francis Mckee.

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Karma Books, New York

Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney

Long out of print, this new edition of David Leeming’s landmark biography of Beauford Delaney (1901–79) features an introduction by Hilton Als. Leeming, also the author of James Baldwin’s acclaimed 1994 biography, delves into the captivating life of one of the most significant Black artists of our time. With rare affection, tact and insight, he paints a vivid portrait of an artist who defied convention and left an indelible mark on both art history and everyone he encountered—including a diverse array of writers, artists and musicians, from Henry Miller and Jean Genet to Baldwin and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Tracing Delaney’s humble beginnings in a deeply religious family in Knoxville, Tennessee, to New York, to his untimely demise in a Parisian asylum, Leeming draws . . . . Hbk, 6.5 x 9 in. / 292 pgs / 23 color / 40 b&w.

By David Leeming. Introduction by Hilton Als.

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Atelier Éditions/D.A.P.

More Than the Eyes

Art, Food and the Senses

In More Than the Eyes, writer Ellen Mara De Wachter considers the ways in which food, when used as a material in contemporary art, confronts, subverts and ultimately brings us to our senses. Focusing on artists working between 1960 and 2000, the book shows how we have become restricted by a hierarchy that values sight and reason above other senses, and how encounters with food in art can help us break this bind. By putting food at the center of the highly visual art world, the artists in this book quicken a range of sensations beyond visual perception, helping us access and liberate aspects of our experience that have been ignored or suppressed. Topics include Carolee Schneemann’s performance pieces using meat; . . . . Pbk, 6.75 x 9.25 in. / 240 pgs / 50 color / 10 b&w.

By Ellen Mara De Wachter. Edited by Lucy Kingett.

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Gregory R. Miller & Co.

Adolph Gottlieb: A Powerful Will to Art

American artist Adolph Gottlieb (1903–74) was a central figure of the New York School of art from its very beginnings in the 1930s. The Pictograph paintings that he began making in 1941 are among the earliest examples of American artists creating work on a par with European modernists while establishing a distinct identity. His art has been the subject of 25 solo museum exhibitions, nationally and internationally, and is in the collections of over 145 museums.
Adolph Gottlieb: A Powerful Will to Art is a career-spanning monograph on the artist. It contains an original essay by James Lawrence, which traces Gottlieb’s career within the context of his contemporaries, as well as the traditions of Western painting, and offers new insights into this . . . . Clth, 9.5 x 11 in. / 342 pgs / 306 color.

Foreword with chronology by Sanford Hirsch. Text by James Lawrence.

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Strandberg Publishing

Watercolors by Hans J. Wegner

Hans Wegner’s sophisticated chair designs, paragons of the midcentury-modern style, are beloved and imitated the world over, but scant few are familiar with his masterly watercolors. Wegner often used the medium to finish and finalize the drawings made in his workshop. Although woodworking and watercolor were both increasingly considered traditional in the New Media Age, Wegner’s artistic temperament saw him use both these mediums to boundary-breaking effect in his search for the perfect chair.
Watercolors by Hans J. Wegner showcases his watercolors in thematic chapters, delving into the artistic dimensions of his design studio. Beyond illustrations of some of his notable chair models, the featured watercolors also highlight his lighting fixtures and complete room designs. They are interpreted by Anne Blond, director . . . . Hbk, 9.5 x 10.75 in. / 192 pgs / 200 color.

Text by Anne Blond.

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Vitra Design Museum

Nike: Form Follows Motion

Published to accompany the fall 2024 exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, this volume explores the design history of Nike, one of the world’s most revered sports brands. The exhibition catalog follows the evolution of the company’s design culture, tracing milestones, iconic objects and inspirations across their 50-year legacy. It also highlights Nike’s scientific research, which always begins with close examination of the body in motion, ultimately melding technology, function and aesthetics.
The book features a wealth of previously unseen materials including rarities and one-offs from the company’s early days in the 1960s, original design drawings and prototypes of iconic sneaker models, historical documents and films, and the results of collaborations with creative figures such as Virgil Abloh and Marc . . . . Hbk, 8.75 x 11.75 in. / 352 pgs / 475 color.

