In this publication, the latest productions of Berlin-based Ulrike Flaig (*1962) are presented in an exciting dialogue with her older works of various media, all of which focus on aspects of time, rhythm, and identity. “Fast” and “slow” sculptures, live video productions with musicians, photographs, notations, and small objects are juxtaposed with large installations. In a humorous and ironic way, they are imbued with everyday experiences and highly artificial realms of symbols; mirror images are contrasted with real images. Flaig’s work is about the enigmatic formal appearances of tension-laden transitions, which, like “messangers from the subconscious,” circle around polarities and conditions. These “night-a-carriers” transform and permeate everything, like association generators, correcting the perception of time. This book contains works developed specifically to this end, and is thus an additional expression of the artist’s intentions.

 

Exhibition schedule: Villa Merkel, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar, Esslingen, December 10, 2006–February 11, 2007

Motion is the trademark of the paintings by Andy Denzler (*1965 in Zurich). In his pictures, which are reminiscent of the “snow” of black-and-white television sets from the sixties, he seeks to fathom the boundaries and possibilities of abstract painting and Photorealism. It seems as if the artist has pressed the fast-forward or pause button on a VCR, calling reality to a halt for a moment. He speeds up the colors and slows them down. What remains is a distorted instant—painted in classic oil on canvas—which upon closer examination is apparently abstract, while from a distance it seems real. Denzler draws his inspiration both from new media as well as his own films and photographs. His work focuses on the human figure. In his most recent series, The Human Nature Project, the artist explores the relationship between humankind and nature in the twenty-first century.

 

Exhibition schedule: Michael Schultz Gallery, Seoul, January 27–February 27, 2011 | Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zurich, March 26–April 21, 2011 | Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, 2011 | Galerie von Braunbehrens, Munich, 2011 | Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, 2012

Since 2003, the prestigious Views prize for young Polish art has been awarded in the Zacheta Gallery every other year. The award is accompanied by an exhibition in the prominent Zacheta Gallery, which helps to garner more international attention for the contemporary Polish art scene.

Common Affairs presents a selection of current positions by artists who have won or were nominated for the Views Award in the past 15 years. The retrospective, which takes place in Berlin, intends to update the artistic practices of recent history. While this updating process accentuates the interesting phenomena and urgent problems that the artists have engaged with, it simultaneously examines the shifts and changes in the cultural landscape of Poland and abroad. Particular focus is placed on positions that address the history and politics of memory and representation, transformation and imminent transition.

 

Featured artists (selection): Tymek Borowski, Karolina Bregula, Rafal Jakubowicz, Robert Kusmirowski, Anna Molska, Karol Radziszewski, Janek Simon

 

Exhibition: Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Polish Institute, Berlin 21.7.-30.10.2016

Graphic design is so ubiquitous that we can no longer imagine everyday life without images. This development began 120 years ago. A contemporary witness, Justus Brinckmann, the founding director of The Museum for Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, acutely observed the exploding world of images and untiringly collected examples of them. In doing so, he assembled a unique collection comprising over 15,000 works on paper. Posters, but also book titles and calendar sheets, postcards and letterheads were also pertinent themes at that time. Their designers range from such leading artists as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Henry van de Velde to Peter Behrens. In addition to biographies of nearly two hundred leading graphic artists, this opulent, copiously illustrated book provides a survey of international developments and features introductions to the most significant aspects of commercial graphic design and its stylistic attributes.

The journey to Tunisia is surely one of the most popular chapters in art history. When Paul Klee and his fellow painters August Macke and Louis Moilliet left for Tunisia in April 1914, a cornucopia of impressions awaited them: Tunis, St. Germain, Hammamet, Kairouan, and the people, architecture and scenery of the country inspired the three artists to produce a multitude of watercolors and drawings. They depart from the anecdotal Orientalism of the nineteenth century, abstracting their motifs and transforming them into ornamental shapes and crystalline structures. Their surprising, innovative images are a highlight of early Modernism. Klee went the farthest. For him, color became the most important creative tool; he dissolved the object in planes of color, and the visual construct became a pattern that he covered in arabesques and symbols.

This profound publication follows in the footsteps of our extremely successful book on the Tunisian journey (1982), a milestone in the history of our publishing company.

(German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-3762-3, English edition ISBN 978-3-7757-3763-0)

 

Exhibition schedule: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, March 15–June 22, 2014

 

How does one make sense of a purported link between mathematics, William Shakespeare, and art? The answer lies within the oeuvre of Man Ray (1890–1976). The publication sets out to unravel the Surrealist puzzle beginning with his photographs of mathematical models he encountered at the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris in the thirties. Moreover, it charts a path culminating in his Shakespearean Equations (1947–1954) series of oil paintings, which were inspired by the photographs and painted in Hollywood over a decade later. The arc the images strike from painting back to photography reveals the ease with which Man Ray moved between various disciplines and forged his own path. An inveterate experimenter, he pioneered artistic activities in the realms of painting, object making, film, and photography, challenging conventional boundaries and blurring established aesthetic categories.

