Aktiengesellschaft
Maria Eichhorn
Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2007, 303 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 22.3 × 27.5 cm, German / English / Dutch
Price: €30

Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft began its life in December 2002, as both a corporation and a work of art. Upon an invitation to participate in Documenta 11, Maria Eichhorn founded an Aktiengesellschaft, or public limited company. As is typical of such entities, the newly created firm was in her own name. It held a 50,000 euros portion of Documenta’s exhibition budget—divided into 50,000 shares of a euro apiece—meeting the minimum requirement of subscribed capital for an Aktiengesellschaft.

Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft mimetically uses the structure of the corporation against itself. The artist remains its sole managing board member and initial shareholder; she transferred all shares of the company to itself, to be held in perpetuity. The corporation belongs to itself, or, in Eichhorn’s words, “it ultimately belongs to no one,” and “the concept of property disappears in this case.”

More information can be found on the work here.

#2007 #mariaeichhorn #vanabbemuseum
Discordance / Cohérence
Daniel Buren
Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1976, 80 pages (b/w ill.), 21 × 27 cm, English / French
Price: €22 (Out of stock)

“A book by (Un livre de) R.H. Fuchs with the collaboration of (avec la collaboration de) Daniel Buren and with contributions by (avec des contributions de) André Bompard, B.H.D. Buchloh, Douglas Crimp, René Denizot.

All descriptions (photographs+texts+diagrams) here included correspond with works selected by Rudi Fuchs. This selection represents approximately seven percent of the work executed since 1965. Most descriptions are being done here for the first time. All descriptions have been written (or rewritten) especially for this book”

Designed by Walter Nikkels.

#1976 #benjaminhdbuchloh #danielburen #douglascrimp #vanabbemuseum #walternikkels
The Place Is Here
The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain
Published by Sternberg Press, Berlin and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2019, 431 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 19 × 25 cm, English
Price: €30

Contributions by Nick Aikens, Sonia Boyce, Laura Castagnini, Deborah Cherry, Alice Correia, Chandra Frank, June Givanni, Sunil Gupta, Evan Ifekoya, Claudette Johnson, Raisa Kabir, Gail Lewis, Amna Malik, Samia Malik, Priyesh Mistry, Dorothy Price, susan pui san lok, Raju Rage, Elizabeth Robles, Ashwani Sharma, Marlene Smith, Leon Wainwright, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Rehana Zaman.

The publication developed from the exhibition and research project The Place Is Here (2016–19), which traced the urgent and wide-ranging conversations taking place between black artists, writers, and thinkers in Britain during the 1980s. Within the context of Thatcherism and a racist art establishment, a new generation of black artists and intellectuals produced some of the most compelling ideas and images in recent British cultural history. Across four exhibitions, The Place Is Here brought together over one hundred works by forty artists and collectives, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, and expanded archival displays. Richly illustrated, the book includes thematic essays, close readings of works, and a series of panel discussions bringing together key scholarly, critical, and artistic voices foundational to art in Britain in the 1980s. The result is an intergenerational dialogue around pressing intellectual, political, and aesthetic debates, highlighting the significance of the work of these artists for the present.

#2019 #nickaikens #sternbergpress #vanabbemuseum
Richard Serra's Tilted Arc
Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1988, 275 pages (1 b/w ill.), 12.5 × 20 cm, English
Price: €25 (Out of stock)

This book makes available a series of documents concerning the attempt by a United States Government Agency (the General Services Administration) to remove and thereby destroy Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc, a sculpture at Federal Plaza, New York City. A public hearing was held on the subject of the sculpture in March 1985, with 122 people testifying in favour of keeping the piece and 58 in favour of removing it. A jury of five voted 4–1 to remove the sculpture. The decision was appealed by Serra, leading to several years of litigation in the courts, but the sculpture was dismantled and placed in storage by federal workers on the night of March 15, 1989. More information here and here.

#1988 #richardserra #vanabbemuseum
Victor Burgin
Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1977, 88 pages (b/w ill.), 27 x 21 cm, Dutch/English
Price: €30 (Out of stock)

Published on the occasion of Victor Burgins’ 1977 exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Includes R.H. Fuchs, ‘On reading texts.–V. Burgin, Modernism in the work of art’. Designed by Walter Nikkels.

#1977 #vanabbemuseum #victorburgin #walternikkels
A Retrospective
Rasheed Araeen
Published by JRP Ringier, Zurich, 320 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 2017, 20 × 27 cm, English
Price: €30

Rasheed Araeen: A Retrospective is structured across five chapters: from his early experiments in painting in Karachi in the 1950s and early 60s, his pioneering minimalist sculptures carried out after his arrival in London in 1964, key pieces from the 70s and 80s following Araeen’s political awakening, his nine panel cruciform works from the 80s and 90s and a selection of his new geometric paintings and wall structures. Alongside this, material relating to Araeen’s writing, editorial and curatorial projects will be presented as part of an expanded artistic practice that in its scope and ambition continues to challenge the formal, ideological and political assumptions of Eurocentric modernism.

Edited by Nick Aikens and published by JRP Ringier in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, MAMCO, BALTIC and Garage includes new essays by Aikens, Kate Fowle, Courtney Martin, Michael Newman, Gene Ray, Dominic Rhatz, John Roberts, Marcus du Sautoy, Zoe Sutherland and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie and an extensive conversation between Aikens and Araeen. Designed by Bardhi Haliti.

#2017 #bardhihaliti #jrpringier #rasheedaraeen #vanabbemuseum