Michael Petry

Nature Morte: Contemporary artists reinvigorate the Still-Life tradition

Nicolas De Oliveira

Nicola Oxley

JONATHAN CRARY

"This volume surveys the innovative ways in which Installation has evolved, embracing different and often unexpected media, and its far-reaching practice worldwide. Installation has opened art to experimental strategies beyond the traditionally visual, as impressively illustrated here in over 300 reproductions of work by artists as diverse as Doug Aitken, Vanessa Beecroft, Santiago Sierra and Mariko Mori". -Back cover.

The Empire of the Senses

Installation Art in the New Millennium

Offers an overview of the transformative nature of installation art over the past decade, including coverage of the work of Doug Aitken, Kazuo Katase, Hans Haacke, Christian Boltanksi, Damien Hirst, Vanessa Beecroft, Gary Hill, Mariko Mori, and Bill Viola

Michael Duck

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, although best known for his literary work, was also a keen and outspoken natural scientist. In the second polemic part of Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours), for example, Goethe attacked Isaac Newton's ground-breaking revelation that light is heterogeneous and not immutable, as was previously thought. This polemic was unanimously rejected by the physicists of the day, and has often been omitted from compendia of Goethe's works. Indeed, although Goethe repeated all of Newton's key experiments, he was never able to achieve the same results. Many reasons have been proposed for this, ranging from the psychological — such as a blind hatred of Newtonism, self-deceit and paranoid psychosis — to accusations of incapability — Goethe simply did not understand the experiments. Yet Goethe was never to be dissuaded from this passionate conviction. This translation of Goethe's polemic, published for the first time in English, makes it clear that Goethe did understand the thrust of Newton's logic. It demonstrates that Goethe's resistance to Newton's theory stemmed from something quite different; his pantheism — the belief in the spiritual nature of light. This prevented him from allowing himself to think of light in physical terms and accepting that it is anything other than simple, immutable, and unknowable. This important new translation will be useful to natural scientists, historians, philosophers and theologians alike and will delight anyone hoping to add a further layer of nuance to Goethe's complex portrait. Contents:Introduction (Michael Duck)Preface to the First Edition of Zur Farbenlehre (1810)Exposure of Newton's TheoryAppendix Readership: Goethe researchers, historians and philosophers of science, historians of Christianity and readers interested in Goethe's work. Key Features:The first English translation of Goethe's Theory of ColoursJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's Shakespeare, confronts Isaac Newton, possibly the greatest scientist of all time in this well-known text

A Polemic on Newton's Theory of Light and Colour

Goethe's “Exposure of Newton's Theory”

Michael Archer

Michael Archer's illuminating introduction traces the history of installation art from Duchamp's first readymade through the Pop tableaux of Kienholz, Oldenburg, Kaprow, and Dine to more recent developments such as Land Art and Process Art. This is followed by a global range of installations, presented and documented by Nicolas de Oliveira, Nicola Oxley, and Michael Petry.

Installation Art

There has been much scaremongering about the 'death of the book', and how, as words find new ways and means of transmission, young people might gradually begin to shun writing. In the digital age, text becomes information, and information strives to become free. But what value can text hold in the sphere of visual art? How is such text different from poetry? Can the poetic itself be visual art, or is text in this context consigned to the realms of gimmick and catchphrase? Looking at the work of a broad range of artists including Bruce Nauman, Julien Breton, Jeremy Deller, Takashi Murakami, Tracey Emin, Christian Boltanski and many more, The Word is Art examines each of these questions, contending above all that in the digital and online age, words have become more important than ever. With the advent of texting and social media, many predicted the debasement of language, and some have pointed to evidence of this in our so-called 'post-truth' culture. Artist Michael Petry demonstrates that, on the contrary, words remain critical, powerful and central to art practice. Digital communication has seen the word as text permeate life in ways that the poets and artists of yesterday could never have imagined. Presenting a brief history of word- and book-based art, and examining major areas where the word has dominated artistic practice, this book takes us on a fascinating and richly illustrated global tour of diverse contemporary art forms. With 250 illustrations in colour

The Word Is Art

Exhibition catalogue. Hidden Histories is the first international historical survey of its kind on the lives and work of 20th century male artists, who were same sex lovers. It investigates the relationship between the artists' production and the development of their sexual identity.

20th Century Male Same Sex Lovers in the Visual Arts

Hidden Histories

Can an artist claim that an object is a work of art if it has been made for him or her by someone else? If so, who is the author of such a work? And just what is the difference between a work of art and a work of craft? In the first book of its kind, Michael Petry tackles these questions head on.

The New Artist/artisan Relationship

The Art of Not Making

In the Realm of the Gods: The Holburne Museum, Bath, 20 October 2017-25 February 2018

Leading artists of the twenty-first century are reviving the still life, a genre that once was more associated with the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Old Masters than with contemporary art. The audacious still lifes celebrated here challenge that historical supremacy and redefine what it means to be a work of nature morte (literally translated from the French: “dead nature”). Whether through painting, drawing, sculpture, video, or other media, contemporary artists have drawn on the centuries-old tradition to create works of conceptual vivacity, beauty, and emotional poignancy. Structured according to the classical categories of the still-life tradition—Flora, Food, House and Home, Fauna, and Death, each chapter explores how the timeless symbolic resonance of the memento mori—a reminder of death, change, and the passing of time—has been rediscovered for a new millennium. Among the artists represented are John Currin, Saara Ekström, Elmgreen & Dragset, Renata Hegyi, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Gary Hume, Jeff Koons, McDermott & McGough, Beatriz Milhazes, Gabriel Orozco, Marc Quinn, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Cy Twombly.

Contemporary Artists Reinvigorate the Still-Life Tradition

Nature Morte

There has been much scaremongering about the 'death of the book', and how, as words find new ways and means of transmission, young people might gradually begin to shun writing. In the digital age, text becomes information, and information strives to become free. But what value can text hold in the sphere of visual art? How is such text different from poetry? Can the poetic itself be visual art, or is text in this context consigned to the realms of gimmick and catchphrase? Looking at the work of a broad range of artists including Bruce Nauman, Julien Breton, Jeremy Deller, Takashi Murakami, Tracey Emin, Christian Boltanski and many more, The Word is Art examines each of these questions, contending above all that in the digital and online age, words have become more important than ever.

Michael Petry

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