ION GRIGORESCU

Diaries 1970–1975

Georg Schöllhammer & Andreiana Mihail (Eds.)

Following their recent monograph on this understudied conceptual painter— perhaps the most significant Romanian artist of the communist period— Sternberg Press presents a more intimate look into Ion Grigorescu’s practice. His diaries from the crucial years from 1970 to 1975 are a small literary and art-historical sensation. The publication of these diaries corrects the facile reading of Grigorescu’s practice in the context of Conceptual art and performance and provides intimate insight into the artist’s multifocal thinking. In a single work, his synapses can fire off an original critique of modernism, the dystopian effects of a rationalist positivism, an analysis of subjectivity and a penetrating gaze into the dialectic of secrecy and revelation. An important and recuperative document of the artist whose work was recently shown at the Venice Biennale and Tate Modern, Diaries 1970–1975 is illustrated with key examples of Grigorescu’s paintings, films, and photographs.

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ULRIKE GROSSARTH

Were I Made of Matter, I Would Color

Sabine F olie & Ilse Lafer (Eds.)

In her contributing essay to this substantial and beautifully illustrated retrospective catalog, German artist Ulrike Grossarth states that the title—Were I Made of Matter, I Would Color—proposes a counter-model to the Descartian formula “I think therefore I am,” a position she sees as existing in a state of incompleteness between consciousness and disembodiment. Sketches, objects and installations draw connections between her early years as a dancer in the 1970s and 1980s, her sculptural settings and action/performance pieces along with her recent works focusing on the relationship of the subject to the material realm in history. The artist’s “actions” from 1978 to 1987, which followed her critical engagement with modern dance, are discussed by art historian/gallerist Rainer Borgemeister. Essays by cultural theorist Mieke Bal, art historian Michael Glasmeier and scholar Elliot R. Wolfson discuss Grossarth’s practice in relation to history, the body, and polymorphism.

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EVA GRUBINGER

Decoy

Decoys, lures, mooring rings, docks: Berlin-based sculptor/installation artist Eva Grubinger looks deeply into the symbology of the alluring, using fishing as her metaphor in this slender, softcover exhibition catalog. The Austrian Grubinger first attracted international attention with her solo presentation, Dark Matter, in which she translated her long- term exploration of social systems of control into an impressive precise architectural form. In recent years, she’s investigated the definition of public, institutional, and museum spaces through installations and objects that re-define the “rules” of whatever control game society is playing. With texts by Carson Chan and Martin Hochleitner, this book offers another view on this important, multi-faceted artist.

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Andreas Gursky

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Watercolors

Mats Gustafson

“The fragility of Mats Gustafson’s art is almost tangible,” Berndt Arell writes. “Landscapes, portraits pervaded with eroticism, and fashion illustrations – Gustafson’s brush is adept at them all.” Mats Gustafson, Watercolors is the first overview publication to date on one of the most admired illustration artists of our time. Known for his subtle and haunting fashion illustrations, intimate portraits, and scenes of nature, Gustafson began his career as an illustrator in the late 1970s, at a time when editorial illustration was eclipsed by photography and watercolor as a conceptual medium had barely been explored. The elegant and expressive character of Gustafson’s watercolor, pastel and cut-out paperworks expanded the possibilities of fashion illustration and nearly single-handedly reinvigorated the genre. Published to coincide with a major retrospective exhibition of Gustafson’s work at the Millesgarden in Stockholm in 2013, the volume includes texts from Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum director Berndt Arell and former Interview editor-in-chief and art critic Glenn O’Brien.

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SIGNE GUTTORMSEN

Signe Guttormsen

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JOANA HADJITHOMAS & KHALIL JOREIGE

The Rumors of the World
Rethinking Trust in the Age of the Internet

Omar Kholeif (Ed.)

How is the nature of power and trust changing in the age of the Internet? Exploring the dark underworld of SPAM—online spam emails, advance-fee frauds and scam messages—Beirut- and Paris-based Lebanese filmmakers / visual artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige create mixed-media installations that are part detec- tive, part artistic. Installation shots, film stills, texts, and stories following spammers’ elaborate webs that the duo has collected since 1999 illustrate how personal narra- tives are formed and articulated in a post-digital age. This intriguing exhibition catalog is dense with information, including discussions by leading scholars, theorists, writers, artists and curators on power, trust and changing notions of faith in the Internet age. For the past 15 years, Hadjithomas and Joreige have focused on Lebanese images, representations and history while questioning the fabrication of imaginaries through intertwining cinematic and visual images. Published in conjunction with MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; Villa Arson, Nice; and HOME, Manchester.

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RAMIN HAERIZADEH, ROKNI HAERIZADEH & HESAM RAHMANIAN

Her Majesty?

The 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s XL jubilee was fêted by Taschen Verlag with an XL coffee-table book. The newest version—a jumbo book of almost 400 pages with 370 color plates and a handmade cover—is a play on the Taschen tome by three Iranian-born contemporary artists, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian. In their majestic satire, the world’s most famous monarch blossoms forth as a drag queen, the royal house as Animal Farm, and the royal insignia as stage props and rickety state coaches. A grandiose master- piece of draftsmanship and the art of collage, Her Majesty? is a delirium of caustic wit, not intended as heartless. The trio—two brothers and a childhood friend—live and work (in exile) in Dubai on their multimedia installations. In 2015 they exhibited at Kunsthalle Zürich and the ICA Boston, among other international venues.

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IRENA HAIDUK

Spells

Karsten Lund (Ed.)

Irena Haiduk has sharp teeth and a killer instinct. In Spells, the Balkan artist leads the way to the sunny spot where every soul suffers infinite injustice. Spells is the first collection of Haiduk’s writing, gathering texts and limited-edition publications since 2007. Her multifaceted works reach far beyond Balkan history and mingle with other corrosive forces, fueling a deep questioning of well-fed bodies of power. Moving through a wide range of formats, the intentionally strident black-and-white graphics of the book echo the disturbing content of her manifestos, music scores, forecasts, conversations, translations, architectural programs and other difficult-to-categorize works. Haiduk has exhibited at The Insitute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the University of Chicago’s Renais- sance Society, and the 14th Istanbul Biennial. Her provocative voice is captured in both design and concept of this compelling monograph.

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IRENA HAIDUK

Seductive Exacting Realism

Irena Haiduk & Solveig Øvstebø (Ed.)

Irena Haiduk’s dual-exhibition at the 14th Istanbul Biennal and the Renaissance Society, Seductive Exacting Realism by Marcel Proust 12, is a stand-in for a missing volume in Proust’s collected works. The 13-volume edition published in Yugoslavia in 1967, with its elegant translation from the French by poet Tin Ujevic, was highly valued by the intelligensia and often stolen and sold on the black market during the Bosnian civil war. Haiduk’s exhibit features a set that was missing Volume 12 that was seized by local police in 1995 and acquired at public auction in 2014. Presented along with video and taped interviews investigating the dangerous journeys taken in revolutions, the project suggests parallels for artists. The catalog includes installation shots, an interview by Solveig Øvstebø, writings by Ivo Andric, Hannah Feldman, Monika Szewczyk and Marina Vishmidt on artist journeys into revolution.

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