Michael E. Smith
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2013, 192 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21 × 27 cm, English/German
Price: €55

Produced on the occasion of Michael E. Smith’s exhibition at Ludwig Forum fur internationale Kunst, Aachen, 21 April–23 June, 2013.

“Smith’s inspiration comes from his perception of the economic and social crisis in the USA, a general decline foreshadowed long ago by the demise of the automotive industry in his hometown, Detroit. A moment of assertion against the pressure of such conditions materialises itself in his objects and shows itself clearly in his titles and video clips.”—Ludwig Forum

With essays by Brigitte Franzen, Simone Menegoi, Dieter Roelstraete, Anna Sophia Schultz and Chris Sharp.

#2013 #michaelesmith
Robert Kinmont
Published by Mousse Publishing, Milan, 2013, 80 pages (b/w ill.), stapled, 16.5 × 19.8 cm, English/German
Price: €15

Produced on the occasion of two exhibitions of Robert Kinmont’s work; Listen, Kunsthaus Glarus, 10 February–5 May, 2013 & Measure, Kunstlerhaus Bremen, 8 June–1 September, 2013.

Although the Californian conceptual artist Robert Kinmont’s work dates back to the late 1960s and the beginning of 1970s, this is the first monograph of his work. Kinmont is primarily concerned with his environment, the Californian landscape. He works with simple, mostly natural materials, and places them in relation to his body and his life. Probably his best known work, entitled 8 Natural Handstands (1969/2005), a series of photographs showing the artist doing handstands in abandoned landscapes, on the edges of cliffs, river beds, forests and deserts, was illustrated in Lucy Lippard’s book Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. Not so long afterwards, Kinmont retreated from art practice for the following three decades.

#2013 #moussepublishing #robertkinmont
No Apokalypse, Not Now
Sean Snyder
Published by Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, 2013, 36 pages (b/w ill.), loop stitching, 14.8 × 21 cm, German
Price: €4 (Out of stock)

Produced on the occasion of Sean Snyder: No Apocalypse, Not Now, at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, 9 November–22 December, 2013. With texts by Moritz Wesseler and Sven Lütticken.

Sean Snyder takes the global circulation of data as the raw materials for his practice. He experiments with multi-layered signs revealing unexpected layers in an intentionally non-pedagogical way. Refusing to conform to conventions, his practice avoids simple classification. In resistance to contemporary art’s tendency to aspire to a mechanized consumer society, his investigations parody and mirror their processes. More information here.

#2013 #kolnischerkunstverein #seansnyder #svenlutticken
Documenting Cadere, 1972–1978
Lynda Morris
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2013, 172 pages (b/w ill.), 21 × 29.7 cm, English
Price: €34

Documenting Cadere, 1972–1978 is curated by Lynda Morris and draws on her personal archive and the archives of the Herbert Collection, Ghent, Massimo Minini, Brescia and Barry Barker, London.

André Cadere belonged to a generation of European artists who contested the art object and institutional framework of the art world in which they operated. Best known for carrying his Barres de Bois Rond—Round Bars of Wood—wherever he went. His appearances at the most important private views of contemporary art across Europe became legendary. With his round bar of wood in hand he would intervene in a provocative way on other artists’ exhibitions in galleries and museums.

The publication contains new translations of lectures given by Cadere; an interview with the artist conducted by Morris in 1976; plus new essays by Morris, and two other figures who worked closely with Cadere, British curator Barry Barker and Italian gallerist Massimo Minini. You can see Lynda Morris talking about Cadere here.

#2013 #andrecadere #lyndamorris #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
Tetsumi Kudo
Published by The National Museum of Art, Osaka, 2013, 625 pages (colour & b/will.), 26 × 19 cm, English/Japanese
Price: €105
This publication is produced on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo of the same title at The National Museum of Art, Osaka from November 2013 to January 2014, then at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo from February to March 2014, and finally at Aomori Museum of Art from April to June 2014. 'Your Portrait' was one of Tetsumi Kudo's most frequently used titles. While the word 'you' indicates the audience constrained by a variety of established values and conventions, it also refers to Kudo himself as the work's first viewer. It is intended as a portrait of the human race as the unavoidable victim of radioactive contamination. Kudo's works might seem to be weird or repulsive, but they display his vision of a paradoxical paradise in which, in order to survive, human beings would be forced to live in harmony with nature and technology. Includes Tetsumi Kudo's writings, his biography and exhibition history, bibliography, and a catalogue of his works from 1955 to 1988. (Text from Asia Art Archive)
#2013 #tetsumikudo
Our Group Wourk
Ziga Testen, Peter Rauch, Cornelia Durka
Published by Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, 2013, 80 Pages (b/w ill.), 17.5 × 11 cm, English / Croatian / Slovenian
Price: €8 (Out of stock)

“Our Group Wourk” is an attempt to NOT write a biography of Yugoslavian graphic designer Dragan Stojanovski. Stojanovski was the in-house graphic designer at SKC Belgrade (student cultural centre), a state-funded cultural institution established after the 1968 student uprisings to contain, pacify and institutionalize student culture as an “organized alternative”. At the same time, it was a place of avant-garde experimentation and new forms of political activism and self-organization. Dunja Blazevic, a director of the visual arts department at the SKC in the 1970s refers to Stojanovski as Yugoslavia’s first conceptual designer.

This publication was prompted by conversations and encounters with Sasa Stojanovski, Biljana Tomic, Sklavko Timotijevic, Ljubinka Gavran, Milica Tomic, Slobodan Jovanovic and Dunja Blazevic with Ziga Testen, Peter Rauch and Cornelia Durka in Belgrade in April 2013.

#2013 #zigatesten