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This collection of artists’ texts and critical writings, published in conjunction with the art journal Afterall, concentrates on the modern history of revolutionary art practice as manifested not in works of art but, rather, through the ideological stances of artists in the face of political, social and cultural upheaval. To that end, Bradley and Esche pull together an extensive chronology of primary sources to track avant-garde protest and activism, from the Paris Commune–era socialism of Courbet and Morris to parallels found in the networked resistance of the recent Global Days of Action. A final section of six commissioned essays rounds out the picture by expanding on the modern tradition of anti-establishment thinking.
Taking its title from Man Ray, Practical Dreamers comprises 27 conversations between the author (a respected veteran filmmaker himself) and Canadian fringe film and video artists on the subject of how and why they put their thoughts and dreams into moving pictures. The interviewees (Kent Monkman, Jeff Erbach and Su Rynard, to name a few) represent the range of perspectives being explored in film and video today and speak candidly about both specific inspirations and their general creative philosophy. Like Hoolboom’s 1997 Inside the Pleasure Dome, this compendium is sure to connect with fringe-film aficionados but also prove enjoyable for the casual reader.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres went to work in the studio of the artist Jacques-Louis David in 1796 and was a practising artist until his death in 1867. His career stretched from the empire of Napoleon to the beginnings of modernism. A stringent neoclassicist with the inclinations of a fantasist, he left behind an inventory of peerless portraits as well as strange, sexualized mythic scenes. The final chapter in this new Phaidon monograph is titled “Ridicule and Respect,” which neatly sums up his wavering reputation yet undeniable influence on artists like Manet, Renoir, Picasso, Man Ray, even Cindy Sherman. For Ingres, the image was everything. The surface-smart sheen of his paintings anticipated the medium of photography, an art that he watched come into being.
The art collector and chemical magnate Alfred Bader’s bequest of more than 270 paintings to Queen’s University is the largest gift of art ever presented to a Canadian university. Now a suitably fine publication marks his gesture: this catalogue of the collection is thoroughly researched and well illustrated. According to de Witt, Bader’s acquaintance with the Rembrandt expert Christian Tümpel led him to focus his collecting on Rembrandt’s circle and their works on Old Testament themes: Bader was especially taken with loosely styled works that reveal inclusive, humanistic thinking rather than class pretension. The result is a splendid book of paintings with broad appeal.
Edward Burtynksy’s eerie but beautiful photographs of the industrial sublime have become an important venue for witnessing the environmental impact of industrialization. In Quarries, the Canadian photographer investigates major stone-excavation sites around the world. Unlike his recent photos of China, which prioritized peopled spaces of manufacturing, the scenes pictured in Quarries are depopulated. The focus here is on humanity’s ongoing exploitation of the natural world in the interest of constructing the urban world, and how the forces of technological development and globalization serve to accelerate this exploitation. As Michael Mitchell successfully argues, Burtynsky is interested in how the architecture of these holes in the earth represents “inverted skyscrapers,” reminding us that “there’s a big hole somewhere for every stone building on the planet.”
Published on the 2oth anniversary of Joseph Beuys’s death, this compendium of images and essays is devoted to a single installation work. Shown first in Düsseldorf in 1983 and now at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, The End of the 20th Century remains resonant in terms of Beuys’s symbolic address to history, society and the human condition. In the work, 44 basalt columns carry single conical plugs held delicately in place by felt and clay in the voids created by their excision. Beuys said that this was “so they cannot do each other harm, and can keep warm.”
Vermeiren is an impressive commentator on "Tuymans’s practice, as well as a lovely writer. In this rich overview of 20 years of work, he reminds us of how Tuymans’s paintings “are in harmony with the aesthetics of memory.” Additional essays by Dieter Roelstraete and Montserrat Albores Gleason are also illuminating. One of the gems of the book (and the link to its title) is a small black-and-white photo that shows an installation view of Tuymans’s first solo exhibition, in 1985 in Ostend’s Palais des Thermes. He installed a suite of paintings, butted side by side, in an empty swimming pool. There they are: unreadable at the distance the photo affords, but indisputably in the deep end.
How relevant are the facts of the artist’s life to a proper understanding of his or her work? It is a fundamental question that has prompted much critical debate among art historians and cultural thinkers alike. Salas surveys the issue in this collection of essays by some of the art world’s leading scholars. From Rosalind Krauss’s post-structuralist defence of the “transpersonal” to Thomas Crow’s pragmatic rereading of the intertwined lives and careers of Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan, the book’s contributors offer no neat answers. Instead, what becomes clear is that even the most stringent critics find it impossible to completely separate the individual from the art.
Chicago’s 1979 artwork The Dinner Party recently found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum, and this new book proves that it is far from a dusty remnant of 1970s feminism. Created to address the systematic exclusion of women’s accomplishments from the historical record and the debilitating effect this has had for subsequent generations of women, The Dinner Party was meant to “end the cycle of erasure that it visually recounts,” but its fate in fact mirrored that of its subjects, and it was for some time the artwork that everyone wanted to see but no one wanted to show. Chicago’s unflappability and dedication enliven the tale behind the work and the newly expanded histories of all 1038 women honoured in the piece.
Phaidon, 464 pp, $79.95. The benefits and shortcomings of large survey publications are often the same: they tend to cover a lot of material in a general way. Sculpture Today, which gathers works made by 300 artists over the last 30 years, is organized by subject, rather than chronologically or by artist, with each chapter starting a new thematic dialogue. This allows for interesting congruences—artists using ephemeral materials are grouped together, as are those working with light, for example. Judith Collins offers an overview of sculpture’s status and development with an overdue contemporary focus.
Talk to take place January 26 at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Canadian premiere of new Marina Abramović documentary to be fêted February 22 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox
All our best wishes for the new year to come
Talks by Dan Cameron and Annie Cohen-Solal, free gallery programs among highlights of 2011
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Free exhibition at the Power Plant highlights our nation’s emerging painting stars
Award in Portrait Photography category recognizes Donald Weber's artist project in the Fall 2010 issue
More than 300 GTA teens enjoy free downtown-Toronto gallery talks during this fall’s School Hop
In 2010, at the age of 35, Toronto artist/DJ/promoter/activist Will Munro succumbed to brain cancer. Here, David Balzer reviews the first big survey of Munro’s work, which makes apparent how talented, prolific and perceptive this creator was.
The Dulwich Picture Gallery’s recent Group of Seven show was one of the UK museum’s biggest hits ever, drawing 41,000 visitors. The attention was deserved, writes Sarah Milroy, as the exhibition offered new insights even to seasoned Canadian-art observers.
The Occupy movement has galvanized the way we think about haves and have-nots. But where do artists fit in? As Joseph R. Wolin observes in this review of David Altmejd’s show at the Brant Foundation, context can be as powerful as content in determining the split.
What happens to identity when our relationship to land and language is disrupted? This is a key question raised in “A Stake in the Ground,” an exhibition of works by 25 First Nations artists, curated by Nadia Myre, that’s currently at Montreal gallery Art Mûr.
Our education and careers site has just posted more stories and tips to help students achieve a great winter term. Highlights include a profile of internationally renowned fashion designer Jeremy Laing, a Q&A on grad schools and more.
