Ecco il No Logo contro il marketing dell’arte. Design & Crime è un libro ricco di analisi, un libro decisamente militante, che pone problemi molto importanti… Marco Belpoliti “Tuttolibri” Il titolo Design & Crime si ispira a Ornamento e delitto, libro con il quale Adolf Loos attaccava, all’inizio del Novecento, la diffusione indiscriminata dell’ornamento. Allo stesso modo Hal Foster denuncia la tendenza della nostra società a “confezionare” ogni cosa: “Il design è inflazionato al punto che l’involucro rimpiazza del tutto il prodotto. Che l’oggetto del design sia la giovane arte inglese o un candidato alle elezioni presidenziali, ‘la propria marca’, la trasformazione in logo di un nome-prodotto per un pubblico in deficit di attenzione, è fondamentale per molte sfere della società, compreso il design”. “Design & Crime” è diviso in due parti: la prima dedicata all’architettura, la seconda all’arte. Nella prima Foster analizza la fusione tra marketing e cultura, le nuove politiche economiche governate dal concetto di design al quale ogni oggetto o azienda chiedono di confezionare una propria “identità”. A Frank Gehry e Rem Koolhaas sono dedicati due capitoli: il primo è descritto come il migliore interprete di un mondo nel quale tutto è spettacolo e dove il museo prevale sull’opera d’arte, di Koolhaas vengono analizzati in particolar modo gli scritti, dalle lodi del manhattismo alle mutazioni della città globale. La seconda parte, invece, esamina i rapporti tra l’arte e i musei, fortuna e caduta di metodi e modelli critici diversi (con una lunga analisi della storia della rivista Artforum), le influenze moderne e postmoderne, le vicissitudini dell’arte di fine 900 e le diverse strategie di sopravvivenza con numerosi esempi di artisti famosi della scena internazionale come Jeff Wall, Robert Gober, Rachel Whiteread o Gabriel Orozco.

Preserving a monument goes hand in hand with destroying it. In order to preserve architecture, cultural monuments and relics, they are often relocated, allowing urban displacement to arise – leading to the disappearance of the concept of autonomous geography and archeology. The dislocation of a monument does not only alter the history of its original location, but also leads to a radical re-interpretation of the monument itself. For his exhibition at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Cyprien Gaillard created a new work containing complex implications, which will only be revealed through an act of complete defiance. Similar to public amnesia, lost in the hopeless interaction with the monument, the gradual destruction becomes a part of the aesthetic of resistance. The catalogue which is published on the occasion of the exhibition “Cyprien Gaillard. The Recovery of Discovery” at KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin, depicts the gradual destruction of the sculpture and includes contributions by Hal Foster, Marion von Osten, and Susanne Pfeffer as well as a conversation with Cyprien Gaillard and Susanne Pfeffer.

The video and sound installations, sculptures, and photographs by Paul Pfeiffer (*1966 in Honolulu) deal with the phenomenon of the “afterglow” of mass-media images that are rooted in the collective memory of a globalized media society. In works like The Long Count or 24 Landscapes, he digitally manipulates found images—in this case of celebrities such as Mohammed Ali or Marilyn Monroe—cropping, retouching, duplicating, and layering them. The visual material appears in new dimensions, triggering a stream of thought in the viewer while melding works of art with personal memory. In this way, one can experience the role and functions of images in pop culture in relation to the (re)construction of history on both a social as well as an individual level. This publication extends to the artist’s oeuvre the recognition it deserves.

Richard Serra is considered by many to be the most important sculptor of the postwar period. The essays in this volume cover the complete span of Serra’s work to date―from his first experiments with materials and processes through his early films and site works to his current series of “torqued ellipses.” There is a special emphasis on those moments when Serra extended aesthetic convention and/or challenged political authority, as in the famous struggle with the General Services Administration over the site-specific piece Tilted Arc. October Files October Files is a new series of inexpensive paperback books. Each book will address a body of work by an artist of the postwar period who has altered our understanding of art in significant ways and prompted a critical literature that is sophisticated and sustained. Each book will trace not only the development of an important oeuvre but also the construction of the critical discourse inspired by it. The series editors are Hal Foster, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Annette Michelson, Yve-Alain Bois, and Rosalind Krauss.

