Preface by David A. Ross Endgame provides the first comprehensive discussion of two interrelated groups of artists who have recently emerged amidst brisk critical debate and who all, in various ways, represent a critique of the commodity, or the commodification of art objects. These are the painters Ross Bleckner, Peter Halley, Sherrie Levine, and Philip Taaffe, who have ironically adopted the visual strategies of earlier modern artists, and the sculptors General Idea, Jon Kessler, Jeff Koons, Joel Otterson, and Haim Steinbach, who use consumer objects and their modes of presentation as raw material in their sculpture. Both sets of artists draw upon the formal lessons of Pop Art, Minimalism, and the more recent work of "appropriation" artists, as well as upon current theories of the political economy of the image. The book includes substantial essays by some of today's most noted art historians and critics: Yve-Alain Bois (Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University) charts the history of the belief in "the end of painting" which he sees as central within 20th-century art, and he compares the diverse strategies that Mondrian, Rodchenko, Duchamp, and more recently Robert Ryman have employed to work out an "end of painting," with the qualitatively different apocalyptic tone of Halley, Levine, Bleckner, and Taaffe. Hal Foster (Senior Editor of Art in America) examines the critical position of the sculpture of Steinbach, Koons, Kessler, and General Idea in relation to the history of the opposition between commodity and art object within modern art as first dramatized by Duchamp's readymades. Thomas Crow (Associate Professor of Art History, University of Michigan) charts the recent history of image appropriation as an antimodern or postmodern gesture of art's apparent loss of originality and cultural or social powerlessness in the face of the paradoxically thriving art market. The iconography of the sculptures included in Endgame is the focus of David Joselit's essay Modern Leisure, which notes in particular the frequency with which objects associated with sports and housecleaning are incorporated in their works. Elisabeth Sussman charts the transition between widespread appropriation of imagery drawn from mass media sources in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the use of fine art referents (like Op Art) in recent abstract painting. Bob Riley describes media performances by Richard Baim, Gretchen Bendes and Perry Hoberman which accompany Endgame. David Joselit, Bob Riley, and Elisabeth Sussman are curators at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Distributed by The MIT Press.

Endgame: Reference and Simulation in Recent Painting and Sculpture

FOSTER, HAL

Bois, Yve-Alain

Joselit, David

Sussman, Elisabeth

Crow, Thomas

Riley, Bob

Travel

Mit Pr

Eva Hesse, a pivotal figure in the development of postwar international art, created paintings, sculpture, and works on paper that were striking in their beauty and playful sensibility. Although much has been written about Hesse's dramatic life--her childhood flight from Nazi Germany, her struggles to gain acceptance as a young female artist, her battle with cancer, and her tragic death in 1970 at the age of 34--her art has yet to receive the critical attention it deserves. This lavishly illustrated catalogue redresses that omission, focusing on Hesse's innovative working methods and choices of materials as well as on the larger aesthetic and philosophical questions raised by her artistic practice. The book presents and documents over two hundred works by Hesse in all media. Particular attention is devoted to the degradation and aging of her sculptures over the past three decades. Essays by a distinguished team of writers deal with themes of mutability and decay in Hesse's art; discuss her little-known early career in New York and Germany; explore her innovative use of translucent materials; and examine the role of drawing and collage in her creative process.

Eva Hesse

Arts & Photography

Fer, Briony

Meyer, James

Temkin, Ann

Timpanelli, Gioia

Petzinger, Renate

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Yale University Press

The work of Eva Hesse (19361970), one of the greatest American artists of the 1960s, continues to inspire and to endure in large part because of its deeply emotional and evocative qualities. Her latex and fiberglass sculptures in particular have a resonance that transcends the boundaries of minimalist art in which she had her roots. Hesse’s breakthrough solo exhibitionChain Polymers at the Fischbach Gallery in New York in 1968was a turning point in postwar American art. Eva Hesse: Sculpture focuses on the artist’s large-scale sculptures in latex and fiberglass and provides a rare opportunity to look at Hesse’s artistic achievement within the historical context of her life in never-before-seen family diaries and photographs. Essays consider Hesse’s art from a variety of angles: Elisabeth Sussman discusses the sculptures shown in the 1968 solo exhibition; Fred Wasserman delves into the Hesse family’s life in Nazi Germany and in the German Jewish community in New York in the 1940s; Yve-Alain Bois examines Hesse’s works within the context of the art and aesthetic theories of the 1960s; and Mark Godfrey analyzes the importance of Hesse’s celebrated hanging sculptures of 196970. In addition to color reproductions of the artist’s sculpture, the book features a copiously illustrated chronology of the artist’s life.

Eva Hesse: Sculpture, Organized by the Jewish Museum and Presented from May 12 to September 17, 2006

Wasserman, Fred

Individual Artists

Jewish Museum / Yale University Press

Elvis’s Graceland, a freezer stuffed with food, a Gulf gasoline sign standing in a deserted rural landscapethese are only a few of the iconic images captured by the democratic camera” of photographer William Eggleston. Not only has he drawn upon images so telling of American culture, he has produced them with an intensity and balance of color that have helped elevate the entire field of color photography to a fine art, especially since his 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
Drawing together Eggleston’s famous and lesser-known works, this lavishly illustrated catalogue is the first to examine both his photography and videos. Of particular relevance are his black-and-white images from the late 1950s and 1960s, which helped shape his color photography, as well as the relationship between his provocative video recordings of 1970s Memphis nightlife and his later work. Included are reproductions of newly restored prints, executed specifically for the exhibition. 
Filled with new and challenging contributions to scholarship and accompanying the first major U.S. survey of his work, this catalogue will prove the standard reference for Eggleston’s photographs for years to come.

