Dieter Schwarz Boeken

Düsseldorf-based artist Thomas Schütte (born 1954) is one of the most idiosyncratic of present-day artists, venturing to deploy techniques, genres and themes long thought passé--such as the sculpturally formed female figure--in permanent materials such as bronze, aluminum and steel. Schütte began his Frauen series toward the end of the 1990s and, while his first reclining nudes can be understood within the language of Classicism, his later, monumental figures with sawn-off limbs and various distortions--sometimes with bodies steamrolled flat or in tantalizing poses--resist all attempts at easy categorization. But Schütte’s brutal treatment of the female form is motivated less by a desire to shock than by a concern with the figure as a present-day testing ground for artistic expression, one that is frequently shot through with Schütte’s characteristic morbid humor. Frauen contains almost 200 color reproductions, along with texts by Andrea Bellini and Dieter Schwarz.

On Richter’s monumental, enigmatic installation in a Baroque church In this volume, the acclaimed German curator and author Dieter Schwarz (born 1953) chronicles in minute detail an impressive installation by Gerhard Richter (born 1932), from its genesis as a concept through various drafts to its completion. Foucault’s Pendulum , installed in the Baroque Dominican church in Münster, is made of a 105-pound reflective metal sphere hanging on a 94-foot wire above a graduated disk made of 380-million-year-old stone. Four panes of glass, enameled in grey on the back and reflective on the front, are mounted on the sides of the crossing in two pairs at a slight angle.The book presents Richter’s installation as a Gesamtkunstwerk in which space and light, stillness and movement, architecture and reflected images, past and present, aesthetic experience and scientific research are brought into relation with each other.

Robert Mangold ist einer der führenden amerikanischen Künstler unserer Zeit. Die Reihe “The X, Plus and Frame Paintings”, Malereien entstanden zwischen 1980 und 1986, war der Anfang Mangolds umfangreicher Experimentierfreudigkeit mit Rechtecken, Quadraten und Kreisen in satten Farben und dynamischen Kombinationen. Mangolds revolutionärer Ansatz und die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema Gestalt und Oberfläche war ausschlaggebend für sein künstlerisches Schaffen und seinen Erfolg.

If Richard Artschwager's laconic, concisely handcrafted works deny excessive verbalization (How much can you say about a black oval without worrying that the oval is laughing at you?), the artist's use of the written word to express his sculptural and pictorial ideas comes as a pleasant surprise. Artschwager has always jotted down indispensable notes and written articles for special occasions, taking up specific aspects of his work in a way that allows for a concentrated viewing of the art, as well as a glimpse into the artist. His sharp insight into and articulation of the prerequisites of his work and the philosophical questions touched on, plus his emphasis on art praxis, lend these texts an exemplary character.

While Michael Venezia never broke from his roots in Abstract Expressionism, this book explores his adaptation of expressionist practices--the significance of the accidental gesture, the poignancy of textured surfaces. Venezia's most recent work has used extremely long, narrow bars as his canvases; these vibrant pieces force a shift in perspective through a spatial manipulation of the viewer.

In Erinnerung ist das „Streifen-Bild“, das im Eingangsbereich von Richters großer Retrospektive „Panorama“ in der Neuen Nationalgalerie Berlin hing. Diesem jüngsten Werkzyklus ist erstmals eine Museumsausstellung gewidmet mit 12 neuen Arbeiten, die bis zu zehn Meter lang sind sowie sechs großen, zweiteiligen Lack-Glas-Bildern aus diesem Jahr im Format 100 x 200 cm und einer großräumigen, fragilen, mehrteiligen Glasskulptur. Der aufwändig hergestellte Katalog - siebenfarbig mit Lack und Aniva-Farben gedruckt - reproduziert nicht die Arbeiten, sondern präsentiert diese in der von Richter entwickelten Drucktechnik als Original.

Betr. u. a. Werke von Ferdinand Hodler, Karl Geiser, Hermann Haller, Bernhard Hoetger und Hermann Hubacher

Betr. u. a. Werke von Ferdinand Hodler, Johannes Robert Schürch, Karl Geiser, Otto Meyer-Amden, Paul Klee und Václav Požárek