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Since its beginnings in Paris in the mid-19th century, the idea of bohemia, an urban community of artists and intellectuals living outside bourgeois norms, has been a potent trope of artistic identity. It was here that the notion of an unconventional, free-spirited life, precarious yet filled with idealism, was codified and romanticized. Bohemia: History of an Idea, 1950 - 2000 shows the continuities and differences between the scenes and subcultures of the second half of the twentieth century, when the mainstream began to appropriate and thereby erode a way of life predicated on its rejection. Nonetheless, as an alternative to conformity the bohemian idea has exerted an enduring fascination. Through works by 39 artists, including Alice Neel, PeterHujar, John Deakin, David Wojnarowicz, Ed van der Elsken, Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, William Gedney, LibuSe Jarcovjáková, Nan Goldin, Zhang Huan and Wolfgang Tillmans, the publication explores the diversity of expressions in various cities in Europe, North America and Asia and shows that the bohemian idea continues to galvanize and inspire.RUSSELL FERGUSON is a research professor at the University of California's Art Department. During his tenure at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, he curated numerous exhibitions on culture and representation in contemporary art and photography.

Rough, pristine, and poetic: Jan Jedlicka is a painter, draftsman, graphic artist, photographer and filmmaker, but also a wanderer and explorer. As an attentive observer, he engages with the subtle changes caused by light, the seasons, or human interventions in his environment. Precise, delicate, and quietly persistent, Jedlicka's works refer to the landscapes and places in which he moves and returns to again and again like the Italian Maremma. For his drawings, watercolors, and paintings, he extracts pigments from minerals found on site-and thus literally brings the landscape onto paper and canvas. This publication explores Jedlicka's oeuvre from the 1970s onwards-not chronologically, but as a map of the artist's movements through the landscape, and along the paths of his various artistic strategies.Jan Jedlicka (b. 1944, Prague) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague before migrating to Switzerland in 1969. He works in various media: painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, and film. His works have been exhibited in various galleries and museums in Europe.

Jakub Julian Ziólkowski's vibrant works are bizarre and alluring. In his wild, surreal cosmos of mutant humans, organic forms and circulatory systems, the Polish painter mixes cultural symbols, the decorative and the fantastical. Juxtaposing the spiritual and the microscopic, he creates a universe bristling with detail and a kaleidoscope of references-from Hiernoymos Bosch visions of heaven and hell and James Ensor's grotesque allegories to Philip Guston.Yet, his paintings show a highly personal world that is populated by a recurring cast of characters. This publication is the first comprehensive overview of his work from 2005 to the present, giving insights into his artistic practice in different media: from painting to sculpture, ceramics as well as drawing. The book includes essays by Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and Cecilia Alemani, curator of the 59. Venice Biennale, an in-depth interview with the artist, as well as texts by philosopher Kajetan Mlynarski and psychologist Bartlomiej Dobroczynski.JAKUB JULIAN ZIÓLKOWSKI (*1980, Zamosc, Poland) is one of the most eminent Polish contemporary painters. He trained at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he lives and works today. Since 2003, his work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including Hauser & Wirth, London (2017), Neues Museum Nürnberg (2017), and the 55. Biennale di Venezia (2013).

Von Nutella und Penaten-Creme über Produkte aus dem Hygienebereich bis hin zu einem ausrangierten Wohnwagen oder alten Kühlschränken - Produkte industrieller Massenproduktionen bilden eine Grundlage für die skulpturalen Werke von Thomas Rentmeister. Seine körperbezogenen, minimalistischen Skulpturen und Installationen kombinieren Ästhetisches und Abstoßendes auf unlogische Weise. Damit, ebenso wie mit dem Einsatz teils absurd großer Materialmengen, formuliert er spielerisch einen - teils humorvollen - Gesellschaftskommentar, der visuellen wie thematischen Anlass dazu liefert, neu über die Dinge nachzudenken, die uns im Alltag umgeben.Der Katalog bietet einen guten Werküberblick, mit neuen Arbeiten seit der letzten großen Publikation von 2011. Die Texte von Anna Mosemann und Hendrik Bündge sowie ein Interview mit dem Künstler öffnen neue Perspektiven auf Rentmeisters Werk.THOMAS RENTMEISTER (*1964) arbeitet in den Bereichen Skulptur und Installation. Seit 2007 ist er Professor an der HBK Braunschweig. Seine Arbeiten sind in zahlreichen Sammlungen vertreten und wurden weltweit ausgestellt, so im Hamburger Bahnhof, im Kunstmuseum Bonn, in der Kunsthalle Nürnberg, im Museum Boijmans van Beuningen und im Perth Institute of Contemporary Art.

