‘It doesn’t reveal itself’: erosion and collapse of the image in contemporary visual practice

The article explores the extent to which ‘pictorial art’ resists legibility, transparency and coherence. The analysis of three artistic case studies, Idris Khan, Maria Chevska and Jane and Louise Wilson, serves to investigate established hierarchies in our perception of visual referents. In the discussion, the article inquires the means of erosion, veiling and dissemblance as ways to critique assumption of the homogeneity of the image. All artists cast a view of the external world by diverting it, defacing it and distancing themselves from the external environment. However, the distancing is never disconnected from the everyday and never succumbs to abstraction. The article argues that the crisis of the image offers a productive framework that allows artists to draw attention to the absence of logical structure and the instability of the visual sign

Mark Manders : Singing Sailors

Hoptman argues that Manders’ sculpture is built on the same principle as linguistic meaning, and she avers that he deploys elements of architecture to construct a narrative framework and concretise abstract thought. In Marije’s interviews with the artist, they discuss specific works and his working process. Since he finds the world more complex than language, Manders claims to write his self-portrait with objects. Bio-bibliography 2 p. 4 bibl. ref

Primary Documents : A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s

"The publication of this anthology is very important for understanding the process of art-making in Eastern Europe over the past forty years, and particularly of the place occupied by texts, discussions, commentaries, etc., in that process. The abundance of such verbal material and of what might be called its emotional saturation is so great that it can be discussed as a unique, but highly specific segment of the overall artistic production of that region. " -- Foreword p. 7

The pencil is a Key : Drawings by Incarcerated Artists

"The Pencil Is a Key is an exhibition of historical and contemporary drawings by incarcerated people from all over the globe. Works by artists who were or currently are prisoners will be juxtaposed with drawings by prisoners who became artists while incarcerated." -- Publisher's website

Unmonumental : The Object in the 21st Century

"Unmonumental unveils a signficant recent development in art that takes the definition of sculpture as an autonomous object and shatters it to pieces. Rather than cast or carved, these sculptures have been cobbled together from bits of the world at large. They are of their moment, making gentle or high mockery of a wide range of art histories, from Russian Constructivism to 1980s appropriation art. Far from paying tribute to received notions of the courageous, they are patently anti-heroic. In short, they are a metaphor for our times." -- Publisher's website