In The Return of the Real Hal Foster discusses the development of art and theory since 1960, and reorders the relation between prewar and postwar avant-gardes. Opposed to the assumption that contemporary art is somehow belated, he argues that the avant-garde returns to us from the future, repositioned by innovative practice in the present. And he poses this retroactive model of art and theory against the reactionary undoing of progressive culture that is pervasive today. After the models of art-as-text in the 1970s and art-as-simulacrum in the 1980s; Foster suggests that we are now witness to a return to the real—to art and theory grounded in the materiality of actual bodies and social sites: If The Return of the Real begins with a new narrative of the historical avant-garde; it concludes with an original reading of this contemporary situation—and what it portends for future practices of art and theory, culture and politics.

In 1996, internationally distinguished sculptor Richard Serra achieved an unparalleled technical and conceptual feat: the creation of forms never before seen in either art or architecture. “They are vessels that you walk into,” said Serra of his 13-foot-high bent steel works, called Torqued Ellipses. Imagine standing within an oval-shaped space on the ground with high, curved walls simultaneously rising and seemingly rotating around you. From inside the Ellipses it seems that the walls continuously lean in or out in either direction, creating an unfamiliar and disorienting experience. The pieces were installed at the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, during the fall and winter of 1998-99. Richard Serra: Sculpture 1985-1998 is the comprehensive catalog to that show; it also documents more than a decade of Serra’s output. A complement to the physical and visual weight of Serra’s austere and massive steel sculptures, this handsome hardcover is printed on 240 pages of heavy gloss stock, amply illustrated with 271 plates. It includes strikingly composed black-and-white photographs and a number of insightful sketches and diagrams that should help even readers who haven’t seen the pieces firsthand envisage their force. In his introductory essay titled “The Un/Making of Sculpture,” prominent art critic Hal Foster offers a series of notes inspired by Serra’s 1976 response to the question “What does making sculpture mean to you right now?” Foster discusses Serra’s engagement with historical precedents in art and architecture, his use of steel and the language of industrial production, and the dynamic he creates between his sculptures, their specific sites, and their viewers. Many of the plates are accompanied by Serra’s own comments, which, in addition to a lengthy interview with David Sylvester, further elucidate his process and key concerns, making the depth and breadth of his work accessible to even first-time viewers. These informative texts, as well as an exhibition chronology and selected bibliography, make this book a standout.

Selected as the United States representative to the 2001 Venice Biennale, the sculptor and installation artist Robert Gober has, thanks to several major museum exhibitions in recent years, established himself as perhaps the most important artist of his generation, thanks to his symbolically charged re-creations of everyday objects that he makes into installations that question the ideals and values of childhood, family, home, and religion. This catalogue presents his work for the United States pavilion at the Biennale. Essays by James Rondeau and Olga M. Viso.

“Il ritorno del reale” è un libro essenziale per chi si occupa seriamente di arte contemporanea, non solo perché spiega come siamo arrivati alla scena attuale, a quell’allargamento della sfera dell’arte che è tipico di tanta arte odierna, analizzando teorie e opere che hanno reso la seconda metà del secolo così ricco di proposte, ma anche perché Hal Foster non rinuncia ad un ruolo attivo della critica d’arte e rilegge l’arte dal dopoguerra ad oggi svelando i retroscena e le strategie di una società globale che ha favorito “una cultura visiva sempre più amministrata da un mondo dell’arte dominato da figure promozionali con scarso spirito critico, e da un mondo mediale di aziende di comunicazione e intrattenimento che non ha alcun interesse per qualsivoglia analisi critica”. La precisione delle sue analisi storiche e l’urgenza della sua attenzione verso il sociale hanno contraddistinto “Il ritorno del reale” come uno dei capolavori della letteratura critica degli anni Novanta.

Richard Serra is considered by many to be the most important sculptor of the postwar period. The essays in this volume cover the complete span of Serra’s work to date—from his first experiments with materials and processes through his early films and site works to his current series of “torqued ellipses.” There is a special emphasis on those moments when Serra extended aesthetic convention and/or challenged political authority, as in the famous struggle with the General Services Administration over the site-specific piece Tilted Arc.