Since 1955, the annual World Press Photo Contest has set the standard in visual journalism. The 2023 Yearbook showcases the most striking press photographs and compelling reports from 2022, carefully selected from thousands of entries by six regional and one global jury of acclaimed independent professionals. Providing a diversity of perspectives from all over the world, the awarded works bear witness to the events that shaped this past year, and document in long-term projects the ongoing issues we face. Recognizing the importance of photojournalism and documentary photography at a time, when the truth is contested, the awarded images share courageous stories and present invaluable insights¿ from warzones, the struggle for civil rights and political empowerment, to the visible impact of the climate crisis, which could be felt in 2022 more acutely than ever.For six decades, the WORLD PRESS PHOTO FOUNDATION has been working from its home in Amsterdam as an independent, non-profit organization. To provide truly global perspectives, the foundation launched a new regional strategy in 2022. From January to March 2023 six regional and one global jury will decide on 24 regional and 4 global winners.

Ihren eigenen Körper als Rohmaterial einsetzend, dekonstruiertdie französische Künstlerin ORLAN die traditionelleIkonografie des Weiblichen. In den 1990er-Jahren erregteORLAN mit den an ihrem Körper vorgenommenen chirurgischenOperations-Performances großes Aufsehen. IhrFrühwerk ist weniger bekannt: Bereits 1964, mit 17 Jahren,gebiert sie ihr künstlerisches Selbst. Seitdem erschafft siesich immer wieder neu. Ihr Körper wird zugleich Subjektund Objekt, ironisch und provokativ spielt sie mit Identität.Diese Publikation fächert die gesamten sechs Jahrzehntevon ORLANs Werk auf und beleuchtet besonders ihrefrühen Performances. Zu ihren jüngsten Neuerschaffungengehört der Roboter ORLAN-OÏDE, und mit Hilfe einerAugmented Reality App steigen gar ORLAN-Avatare ausdem farbenprächtigen Buch heraus und werden lebendig.Dass der Körper politisch ist, zeigt sich in all ihren Arbeiten:1989 verwandelt sie Gustave Courbets Bild L'originedu monde in L'origine de la guerre, indem sie die Vulvadurch den Phallus ersetzt. Das Statement büßt nicht anAktualität ein.Die französische Künstlerin ORLAN (*1947, Saint-Étienne) ist eine der bedeutendsten Vertreterinnen der Feministischen Avantgarde, der Performance-Kunst und Begründerin L'Art Charnel (der Fleischeskunst). ORLAN setzt seit sechs Jahrzehnten ihren eigenen Körper als künstlerisches Material ein. Sie lebt und arbeitet in Paris.

Eric Hattan ist bekannt dafür, listige Eingriffe an Orten vorzunehmen und mit dem Durchkreuzen der bekannten Ordnung für Überraschung zu sorgen. So auch im Museum Langmatt, das den Schweizer Künstler eingeladen hat, seine Räumlichkeiten zu bespielen. Die historische Villa mit ihrem Mahagoni-Parkett, ihren edlen Teppichen, Kronleuchtern und dem gepflegten Garten bildet eine Kontrastfolie für die Installationen Hattans, die sich aus abgetragenen Kleidungsstücken, Metallteilen und weiteren weniger erlesenen Materialien zusammenfügen. Five o'clock Shadow dokumentiert den spannungsreichen Dialog, der dabei entsteht, und macht spürbar, wie das ehrwürdige Gebäude durch Hattans Intervention aufblüht.Der in Basel und Paris lebende ERIC HATTAN (*1955, Wettingen, Schweiz) zählt zu den erfindungsreichsten Konzeptkünstlern der Schweiz. Seine künstlerische Sprache zeigt sich chamäleonartig in diversen Medien und findet seit vielen Jahren internationale Beachtung.

