Book Description
Profound and ironic, nothing is one of the driving themes of 20th century art. One thinks of Piet Mondrian's reductivist approach to abstraction, Marcel Duchamp's contention that art resides in ideas, not objects, Mark Rothko's painterly reach for the sublime, Andy Warhol's affirmations of the vacuity of Pop culture. The Big Nothing will focus on themes of nothing, nothingness, and negation in contemporary art and culture, surveying the legacy of these and other manifestations of absence made manifest in contemporary art. Artist include Gareth James, Jutta Koether, Louise Lawler, Richard Prince, Yves Klein, Bernadette Corporation, John Miller, and James Welling, among others. Given its broad connotations, "nothing" provides general audiences with immediate access to looking at and thinking about the art of today. Part of a pan-Philadelphia cultural event initiated by the ICA, in which the city gives itself over to the art of nothing. Essays by Ingrid Shaffner and Bennett Simpson. Foreword by Claudia Gould. Paperback, 6 x 8 in./80 pgs / 40 b & w and 10 duotones.

FROM THE PUBLISHER