James Voorhies – författare

Documenting the extraordinary breadth of sculptural production by American artist Tony Smith (1912 1980), this comprehensive book reveals the depth and complexity of Smith s oeuvre as well as the vast range of his intellectual pursuits. Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonne: Sculpture, with more than 500 full-color illustrations, is the first in a multi-publication project to reveal the depth and complexity of Smith s oeuvre while positioning its transdisciplinary nature in dialogue with contemporary voices. Often made of steel and painted black, Smith s large-scale sculptures demonstrate a committed experimentation in how geometric shapes can be modeled into holistic sculptural compositions. The ever-shifting qualities of his imposing works engage spectators in phenomenological experiences that continually change in relation to motion, position, sightline, and perspective, amid a panoply of shapes that generate and regenerate anew with each incremental shift in viewpoint. Born in South Orange, New Jersey, Tony Smith (1912 1980) occupies an important place in the history of twentieth-century art and design. His intellectual and creative pursuits, encompassing sculpture, architecture, drawing, painting, and writing, were informed by his close study of biology, mathematics, philosophy, and literature, blending the improvisational with the analytical. His artistic process was both intellectual and instinctual relying upon rational structures inherent in polygonal forms, complemented by creative intuition, to shape his visions into what may be considered irrational objects sculptures. This volume serves as a comprehensive record of Smith s sculpture, providing an archival foundation for future study, interpretation, and analysis. A companion book, Against Reason: Tony Smith, Sculpture, and Other Modernisms, is published alongside to explore the ongoing vitality of Tony Smith, with newly commissioned essays and artist projects by practitioners working in a range of visual arts. These books will, for the first time, capture the depth, influence, and diversity of Smith s understudied oeuvre, establishing new ground for future interpretations and readings of his monumental work.

Original essays and visual art that reveal the depth and complexity of the sculpture of American modernist Tony Smith, placing his multifaceted practice in dialogue with contemporary voices. Against Reason, Volume 1 is published alongside the Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonne: Sculpture, itself the first of two volumes the other focusing on architecture documenting the artist s career. This book reveals the depth and complexity of Smith s oeuvre in sculpture while positioning its transdisciplinary nature in dialogue with contemporary practitioners. Commissioned essays by art historians and curators and visual projects by artists offer renewed perspectives on a variety of cultural systems, exploring the ongoing vitality of Smith s work. Their contributions reflect upon the modernist era in which Smith s work was produced to think through ingrained ideologies, revealing other, parallel modernisms and histories. Against Reason delves deeply into work by Smith that has not been previously parsed or discussed within art historical contexts. The book shuttles among visual art projects and texts, from Mario Gooden s essay exploring Smith s refusal to occupy the known quantities assigned to 'artist' and 'architect,' to Saim Demircan s study of the re-presentation of Smith s work through its photo-documentation in the mainstream press, to Judith Barry s transformation of Smith s sculpture into the form of a flipbook and centerpiece 'pop-up.' Jenni Sorkin explores the influence of Smith s sculpture practice on his daughter Kiki Smith, while Yann Chateigne Tytelman casts a wider net to examine correspondences between Smith and the contemporary artists Joachim Koester, Mai-Thu Perret, and Cauleen Smith. Tom Burr closes the volume with a photo-collage project reflective of his ongoing engagement with Tony Smith s oeuvre.

Original essays and visual arts projects that explore the understudied breadth and richness of American artist Tony Smith s work in architecture. Against Reason: Volume 2 is the companion publication to Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonne: Architecture, the second in a two-volume, four-book printed publication series dedicated to Tony Smith s sculpture and architecture. Edited by curator and historian James Voorhies, Against Reason gathers newly commissioned essays together with visual arts projects by practitioners and critics, including Mario Gooden, Christopher Ketcham, Marta Kuzma, Peter L Official, R.H. Quaytman, and Jasmine Rault. Their contributions from a wide range of disciplines from American studies, architecture, and art history to theory, design, and visual art place Smith s architectural design work in dialogue with contemporary culture, expanding perspectives on the artist s canonical work and offering fresh twenty-first-century insights. The Against Reason books complicate and pluralize the very idea of the catalogue raisonne to challenge the monolithic place these forms have in writing art history by providing a more nuanced and historically rich lens through which the Tony Smith archive and his work can be read. In this case, the dual-publication project is an innovative approach to scholarship that situates Smith within contemporary culture, thus making evident his ongoing relevance in the fields of art and design.