Atem, Lehm-the German words for "breath" and "clay", a title inspired by a poem by Paul Celan-is the first monograph dedicated to Latvian artist Daiga Grantina.Grantina's solo show at GAMeC in Bergamo represented a major evolution in her poetics, a decisive and coherent change of palette and pace compared to her amorphous in-situ installations that have characterized her work to date. A mural forms an open-ended structure with its potentially infinite combinations: It seems to breathe, constraining and distending the grounding of space.The book's structure mirrors this evolution, exploring a before, characterized by large-scale environmental installations in New York's New Museum, the Biennale di Venezia and in Palais de Tokyo, Paris, to name a few, and an after, when the artist's sculptural environments seem to shift their locus of perception.

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.GEORG BASELITZ (*1938, Deutschbaselitz) is without a doubt one of the most influential painters and sculptors of our time. His work eludes easy categorization, but has continuously returned to his search for a new approach to updating classic figurative painting. In a celebrated turning point in 1969, he literally turned his paintings upside down and thereby managed to change the public's viewing habits, and to sharpen their perceptions.

Coding Care. Towards a Technology for Nature brings together contributions from renowned authors and artists who are particularly concerned with nature and our environment. In doing so, they raise the question of how we can use technology to better understand nature and shape coexistence in a sustainable way - especially in regions that are not yet fully technologized. In this sense, coding should be understood as a form of caring, a substitute for what technology can contribute to the future in each specific cultural and regional context.

Blinde, die im Takt prozessieren, Analphabet*innen, die Musik komponieren, Rentner*innen, Skater*innen, Chöre, Aktivist*innen: Sie alle sind Gäste von Marinella Senatore. Ihre kollektiven Arbeiten von gesellschaftspolitischer Sprengkraft verbinden Strategien politischer Protestbewegungen mit künstlerischen Ausdrucksformen in unterschiedlichen Medien wie Performance, Skulptur, Textil, Foto, Collage, Zeichnung und Video. Der Katalog begleitet die bisher größte Ausstellung der Künstlerin im Museum VILLA STUCK und der Sammlung Generali Foundation am Museum der Moderne Salzburg: Internationale Autor*innen erörtern Fragen nach der Spannung zwischen Individuum und Kollektiv, nach Sehnsüchten und Zugehörigkeit, nach gesellschaftspolitischer Exklusion und alternativen Organisationsformen sowie dem transformativen Potenzial der Kunst.MARINELLA SENATORE (*1977) ist eine zentrale Figur der italienischen Gegenwartskunst. Ausgebildet in Film und Musik spezialisierte sie sich auf eine kollaborative künstlerische Praxis. Als vielfach ausgezeichnete Künstlerin, Aktivistin und Dozentin hat Senatore zuletzt auf der Manifesta in Palermo, auf der Bienal de São Paulo und im Palais du Tokyo Aufsehen erregt.

Wayne Thiebaud's famous, literally candy-colored still lifes of pies, cakes, gumball machines, and lipsticks reflect the promise and abundance of the American way of life¿a society of plenty, where supply exceeds demand.The tactile impression created by his pasty layers of paint brings the objects to life and creates an atmosphere in which irony and melancholy are carefully balanced. Testing the possibilities of painterly expression, Thiebaud's brilliant painting technique explores the boundaries of the real and imagined world. This catalogue presents all aspects of the legendary American artist's oeuvre, including still lifes and portraits, as well as his deserted, multi-perspective cityscapes and river landscapes, in luminous pastels that exude a peculiar summertime sadness.WAYNE THIEBAUD (1920, Mesa, AZ-2021, Sacramento, CA) began his career as a cartoonist and graphic designer, briefly working for Walt Disney Studios. As an artist, Thiebaud was associated with the US Pop Art movement: his still lifes gained nationwide attention as part of the landmark exhibition New Paintings of Common Objects in 1962, which also featured Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Ed Ruscha and is considered a milestone in the critical reception of Pop Art.