“Hal Foster dedica questo studio ai primi anni della pop art e a cinque artisti che più di altri hanno forzato i limiti della pittura riuscendo a combinare la rivoluzione pop di un’immagine immediata con temi culturali e identitari, da quì il sottotitolo “pittura e soggettività”. In questo gioco tra arte bassa e alta, la pop art rimane in contatto con “la pittura della vita moderna” definita un secolo prima da Baudelaire come quell’arte che si sforza di distillare l’eterno dal quotidiano, dal transitorio. Si tratta tuttavia di una pittura “strategica” (“una sorta di meta-medium” la definisce Hal Foster), pronta ad accoppiarsi con la fotografia o le arti grafiche, ad accostare privacy e forme pubblicitarie, l’iconico e l’evanescente, con un atteggiamento ambiguo nei confronti della grande arte e della cultura di massa. Tutto ciò consente agli artisti pop di non essere né critici né rigorosamente complici ma, infine, proprio tale ambiguità, permette alle proprie opere di non limitarsi a riprodurre le proprie fonti ma di reinventarle, di poter comunque coltivare una consapevolezza critica delle contraddizioni culturali in atto. Per i lettori interessati a collocare la pop art nell’ambito del postmoderno e delle teorie postrutturaliste sulla soggettività, il libro di Foster è destinato a diventare un importante lavoro di riferimento, resoconto magistrale di uno dei periodi più importanti dell’arte del XX secolo, ma anche un libro che getta nuova luce sul presente dell’arte e sul nostro complesso rapporto con le immagini.Concentro le mie riflessioni su cinque artisti — Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha e Andy Warhol —perché rimandano, in maniera più evidente di altri, alle mutate condizioni della pittura e dello spettatore nel primo periodo della pop art, che faccio risalire alla metà degli anni Cinquanta. Ridotta alla sua essenza, la mia tesi è che in questo periodo cambia sia lo status dell’immagine che quello della soggettività e i lavori di questi artisti lo dimostrano nel modo più suggestivo”.(Hal Foster)

The collaborative strength of Parkett unfolds with artists and writers, with retrospective and future views — one last time. Parkett’s closing print issue is a double one — one volume is a traditional issue, this time with ten new artist collaborations, while the other consists of recollections and tributes. Going forward, Parkett volumes and editions will remain fully documented on the website and available via the Zurich and New York offices. Furthermore, all volumes including 1500 texts are currently being digitized and will become accessible online. New, expanded Parkett exhibitions in various museums are in preparation as well, which will further explore the publication’s singular approach as a thirty-three-year time capsule and archive. The double issue features collaborations with Nairy Baghramian, Maurizio Cattelan, Marlene Dumas, Katharina Fritsch, Katharina Grosse, Marilyn Minter, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Nicolas Party, Pipilotti Rist, and Jordan Wolfson. Each artist has created as usual a special limited edition Collaboration texts are by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith (on Nairy Baghramian), Massimiliano Gioni (on Maurizio Cattelan), Tamar Garb (on Marlene Dumas), Jacqueline Burckhardt (on Katharina Fritsch), Barry Schwabsky (on Katharina Gorsse), Nancy Spector (on Marilyn Minter), Matthew S. Witkovsky (on Jean-Luc Mylayne), Ali Subotnick (on Nicolas Party), Juliana Engberg (on Pipilotti Rist), and Andrew Russeth (on Jordan Wolfson). Previous collaboration artists have sent in some one hundred image and short text contributions. >Explore here The second half of the issue opens with two roundtables on the future of art publishing. The first discussion, moderated by editor Mark Welzel, took place in Berlin and featured Diedrich Diederichsen (writer on music, art, cinema, theatre, and politics), Jörg Heiser (director of the Institut für Kunst im Kontext at the Universität der Künste, Berlin), Olaf Nicolai (artist), Susanne Pfeffer (director of the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt), and Steffen Zillig (artist and writer), in addition to Parkett’s founding editors, Bice Curiger and Jacqueline Burckhardt. A New York conversation, moderated by executive editor Nikki Columbus, included Hal Foster (Professor at Princeton University, art critic, art historian, and co-editor, October), Michelle Kuo (former editor-in-chief, Artforum), and Hrag Vartanian (critic, curator, editor-in-chief and co-founder, Hyperallergic), as well as Curiger. Statements from Parkett’s past editors, curators, translators, and designers highlight what made the magazine special, while a wide and diverse range of artists write in to heap accolades in the form of images and texts.