Edited by Mateo Kries, Glenn Adamson.

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Steidl

Carré: A Vintage Scarf Collection

For nearly 20 years now, French art director and scarf designer Benoit Pierre Emery has been collecting silk scarves—perhaps the ultimate fashion accessory—exploring boutiques and flea markets to amass an astounding assortment of 10,000 pieces (and growing). Carré: A Vintage Scarf Collection presents around 6,500 of these scarves, which Emery acquires according to their individual aesthetic merit, not the prestige of the brand that may be printed on them—many pieces remain tantalizingly anonymous, even as others boast the names of renowned fashion houses (Dior, Hermès, Saint Laurent, Lanvin, Balenciaga) and great artists (Picasso, Sonia Delaunay, Victor Vasarely, Enzo Mari).

From geometric rhythms to psychedelic designs, from Minimalism to the explosive colors of Pop art and the optical games of Kinetic art, Carré . . . . Slip, clth, 12 x 12.25 in. / 752 pgs / 6500 color.

By Benoit Pierre Emery.

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Polígrafa

Giorgio Morandi: Works, Writings, Interviews

Giorgio Morandi's (1890–1964) steady pursuit of a poetic vision in still-life and landscape painting (as well as engravings and etchings) has secured him a singular and revered position in the history of modern art. While drawing on the achievements of Giotto, Cézanne, the metaphysical painters and the Cubists, Morandi's work finally resembles no one else's, and quietly defies paraphrase: everything is enigmatically clarified in the work itself, in all its apparent simplicity, on terms entirely specific to the artist's compositional gifts, in which respect he might almost be described as the Erik Satie of painting.
The original writings and interviews collected in this substantial new volume trace Morandi's various influences, illuminate the atmosphere of Bologna that so characterized the artist's sensibility, and . . . . Hbk, 8.5 x 11 in. / 160 pgs / 124 color.

Edited with text by Karen Wilkin. Interviews with Peppino Mangravite, Edouard Roditi.

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Letterform Archive Books

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911

The brainchild of Koloman Moser, Alfred Roller, Josef Hoffmann, Bertold Loffler and others—the leading graphic artists of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte—Die Fläche (German for The Surface) laid out an extraordinary group vision for design through adventurous work by these designer-professors and more than 100 of their students. Packed with bold ideas for posters, advertisements, book covers, woodcut prints and much more, the result is an inexhaustibly rich sourcebook of graphic forms, modern ideas and technical experiments, all reflecting a reorientation in design practice and teaching that would resonate around the world.
This full-size facsimile of all 14 issues of Die Fläche lets readers experience this rare gem as it was meant to be seen, while new essays and translations . . . . Hbk, 8.75 x 13.25 in. / 344 pgs / 400 color / 25 b&w.

Text by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, Megan Brandow-Faller.

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Roberts Projects

Amoako Boafo

Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo has built a practice synthesizing the ways that art both reflects and perpetuates the power of representation. Amoako Boafo is the first monograph to comprehensively examine the artist's career to date. Heavily illustrated and featuring original contributions by Osei Bonsu, Rachel Cargle, Mutombo Da Poet and Aja Monet, the book also presents an insightful and expansive conversation with the artist by Paul Schimmel.
Exclusively portraying individuals from the diaspora and beyond, Boafo invites a reflection on Black subjectivity, diversity and complexity. His portraits, notable for their bold colors and patterns, celebrate his subjects as a means to challenge portrayals that objectify and dehumanize Blackness. As Boafo has stated, the primary idea of my practice is representation, documenting, celebrating . . . . Hbk, 8.75 x 13 in. / 204 pgs / 140 color / 10 b&w.

Foreword by Camille Weiner. Text by Osei Bonsu, Rachel Cargle, Mutombo Da Poet, Aja Monet. Interview by Paul Schimmel.

