Nancy Spector

Large-scale exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with exhibition held September 28 - January 29, 2008. Traveled to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, March 22 - June 15, 2008 ; and Serpentine Gallery, London, Summer 2008. "For 30 years now, the American artist Richard Prince has been considered one of the most forward-thinking and innovative artists in the world. In 1977, his deceptively simple act of re-photographing advertising images from The New York Times Magazine and presenting them as his own ushered in an entirely new, critical approach to making art--one that questioned notions of originality and the privileged status of the unique aesthetic object. Prince's technique involves appropriation, and he pilfers freely from the vast image bank of popular culture to create works that simultaneously embrace and critique a quintessentially American sensibility, with images stemming from the Marlboro Man, muscle cars, biker chicks, off-color jokes, gag cartoons and pulp fiction novels, among many other sources. Organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, this major traveling retrospective brings together Prince's photographs, paintings, sculptures and works on paper in the most comprehensive examination of his work to date. While previous examinations of Prince's work have emphasized its catalytic role in Postmodernist criticism, this volume also focuses on the work's iconography and how it registers prevalent themes in our social landscape, including a fascination with rebellion, an obsession with fame and a preoccupation with the tawdry and the illicit. Highlighting key examples from the all the major series of Prince's oeuvre, this fully illustrated volume also debuts works created specifically for the exhibition. It features a critical overview by the Guggenheim Museum's Nancy Spector and an essay by Artforum Editor-at-Large Jack Bankowsky, which discusses Prince's environmental installations, including the Spiritual America Gallery, his First House and Second House, and his Library in Upstate New York. In addition, cultural commentator Glenn O'Brien contributes a series of interviews with popular culture initiators like Cliff Einstein, Andy Spade, Olivier Zahm, Robert Mankoff, Michelle Urry, Phyllis Diller, David Steinberg, Annie Proulx, Ned Sublette, Sonny Barger, Dave Nichols, Dian Hansen, J Mays, David Fricke, Kim Gordon, Joe Dolce, Michael Ovitz, John McWhinnie, Robert Lesser, John Waters, providing a composite portrait of Prince's themes alongside an insider's view of the formation of mass-cultural taste. " -- publisher's statement. Catalogue also contains illustrations by Prince, interview between John Dogg [a fictitious amalgamation of Prince and Colin de Land] and Prince ["In propria persona"], selected exhibition history, selected bibliography.… (meer)

Filled with hundreds of Matthew Barney's fantastical images, this comprehensive volume, which accompanies a major exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, surveys the popular artist's CREMASTER cycle—an epic five-part film project that uses the biological model of sexual difference as its conceptual departure point.
Three essays by Barney experts articulate the series' diverse themes and explore the artist's innovative aesthetic vocabulary; interviews with key collaborators— composer, costume designer, make-up artist, technicians, and actors—reveal his working process. In addition to stills from the five films—including the final episode, CREMASTER 3, which will premiere at the exhibition—the book features related sculptures, photographs, drawings, and storyboards. For anyone intrigued by this Wagner of contemporary art, this is an atlas to his enticingly hypnotic worlds.… (meer)