Laerke Rydal Jorgensen – författare

The eerily prescient work of a near-forgotten Japanese artist, whose 1960s and ’70s sculptures anticipate contemporary ecological anxietiesContemplating Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo’s (1935-90) work in the 21st century provokes a sense of the uncanny on multiple levels: grotesquely beautiful on their own, his abject sculptures seem to foretell today’s environmental concerns with their depictions of ecological decay. Born in Osaka, Kudo’s life was greatly impacted by the aftermath of the atomic bomb in 1945; this trauma compounded by the Vietnam War’s ever-present atmosphere of destruction led to a consistent focus on dystopia and decomposition in his work.Kudo’s fluorescent birdcages and blacklight terrariums are furnished with an assortment of sculptures and found objects: melted plastic flowers, colorful phallic chrysalises and dismembered resin body parts come together to convey a distinctly modern anxiety in regard to our ailing world. Kudo’s work does not intend to provide comfort in the midst of crisis; rather, his pieces urge viewers to reflect on how we may or may not continue to survive in a world that we ourselves have ruined through pollution and consumerism.As the artist’s work reaches a peak of topicality, this volume presents a focused selection of Kudo’s pieces from the 1960s and 1970s that demonstrate a postwar awareness of the atomic bomb’s effect on reproduction and the environment.

The mother as motif in art and literature, from prehistoric fertility goddesses to the Madonna and Child and beyondUshering us into the world, our mother is our physical and cultural wellspring. Even if she is lost or absent, we are all sons and daughters. Throughout history and across cultures, the role of the mother has shifted, expanding at times and narrowing at others, as traditional family structures are by turns questioned and reinforced. This volume of art and literature on the many representations of the mother figure in art history ranges across religion, music, film and medicine. Excerpts, essays and poems by Marcel Proust, Maggie Nelson, Rachel Cusk, Lydia Davis, Gustave Flaubert, Sylvia Plath and Hans Christian Andersen meditate on motherhood alongside a wealth of visual material. Although the volume’s main focus is on 20th-century and 21st-century art, Mother! Origin of Life reaches back through history to trace artistic motifs from the prehistoric era to Ancient Greece to the Renaissance, noting how contemporary artists continue to tap into such universal themes. Between more than 150 artworks, expert texts and a short anthology of motherhood in literature, this publication reveals how depictions of motherhood in the arts have been linked to broader cultural perceptions.Artists include: Sophie Calle, Mary Cassatt, Rineke Dijkstra, Laure Prouvost, Frida Orubapo, Tracey Emin, Alberto Giacometti, Mary Kelly, René Magritte, Alice Neel and Pablo Picasso.

A sweeping journey through the roaring art and culture of the Weimar RepublicAt the center of this volume are the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) artists—Otto Dix, George Grosz and Albert Renger-Patzsch—and the groundbreaking photographer August Sander, in particular his famed series People of the 20th Century, which portrayed both prominent and anonymous Germans from all parts of society in a simple and matter-of-fact pictorial style. Sander and the Neue Sachlichkeit artists both pursued an anti-Expressionist aesthetic, embracing social engagement and a rejection of romantic idealism. The Cold Gaze also looks at the extraordinary writers associated with the Weimar Republic, such as Vicki Baum, Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Döblin, Hans Fallada, Erich Kästner and Christopher Isherwood. Further points of focus by a range of contributing writers include Germany’s Americanization during this period; Marcel Breuer’s innovations in furniture design; the invention and ascent of the Futura font; the Weimar cult of technology; and much more.This richly illustrated catalog unfolds a period that was at once euphoric and harsh, an extraordinary moment in modernity birthed in the shadows between two world wars.