Le Corbusier

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Hubertus Butin

The phrase "unique pieces in series" seems to be contradictory at first sight. For how can something that only exists once be present several times? But some of Gerhard Richter's editions embody this particular principle of uniqueness in series. In paintings, photographic works, prints, and drawings, Richter has developed the possibility to vary individual copies in their appearance. The entire set of an edition thus consists of unicultural variants whose difference is intended. Probably no other artist has made this design concept into a fundamental method of their art in such a fascinatingly diverse way. Die Formulierung "Unikate in Serie" scheint auf den ersten Blick in sich widersprüchlich zu sein. Denn wie kann etwas, was nur einmal vorhanden sein soll, mehrfach vorliegen? Doch manche von Gerhard Richters Auflagenwerken verkörpern dieses besondere Prinzip der Einzigartigkeit in Serie. In Malerei-Editionen, Foto­arbeiten, Druckgrafiken, Zeichnungen und Multiples hat Richter die Möglichkeit entwickelt, im Rahmen der ­jeweils gleichen Produktionsweise einzelne Exemplare in ihrer Erscheinung zu variieren. Die gesamte Auflage einer Edition besteht somit aus unikatären Varianten, deren Unterschiedlichkeit intendiert ist. Wohl kein an­derer Künstler hat dieses gestalterische Konzept auf so faszinierend vielfältige Weise zu einer grund­sätz­lichen Methode seiner Kunst gemacht.

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Giancarlo Fiorenza

"Examines the work of the Ferrarese court artist Dosso Dossi (c. 1486?-1542), with emphasis on his portrayal of ancient and vernacular subjects found in such works as Jupiter Painting Butterflies, Myth of Pan, Enchantress, and his frescoes of Aesop's fables"--Provided by publisher.

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Jerome Silbergeld and Dora C.Y. Ching

The calligrapher and book artist Xu Bing has been called the most innovative Chinese artist of our time. As a citizen of both China and the United States and the first Asian-American artist to win the prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius award," Xu Bing has fascinated and challenged audiences around the world with his imaginative textual art. From his 4,000 unreadable Chinese-looking characters, which unite Asian and Western audiences alike in an egalitarianism of induced illiteracy, to his invention of a "square words" language that makes "Chinese" readable by anyone at all, Xu Bing's use of language is at once artistically brilliant, highly entertaining, and profoundly subversive--a sharp-witted, masterly word-play that, in his own words, "strikes at the very essence of culture."In exhibitions on four continents, Xu Bing's printed art, mixed-media installations, and performance pieces--from books and calligraphic sculptures to inscribed pigs--have fascinated specialists and general audiences alike and generated a growing body of literature. This volume presents the first multidisciplinary study of Xu Bing's art and its intellectual implications. Included is an illuminating account by Xu Bing of his own work, as well as essays by leading scholars in a number of different fields.The essays address the place of this work within the long history of Chinese calligraphic practice, examine it in the context of Chinese intellectual dissidence, discuss Japanese avant-garde parallels, and judge it from a Western art-historical viewpoint.

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Massimo Cacciari

"Massimo Cacciari, one of the most influential social philosophers in Italy today, is the founder of the trend of criticism known as "negative thought" that focuses on the failure of traditional logic to explicate the problems of modernity. This book, which introduces his writings to an English-speaking audience, provides a striking social and philosophical account of the twentieth-century metropolis. Patrizia Lombardo's extensive introduction situates Cacciari's thought within the milieu of Italian political activism and philosophy between the 1960s and the 1980s, from his collaboration on the leftist journal Contropiano to his long association with Manfredo Tafuri.". "Cacciari studies the relation between philosophy and modern architecture and applies the thinking of avant-garde architects, artists, and writers to the social and political problems raised by technological society. He begins by defining the modern metropolis, using the terms and ideas of Georg Simmel and Max Weber, but revealing where their frameworks are limited. He then examines the work of Adolf Loos and other architects and designers in early twentieth-century Vienna, showing how their architecture and criticism expose the alienation and utopianism in notions of the organic city. Cacciari demonstrates how architecture intersects with the city and the state but also with the interior of the private dwelling and with its resistance to the external world. Bringing together philosophy, sociology, urbanism, labor history, economics, and aesthetics, he helps us comprehend via these disciplines a crucial period in the history of modernity."--BOOK JACKET.