On the occasion of its 60-year anniversary, CIMAM, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art, its directors, and curators publish Museums from the Inside. From Suzanne Pagé and Rudi Fuchs, to David Elliott, Toshio Hara, Maria de Corral, Ken Lum to Manolo Borja-Villel and Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, this publication contains more than twenty interviews giving an insider's look at the 60 years in which modern art changed to post-modern art, and the term contemporary art, in turn, began to look almost obsolete.Following a historical introduction, looking back at fierce debates and controversies, a selection of important texts written since 2005 on decolonization, on Arte Útil, and on indigenous art gives insight into more recent fields of research.

Als autodidaktische Künstlerin und angestellte Büroleiterin in Ost-Berlin nutzte Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt ihre Schreibmaschine, um Buchstaben und Zeichen zu Grafiken zwischen Konkreter Poesie, Grafikdesign und Konzeptkunst zu verdichten. Ihre ins Abstrakte tendierenden sprachlichen Erkundungen, die sie insbesondere in den 1980er-Jahren zu Collagen erweiterte, beruhen oft auf Mehrdeutigkeiten.Nichts Neues erscheint anlässlich der großen Retrospektive im MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam. In thematischen Episoden werden ihre Typewritings, Druckgrafiken, Collagen und Gemälde beleuchtet. Zwar hörte Wolf-Rehfeldt nach dem Fall der Mauer auf, künstlerisch zu arbeiten, doch ihre Kunst hat nichts an Aktualität eingebüßt. Im Gegenteil: Auf poetische, eigenwillige und oft humorvolle Weise setzte sich die nonkonformistische Künstlerin mit Themen wie Naturschutz, geistiger Freiheit, Gemeinschaft und Kommunikation auseinander. In ihrem mal subtilen, mal plakativeren Spiel mit Wörtern, Bedeutungen und Formen offenbart sich bis heute immer wieder Unerwartetes.RUTH WOLF-REHFELDT (*1932, Wurzen, Sachsen) kam 1950 nach Berlin. Seit den 1960er-Jahren schuf sie als Autodidaktin Gemälde, Pastelle, Zeichnungen und ab etwa 1970 sogenannte Typewritings. Aus der DDR heraus beteiligte sie sich aktiv am internationalen Mail-Art-Programm. Erst in den vergangenen Jahren erlebt sie eine Wiederentdeckung - 2017 war sie mit ihren Typewritings Newcomerin und zugleich der älteste Star der documenta 14.

The general public's image of Mondrian is of a serious man in a suit and tie with a reserved, rather aloof look. It is the same group of some ten photographs that shaped this image over time, although there are around 400 known photographs of the artist and his studios that provide a far more balanced and livelier image of Mondrian.This gorgeous book is not a biography, but rather a visual and emotional reference work for anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the world of this extraordinarily modern artist. The studios in Amsterdam, Paris, and New York are works of art themselves, as fascinating as the guests in these rooms. There are snapshots showing his private life, taken during journeys or visits, photographs of vernissages and dinners as well as formal portraits that he uses to promote the image of a serious, uncompromising artist.Detailed captions and richly illustrated essays on the significance of photography in the context of Mondrian's work make this book an extraordinary document of his time.PIET MONDRIAN (1872-1944) was one of the pioneers of abstract art. Hailing from a strict Calvinist family, the artist became famous for his compositions of black lines and rectangular fields in primary colors, but his early work was influenced by 19th century Dutch landscape painting.