In 1977, at the height of the disco craze, a club opened at 254 West 54th Street in New York City. Studio 54 was―and, arguably, remains―the world’s most renowned and legendary disco. Regularly attended by celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Michael Jackson, Calvin Klein, Elton John, John Travolta, Brooke Shields and Tina Turner, the club fostered an atmosphere of unadulterated hedonism for New York’s art and fashion set. Hasse Persson and his camera were frequent club guests from 1977–80. The images he photographed there have become legendary, capturing the club’s famed revelers, dancers in costume and general, drunken exhilaration―and yet, incredibly, Studio 54 marks the first time in history that they have seen publication. Almost 35 years after the club’s unceremonious and sudden closure, this beautiful hardback volume superbly documents the zeitgeist.
Hasse Persson (born 1942) has had a long career as a photojournalist. Though Swedish born, he spent nearly a quarter century, from 1967 to 1990, working in New York. He has published five books on America and his photographs have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and Life. He worked as the artistic director of the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg and today he is the artistic director of Strandverket Konsthall in Marstrand, Sweden.

Since the late 1990s, a vivid new sphere of cinematic practice in Southeast Asia has emerged and been identified as independent. What exactly does this term mean in relation to the way films and videos are made, and the way they look? How do issues of festival circulation, piracy, technology, state and institutional power, and spectatorship apply to practices of independent cinema throughout the diverse region? The authors who speak in this volume—contemporary filmmakers, critics, curators, festival organizers—answer these questions. They describe and analyze the emerging field of Southeast Asian cinema, which they know firsthand and have helped create and foster. Glimpses of Freedom is the outcome of a project collaboratively conceived by a new generation of scholars of cinema in Southeast Asia, inspired by the growing domestic and international visibility of notable films and videos from the region. Contributors include internationally esteemed independent filmmakers, critics, and curators based in Southeast Asia, such as Hassan Abd Muthalib, Alexis A. Tioseco, Chris Chong Chan Fui, and John Torres. International scholars such as Benedict Anderson, Benjamin McKay, May Adadol Ingawanij, and Gaik Cheng Khoo contextualize and theorize Southeast Asia’s “independent film cultures.” The interaction between practitioners and critics in this volume illuminates a contemporary artistic field, clarifying its particular character and its vital contributions to cinema worldwide. Contributors Benedict Anderson, Cornell University; Tilman Baumgärtel, Royal University of Phnom Penh; Angie Bexley, College of Asia and the Pacific (Australian National University); Chris Chong, independent film director, Malaysia; Hassan Abd Muthalib (artist, writer, and film director), Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia; Eloisa May P. Hernandez, University of the Philippines, Diliman; May Adadol Ingawanij, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, University of Westminster; Gaik Cheng Khoo, Australian National University; Mariam Lam, University of California–Riverside; Benjamin McKay (1964–2010), writer, critic, and academic, Kuala Lumpur; Vinita Ramani Mohan, Access to Justice Asia LLP; Alexis A. Tioseco (1981–2009), film critic, curator, and lecturer, Philippines; John Torres, musician and experimental filmmaker, Philippines; Chalida Uabumrungjit, Thai Film Foundation and Thai Short Film and Video Festival; Jan Uhde, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and Yvonne Ng Uhde, editorial board, KINEMA journal, University of Waterloo

In 1975, a small group of enterprising, discontented members of Quebec’s art community posed the question: “What do we know about contemporary art outside of Quebec, in Canada or abroad? Do we know what contemporary art exists in Montreal? How does information about art circulate?” By way of an answer, the artistically unconventional and theoretically cutting-edge magazine Parachute was launched, founded by Chantal Pontbriand and France Morin. Artists such as Jeff Wall, Bill Viola, Stan Douglas, Eija-Liisa Ahtila and many others had the first significant critical reception of their work in Parachute. Similarly, figures such as Douglas Crimp, Thomas Crow, Thierry de Duve, Georges Didi-Huberman, Hal Foster, Reesa Greenberg, Serge Guilbaut and Laura Mulvey published highly pertinent essays in the journal early on in their careers. The essays collected in this volume have been selected from the first 25 years of Parachute‘s publication history, from 1975 to 2000.

