Paul Rabinow is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author and editor of numerous books, including Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary, also published by Duke University Press, and, most recently, Modes of Uncertainty: Anthropological Cases.

"Sometimes the keenest observations on an overly familiar phenomena come from outside the family. So it is with Paul Rabinow's lively, risky intervention in the clan of prestigious art theorists and critics who have created the reception of Gerhard Richter, one of the most famous artists in the world today. Rabinow contests the prevailing cliches that underwrite Richter's canonization, employing an anthropological perspective to untangle the artist's experiments with form in the twilit afterlife of modernism." -- W. J. T. Mitchell, author of Image Science: Iconology, Visual Culture, and Media Aesthetics "The virtual meeting of Gerhard Richter and Paul Rabinow opens up utterly new scholarly and discursive vistas into the nature of the contemporary. Offering a highly sophisticated and innovative anthropological framework to discuss the work of a prominent contemporary artist, Rabinow's innovative and exquisite book makes a compelling and necessary attempt to productively tie the arts and art criticism with the human sciences." -- Amir Eshel, author of Futurity: Contemporary Literature and the Quest for the Past

• Introduction. Form and Birkenau  11. Object: The Contemporary  152. Constellations: Writing and Imaging Strife  333. Assembling: Abet and Facilitate  654. Composition: Technē and Pathos  955. Contemporary Consolations: Unconsoled  1256. Restive Endings  141Notes  147Bibliography  159

Paul Rabinow is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author and editor of numerous books, including Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary, also published by Duke University Press, and, most recently, Modes of Uncertainty: Anthropological Cases.

"Sometimes the keenest observations on an overly familiar phenomena come from outside the family. So it is with Paul Rabinow's lively, risky intervention in the clan of prestigious art theorists and critics who have created the reception of Gerhard Richter, one of the most famous artists in the world today. Rabinow contests the prevailing cliches that underwrite Richter's canonization, employing an anthropological perspective to untangle the artist's experiments with form in the twilit afterlife of modernism." -- W. J. T. Mitchell, author of Image Science: Iconology, Visual Culture, and Media Aesthetics "The virtual meeting of Gerhard Richter and Paul Rabinow opens up utterly new scholarly and discursive vistas into the nature of the contemporary. Offering a highly sophisticated and innovative anthropological framework to discuss the work of a prominent contemporary artist, Rabinow's innovative and exquisite book makes a compelling and necessary attempt to productively tie the arts and art criticism with the human sciences." -- Amir Eshel, author of Futurity: Contemporary Literature and the Quest for the Past

• Introduction. Form and Birkenau  11. Object: The Contemporary  152. Constellations: Writing and Imaging Strife  333. Assembling: Abet and Facilitate  654. Composition: Technē and Pathos  955. Contemporary Consolations: Unconsoled  1256. Restive Endings  141Notes  147Bibliography  159