Evaporating Suns explores myths from the Arabian Gulfthrough contemporary art. Based on the concept that themythical and the factual are like two sides of the samecoin, the catalogue accompanying the exhibition showsthat myths do not simply convey fictions, but are alsocapable of presenting truth much more vividly than statisticsand facts ever could. The publication showcases thework of 13 contemporary artists from the Arabian peninsula,who explore the folklore and popular myths of theirhomelands, and use cynicism, satire, and fiction to buildtheir universes and rewrite the parallel history of theircontemporary societies. Completed by essays by authorsfrom the region, myths are seen here as opportunitiesfor a new approach to the negotiation of current issuessuch as the environment, gender, and social structures ofpower.Founded in 2018 by the artist Sibylle Piermattei-Geiger and herhusband Rocco Piermattei, KULTURSTIFTUNG BASEL H. GEIGER IKBH.G creates a cultural program with current political or culturalreferences. The Basel exhibition space hosts three topicalart exhibitions a year, each of which goes beyond the conceptsof established institutions.

An intensely intellectual painter, Robert Motherwell is renowned for his distinctive Abstract Expressionist style. The seminal artist permeated his gestural works with an expressionism and austerity reflective of the human psyche; at the same time his oeuvre addressed political and humanitarian themes.Robert Motherwell: Pure Painting is an in-depth exploration of his artistic practice. Leading art scholars examine the American artist's turn from Surrealism to abstraction and analyze the major series that developed over his fifty-year career. The catalogue studies the dialogue between Motherwell's art and the nineteenth-century French painting tradition, investigates his relationship to Spanish techniques and processes, with an emphasis on their underlying political significance, and delves into Motherwell's use of ochre pigment, with its evocation of both deep geological time and avant-garde practices.In 1940s New York City ROBERT MOTHERWELL (*1915, Aberdeen, WA-1991, Provincetown, MA) entered a milieu of artists whose radical new style of painting came to be known as Abstract Expressionism. A theorist of this informal group - including artists such as Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning - he taught throughout his life.

On Reality brings together Jorinde Voigt's current body of work, first exhibited in 2022 as part of the exhibition Experimental Strategies in Art + Music at the Moody Center for the Arts, Houston, Texas. By replacing the drawn line with the cut of the scalpel, Voigt creates works on paper through cutting, layering, and mounting that expand the medium of drawing into the three-dimensional. Voigt's idea of the artistic creative process as an operation on and production of reality literally comes into being. The concept that also underlies her sketch-like drawings of more recent date recalls the beginnings of Voigt's artistic expression: notations with diagrammatic elements, musical influences, and spontaneously transferred graphic gestures of situational experience. The publication includes a foreword by the Canadian cultural theorist, philosopher, and artist Erin Manning.JORINDE VOIGT (*1977, Frankfurt am Main) is an internationally acclaimed artist based in Berlin and Hamburg. In 2004 she graduated from the Universität der Künste Berlin. Since then, her works have been presented in numerous exhibitions worldwide, and are part of prominent collections such as those of the MoMA, New York, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Jorinde Voigt is Professor of Conceptual Drawing and Painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HfBK) in Hamburg.

Since the mid-1990s, Annette and Caroline Kierulf have practiced what they themselves call "woodcut as cultural critique". Drawing on the medium's rich history as a means of communication and protest, the Norwegian artists strive to revive woodcut as a discursive tool. With subtle humor, the sisters use the visual reductiveness of the low-tech medium to critically reflect on the social, economic, and cultural changes shaping our high-tech societies. Incorporating references to pop culture and folk art, Caroline Kierulf's work explores the often overlooked aspects of everyday life, Annette Kierulf focuses on a feminist reinterpretation of the landscape genre.The publication provides insights into the artists' production and working methods, as well as their longstanding collaboration.Oslo-born sisters ANNETTE KIERULF (*1964) and CAROLINE KIERULF (*1968) have played a major role the revitalizing of graphic art in Norway. Both studied at the Academy of Art and Design in Bergen, where they also work today. As independent artists they develop their works in an artistic dialog and have for many years collaborated on exhibitions in Norway and beyond.

