Collective Sisyphus
Allan Sekula
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln & M HKA, Antwerp, 2019, 237 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 17 × 23 cm, English / Spanish
Price: €25

Allan Sekula was one of the most important figures in modern photography of the second half of the twentieth century. His work focused on a critique of the links that photography has always maintained with the economy, work and the politics of representation. From his beginnings in the seventies, Sekula became a reference by incorporating textuality into photography in a way that had been previously denied it by modern art. His book Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works, 1973–1983 (1984), a key work of the new photographic discourse of the late twentieth century, enshrined him as one of the least orthodox historians of the medium.

#2019 #allansekula #photography #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
The Making of Husbands
Christina Ramberg
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln & KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2019, 144 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21.4 × 28.8 cm, English
Price: €30

“Containing, restraining, reforming, hurting, compressing, binding, transforming a lumpy shape into a clean smooth line,” is how American artist Christina Ramberg once described the drawings of corsets in her sketchbooks. Ramberg was one of the most intriguing painters to emerge within a generation of Chicago Imagists. She left a significant body of comic, formally elegant, erotically sinister paintings.

Produced on the occasion of The Making of Husbands: Christina Ramberg in Dialogue at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 14 September, 2019–5 January 2020. Christina Ramberg’s work was shown alongside of other artistic positions such as Alexandra Bircken, Sara Deraedt, Gaylen Gerber, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, Konrad Klapheck, Ghislaine Leung, Hans-Christian Lotz, Senga Nengudi, Ana Pellicer, Richard Rezac, Diane Simpson, Terre Thaemlitz, Kathleen White.

With texts from Dodie Bellamy, Kathrin Bentele, Jen George, Larne Abse Gogarty, Anna Gritz, Judith Russi Kirshner & Léon Kruijswijk.

#alexandrabircken #chicagoimagists #christinaramberg #dianesimpson #dodiebellamy #ghislaineleung #kathrinbentele #konradklapheck #kwinstituteforcontemporaryart #saraderaedt #senganengudi #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
Open the Kimono
Lutz Bacher
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2018, 312 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 22.5 × 30.5 cm, English
Price: €38

Open the Kimono is a chronological record of remarks from cable TV ads, movies, news radio, novels, airplanes, subways, sidewalks and elevators from 2013–2018.

American artist Lutz Bacher made work spanning an array of media since the 1970s. The game of hide-and-seek she played with her own self by working under a masculine pseudonym since early on in her career can serve as a helpful entry point to Bacher’s artistic practice. It centered around issues of identity, power structures, and violence, all the while remaining ambiguous and enigmatic.

#2018 #lutzbacher #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
Michael E. Smith
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln & Staatliche Graphische Sammlungen, München, 2021, 64 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 24 × 30 cm, English / German
Price: €38

Produced on the occasion of Michael E. Smith’s exhibition at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlungen, München, 2 September–24 October, 2021.

Michael E. Smith makes sculptures out of cast-offs, waste and other residues of our consumer society. He assembles and manipulates this found material in an unusual way. He isolates objects, makes changes to their form and seeks out the limits of their imaginative power. His presentations are characterised by an intense yet sparse choreography of the exhibition space.

#2021 #michaelesmith #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
Manipulate the World
Connecting Öyvind Fahlström
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2017, 256 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 17 × 23.5 cm, English
Price: €35

Öyvind Fahlström (1928–1976) was unquestionably one of the twentieth centuryʼs most innovative and multi-dimensional artists. His incentive was to investigate economical, political and social issues and the production of meaning.

This three-volume publication (in slipcase) is published on the occasion of the exhibition, Manipulate the World: Connecting Öyvind Fahlström, at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 21 October, 2017–21 January, 2018.

#2017 #oyvindfahlstrom #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
Myths and Manifestos
Studio for Propositional Cinema
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln & Kunstverein München, München, 2021, 244 pages, 12.2 × 18.3 cm, English
Price: €20

Myths and Manifestos is a compendium of dramatic and polemical texts written and released, by the artist entity Studio for Propositional Cinema between 2009 and 2021. Scripts for a play, a libretto, and an epic poem are punctuated by manifestos and public speeches that act as bridges between them. Together they reflect and warn of an encroaching ideological dark age in which our culture’s communicational forms are becoming increasingly endangered and alienated from our collective control, while making some modest proposals for how we can make space to relearn and retain them, if there is still enough time to do so.

#2021 #kunstvereinmunchen #studioforpropositionalcinema #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig