Loneliness, jealousy, love, death. Hardly any other artist has explored the basic experiences of human life and personal angst more forcefully and with such unsettling images as the Norwegian painter and graphic artist Edvard Munch. His depiction of the crisis of the individual makes Munch a representative of modern consciousness, and the form he uses to express this inner drama makes him a precursor and founder of Expressionism. Munch's entire creative period is characterized by a continuous return to his central motifs. On the basis of more than 70 paintings and 140 works on paper shown at the exhibition, this Albertina publication contains essays by well-known authors in the field, and for the first time provides an analysis of the emergence, development and inner fabric of theme and variation in Munch¦s oeuvre. Different versions and renditions of paintings like The Scream, Melancholy, Jealousy - all icons of Modernism - are presented side by side. Additionally, the book shows the close relationship between the artist¦s graphic and painterly works, for Munch¦s interest in a motif was not only restrained to painting. He also transformed his themes into printed media such as lithographs, etchings and woodcuts, all impressively documented in this book. (English edition available, ISBN 3-7757-1270-4)

With pictures and stories about the smell of kraut and kerosene, the first prize at Rotenberg, the headquarters of domestic automobile concerns, Rolex Beach at the Neuner outdoor swimming pool, neckties in the red-light district, hanging out in the monkey house, Bavarian dances on native soil, Germany’s oldest pet salon, the Uhu Bar and the Edelweiss, and the Daimler in the sparkle of a disco ball.

In their images, the photographers Dennis Orel (*1978 in Stuttgart) and Benjamin Tafel (*1977 in Stuttgart) document and stage life. In doing so, they venture a bold look behind the façade of everyday life. They use their camera to create photo series in which street photography meets staged reality.

Whether satire or parody, employing ridicule and grotesqueries has always been effective in venting against rigid patterns and hierarchical value systems throughout history. This volume discusses what there is in museums to laugh about, alluding in the process to Friedrich Nietzsche, who described life as a comedy that could only be encountered with laughter and dancing. This is the first comprehensive view of the concrete history of humor in the fine arts—a topic that has undergone little exploration until now—and it presents the broad terrain of humor and comedy in Western art from antiquity onward.

In dealing with the subject, the Kunsthaus Zug also presents an experimental setup featuring antique vases, leaflets, magazines, paintings, sculptures, and videos: what may irritate one person can trigger resounding laughter in another.

Exhibition: Kunsthaus Zug, September 23, 2018 – January 6, 2019

The name David Lynch initially prompts one to think of Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet,Twin Peaks , or Mulholland Drive, yet the brilliant director actually studied art and, parallel to his film career, has continued to work as a visual artist.

For Lynch (*1946 in Missoula, Montana), his photographs, short films, paintings, prints, drawings, and—most recently—musical compositions are both an indispensable part of his oeuvre as well as a source of inspiration for his films. These works also deal with the themes that are typical for Lynch the director—most notably, the abyss behind the idyllic façade of life in the suburbs. Cryptic written messages, the inclusion of organic materials and objects, and the artist’s liberating sense of humor are hallmarks of his paintings, executed in dark colors. His photographs often feature sensitively perceived fallow industrial wastelands. This monograph presents Lynch’s most important projects, making it a kind of synopsis in the spirit of a Gesamtkunstwerk.  (English edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2644-3)

Exhibition schedule: Max Ernst Museum des LVR, Brühl, November 22, 2009–March 21, 2010

The multimedia works by the Canadian artist duo Janet Cardiff (*1957) and George Bures Miller (*1960) directly touch the senses. They are often reminiscent of childhood experiences, contrasting fun with the surprising and the uncanny. Something Strange This Way documents a unique presentation at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum that for the first time unites six large-scale installations by the artists on the subject of the entertainment industry in a fairground-like course. Colorful lights, music, and maze sequences define the atmosphere and take visitors on a trip to a no man’s land situated somewhere between reality and fiction: besides The Killing Machine (2007), Opera for a Small Room (2005), and the interactive sound sculpture, Cabinet of Curiousness (2010), the works Storm Room (2009) und The Carnie (2010) are being shown in Europe for the first time. One of the special highlights of the exhibition is also the famous work The Forty Part Motet (2001), an elaborate sound installation with forty individual speakers.

Exhibition: ARoS Aarhus Art Museum 29.11.2014–19.4.2015

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.

Nathalie Djurberg (*1978) and Hans Berg (*1978) create animated worlds with objects, music and moving images – dreamlike realms where we might lose ourselves. Their playfully told fables hold both humour and darkness, putting any moral laws of gravity out of action. Djurberg’s vibrant stop-motion animations and sculpture groups accompanied by Berg’s electronic music form scenic installations in a surrealist vein. These intense chamber pieces enact fragments of memories repressed between innocence and shame, or feverish daydreams of role play and desire. The shadowy landscapes, sealed rooms and harshly-lit scenes of their films are inhabited by a group of possessed figures seemingly set on devouring one another. The exhibition and fully illustrated catalog describe an inner voyage, an attempt to make existence more understandable in a flow of impulses and impressions.

Exhibitions:
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 16.6.–9.9.2018
Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (MART), Rovereto, 5.10.2018–13.1.2019
Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt, 28.2.–26.5.2019

Exhibition schedule: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, January 29–May 18, 2010 | Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst , June 13–September 26, 2010 | KunsthalleHamburg, October 22, 2010–January 30, 2011

More than seven hundred million people worldwide use Instagram every month, and the numbers are growing. Instagram is the medium for the perfect outfit, the perfect interior decor—the perfect moment. The most popular photo format is the selfie—self-portraits that present this perfection through reliable filters. Followers reward selfies with great admiration, envy, or even rejection.
This very special relationship between Instagram icons and their followers is observed in Chris Drange’s book Relics. Contrasting selfies from some of Instagram’s most successful users, such as Kim Kardashian or Selena Gomez, with selected comments from their followers, he draws a precise picture of the dynamic between the stars and their admirers. On double-spread pages against black backgrounds, and hardly bigger than a smartphone, this slim volume also visualizes a double-edged body image that oscillates between emancipation of dominant ideals of beauty and the digital body cult.

This book was realized in cooperation with the Materialverlag of the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.