Some of Nick Brandt's subjects are humans, some are animals, but they all are creatures of equal and obvious personhood. The overwhelming sense in the photographer's ongoing global series The Day May Break is that they are all figuring out how to live in a new world. Each has arrived at the shoot at Senda Verde wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia through their own cascade of tragedy. Both extreme droughts and floods have destroyed people's homes and livelihoods. Victims of habitat destruction and wildlife trafficking, the animals are rescues that can never be released to the wild. People and animals were photographed in the same frame and indeed convey a sense of connectedness through a shared fate. Fog is the unifying visual, symbolic of the natural world rapidly fading from view; and an echo of the smoke from wildfires, intensified by climate change, devastating so much of the planet. But in spite of their loss, these people and animals are survivors, pioneers entering the new phase our world has reached. In The Day May Break they share their powerful stories.This set includes the volumes The Day May Break and The Day May Break - Chapter Two.NICK BRANDT (*1964, London) studied painting and film at St. Martin's School of Art, London. In 1992 he moved to California, where he still lives today. Since 2001, he has documented the destructive impact that humankind is having on the natural world and, as a result, on humans themselves. Chapter One of his seminal series The Day May Break featured photographs taken in Zimbabwe and Kenya in late 2020. Chapter Two, shot in Bolivia in 2022, is the first time in his 20 year career that Brandt has made work outside of Africa.

Before the rise of Pop Art proper, Alex Katz developed an iconic style of figurative painting in the early 1960s- influenced by film, television, and billboard advertising. Seemingly detached and incredibly stylish, he created portraits of the New York scene as well as idyllic landscapes. Printmaking plays an equally central role in Katz's work. He uses lithographs, etchings, silkscreens, woodcuts and linocuts to reproduce, reflect and further reduce his bold aesthetic, while retaining the radiant color characteristic for his paintings. Since the first edition in 2011, Katz has almost doubled his output of prints-this timely new edition includes his complete prints, cutout editions, artists' books, and also lists his works of applied art like book illustrations and public art projects. New essays and interviews with the artist give profound insights into the work of one of the foremost American artists of the present.When ALEX KATZ (*1927, New York City) began his artistic career in the 1950s, Abstract Expressionism was the reigning style. Ahead of his time, he created stylized portraits against flat, monochrome backgrounds. From 1965 onwards, he embarked on a prolific career in printmaking, exhausting all its possibilities: from traditional craftsmanship to state-of-the-art reproduction techniques.

Antony Gormley - international bekannt als einer derbedeutendsten Bildhauer der Gegenwart - ist ein großerBewunderer der Werke Wilhelm Lehmbrucks: ihrer Innerlichkeit,Konzentration und Ruhe. Gormley / Lehmbruck.Calling on the Body erscheint anlässlich der bislang größtenAusstellung des britischen Bildhauers in Deutschlandim Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg und zeigt Schlüsselwerke,die mit fast einem Jahrhundert Abstand voneinandergeschaffen wurden. Den reich bebilderten Katalogleitet ein Essay von Museumsdirektorin Söke Dinkla ein,die eindrucksvoll den Dialog zwischen beiden Künstlernbeschreibt. Zugleich wird die ikonische Architektur desLehmbruck Museums und ihre Resonanz in GormleysWerk im Essay der Kustodin Ronja Friedrichs untersucht.Neue Erkenntnisse liefert auch der Kunsthistoriker JonWood, der Gormleys Modelle und den Arbeitsprozess desKünstlers beleuchtet. Ein Interview mit dem Künstler gibtEinblicke in sein Denken und Arbeiten und die Bedeutungder Skulptur in unserer Gesellschaft.ANTONY GORMLEY (*1950, London) ist weltweit bekannt für seine Skulpturen, Installationen und öffentlichen Kunstwerke, die sich mit grundlegenden Fragen zur Stellung des Menschen im Verhältnis zu Natur und Kosmos beschäftigen. Zu seinen herausragendsten Arbeiten zählen Another Place, die Installation von 100 lebensgroßen Figuren im Wattenmeer, und die monumentale Skulptur Angel of the North im englischen Gateshead. Gormley wurde vielfach ausgezeichnet, u.a. 1994 mit dem Turner Prize.

