Celebrating the awe and wonder of the Arctic Circle region through visual art from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Vast, impenetrable coniferous forests, "white" summer nights, the perpetual darkness of snowy winters and the famous aurora borealis-the Arctic Circle is a fascinating, if unforgiving, region. The Fondation Beyeler and the Buffalo AKG Art Museum present an exhibition dedicated to this phenomenon with a stunning selection of 19th- and 20th-century paintings by artists from Scandinavia, Finland
En première mondiale, la Fondation Beyeler présente pour la première fois des chefs-d'oeuvre surréalistes de la collection Hersaint. L'exposition comprend environ 50 oeuvres clés d'artistes tels que Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Dorothea Tanning et bien d'autres. Les images reprennent des thèmes centraux du surréalisme, tels que le rêve, l'inconscient, la métamorphose ou la forêt comme lieu de l'énigme. La collection a été fondée par le banquier Claude Hersaint, qui a acheté son premier tableau de Max Ernst à l'âge de 17 ans. Une passion pour l'art s'est développée tout au long de sa vie, pour aboutir à l'une des plus importantes collections de peinture surréaliste. Les tableaux de la collection Hersaint sont présentés en dialogue avec des oeuvres de la Fondation Beyeler. L'exposition qui se déroule du 16 février au 4 mai 2025 est réalisée grâce au soutien de la fille de Claude Hersaint, Evangéline Hersaint, et de son épouse Laetitia Hersaint-Lair.
Sheila Hicks has made wool, linen, and silk her central media, pushing the boundaries of traditional textile art. Her works combine color, form, and material in novel ways and explore architectural dimensions. As a pioneer of textile conceptual art, Hicks has developed a distinctive visual language over six decades, from finely woven miniatures to monumental installations that open up new perspectives on the possibilities of art. This book contains views of Sheila Hicks's exhibition a little bit of a lot of things at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen as well as a conversation with the curator Rob Storr and an essay by Gianni Jetzer. It also documents a master class held by the artist in St. Gallen and contains previously unpublished images.
Georg Baselitz enters a dialogue with the Old Masters - invited by Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, the acclaimed German painter and sculptor engages in a visual conversation. Baselitz himself curated this selection of works, focusing exclusively on nude painting. Both the exhibition and the catalogue revolve around this elemental human state, and its fundamental role in European art.
From the beginning of his career, Baselitz's work has been informed by a pronounced awareness of art history, above all he was inspired by Mannerism's break with classical rules. Insights into the history of nude painting, as well into the topicality of painting itself, emerge from this encounter of Baselitz's works with historical paintings of an idealized beauty from Kunsthistorisches Museum. The carefully chosen juxtapositions open up a space in which one can reflect and experience the essence of painting anew.
This book is a comprehensive tribute to the Polish-Belgian artist Tapta (Maria Wierusz-Kowalska). Her work transcends traditional artistic boundaries, captivating audiences with her innovative exploration of fluid spaces and dynamic interactions. Her work, an important contribution to twentieth century sculpture, is essentially divided into two major sections: the textile works of the 1960s to 1980s and the subsequent neoprene works of the last years of her life. Her practice moved away from traditional weaving through experimental techniques and evolved into three-dimensional works?first made of cords, then of neoprene sheets?that interacted with the space and the viewer.
We often say that photography captures a moment in time. It is static and doesn't change, like an immovable mountain. Bastiaan van Aarle shows us a different way of thinking about both time and the mountain. Not as something fixed, but ever changing. He does this by capturing the change in light, caused by the rotation of the planet. It appears as a soft color palette in the images. It transforms the mountain and forces us to look differently. The book takes us on the same journey as the photographer. Past the details of erosion and the tree line to the beautiful vistas. We are given the time to stop and think what both the mountain and time can mean to us.
Legendary automobiles, designed by artists
In Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's lithograph The Motorist, a car races across the picture twelve years after the first drive of the Benz Patent Motor Car Number 1 in July 1886. At the beginning of the 20th century, La 628-E8 was published, a novel with the car number of its author Octave Mirbeau in the title. In his Futurist Manifesto, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti values the beauty of the roar and the speed of a racing car over the aesthetics of the Nike of Samothrace. Artists have been exploring the automobile since its invention. The BMW Art Cars play a central role in this: Alexander Calder's BMW 3.0 CSL was the first in a series launched in 1975 by Hervé Poulain, a lover of motor racing and works of art, and BMW Motorsport Director Jochen Neerpasch. Since then, 20 artists have designed BMW models, with many «rolling sculptures» proving their worth not only in museums but also on the Le Mans race track.
With contributions from: John Baldessari, Alexander Calder, Sandro Chia, Ken Done, Olafur Eliasson, Cao Fei, Ernst Fuchs, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Michael Jagamara Nelson, Matazo Kayama, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Esther Mahlangu, César Manrique, Julie Mehretu, A.R. Penck, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol and others.