 

Exhibitions: The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., February 7–May 10, 2015 | NY Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, June 11–September 20, 2015 | The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, October 20, 2015–January 23, 2016

Hanne Darboven, Germany's most prominent Conceptual Artist, has been working for 25 years on the framework of the writing system she uses to create a comprehensive visual image of time, the structure of time and the experience of personal existence as an overwhelming treasure-house of data. On thousands of pages, in "written" drawings, on walls and tables, gathered in binders, countless photographs, "opened" works of music and literature, documents, postcards and objects from her private "chamber of wonders", she permits us to view an expansive personal library of life. In this book, Ingrid Burgbacher explores the labyrinthine complex of Hanne Darboven's work in original texts, commentaries and an interview with the artist. Proceeding from her own experience, she attempts to map out and reconstruct the divergent paths, the progress and the beauty of "mathematical literature and music" in this imposing oeuvre.

At the center of this publication is Lynn Hershman Leeson‘s installation The Infinity Engine, modeled after a genetics laboratory. The artist demonstrates that the boundaries between natural and artificial life are dissolving at an increasingly rapid pace in the age of synthetic biology, and that today, life itself can be artificially shaped. This includes DNA manipulation, artificial human organs manufactured via 3D-bioprinting, antibody research, and use of DNA as a biological storage medium. Leeson presents these achievements as works of art embedded in an inimitable aesthetic. Documenting these work cycles in photographs of the exhibition at the HeK Basel, this volume also contains numerous essays that offer both a scientific context and insight into this trailblazing media artist’s oeuvre and her current focus on biotechnology.

The artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson (*1941, Cleveland, Ohio) has been examining the interplay of technology, media, and identity since the 1960s. Her body of work includes photography, film, video, objects, and installations, computer-based art, software, and performance. Her work is on display in prominent museums around the world. Leeson divides her time between New York and San Francisco.

This book is only available in German. If you would like more detailed information, please consult our German website. You can also contact Hatje Cantz directly.

This book is only available in German. If you would like more detailed information, please consult our German website. You can also contact Hatje Cantz directly.

The committed realism of working-class photography in the 1930s met the political developments of the time with an enlightening impetus. Among the first ranks of these socially motivated photographers, such as Paul Strand or Tina Modotti, was the Viennese photographer Edith Tudor-Hart (1908-1973), who had close ties to the communist party. The Jewish photographer took an introductory course at the Bauhaus in Dessau, and in 1933, she married an Englishman who supported the labor movement. The couple fled to Great Britain, where she became posthumously infamous for supplying recruits to the group of Soviet spies known as the Cambridge Five, until the ring was broken up in the 1960s.

For her sensitive black-and-white photographs Tudor-Hart used a medium-format camera, shooting pictures from the hip, which allowed her to communicate freely with her models while working. This volume features her unpretentious, documentary-style photographs on social themes, which were taken in Vienna, London, Wales, and Scotland. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-3566-7)

 

Exhibition schedule: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, March 4, 2013 | Wien Museum, Vienna, September 26, 2013–January 12, 2014

Peter Downsbrough (*1940 in New Jersey) studied art and architecture and, like Robert Barry, Sol LeWitt, and Lawrence Weiner, is one of the artists who continue to use the book as another space to present their work. Since the early seventies, he has incorporated text and line drawings into his books, later integrating maps and photos of urban spaces. His consistent and sharply delineated oeuvre is devoted to examining the meaning of of space and place.

This book is a continuation of the title Peter Downsbrough - The Book(s), that gave an annotated overview of all the eighty-five books published since 1968 by and on the artist. Addendum provides an update and complement to this overview from 2011 with its newly released fifteen titles to date.

 

Exhibition schedule: Fabra i Coats – Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, February 21–May 19, 2013

This book is only available in German. If you would like more detailed information, please consult our German website. You can also contact Hatje Cantz directly.

Guided by a clear design philosophy, the architecture of Govaert & Vanhoutte Architects is characterized by functionality in concept, simplicity in complexity, and context as a guiding element. The result is timeless designs that create an authentic architectural identity, renowned worldwide beyond Belgium.

Through the life and work biographies of the two founding partners, Benny Govaert and Damiaan Vanhoutte, the monograph provides an intimate insight into their architectural education and its influence on their current way of thinking and designing. Numerous architectural projects are presented with photographs, plans, and sketches, including unfinished and conceptual designs that illustrate their long-standing commitment, consistency, authenticity, and passion for the art of architecture.

Benny Govaert and Damiaan Vanhoutte are the founding partners of Govaert & Vanhoutte Architects, an architectural firm established in Belgium in 1989, primarily realizing residential projects. At the core of the Belgian architects' work is the dialogue between architecture, functionality, and nature.

This book is only available in German. If you would like more detailed information, please consult our German website. You can also contact Hatje Cantz directly.

Markus Selg (*1974 in Singen, Germany) creates his pictures on a computer. Self-confidently, the Berlin-based artist states: “after all, nowadays, it’s not necessary to simulate painting.” His works are collages made of disparate images found on the Internet. They are steamed onto a fabric background, a process that lends a seductive, velvety depth to the colors.

Selg often takes individual assemblages and combines them with sculptures to create panoramic images which pose questions about basic human issues such as war, destruction, and resurrection. Many of his grandiose landscapes and apparently archaic, apocalyptic scenes are peopled by martial figures of warriors, recalling fantasy computer games or Max Ernst’s frottages. This monograph presents a representative selection of the artist’s most recent works.