Zhao Gang is a wanderer between two worlds. At the age of just 18, he was the youngest member of legendary avant-garde artist group The Stars, which also included Ai Weiwei. Their 1979 group exhibition, and the protests that followed, are often cast as the birth of contemporary Chinese art. Shortly thereafter Gang left for Europe and the United States. Having acquired American citizenship, he is regarded as one of the few artists of his generation who truly understands the East and the West - yet who looks at both worlds with a certain detachment. In his figurative paintings, however, he merges their different visual languages, increasingly turning toward examinations of his personal history and the historical roots of contemporary China. This monograph provides an overview of six central exhibitions from recent years, and introduces the life and work of this rebellious, sensitive, and mischievous painter.ZHAO GANG (*1961, Beijing) left China in 1983 to study fine arts in Maastricht and at Vasaar College in Upstate New York. After more than two decades in New York he returned to China in 2006. He is one of the most recognized Chinese contemporary painters, and lives between Beijing and New York. Among his recent exhibitions is the major group show Art and China after 1989 at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 2017.

Josef Albers's groundbreaking series Homage to the Square comprises roughly two thousand oil paintings. His continuous reflections and refinements for more than 25 years inspired numerous young minimal and conceptual artists in their search for a reduced formal language. This outstanding catalogue explores the secret of Albers's subtle aesthetic and unearths its preconditions: What is the significance of the square? How does his impression of color and its use as a material change during this period? Featuring studies on paper, archival materials, as well as essays by internationally-leading Albers experts such as Jeannette Redensek and Heinz Liesbrock, this richly illustrated publication sheds light on the various inspirations that influenced Albers early on in Europe and later in America, and illustrates the lasting impact of his art and thinking.As an influential teacher, writer, painter, and color theorist JOSEF ALBERS (1888, Bottrop-1976, New Haven, CT) is one of the leading pioneers of twentieth-century modernism. From 1923 onwards he taught at the Bauhaus, and continued to do so after his emigration to the USA in 1933 at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and at Yale University, where he worked on his Homage to the Square from 1950 until his death. HEINZ LIESBROCK (*1953) was the long-standing director of the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat in Bottrop. He has written extensively on Albers and his influence on art history.

Competition is one of the driving forces of our time - everything can suddenly turn into a challenge or a contest. Art, on the other hand - that is outside the art market - can be seen as a free space in which something genuinely unique emerges. That this construct is a historical exception is revealed by a fresh look at the early modern period: Here, the principle of competition was thought to be decisive for artistic work. What is more, the competitive habitus of imitation, competition and surpassing - imitatio, aemulatio and superatio - was supposed to bring about cultural progress as such. Even Leonardo knew that "good envy" spurs high performance. Hence, some of the most famous works of the Renaissance and Baroque periods emerged from the competitive battles that artists in early modern Europe fought among themselves, as well as with long-dead models from antiquity. This splendid catalogue reveals mutual inspiration and cooperation, but also sheds light on the dark side of competition for prestigious commissions - envy, intrigue, and slander.

