Van Gogh face to face

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[Redaktion, Martin Engler

"Made in Germany offers a comprehensive survey of contemporary art in Germany. At its core are fifty-two young artists living and working in Germany, about half of whom are from abroad and all of whom are among the promising newcomers of the international art scene. In looking at questions of artistic identity, Made in Germany no longer simply considers the birthplace and biography of the artists, but also the context of where the work itself is produced. This is the first time that modern German art has been clearly examined to this great an extent as a weave of national particularities and cultural exchange." "This volume provides concise insights into the complete oeuvres of all the artists, as well as an informative comparison of the individual artists and each of their different regional and biographical contexts."--Jacket.

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Theodora Vischer and Heidi Naef

"Jeff Wall's large color transparencies set forth an imposing and seductive pictorial world. Ranging from the gritty realism of the city street to bizarre flights of fantasy, his photographs have won him wide recognition as one of the most adventurous and accomplished artists of the past three decades. This book accompanies a major retrospective jointly organized in 2007 by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Neal Benezra, Director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Between showings in New York and San Francisco, the show visits The Art Institute of Chicago." "Born in 1946 in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he lives and works, Jeff Wall has charted an ambitious and unique path through the maze of contemporary art, drawing upon such diverse resources as Conceptual art, Neorealist cinema, philosophy, literature, critical theory, modernist photography, and the venerable tradition of European painting. The exhibition includes all of his major works to date, which are reproduced here along with several very recent pictures and a generous selection of artistic sources, cousins, and echoes. The latter are illustrations to Galassi's essay, which sketches the breadth and originality of Wall's artistic and intellectual universe and challenges conventional interpretations of his development and achievement. The book also includes an interview with the artist by James Rondeau, Frances & Thomas Dittmer Chairman, Department of Contemporary Art, The Art Institute of Chicago."--Jacket.

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Rudolf Koella

Mit dem Bild 'Le bain au soir d?été' überwindet Félix Vallotton (1865-1925) den tonigen Realismus seines Frühwerks und bekennt sich zum farbigen Synthetismus der Nabis-Phase. Thematisch schliesst er sich mit der Szene der Badenden an die Tradition an und lässt eine Nähe zu Puvis de Chavannes oder gar zu Lucas Cranach erkennen. Gleichzeitig findet er mit diesem Werk auch die Zugehörigkeit zur eigenen Zeit und darüber hinaus zum unverkennbar eigenen Ausdruck. Das grossformatige Werk, das am Pariser Salon des Indépendants zu sehen war, löste einen Skandal aus. Nicht das Thema selbst erregte Anstoss, sondern die stilistische Formulierung und Zuspitzung der Motive: die karikierenden Frisuren und Gesichtszüge der einzelnen Frauen und ihre ausladenden Körperformen, die aller ästhetischen Ideale entbehrten. In diesen Bildsetzungen glaubte man bewusste Attacken des Künstlers auf die damalige Gesellschaft zu erkennen. Verunsichernd wirkte auch die thematische Rätselhaftigkeit des Werks. Eben diese ikonographische Offenheit, die Vallottons Bildwelt auszeichnet, hält sein Werk bis heute spannend. 0'Le bain au soir d?été' befindet sich heute in der Dauerausstellung des Kunsthaus Zürich.

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Steven C. Brown

Masks, bowls, bentwood boxes, and weavings from Native artists of the Northwest Coast grace museums around the world. Northwest Coast art embodies a highly flexible tradition, reinterpreted by individuals in each generation, as is evidenced by artifacts collected from the area over the last two centuries. This richly informative book includes photographs of more than 160 objects from Seattle area private collections and the Seattle Art Museum, grouped chronologically to illustrate evolutionary changes within the Northwest Coast art tradition. This is a tradition of great antiquity which also remains vital and alive today in the work of the best contemporary Northwest Coast Native artists. Among the extraordinary artworks illustrated in Native Visions are archaeological artifacts and the earliest documented Northwest Coast objects, collected in the eighteenth century, along with numerous pieces by the nineteenth-century artist Charles Edenshaw, masks and totem pole models by Willie Seaweed, and an unusual gold sculpture by Bill Reid.