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Hauser & Wirth Publishers

Glenn Ligon: Distinguishing Piss from Rain

Writings and Interviews

This long-awaited and essential volume collects writings and interviews by Glenn Ligon, whose canonical paintings, neons and installations have been delivering a cutting examination of race, history, sexuality and culture in America since his emergence in the late 1980s. No stranger to text, the artist has routinely utilized writings from James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Pryor, Gertrude Stein and others to construct work that centers Blackness within the historically white backdrop of the art world and culture writ large. Ligon began writing in the early 2000s, engaging deeply with the work of peers such as Julie Mehretu, Chris Ofili and Lorna Simpson, as well as with artists who came before him, among them Philip Guston, David Hammons and Andy Warhol. . . . . Pbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 400 pgs / 80 color / 20 b&w.

Edited by James Hoff. Introduction by Thomas (T.) Jean Lax. Text by Glenn Ligon.

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Hauser & Wirth Publishers

Mike Kelley: Timeless Painting

Featuring paintings from series that span a 15-year period, 1994 through 2009, this volume traces Mike Kelley's (1954–2012) engagement with the medium through bodies of work including The Thirteen Seasons (Heavy on the Winter), a series of oval-shaped paintings on wood; Timeless Painting, which marked Kelley's distinct return to painting in color, and which he described as "mannerist take-offs on Hans Hofmann's compositional theory of push and pull'"; the Horizontal Tracking Shots series; as well as works made under the umbrella of his expansive and ambitious Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstructions, a series related to the Educational Complex artwork.

Kelley's seminal mixed-media installation Profondeurs Vertes, his ode to the influential paintings in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts that captivated him . . . . Hbk, 10.5 x 13 in. / 200 pgs / 157 color.

Edited with introduction by Jenelle Porter. Text by Edgar Arceneaux with Kurt Forman, Carroll Dunham, Daniel Guzmán, Richard Hawkins, Jay Heikes, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Christina Quarles, Mary Reid Kelley, Laurie Simmons.

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Steidl

Robert Frank: Portfolio

When Robert Frank (1924–2019) emigrated from Zurich to the United States in 1947, the aspiring young photographer brought along his portfolio of 40 photos to help him secure employment. This eponymous volume is the facsimile of that very object. It contains Frank’s earliest original photographs, taken between 1941 and 1946, as well as the images of other photographers that he had retouched. We see images of rural landscapes in Switzerland juxtaposed alongside street scenes, antique shops, fine fabrics and the glowing lights of a cinema. Portfolio thus contains the seeds of a career of such scope and influence which even the ambitious, 23-year-old Robert Frank could not have anticipated. Designed by the artist in collaboration with Gerhard Steidl, the facsimile’s softcover . . . . Slip, pbk, 8 x 10.75 in. / 40 pgs / 39 tritone.

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Steidl/Diogenes

Christoph Niemann: Away

Berlin-based Christoph Niemann (born 1970) simply can’t resist traveling. Luckily for us, he’s not just a standard globetrotter but an artist who masterfully captures his surroundings, wherever they may be, in his characteristically vibrant brush and ink drawings. As an artist,” he says, I’m conscious of the limitations that come from seeing the world through a Western lens. That’s why I like to travel: because traveling requires—and inspires—a shift in perspective.” And so, in Away, we accompany him on journeys to all the destinations our wanderlust might desire, be they picturesque towns, bustling cities or sublime nature: from the elegant Tuileries of Paris to the dramatic Arctic forms of the Svalbard archipelago, from Angkor Wat to São Paulo and Venice and . . . . Clth, 9.75 x 13.25 in. / 200 pgs / 140 color.

Text by Christoph Niemann.

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Steidl/Diogenes

Christoph Niemann: Souvenir

This elaborate book features over 160 ink and pencil drawings by Christoph Niemann, each a story of an unfamiliar place. They are observations on traveling, arriving and immersing oneself, on the melancholy of being on the road and the adventure of discovering new destinations—among them New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Seville and Kyoto.