Atelier Kempe Thill sind für ihre innovativen und minimalistischen Entwürfe in Architektur und Städtebau bekannt. Mit ausgefeilten Raumsystemen und einer unkonventionellen Verwendung von Materialien versuchen die Architekten, möglichst resiliente und kostengünstige Lösungen zu finden. Für diese Balance zwischen Gebäuden, die für verschiedene Nutzungen offen sind und sich zugleich durch besondere Entwürfe auszeichnen, haben sie schon in ihrem 2004 veröffentlichten Manifest den Begriff der»Spezifischen Neutralität« geprägt.Vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen Klima- und Wirtschaftskrise und der daraus resultierenden sich schnell verändernden Nachfrage nach Räumen und deren Nutzung ist dieser Ansatz aktueller denn je. Die beiden Architekten stellen in ihrer zweiten Monografie 23 Projekte aus den letzten 12 Jahren vor, die durch thematische Essays der Autoren und von namhaften Expert*innen aus dem Bereich der Architektur abgerundet werden.ATELIER KEMPE THILL wurde 2000 von den deutschen Architekten André Kempe (*1968) und Oliver Thill (*1971) in Rotterdam gegründet, die auch in Forschung und Lehre tätig sind und aktuell eine Professur an der Leibniz Universität Hannover innehaben. Angefangen mit kollektivem Wohnungsbau und kleinen Aufträgen für öffentliche Gebäude hat sich das Portfolio des Büros um große Renovierungs-, Infrastruktur- und Stadtplanungsprojekte erweitert. Das Büro hat heute mehr als 30 Mitarbeitende.

Dieser prächtige Bildband präsentiert eine Auswahl jener faszinierenden Wohnimmobilien, die in den vergangenen Jahren an exklusiven Adressen in Deutschland entstanden sind - eine Werkschau, die von großzügigen Grundrissen über konsequent-nachhaltige Handwerkskunst und ausdruckstarken Foyers bis zu noblen Interieurs reicht. RALF SCHMITZ steht für Baukultur, die in kompromissloser Qualität für Generationen geschaffen ist. Entwürfe renommierter Architekten, die Klassizismus neu interpretieren, edle Materialien und ausgesuchte Manufakturdetails fügen sich zu eleganten Bauten, die bleiben. Ausnahmeprojekte wie das imposante Wohnpalais»Alexander« in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, das wunderschöneApartmenthaus »Achenbach« in Düsseldorfs Zooviertel oder der neue weiße Prachtbau nahe der Hamburger Außenalster stehen für subtilen Luxus bei höchstem technischen Komfort. Wohnungen, die Rückzugsort und Repräsentation vereinen, errichtet für Menschen, die unverwechselbare Wohnerlebnisse schätzen.Das Erbe fortführen, die Zukunft gestalten: Seit seiner Gründung 1864 am Niederrhein errichtet das Unternehmen RALF SCHMITZ Immobilien in ausgewählten Lagen. Heute setzt die fünfte Generation der Familie diese Tradition an fünf Standorten - Kempen, Düsseldorf, Köln, Hamburg und Berlin - fort und schafft ausdrucksstarke und nachhaltige Wohnunikate, deren Formensprache alle Moden überdauert.

The Fire of Heaven presents the work of world-renowned artist Enrique Martínez Celaya in conversation with the life and work of the influential twentieth-century California poet Robinson Jeffers. Despite existing in different lifetimes, Jeffers's approach to life as art and his reverence for the natural beauty of the California coastline inextricably link the uncompromising poet to Martínez Celaya. The artist's multi-faceted practice explores the map of a territory shaped by self, memory, ideations of home, exile, myth, and identity. His practice presumes art should be an ethical effort that aims to understand better and engage with the world and ourselves. Beyond these threads of commonality, Martínez Celaya draws directly from Jeffers's writings, such as the 1928 poem The Summit Redwood, which serves as the exhibition's namesake and describes "the fire from heaven" as a force untamed and ignited at whim. Martínez Celaya's work created during his stay at the poet's landmark home in Carmel-by-the-Sea is complemented by Jeffers's handwritten poems, notes, and photographs.ENRIQUE MARTINEZ CELAYA (*1964) was born in Cuba and raised in Spain and Puerto Rico. He has realized exhibitions, interventions, and social and intellectual interactions worldwide with major museums, galleries, and institutions, including the Berliner Philharmonie, The State Hermitage Museum, and The Phillips Collection. A painter, sculptor, and writer, he lives in Los Angeles.