Germano Celant: Art Povera (1969)

Critical / photographic book documenting the “Art Povera / Arte Povera” movement. Includes short text followed by photographs for each artist: Walter de Maria, Michelangelo Pisteletto, Stephen Kaltenbach, Richard Long, Mario Merz, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Beuys, Eva Hesse, Michael Heizer, Ger van Elk, Lawrence Weiner, Luciano Fabro, Bruce Nauman, Joseph Kosuth, Jan Dibbets, Giovanni Anselmo, Robert Barry, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Dennis Oppenheim, Barry Flanagan, Robert Smithson, Giulio Paolini, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Alighiero Boetti, Giuseppe Penone, Franz Erhard Walther, Hans Haacke, Gilberto Zorio, Robert Morris, Marinus Boezem, Carl Andre, Emilio Prini, Richard Serra.

“This book does not aim at being an objective and general analysis of the phenomenon of art or life, but is rather an attempt to flank (both art and life) as accomplices of the changes and attitudes in the development of their daily becoming. This book does not attempt to be objective since the awareness of objectivity is false consciousness. The book, made up of photographs and written documents, bases its critical and editorial assumptions on the knowledge that criticism and iconographic documents give limited vision and partial perception of artistic work. The book, when it reproduces the documents of artistic work, refutes the linguistic mediation of photography. The book, even though it wants to avoid the logic of consumption, is a consumer’s item. … This book produces a collection of already old material. … In this book there is no need to reflect in order to seek a unitary and reassuring value, immediately refuted by the the authors themselves, rather there is the necessity to look into it for the changes, limits, precariousness and instability of artistic work.” (from Celant’s introduction “Stating That.”)

First published in Italian by Gabriele Mazzotta Publishers, Milan, 1969.

Publisher Praeger Publishers, New York, 1969
240 pages

Review: John Moffitt (Art J, 1970).

WorldCat

PDF (86 MB, no OCR)
Internet Archive (added on 2023-7-7)

Suzanne Lacy (ed.): Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art (1995)

“Departing from the traditional definition of public art as sculpture in parks and plazas, new genre public art brings artists into direct engagement with audiences to deal with the compelling issues of our time. This is the first definitive collection of writings on the subject by critics, artists, and curators who are pioneers in the field. Includes essays by Judith Baca, Estella Conwill Májozo, Suzi Gablik, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Mary Jane Jacob, Allen Kaprow, Jeff Kelley, Lucy Lippard, Patricia C. Phillips, and Arlene Raven.”

Publisher Bay Press, Seattle, 1995
ISBN 0941920305, 9780941920308
296 pages

Reviews: Kirkus Rev (1994), Gaye Green (Art J, 1999), Carole Gold Calo (Public Art Dialogue, 2012).
Commentary: Stephanie Smith (Afterall, 2011, PDF).

Editor
WorldCat

PDF (49 MB, updated on 2018-6-22)

Adrian Favell: Before and After Superflat: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art, 1990-2011 (2012)

“Any discussion of Japanese contemporary art inevitably leads to the pop-culture fantasies of Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and the other artists of the Superflat movement. But Japan as a whole has changed dramatically after stumbling through a series of economic, social and ecological crises since the collapse of its ‘bubble’ economy in the early 1990s. How did Murakami, Nara and Superflat become the dominant artistic vision of the Japan of today? What lies behind their imagery of a childish and decadent society unable to face up to reality? Written by a sociologist with an eye for sharp observation and clear reportage, Before and After Superflat offers the first comprehensive history in English of the Japanese art world from 1990 up to the tsunami of March 2011, and its struggle to find a voice amidst Japan’s economic decline and China’s economic ascent.”

Publisher Blue Kingfisher, Hong Kong, 2012
ISBN 9789881506412, 9881506417
246 pages
via author

Reviews: Janet Koplos (Art in America, 2012), Ashley Rawlings (Art Space Tokyo, 2012), David Cozy (Japan Times, 2012), Modern Art Asia (2012).

WorldCat

PDF, PDF (4 MB)