Situation–a unique set of conditions produced in both space and time and ranging across material, social, political, and economic relations–has become a key concept in twenty-first-century art. Rooted in artistic practices of the 1960s and 1970s, the idea of situation has evolved and transcended these in the current context of globalization. This anthology offers key writings on areas of art practice and theory related to situation, including notions of the site specific, the artist as ethnographer or fieldworker, the relation between action and public space, the meaning of place and locality, and the crucial role of the curator in recent situation specific art. In North America and Europe, the site-specific is often viewed in terms of resistance to art’s commoditization, while elsewhere situation-specific practices have defied institutions of authority. The contributors discuss these recent tendencies in the context of proliferating international biennial exhibitions, curatorial place-bound projects, and strategies by which artists increasingly unsettle the definition and legitimation of situation-based art.Artists surveyed include [from Ian 1/30]Vito Acconci, Allora & Calzadilla, Francis Alÿs, Carl Andre, Artist Placement Group, Michael Asher, Amy Balkin, Ursula Biemann, Bik Van der Pol, Daniel Buren, Victor Burgin, Janet Cardiff, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Adam Chodzko, Collective Actions, Tacita Dean, Elmgreen & Dragset, Andrea Fraser, Hamish Fulton, Dan Graham, Liam Gillick, Renée Green, Group Material, Douglas Huebler, Bethan Huws, Pierre Huyghe, Robert Irwin, Emily Jacir, Ilya Kabakov, Leopold Kessler, Július Koller, Langlands & Bell, Ligna, Richard Long, Gordon Matta-Clark, Graeme Miller, Jonathan Monk, Robert Morris, Gabriel Orozco, Walid Ra’ad, Raqs Media Collective, Paul Rooney, Martha Rosler, Allen Ruppersberg, Richard Serra, Situationist International, Tony Smith, Robert Smithson, Vivan Sundaram, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Lawrence Weiner, Rachel Whiteread, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Qiu Zhijie Writers include Arjun Appaduri, Marc Augé, Wim Beeren, Josephine Berry Slater, Daniel Birnbaum, Ava Bromberg, Susan Buck-Morss, Michel de Certeau, Douglas Crimp, Gilles Deleuze, T. J. Demos, Rosalyn Deutsche, Thierry de Duve, Charles Esche, Graeme Evans, Patricia Falguières, Marina Fokidis, Hal Foster, Hou Hanrou, Brian Holmes, Mary Jane Jacob, Vasif Kortun, Miwon Kwon, Lu Jie, Doreen Massey, James Meyer, Ivo Mesquita, Brian O’Doherty, Craig Owens, Irit Rogoff, Peter Weibel

Published on the occasion of his exhibition at the Swiss Pavilion of the 2011 Venice Biennale, “Establishing a Critical Corpus” is the first theoretical book to extensively examine the practice and artworks of Thomas Hirschhorn, one of today’s leading international Swiss artists. Born in 1957, and living and working in Paris since 1984, Thomas Hirschhorn is the author of a large body of work (site-specific installations, films, drawings, etc), immediately recognizable for its political conscience and its formal vocabulary. His work elicits debate, analysis, and a profound discussion of artistic and social issues. “Establishing a Critical Corpus” is thus a charged and intense “textbook,” providing texts and topics “to think about”: Hirschhorn’s work in general, a specific part of his work, one of his pieces, issues that extend beyond his work, and so on. These fully illustrated texts constitute the core of the book. As the artist says: “This publication asserts and gives form to one of my goals: ‘Establishing a Critical Corpus.’ A ‘textbook’ is what people are interested in: a critical and sovereign approach to art, to an artwork of today, and—in this case—to my artwork.” To establish this dense critical corpus, six authors from different fields and backgrounds were invited to contribute to the publication. They are Claire Bishop, Professor of Art History at CUNY Graduate Center; Sebastian Egenhofer, Professor of Art History at the University of Basel; Hal Foster, Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Princeton University; Manuel Joseph, a poet based in Paris; Yasmil Raymond, Curator at Dia Art Foundation, New York; and Marcus Steinweg, a philosopher based in Berlin. They give a remarkable insight into the uncompromising art and aesthetics that Thomas Hirschhorn has been building consistently for 25 years.

