Josef Helfenstein – författare

American artist Walter De Maria is associated with Minimal, conceptual, installation, and land art. He is best known for The Lightning Field, 1977, a long-term installation in western New Mexico made up of four hundred pointed stainless steel poles arranged in a grid over an area measuring one mile by one kilometer. Despite the role he has played in contemporary art over the past fifty years, few books have been dedicated to the artist. Featuring new paintings and sculptures and never before published texts, this volume explores in detail the works in the artist's first major museum exhibition in the United States: "Walter De Maria: Trilogies" at the Menil Collection.In the expansive new work the Bel Air Trilogy, 2000–11, De Maria has combined exacting geometry with the entirely unexpected element of three impeccably restored 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air two-tone hardtops. Each car is pierced by a twelve-foot-long stainless steel rod in the shape of a circle, square, or triangle that runs through the front and rear windshields. The Bel Air Trilogy is joined by De Maria's austere tripartite sculpture with moveable spheres, the Channel Series, 1972, and The Statement Series, 1968/2011. Building upon his large-scale 1968 canvas The Color Men Choose When They Attack The Earth, for The Statement Series, the artist created two additional monochrome paintings with engraved stainless steel plates that complement the original piece. The works in this volume are a testament to De Maria's ongoing investigation of the conceptual, the dramatic, the monumental, the minimal, and the real. Together these three trilogies challenge and broaden our understanding of the artist's work.Distributed for The Menil CollectionExhibition Schedule:The Menil Collection(09/16/11-01/08/12)

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of artists around Henri Matisse and André Derain were carrying out revolutionary colour experiments. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles gave them their name in 1905: the "Fauves". Translated into English, this means something like "beasts" or "wild animals". This catalogue is being published for the first survey exhibition on the Fauves staged in Switzerland for decades. It presents the expressive painting style and unusual colour combinations employed by Matisse, Derain and their companions in the years 1904 to 1908, situating them in the aesthetic and socio-political debates of that time. The male connotation of the term Fauves already suggests the exclusion of women artists on a conceptual level. The exhibition and catalogue challenge this traditional view and draw attention to female protagonists on the Paris art scene. Richly illustrated and supplemented by new art-historical research contributions, the publication offers an insight into the diversity of the colourful painting by the "beasts". Fauvism – the first avantgarde movement of the 20th century Brilliant colour experiments in a break with academic conventions Exhibition: Kunstmuseum Basel, New building, September 2, 2023 to January 2, 2024 Look inside

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of artists around Henri Matisse and André Derain were carrying out revolutionary colour experiments. The art critic Louis Vauxcelles gave them their name in 1905: the "Fauves". Translated into English, this means something like "beasts" or "wild animals". This catalogue is being published for the first survey exhibition on the Fauves staged in Switzerland for decades. It presents the expressive painting style and unusual colour combinations employed by Matisse, Derain and their companions in the years 1904 to 1908, situating them in the aesthetic and socio-political debates of that time. The male connotation of the term Fauves already suggests the exclusion of women artists on a conceptual level. The exhibition and catalogue challenge this traditional view and draw attention to female protagonists on the Paris art scene. Richly illustrated and supplemented by new art-historical research contributions, the publication offers an insight into the diversity of the colourful painting by the "beasts". Fauvism – the first avantgarde movement of the 20th century Brilliant colour experiments in a break with academic conventions Exhibition: Kunstmuseum Basel, New building, September 2, 2023 to January 2, 2024 Look inside

Some 40 carefully chosen juxtapositions of masterpieces by both artists trace a dialogue that ranks among the most fascinating in art history. This publication brings Pablo Picasso's (1881-1973) encounter with the Cretan-born old master Doménikos Theotokópoulos, better known as El Greco (1541-1614), vividly to life.El Greco’s unmistakable painting style won him considerable fame in his day. Soon after his death, however, his work was largely forgotten. It was only around 1900 that an El Greco revival was launched, with Picasso serving on the front lines. His engagement with the Greek-Spanish master not only went far deeper than has previously been assumed but also lasted much longer. From his first encounter with El Greco's works shortly before 1900 until the end of his life, Picasso not only referenced but engaged in a fascinating artistic dialogue with the old master.

Visualizing Hidden Structures in Art and Society In her artistic practice, Andrea Buttner combines art history with social and ethical issues. Since the early 2000s, she has been exploring a wide range of themes such as work, poverty, shame and care in monastic forms of coexistence, but also arts and crafts as a political field. Examining the ambivalent tension between aesthetics and ethics, the internationally renowned artist uses various conceptual methods. Best known for her large-scale woodcuts, Buttner has since used a variety of media, including etching, painting, photography and video installations, glass art and textiles. For her publications and exhibitions, Buttner composes her works thematically to create site-specific installations that can be experienced as gradually unfolding narratives.

As one of the founding figures of Impressionism, Camille Pissarro exerted considerable influence over the movement’s other members, such as Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, and Mary Cassatt. This publication focuses on Pissarro’s collaborations with these and other artists. It also celebrates the avant-garde quality of his painting, particularly in his contributions to Neo-Impressionism. Focusing on his role in the revolutionary Impressionist movement of the 1870s, the book traces Pissarro’s work in dialog with his fellow artists, particularly Cezanne and Gauguin, and also reveals his influence on works by Alfred Sisley, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and others. In addition to pages of exquisite reproductions of works by Pissarro and his contemporaries, this volume features illuminating essays on fascinating aspects of the life and work of this prolific artist. Readers will come away with a new understanding of how Pissarro’s unique talent for collaboration and unity was vital to the development of French painting in the late 19th century.

This is the first major exploration of the works of American abstract painter and watercolorist Suzan Frecon (b. 1941), critically acclaimed for her sensitive arrangement of color, form, and texture, and for the philosophical resonance of her art. By restricting herself to nonrepresentational forms, earth-based colors, and, in the case of her watercolors, “found” pieces of paper, Frecon achieves an unequaled sense of balance and openness in her work. The book features ten oil paintings and thirty watercolors dating from the late 1990s to 2007.   form, color, illumination celebrates the uniqueness of Frecon's painting and articulates how her work distinguishes itself within the history of abstract painting. The authors describe in-depth how her artistic process and materials are an integral part of her focus and aesthetic. Included is an essay revealing the "ethics” of her aesthetics––an argument for abstraction and an attention to truth that is not divorced from social and environmental concerns.Distributed for The Menil CollectionExhibition Schedule:The Menil Collection, Houston (March 6 – May 11, 2008)  Kunstmuseum Bern (June 11 – September 28, 2008)