Petra Giloy-Hirtz - Böcker

Roland Fischer’s “Façades” are spectacular photographic pict ures: a visual grammar of architectural structures, an alphabet of abstract forms full of art ‐ historical references. Roland Fischer (b. 1958), whose work is exhibited worldwide in important museums, lives and works in Munich and Beijing. Since the 1990s t he artist has been photographing the exteriors of buildings, of banks, corporate headquarters and museums in the metropolises of the world, including Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai, New York, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Osaka, Boston, Brasilia, Los Angeles, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore, Dallas, Madrid, Washington, Mexico City, Chicago, Toronto, Chongqing and Montreal. The results of this breathtaking project form an unusual series of some 100 façades: a vocabulary of global architecture, an inventory of city landmarks. The structures and colours of the contemporary metropolitan universe are transformed into pictures that resemble abstract painting

Roland Fischer’s “Façades” are spectacular photographic pictures: a visual grammar of architectural structures, an alphabet of abstract forms full of art-historical references. Roland Fischer (b. 1958), whose work is exhibited worldwide in important museums, lives and works in Munich and Beijing. Since the 1990s the artist has been photographing the exteriors of buildings, of banks, corporate headquarters and museums in the metropolises of the world, including Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai, New York, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Osaka, Boston, Brasilia, Los Angeles, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore, Dallas, Madrid, Washington, Mexico City, Chicago, Toronto, Chongqing and Montreal. The results of this breathtaking project form an unusual series of some 100 façades: a vocabulary of global architecture, an inventory of city landmarks. The structures and colours of the contemporary metropolitan universe are transformed into pictures that resemble abstract paintings.

The artist Stefan Hunstein brought magical photographs of untouched landscapes back from his journey to the Arctic in 2012. In their majesty and beauty, their immensity and their deadly cold they echo the visions of ice in painting and literature, especially during the Romantic era. The publication shows a selection of these breathtaking photographs which are being presented in public for the first time – also in a series of exhibitions. Here Hunstein, famous for his critical exami nation of contemporary history through the artistic processing of existing pictures, has taken up the camera himself and has created “Dream Pictures” which retain a hint of unreality in their outlines, shadows and reflections, in their theatrical blue lumi nosity and the bizarre, constantly changing structures. In these photos – printed on glass using a special technique – the artist links the fragile and the monstrous, the beauty of nature and “the horrors of the ice and of darkness” (Christoph Ransmayr)

The German-Swedish artist Ann Wolff is a pioneer of the studio glass movement in Europe. Born in Lübeck in 1937, she has achieved international fame for her sculptures which mainly use the material glass, but she has always drawn as well.This volume now presents a collection based on a selection of sixty hitherto unpublished drawings from the 1980s.The works, executed in pencil on paper, focus on a female figure seen in reflections and duplications, sometimes surreal and whimsical in connection with animals and intermediate beings, and sometimes with a man or a child: dream worlds, pictures of the subconscious, often inspired by fairy tales. The pictures unfold their narrative potential as investigations of the female self in the social milieu of an age characterised by feminist movements and discussions regarding the relationship between the sexes.

Beauty, terror, majesty, awe: mountain worlds have fascinated humankind since time immemorial. Stephan Huber ascends the snow-covered peaks "en miniature". In his sculptures he imitates the relief of the mountains and creates theatrical-looking, object-like works. This comprehensive volume reflects in powerful images the Alpine cosmos which Huber has been investigating for more than four decades. Stephan Huber’s “Mountains” can be found everywhere: in museums like the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Bonner Kunstmuseum and the Messner Mountain Museum, and also as large-scale installations in the public space. His monumental contribution to the Venice Biennale in 1999 received international acclaim. In addition to the famous snow-white sculptures of mountain peaks, the publication also assembles early book objects, fictional expeditions, multiples and exhibition views. Essays and an extensive conversation with Reinhold Messner about the interior and exterior mountain worlds round out the volume.

In its feel, plasticity, luminosity and narrative quality, glass is a material like no other, captivating us with its immediacy. Artists such as Monica Bonvicini, Erwin Eisch, Carlos Garaicoa, Mona Hatoum, Shirazeh Houshiary, Laure Prouvost, Kiki Smith and Ann Wolff have appreciated the unique physicality of glass, inspiring them to create sensational works. This publication represents a new contribution to the discourse on glass as a material in contemporary art. Often categorised under crafts or as a design material, glass has become an important medium for fine art in recent decades, which the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung has supported through exhibitions, scientific work and the establishment of a collection. This book presents a selection of around fifty artists from different geographical and cultural backgrounds. They demonstrate the diverse artistic practice of working with glass: from spectacular small objects to installations. Artists include: Monica Bonvicini, Kristi Cavataro, Tony Cragg, Jimmie Durham, Erwin Eisch, Carlos Garaicoa, Donghai Guan, Jens Gussek, Mona Hatoum, Shirazeh Houshiary, Tao Hui, Hassan Khan, Yoshiaki Kojiro, Raimund Kummer, Alicja Kwade, Glenda León, Antoine Leperlier, Silvia Levenson, Jessica Loughlin, Haroon Mirza, Kim Namdoo, Masayo Odahashi, Sibylle Peretti, Laure Prouvost, Colin Reid, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, Gizela Šabóková, Anri Sala, Masahiro Sasaki, Alejandra Seeber, Eric Sidner, Kiki Smith, Jana Sterbak, Jenna Sutela, Janusz Walentynowicz, Qin Wang, Terry Winters, among others.