Regardless of their subjects, these are all sketches that grasp the magic, light and mood of a place in a handful of virtuoso strokes. In Niemann’s own words: Over time memories change. Most things fade, while others become more significant. Connections arise that one wasn’t aware of originally. Sometimes a drawing can capture all this in a new and surprising way. And with some luck, the picture feels . . . . Clth, 9.25 x 11.75 in. / 256 pgs / 161 color.

Text by Philipp Keel, Christoph Niemann.

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Gregory R. Miller & Co.

Viola Frey: Artist's Mind / Studio / World

In the late 1980s, American artist Viola Frey (1933–2004) began a series of drawings she titled Artist’s Mind/Studio/World. Although she is best known for her large-scale figurative sculptures in clay, it is these pastels on paper that inspired this first monograph on Frey’s extraordinary work. Spanning more than 50 years, Frey’s art making crisscrossed myriad subjects, mediums and forms. Taken together, the Artist’s Mind/Studio/World drawings speak to this breadth, clarifying her devotion to line, color and scale, and demonstrating the ways she seamlessly transitioned from three dimensions to two, and from the intimate to the monumental.
Extensively illustrated with recent discoveries from the Viola Frey Archives—including newspaper clippings, correspondence, slides and photographs—and containing major new critical texts alongside an illustrated chronology, Artist’s . . . . Clth, 9.5 x 12.5 in. / 228 pgs.

Text by Cynthia de Bos, Viola Frey, Nancy Lim, Jenelle Porter, Jodi Throckmorton.

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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Konrad Klapheck: The Conversation Series

Volume 3

In this German-language-only installment of Hans Ulrich Obrist's Conversation Series, the acclaimed curator-conversationalist speaks with the German Pop Surrealist painter Konrad Klapheck, and includes the German conceptual photographer Hans-Peter Feldmann--who was there to document the afternoon's activities with a series of photographic portraits--in the talk. Writing of Klapheck's psycho-erotic "machine" imagery in a 1994 Art in America review, critic Ken Johnson wrote, "What makes Klapheck's pictures compelling is the way the objects he paints are psycho-erotically animated. His machines…are like primitive totems…monumental, amusingly absurd and sexually suggestive." This volume contains generous photo documentation, with many new paintings depicting offbeat human sexual encounters reproduced in color.

. . . . Paperback, 5.5 x 8.25 in. / 68 pgs / 16 color / 21 b&w.

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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Rem Koolhaas: The Conversation Series

Volume 4

In this traditional paperback, renowned critic and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist teams up with Dutch avant-garde architect and paradigm-shifting intellectual, Rem Koolhaas, for a discussion of Koolhaas's work in China, his designs for Prada, architecture as metaphor, and the development of urbanism in the slipstream of globalization.

. . . . Paperback, 5.5 x 8 in. / 68 pgs.

PRICE: $17.95 | $13.46
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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Yona Friedman: The Conversation Series

Volume 7

People make too much of architecture. I have a running quarrel with architects who overestimate architecture. Reality is at eye-level with people walking down the street. Born in 1923 in Budapest, Hungary, Yona Friedman is widely considered one of the greatest utopian visionary architects of the twentieth century. Currently based in Paris, he is just as much a sociologist as a designer of buildings, more concerned with the way people interact with their environments than monumental statements by an ego-centric creator. In this illuminating talk with The Conversation Series editor Hans Ulrich Obrist, he touches on the needs of the individual in heterogeneous urban societies, past and future projects, utopia, influences and metaphysics, revealing a wise and deeply-animated humanistic intellect. Known . . . . Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5 in. / 126 pgs / 29 b&w.

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Hans Ulrich Obrist & Gilbert & George: The Conversation Series

Vol. 9

Series editor Hans Ulrich Obrist here collects seven years worth of interviews with the hugely influential British artistic collaborators Gilbert & George, providing an intimate vision of what they consider the most important landmarks in their four-decade-long career together. Many of the conversations are delightfully performative.

. . . . Paperback, 5.25 x 8.25 in. / 192 pgs / 22 b&w.

