Dave Hickey Bücher

Mit dem ersten Playboy-Centerfold im Jahr 1953 – zufällig, oder auch nicht, war es der aufstrebende Weltstar Marilyn Monroe – hatte Hugh Hefner, Erfinder, Herausgeber und Verleger des Playboy, im playmate of the month einen Kultplatz für weibliche Aktphotographie geschaffen, um den sich in der Folge die schönsten Frauen der Welt reißen sollten. Die Idee, alle playmate of the month-Akte in einem einzigen Buch zusammenzustellen, hat voll ins Schwarze getroffen: Die 1. Auflage war im Handumdrehen vergriffen und der Appetit – auf insgesamt 625 farbige Photos von entblößten Schönheiten – hält unvermindert an. Die Sammlung ist eine kolossale, ins erotische Delirium führende Feier des weiblichen Körpers und seiner Formen. Sie illustriert die kollektiven erotischen Phantasien, die Playboy-Leser – Männer wie Frauen – in den sechs Dekaden heimgesucht haben, und ihren Wandel. Zu jedem Jahrzehnt hat ein Schriftsteller oder eine Schriftstellerin von Rang einen einführenden Text geschrieben. So treffen Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Stella Stevens, Jenny McCarthy, Anna Nicole Smith, Pamela Anderson und alle anderen Schönen auf die Poetenaugen von Robert Coover, Paul Theroux, Robert Stone, Jay McInerney, Daphne Merkin und Maureen Gibbon.

„. wenn unsere Kunstkritik mehr sein möchte als eine bloße geisteswissenschaftliche Disziplin, dann muss die Wirkungsmacht der Bilder der Ausgangspunkt der Kritik sein und nicht ihre Konsequenz, - das Subjekt der Kritik und nicht ihr Objekt. Und darum“, resümierte ich einigermaßen großartig, „möchte ich ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf die Sprache des visuellen Affekts richten, - auf die Rhetorik des Wie-die-Dinge-aussehen, - auf die Ikonographie des Begehrens, - mit einem Wort, auf Schönheit.“ Dave Hickey gilt als einer der eigensinnigsten und einflussreichsten Kunstkritiker der USA, er publizierte unter anderem in Artforum, Interview und im Rolling Stone. Derzeit hat er eine Professur an der University of Nevada, Las Vegas inne. Der erstmals in deutscher Sprache erscheinende Band wurde vom Autor in Gänze durchgesehen und stark überarbeitet. Die vier Essays spannen einen Bogen über die Werke von Raphael und Caravaggio bis hin zu Andy Warhol und Robert Mapplethorpe.

Emerging artists are utilizing portraiture and self-portraiture to delve into complex identity issues while pushing the boundaries of figurative art. The renewed focus on classical training in representational art is also gaining traction. The Outwin Boochever Competition 2006 showcases fifty-one selected works from over 4,000 entries, highlighting the current strength and relevance of portraiture. This exhibition reflects the National Portrait Gallery's dedication to contemporary art and the diverse narratives of today's Americans.

One of a very few women willing to brave the machismo of New York Abstract Expressionism, Joan Mitchell (1926-1992) today ranks among the best of her generation. And the art market reflects her steady two years ago Christie's sold a 1971 Mitchell canvas for $7 million, the second-highest sale for a female artist. Setting aside matters of gender, Mitchell remains exemplary as an artist able to lay bare each decision of the brush, in long, curving strokes and tangles of paint on often unprimed canvases. Mitchell is as raw and as messy as Jackson Pollock or Cy Twombly, never digressing into prettiness for the sake of art. Published on the occasion of her eponymous late-2008 exhibition at Cheim & Read, Joan Sunflowers presents major paintings alongside a selection of pastels and etchings, which turn on the theme of the sunflower. Begun in 1969, after Mitchell had relocated to the French town of Vétheuil, just outside Paris, these works gathered steam until 1972. Sunflowers includes an essay by noted art historian and critic Dave Hickey, which offers a context for these fraught and beautiful works.

Photographer, designer, and installation artist Barbara Bloom (b. 1951) has built her career out of questioning appearances, exploring the desire for possessions, and commenting on the act of collecting. The Collections of Barbara Bloom, which accompanies a retrospective of the same title at ICP, explores all aspects of her oeuvre, including works from past multi-media installations and newly made pieces, as well as objects from her vast personal archives of ephemera and advertisements. In some cases, Bloom revisits previous installations and adds new elements, resisting the delineation between past and present in her work. She often integrates her photographs with furniture to create compelling scenes, as with the installation Greed (1988) from the ICP collection, comprised of a chair, an empty frame, and her own photograph of a museum gallery showing a guard in a chair. An example of one of her collections is a complete set of Vladimir Nabokovs writings, with all the book covers redesigned by Bloom. This refers not only to herself as collector, and Nabokov as collector (he obsessively collected his own books), but herself as artist. The Collections of Barbara Bloom is an expansion of a project developed as part of Blooms Wexner Art Center Residency Award in 1998.

The bestselling visual biography of one of the twentieth century's most innovative, influential artists Andy Warhol "Giant" Size is the definitive document of this remarkable creative force, and a telling look at late twentieth-century pop culture. A must-have for Warhol fans and pop culture enthusiasts, this in-depth and comprehensive overview of Warhol's extraordinary career is packed with more than 2,000 illustrations culled from rarely seen archival material, documentary photography, and artwork. Dave Hickey's compelling essay on Warhol's geek-to-guru evolution combines with chapter openers by Warhol friends and insiders to give special insight into the way the enigmatic artist led his life and made his art. It also provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the New York art world of the 1950s to the 1980s. From the publisher of The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, Volumes 1 - 5.

Working within the strict format of the vertical stripe, Tim Bavington explores methods of designing his paintings, from intuition and chance to architectural systems and bar-coding. In recent years his interest has turned to

David Levinthal, a central figure in the history of American postmodern photography, has staged uncanny tableaux using toys and miniature dioramas for nearly forty years. This publication for the first time assembles the artist's photography on the subject of war. Levinthal's combat-related tableaux constitute a remarkable critique of the ways society experiences conflict through its portrayal. His groundbreaking project "Hitler Moves East" (1975–77), a series of imagined scenes from World War II's Russian front, first established his reputation, becoming a touchstone for the iconoclastic generation of American photographers that includes artists like Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince.The book has a beautifully designed canvas hardcover with silkscreen print and a dust jacket

The book features a collection of essays that explore the concept of beauty in art, combining four original essays with newly discovered writings. Celebrated by artists and critiqued by some, it addresses the significance of beauty during the AIDS crisis, reflecting on its role amidst death and decay. Hickey's insights on the "therapeutic institution" and his unique perspectives on various artists and cultural figures highlight his influence as a prominent arts writer. The afterword adds depth by contextualizing his work within the challenges of his time.

Arguably one of Americas most unconventional art/cultural critics