After his studies at the arts academies in Berlin and Düsseldorf, Ull Hohn (1960–1995) moved to New York to attend the Whitney Independent Study Program in 1987. Engaging with current theoretical debates and cultural issues, his work from the late 1980s and early 1990s frequently invokes questions of gender and homosexuality, as well as their representation. It interrogates the history of painting, traditional notions of virtuosity, the conventions of value and taste inherent to education, and the distinction between high and popular culture.

Ull Hohn: Foregrounds, Distances aims not only to offer the first comprehensive overview of his work, but also to contribute to a history of painting-based practices, which occupy a marginal place in the established narratives of the art of the 1980s and 1990s.

Edited by Hannes Loichinger and Magnus Schaefer. Texts by Tom Burr, Thomas Eggerer, Manfred Hermes, Hannes Loichinger, Fionn Meade, Magnus Schaefer, Megan Francis Sullivan, Lanka Tattersall, and Alexis Vaillant.

The New York gallery American Fine Arts, Co.—whose name today is largely synonymous with that of its gallerist, Colin de Land (1955–2003)—represents a gallery practice in which a decided deviation from conventional models overlaps with successful activities within the framework of the art market. Today, American Fine Arts, Co. and de Land figure as uncontested projection screens for the desire for independence from or bohemian resistance against the dictate of the market.

Texts by Andrea Fraser, Manfred Hermes, Karl Holmqvist & Tobias Kaspar, Isla Leaver-Yap, Jackie McAllister, James Meyer & Christian Philipp Müller, Magnus Schäfer, Axel John Wieder, Phillip Zach; conversation between Colin de Land, Josef Strau, and Stephan Dillemuth; introduction by Hannes Loichinger and Magnus Schäfer.