From Carl Meyer to Wener Herzog to Christian Petzold--a record of German film history through the lens of one remarkable archive
This lavishly illustrated volume tells the story of German film based on the collection holdings of the Deutsche Kinemathek. This impressive archive houses several hundred thousand photographs, 25,000 posters, 26,500 films and approximately 20,000 costumes and architectural sketches. A few standouts include the entirety of Marlene Dietrich's estate, donations by Werner Herzog and the TV documentary filmmaker Georg Stefan Troller, as well as film scripts by Carl Mayer and Christian Petzold.
German Film traces the nation's cinematic history from its beginnings in 1895 to the present day, illustrating the artistic, technical, political and social developments that have shaped its course. Twelve chapters, organized by decade, and more than 450 texts present famous and lesser-known films. The volume pays tribute to the filmmaking techniques popularized in the country as well as to all those personalities whose creativity established German film's diversity. Around 2,700 objects from all areas of the collection illustrate a period of 130 years and form an overwhelming overview of the Kinemathek's archive holdings.
When you think of techno and electronic dance music, you first think of clubs and festivals, ecstatic dancers and enraptured DJs. But in which spaces is this music actually created? Artists' studios and writing rooms of authors and composers have long been the focus of public attention and research. The studios of DJs and electronic music producers, however, have so far remained largely hidden.
L'artiste américain Peter Downsbrough utilise le livre comme médium depuis le début des années 1970. Cet ouvrage présente en détail les 85 livres publiés par Downsbrough (dont une partie l'a été aux Presses du réel).
Image Cities is the latest project of photographer Anastasia Samoylova. In the series, carried out in cities across the globe, Samoylova studies the proliferation of photographic images in urban environments. She observes how in our neo-liberal era of networked economic markets and networked imagery the global centers of internationalized money and culture are becoming increasingly aligned and similar. At the same time, however, these cities attempt to promote their individuality, often by repurposing their specific histories. Samoylova's work reveals how the cities she photographs are moving towards a generic urban landscape of anonymous steel and glass, and it also points to the role photography plays in creating this ideological gap between branded urban identity and lived reality.
The Moscow Metro is a unique place. With a network of 400 kilometers of lines, exceptionally deep tunnels and stations, and nearly 9 million passengers a day, it is one of the most heavily frequented underground subway systems in the world. Katharina Gruzei explored it over several years and now presents an aesthetically fascinating and socioculturally remarkable photographic survey. Ideologically charged and symbolic of Russia's eventful history, the Metro was started as a prestige project and simultaneously conceived to also be used as a bunker. It was always intended as a place for people to congregate and is still today a living space where social, political and societal tendencies are made legible. With her photo series, the artist enables an extraordinary journey through time and space in the underground of Moscow, a metropolis of millions.
One photographer's nostalgic, archive-based look at her mother, after whom she was named
For over 20 years, photographer Loli Kantor (born 1952) has excavated her family archives to explore the wider upheavals of war and displacement, trauma and bereavement. Her mother, Lola, lies at the heart of the project: a woman manifested through images and stories rather than direct memory.
What does it mean to think of art as a public affair? How does art intersect with the concept of "the public"? These compelling questions lie at the heart of "Res Publica: Art as a Public Affair", a thought-provoking book inspired by Boris Groys's influential essay Art in the Age of Democracy. This publication examines the complex relationship between art, public life, and existential issues, addressing universal themes such as isolation, freedom, meaninglessness, and death-and their political and societal implications.
Through 260 stunning images and critical essays, this 320-page book explores how art navigates psychological, political, and philosophical challenges. Topics range from national identity, migration, and mass movements to intimacy, shame, and the effects of totalitarianism. By investigating the political instrumentalization of human conditions, this book offers fresh perspectives on art's role in shaping public consciousness and fostering collective reflection.
A must-read for art enthusiasts, sociologists, philosophers, and anyone interested in the intersection of art, politics, and society.
Integer Study (Drawing from Life) is a portfolio of 365 drawings recorded daily like journal entries since the start of 2021. Over the years, Jitish Kallat has developed a "vocabulary of studio rituals," mediated by natural elements, time, and the use of dates, measurements, and numbers as sense-making devices. In Integer Study, three sets of numbers-global human population, births, and deaths at a specific moment-give rise to thoughtforms.
The ALBERTINA honors Adrian Ghenie with a revolutionary exhibition based on the idea and concept by Ciprian Adrian Barsan. Adrian Ghenie brings Schiele's lost works - known only through blackandwhite photographs - back to life. About a quarter of Schiele's paintings remain missing or were destroyed. These lost images, which address themes such as death, sexuality, and melancholy, exist only as shadowy photographs. The project 'Egon Schiele Schattenbilder' takes viewers on a metaphysical journey through decay and rebirth. Ghenie transforms these shadow images into vivid manifestations of the color spectrum, blurring the lines between reality and abstraction. The exhibition will be held at the ALBERTINA from October 11, 2024, to February 9, 2025.
In her paintings, Rebekka Steiger takes us into strange and colorful dream worlds. Sometimes flowery, sometimes eerie, her paintings are characterized by the dialectic of statics and movement. Steiger's pictures show landscapes, trees, and figures, which she combines into unfinished stories that are sometimes reminiscent of myths and legends. Drawing-like brushstrokes and painterly gestures are superimposed on her canvases to create colorful, dense compositions.