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Hans Ulrich Obrist & Gustav Metzger: The Conversation Series

Vol. 16

In volume 16 of The Conversation Series, Hans Ulrich Obrist presents an in-depth exchange with the venerable German-born artist and activist Gustav Metzger, which illuminates the artist's fascinating life and 60-year career. In 1959, Metzger penned a manifesto of Auto-destructive art, which states in part, "Auto-destructive paintings, sculptures and constructions have a lifetime varying from a few moments to 20 years. When the disintegrative process is complete, the work is to be removed from the site and scrapped." In this volume, Metzger talks to Obrist about his past and present association with Auto-destructive art, how he has come to fuse his art practice with his political commitment to human rights and ecology, how he escaped the Holocaust at the age of . . . . Pbk, 5.25 x 8.25 in. / 168 pgs / 41 b&w.

Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gustav Metzger.

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Hans Ulrich Obrist & John Baldessari: The Conversation Series Volume 18

Hans Ulrich Obrist has been a staunch supporter of the Los Angeles maestro of Conceptualism John Baldessari from early on in his career. For these conversations, the artist and curator were joined by, among others, the Uruguayan artist and author Alejandro Cesarco, a friend and previous public interlocutor of Baldessari's. Baldessari himself offers readers insight into the motives and semiotics of his multimedia work and his life as an artist, always expressing himself with precision and with wit. A recurrent topic throughout these discussions is the interaction of text and image (on which so much of Baldessari's work leans), and issues such as the museum as institution, idea archives and unrealized projects, and on his career, exhibitions and retrospectives of the . . . . Pbk, 5.5 x 8.5 in. / 242 pgs / 20 b&w.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Hans Ulrich Obrist & Christian Boltanski: The Conversation Series

Vol. 19

Hans Ulrich Obrist and Christian Boltanski are not only associated through their longstanding friendship: Boltanski was also the first artist that Obrist ever exhibited. Over the course of this friendship the two have often met for discussions, the earliest of which, from 1994, are published here. Whether on a taxi-boat in Venice, in his atelier or at an exhibition in Ljubljana, Botanski readily divulges information on his projects. His collaborations with other artists such as Ilya Kabakov, which have also led him into the field of performance arts such as opera and dance, are a particular theme of the conversations; on occasion, other interlocutors step in, such as the designer Jean Kalman or the sociologist Luc Boltanski (Christian Boltanski's brother). The . . . . Pbk, 5.25 x 8.25 in. / 234 pgs.

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Hans Ulrich Obrist & Jeff Koons: The Conversation Series

Vol. 22

Reflecting on 20 years of making art, Jeff Koons talks to Hans Ulrich Obrist about his vocation and its frequently controversial highlights. Koons makes acknowledgement here of determinative influences such as Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol, and elucidates his sense of the legacy of Pop art and his own transformations of that legacy. Koons emerges from this volume as a charmingly open and very focused artist, with strong views on the purposes of art today, and advice for practitioners: See everything as an opportunity. Stay focused, then amazing things can happen.” Koons' goals are also inspiringly utopian and appropriate to all forms of art: The journey of art begins with self-acceptance,” he declares at one point, espousing his ideal . . . . Pbk, 5.25 x 8.25 in. / 123 pgs / 28 b&w.

Edited by Karen Marta.

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Hans Ulrich Obrist & Dan Graham: Conversation Series

Volume 25

Since the mid-1960s when he started out as a fledgling critic, Dan Graham has carved out a unique role for himself, expanding the scope of the Conceptual artist to incorporate art criticism, music criticism, photography and architecture. For this volume, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist met with Graham on several occasions to discuss the artist's work, life and the numerous interests he passionately follows. The conversation thus wanders seamlessly from architecture to rock and roll, philosophy to astrology, Graham's early performance pieces, photography and articles, to the films and glass pavilions for which he is best known today. A fountain of art folklore, Graham offers recollections of friends and colleagues, art work and influences, providing an invaluable insight not only into the . . . . Pbk, 5.5 x 8.5 in. / 134 pgs.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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