William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008

Weski, Thomas

The Whitney Museum of American Art

For more than 30 years, Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner have devoted themselves to contemporary art, and through their passion and acumen have assembled an extraordinary collection. This handsomely illustrated volume is the first to document the collection of Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner, more than 850 artworks in all media that have been promised to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Artists represented include Lee Friedlander, Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Ryan Gander, and Bernadette Corporation, among others, and the works span from the 1950s to 2014. Over 300 highlights illustrate the collectors’ commitment to acquiring works that challenge, excite, confound, and amuse. Essays offer context for understanding the importance of the works as a group and illuminate the art world milieus in which the collectors immersed themselves. The book also includes an engaging interview with the collectors, providing a personal perspective on contemporary art acquisition.

Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner

Macel, Christine

History & Criticism

Whitney Museum of American Art

The first comprehensive overview of an influential American photographer and filmmaker whose work is known for its intimacy and social engagement Coming of age in the 1960s, the photographer Danny Lyon (b. 1942) distinguished himself with work that emphasized intimate social engagement. In 1962 Lyon traveled to the segregated South to photograph the civil rights movement. Subsequent projects on biker culture, the demolition and redevelopment of lower Manhattan, and the Texas prison system, and more recently on the Occupy movement and the vanishing culture in China’s booming Shanxi Province, share Lyon’s signature immersive approach and his commitment to social and political issues that concern those on the margins of society. Lyon’s photography is paralleled by his work as a filmmaker and a writer. Danny Lyon: Message to the Future is the first in-depth examination of this leading figure in American photography and film, and the first publication to present his influential bodies of work in all media in their full context. Lead essayists Julian Cox and Elisabeth Sussman provide an account of Lyon’s five-decade career. Alexander Nemerov writes about Lyon’s work in Knoxville, Tennessee; Ed Halter assesses the artist’s films; Danica Willard Sachs evaluates his photomontages; and Julian Cox interviews Alan Rinzler about his role in publishing Lyon’s earliest works. With extensive back matter and illustrations, this publication will be the most comprehensive account of this influential artist’s work.

Danny Lyon: Message to the Future

Cox, Julian

Nemerov, Alexander

Sachs, Danica Willard

Halter, Ed

Rinzler, Alan

Photography & Video

“The work of the sculptor Rachel Harrison is both the zeitgeist and the least digestible in contemporary art. It may also be the most important, owing to an originality that breaks a prevalent spell in an art world of recycled genres, styles, and ideas.”—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker In her sculptures, room-sized installations, drawings, photographs, and artist’s books, Rachel Harrison (b. 1966) delves into themes of celebrity culture, pop psychology, history, and politics. This publication, created in close collaboration with the artist, explores twenty-five years of her practice and is the first comprehensive monograph on Harrison in nearly a decade. Its centerpiece is an in-depth plate section, which doubles as a chronology of Harrison’s major works, series, and exhibitions. Objects are illustrated with multiple views and details, and accompanied by short texts. This thorough approach elucidates Harrison’s complicated, eclectic oeuvre—in which she integrates found materials with handmade sculptural elements, upends traditions of museum display, and injects quotidian objects with a sense of strangeness. Six accompanying essays cover Harrison’s earliest works to her most recent output. The book also includes a handful of photo-collages that the artist created specifically for this project. Published here for the first time, these pieces superimpose found images with reproductions of Harrison’s own past work.

Rachel Harrison Life Hack

Named one of the season’s best photography books by TIME Lightbox.
Danny Lyon is one of the 20th century’s most influential documentary photographers. In The Seventh Dog, Lyon tells the story of his personal photographic journey, beginning in the present day and moving back in time through the 1950s. Beautifully produced, this unique photo book features Lyon’s own writings, collages, letters, documents, and color and black–and–white photographs – many published here for the first time.

The Seventh Dog

Phaidon Press

The seminal work by photographer and artist Roger Ballen, re&amp;hyphen;released in an expanded edition with never&amp;hyphen;before-seen images from Ballen’s archive.
The culmination of nearly 20 years of work, Outland marked Ballen’s move from documentary photography into the realms of fiction and propelled him into the international spotlight. Disturbing, exciting and impossible to forget, Ballen’s images captured people living on the fringes of South African society. His powerful psychological studies influenced a generation of artists and still resonate today.
First published in 2001, Outland is back in print and expanded to include 50 never&amp;hyphen;before&amp;hyphen;seen images from Ballen’s archive with illuminating new commentary from the artist himself.

Outland

Weiermair, Peter

Book by Sussman, Elisabeth, Golden, Thelma, Hanhardt, John, Phillips, Lisa

1993 Biennial Exhibition (Whitney Biennial)

Phillips, LIsa

GOLDEN, Thelma

Hanhardt, John

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF ART.

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