The Unknown Masterpiece
The Unknown Masterpiece
Christian Meyer (ed.)
Texts by Brian Boucher, Christian Egger, Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen, Anette Freudenberger, Alexander Hempel, Benedikt Ledebur, Christian Meyer, N.O. Madski, Roberto Ohrt, Tex Rubinowitz, Margareta Sandhofer, Josh Smith, and Josef Strau
German / English, 144 pages, 21 x 29.7 cm, numerous color illustrations, softcover
August 2017
ISBN 978-3-903172-07-4
€ 28,00 [A]
€ 27,20 [D]
In the late 1980s, a group of artist friends began to ques- tion the localization of art. Was art based in the artists’ personalities, the bohemian society around them, the theoretical concept, or even the artistic object itself? It became clear to Förg, Kippenberger, Oehlen, and Zobernig that the concept and context of artworks would in time acquire previously unknown significance. The unfinishability of a work of art was staged like a piece of evidence, with Honoré de Balzac’s 1831 novella The Unknown Masterpiece serving as a trigger for these aesthetic reflections. Despair of the inability to finish anything thus turned into the frenetic joy of the fragmen- tary. This catalogue discovers the viral aspects of this approach in current artistic positions and in-depth texts about the artists.
KünstlerInnen: Kerstin Brätsch/Debo Eilers, Michaela Eichwald, Gelatin, Julia Haller, Rachel Harrison, Michael Krebber, Albert Oehlen, Sigmar Polke, Christian Rosa, Gedi Sibony, Josh Smith, Amelie von Wulffen, Franz West, Heimo Zobernig
