The Taschen Collection: Art of our time
By Marga Paz
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After conceptual art
These artists' experience of the influence of conceptual art and also their rejection of it as practised at the end of the 1970s was vital. The example of Mike Kelley is significant, since he entered Cal Arts in 1978 at the peak of its conceptual flowering, as practised by artists such as John Baldessari, Michael Asher and Douglas Huebler, who were developing important works of conceptual photography. Kelley was interested in certain aspects of this, especially those related to the linguistic organisation of structures (maps, diagrams, typographies and so forth).
Nevertheless, the fact that conceptual art is based on an orthodoxy of the logical systems of thinking led him to reject notions of purity, minimalism and the like, in order to move toward a "meaninglessness" which has led his work to be defined by a hyper-subjectivism, post-pictorialism, expressive actions, and performances. It was not for nothing that "the professor who exerted the greatest influence on him was David Askevold, a conceptual artist fascinated by paranormal and supernatural phenomena."
The influence of conceptualism in the 1970s was also at the heart of the advent of the new German photography that emerged in the 1980s, as embodied by Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Andreas Gursky, Candida Hofer and Axel Hütte. Ist complex and heterogeneous extrapolation toward subjectivism, eventuality, monumentalism and even fiction meant a clear superseding of the modernist orthodoxy of objectivity as represented by its masters, Bernd and Hilla Becher. It was in their class at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie that this group of photographers was trained, and their work has contributed to altering our perception of what the photographic image is today. The Bechers participated in the rediscovery of the medium of photography in conceptual art. Their series of photos of the buildings and constructions that made up the landscape of anonymous industrial archaeology were always shot from a frontal perspective and utilized a methodology of systematic description.
To a large degree, these photos paved the way for the current move toward large-format color photography, possible thanks to its taking root over conceptual co-ordinates which taught artists to document the fragments of reality around them with a high degree of neutrality and transparency, even at times entering into realms belonging to the private domain.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
After conceptual art
These artists' experience of the influence of conceptual art and also their rejection of it as practised at the end of the 1970s was vital. The example of Mike Kelley is significant, since he entered Cal Arts in 1978 at the peak of its conceptual flowering, as practised by artists such as John Baldessari, Michael Asher and Douglas Huebler, who were developing important works of conceptual photography. Kelley was interested in certain aspects of this, especially those related to the linguistic organisation of structures (maps, diagrams, typographies and so forth).
Nevertheless, the fact that conceptual art is based on an orthodoxy of the logical systems of thinking led him to reject notions of purity, minimalism and the like, in order to move toward a "meaninglessness" which has led his work to be defined by a hyper-subjectivism, post-pictorialism, expressive actions, and performances. It was not for nothing that "the professor who exerted the greatest influence on him was David Askevold, a conceptual artist fascinated by paranormal and supernatural phenomena."
The influence of conceptualism in the 1970s was also at the heart of the advent of the new German photography that emerged in the 1980s, as embodied by Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Andreas Gursky, Candida Hofer and Axel Hütte. Ist complex and heterogeneous extrapolation toward subjectivism, eventuality, monumentalism and even fiction meant a clear superseding of the modernist orthodoxy of objectivity as represented by its masters, Bernd and Hilla Becher. It was in their class at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie that this group of photographers was trained, and their work has contributed to altering our perception of what the photographic image is today. The Bechers participated in the rediscovery of the medium of photography in conceptual art. Their series of photos of the buildings and constructions that made up the landscape of anonymous industrial archaeology were always shot from a frontal perspective and utilized a methodology of systematic description.
To a large degree, these photos paved the way for the current move toward large-format color photography, possible thanks to its taking root over conceptual co-ordinates which taught artists to document the fragments of reality around them with a high degree of neutrality and transparency, even at times entering into realms belonging to the private domain.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Taschen Collection
Hardcover 11.7 x 16.5 in., 254 pages
$ 70.00
$ 70.00
The art of a particular moment in history from a new point of view
Taschen residence Cologne with the painting At the Museum I by Albert Oehlen, 1982, and drawings by John Willie, 1947. Chairs by Oscar Niemeyer. Foto: Tuca Reinés, 2002