RoseLee Goldberg: Laurie Anderson (2000)

“Laurie Anderson is one of the most acclaimed and innovative performance artists and musicians working today. The entire scope of her career is celebrated in this volume, from her early art works and performances in the 1970s, to her rise to prominence in the 1980s with her single O Superman, her portrait of the United States, and her breakthrough album Strange Angels; to her interactive Web site called The Green Room, a CD-ROM titled Puppet Motel, and her production Songs and Stories from Moby Dick, an electronic opera that is based on Herman Melville’s epic novel and includes new inventions, such as the Talking Stick.

With insightful text and more than 300 illustrations, author RoseLee Goldberg, a leading authority on performance art, explores aspects of Anderson’s work of the past three decades, illuminating Anderson’s creative process; her enduring interests in storytelling and in technology; her collaborations with such avant-garde figures as author William Burroughs, monologist Spalding Gray, and rock star Lou Reed; the social and political contexts that have shaped her art; and the critical and popular response it has received. In addition to surveying Anderson’s work chronologically, Goldberg devotes special sections of the book to Anderson’s inventions and body instruments, such as her Headlight Glasses and Screen Dress; her stage sets; her many violins, including the Tape Bow Violin and the Viophonograph; her scores; and her videos. The lyrics to many of Anderson’s songs are included, as are lengthy excerpts from many of her performances, stories, and other writings.”

Publisher Harry N. Abrams, New York, 2000
ISBN 0810935821
204 pages

Review: Eric P. Nash (NYT Books, 2000).

WorldCat

PDF (46 MB, no OCR)

A.A. Bronson, Peggy Gale (eds.): Performance by Artists (1979) [English, French]

Early anthology and commentaries on performance art.

Publisher Art Metropole, Toronto, 1979
ISBN 0920956009, 9780920956007
319 pages

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (88 MB, no OCR)

Poetry, Film, Humor: Narratives of Exception in the Years of Autarky (2017) [EN, ES]

“The years around World War, which was undoubtedly the most difficult phase of Franco’s dictatorship, also served as the back-drop for the development of a new avant-garde culture in Spain. Its birth is traditionally cited by art historians as taking place between 1947 and 1948, when groups such as Dau al Set in Barcelona and Pórtico in Zaragoza appeared or resumed their activities. The persistence, even today, of certain attitudes and poetics characteristic of that generation of artists as well as their extensive representation in the collection of the Museo Reina Sofía has made this period into one of the museum’s principal areas of research. As a result, it is essential for the museum to dig deeper in its analysis and critial (re)interpretation of this time.

With the restructuring and enlargement of the rooms devoted to this period, along with the present publication, the Museo Reina Sofía’s Collections Deaprtment seeks to significantly broaden the investigative scope traditionally applied to the visual culture of this period in Spain’s recent history.”

Publisher Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2017
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License
ISBN 9788480265461
279 pages

Publisher

Poetry, Film, Humor: Narratives of Exception in the Years of Autarky (English, 2017, 32 MB, via)
Poesía, cine y humor. Relatos de excepción en los años de autarquía (Spanish, 2017, 33 MB, via)