We owe our idea of the contemporary exhibition to Harald Szeemann–the first of the jet-setting international curators. From 1961 to 1969, he was Curator of the Kunsthalle Bern, where in 1968 he had the foresight to give Christo and Jeanne-Claude the opportunity to wrap the entire museum building. Szeemann’s groundbreaking 1969 exhibition When Attitudes Become Form, also at the Kunsthalle, introduced European audiences to artists like Joseph Beuys, Eva Hesse, Richard Serra and Lawrence Weiner. It also introduced the now-commonplace practice of curating an exhibition around a theme. Since Szeemann’s death in 2005, there has been research underway at his archive in Tessin, Switzerland. An invaluable resource, this volume provides access to previously unpublished plans, documents and photographs from the archive, along with important essays by Hal Foster and Jean-Marc Poinsot. There is also an informative interview with Tobia Bezzola–curator at the Kunsthauz Zurich and Szeemann’s collaborator for many years. Two of Szeemann’s most ambitious exhibitions are presented as case studies: Documenta V (1972) and L’Autre, the 4th Lyon Biennial (1997). A biography, an illustrated chronology of Szeemann’s exhibitions and a selection of his writings complete this exhaustive survey.

Carsten Höller has created a world that is equal parts laboratory and fun house. He explores important themes such as architecture, childhood, love, happiness, hallucination, and the future. Trained as a scientist, his work often takes the form of experiments designed to test the limits of human sensorial experience through carefully controlled situations.   

The exhibition presents a selection of pieces that highlight the different visual or experiential dimensions of Höller’s groundbreaking work. A number of signature works are presented, including his stroboscopic light installations, disorienting architectural environments, and a mirrored carousel.

This beautifully illustrated book is organized around approximately twenty significant themes developed in his work. Each of the themes is explored by an extraordinary group of curators and writers, including Daniel Birnbaum, Gary Carrion-Murayari, Germano Celant, Lynne Cooke,  Hal Foster, Massimiliano Gioni, Jessica Morgan, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno, Gloria Sutton, and Rosemarie Trockel, among many others. 

This book is in association with the New Museum.

This book follows the evoloution of Millau Viaduct in southern France from first sketches through to completion, as designed and executed by Foster + Partners, with engineer Michel Virlogeux. Spanning the spectacular gorge of the River Tarn in Southern France, the Millau Viaduct provides a critical link in the A75 autoroute between Clermont-Ferrand and Beziers. Commissioned by the French state, the 2.46 km-long viaduct resolves numerous structural and design challenges in an elegant cable-stayed form. Utilising optimised, repetitive spans with piers taller than the Eiffel Tower at their zenith, the bridge is structurally and visually elegant. Not only does it exemplify technical excellence, the Millau Viaduct illustrates the powerful impact that architecture of infrastructure can have on the environment. This monograph will appeal to those interested in architecture and design; equally, it illustrates a significant engineering feat.

This expanded edition of the fall 1994 special issue of October includes new essays by Sarat Maharaj and by Molly Nesbit and Naomi Sawelson-Gorse. It also includes the transcript of an exchange between T. J. Clark and Benjamin Buchloh which presents new responses to the problems raised by this immediately popular (and now out of print) issue of the journal.

The Duchamp Effect is an investigation of the historical reception of the work of Marcel Duchamp from the 1950s to the present, including interviews by Benjamin Buchloh (with Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Robert Morris), Elizabeth Armstrong (with Ed Ruscha and Bruce Conner), and Martha Buskirk (with Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, and Fred Wilson) and a round-table discussion of the Duchamp effect on conceptual art.

Contents

Introduction ∑ Benjamin H. D. Buchloh
What’s Neo about the Neo-Avant-Garde? ∑ Hal Foster
Typotranslating the Green Box ∑ Sarat Maharaj
Three Conversations in 1985: Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Robert Morris ∑ Benjamin H. D. Buchloh
Interviews with Ed Ruscha and Bruce Conner ∑ Elizabeth Armstrong
Echoes of the Readymade: Critique of Pure Modernism ∑ Thierry de Duve
Concept of Nothing: New Notes by Marcel Duchamp and Walter Arensberg ∑ Molly Nesbit and Naomi Sawelson-Gorse
Interviews with Sherrie Levine, Louis Lawler, and Fred Wilson ∑ Martha Buskirk
Thoroughly Modern Marcel ∑, Martha Buskirk
Conceptual Art and the Reception of Duchamp ∑ October Round Table
All the Things I Said about Duchamp: A Response to Benjamin Buchloh ∑ T. J. Clark
Response to T. J. Clark ∑ Benjamin Buchloh

Richard Serra, renowned for his challenging and inventive work, is widely considered to be one of the greatest sculptors of the contemporary era. The Matter of Time documents Serra’s recent commission by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao of seven monumental sculptures for the largest gallery of the museum. Together with Snake (1994–97), the work that Serra created for the museum’s grand opening, the sculptures create a permanent, site-specific installation of a scale and ambition unrivalled in modern history. Through a revealing interview-essay by Hal Foster, and writings and statements by the artist about his recent series Torqued Ellipses and the present, unprecedented commission, the book discloses the last 25 years of this sculptor’s oeuvre and the evolution of his sculptural vocabulary as it relates to this installation. Other writings by Carmen Giménez and a chronology by Kate Nesin help contextualize Serra’s work.

October: The Second Decade collects examples of the innovative critical and theoretical work for which the journal October is known. A journal anthology draws a collective portrait; together, the gathered texts demonstrate the journal’s ambitions and strengths. From the outset, October’s aim has been to consider a range of cultural practices and to assess their place at a particular historical juncture. That task has now taken on an intensified urgency. The catastrophic state of our urban economies and the attendant social crises, as well as the more general predicaments of a postcolonial era, have had an inescapable impact on the cultural and discursive practices that are October’s concern. Hence, October in its second decade has had an intensified concern with the role of cultural production within the public sphere and a sharper focus on the intersections of cultural practices with institutional structures. The topics of inquiry include body politics and psychoanalysis, spectacle and institutional critique, art practice and art history, and postcolonial discourse. Contributors: Carol Armstrong, Leo Bersani, Homi Bhabha, Yve-Alain Bois, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Susan Buck-Morss, Lygia Clark, T. J. Clark, Jonathan Crary, Gilles Deleuze, Manthia Diawara, Peter Eisenman, Hal Foster, Group Material, Denis Hollier, Alexander Kluge, Gertrud Koch, Silvia Kolbowski, Rosalind Krauss, Annette Michelson, Helen Molesworth, V. Y. Mudimbe, Oskar Negt, Mignon Nixon.

The contemporary painter Gerhard Richter (born in 1932) has been heralded both as modernity’s last painter and as painting’s modern savior, seen to represent both the end of painting and its resurrection. Richter works in a dizzying variety of styles, from abstraction to a German cool pop that combines painterly technique and appropriation; his work includes photo paintings, large abstract canvases, and stained glass windows. This collection features writing by prominent critics, including Hal Foster, Gertrud Koch, and Thomas Crow; an essay by Rachel Haidu on Richter’s family pictures that is published here for the first time; and an essay and two interviews with the artist by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Richter’s “longtime sparring partner” (as the curator Robert Storr has called him). These writings examine Richter’s work as a whole, from October 18, 1977, his dreamlike series of paintings depicting the dead Baader-Meinhof gang, to his abstract trio Abstract Paintings; from his unsettling portrait of “Uncle Rudi” in Nazi garb to his late series of portraits of his wife and young child. This addition to the October Files series will be an essential handbook to one of the most enigmatic figures in contemporary artContents Gerhard Richter and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh Interview (1986)Gertrud Koch The Richter-Scale of Blur (1992)Thomas Crow Hand-Made Photographs and Homeless Representation (1992)Birgit Pelzer The Tragic Desire (1993)Benjamin H. D. Buchloh Divided Memory and Post-Traditional Identity: Gerhard Richter’s Work of Mourning (1996)Peter Osborne Abstract Images: Sign, Image, and Aesthetic in Gerhard Richter’s Painting (1998)Hal Foster Semblance According to Gerhard Richter (2003)Johannes Meinhardt Illusionism in Painting and the Punctum of Photography (2005)Rachel Haidu Arrogant Texts: Gerhard Richter’s Family Pictures (2007)Gerhard Richter and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh Interview (2004)