Achim Borchardt-Hume

Carol Becker

The first monograph of Chicago-based Theaster Gates, one of the most exciting and highly regarded contemporary artists at work today. Theaster Gates has developed an expanded artistic practice that includes space development, object making, performance and critical engagement with many publics. Gates transforms spaces, institutions, traditions, and perceptions. Gates's training as an urban planner and sculptor, and subsequent time spent studying clay, has given him keen awareness of the poetics of production and systems of organizing. Playing with these poetic and systematic interests, Gates has assembled gospel choirs, formed temporary unions, and used systems of mass production as a way of underscoring the need that industry has for the body. Gates refers to his working method as 'critique through collaboration' and his projects often stretch the form of what we usually understand visual art to be. His focus is also on the availability of information and the cross-fertilization of ideas. His multi-faceted exhibitions investigate themes of race and history through sculpture, installation, performance and two-dimensional works, furthering the artist's interest in a critique of social practice, shared economies and the question of objects in relation to political and cultural thought. Gates' recent exhibition and performance venues include the Seattle Art Museum, Art Basel Miami Beach, Milwaukee Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Whitney Biennial in New York. Gates was a participating artist in Documenta 13 in Kassel (2012) with his total-living installation 12 Ballads for Huguenot House. Other notable solo exhibitions include An Epitaph for Civil Rights at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (2011) and My Labor Is My Protest, at White Cube Bermondsey, London (2012). Parallel to his artist career, Gates is also Director of Arts and Public Life Initiative at the University of Chicago and a board member of the city's South Side Community Center. Recently commissioned as the 2012 Armory Show Artist and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2011, Gates has received awards and grants from Creative Capital, the Joyce Foundation, Graham Foundation, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art.

Theaster Gates

Looks at the issue of the artist's responsibility to society, and questions the ethical, mutual responsibilities between artists and society.

Artists, Society, and Responsibility

The Subversive Imagination

In The Subversive Imagination , professional writers, artists and cultural critics from around the world offer their views on the issue of the artist's responsibility to society. The contributors look beyond censorship and free speech issues and instead emphasize the subject of freedom. More specifically, the contributors question the ethical, mutual responsibilities between artists and the societies in which they live. The original essays address an eclectic range of subjects: censorship, multiculturalism, the transition from communism to capitalism in Eastern Europe, postmodernism, Salman Rushdie, and young black filmmakers' responsibility to the black community.

The Artist, Society and Social Responsiblity

Addresses the questions: What might be the role of the artist in the 21st century? How essential is art to the psychic and political well-being of American society?

Essays on Art, Institutions, Gender, and Anxiety

Zones of Contention

Chris Ofili

David Adjaye

A monograph survey of the alternate-media artist's development and creative expression of the contemporary world explores his blending of African ritual, western tradition, and hip-hop culture as well as his use of such materials as bead-dot paint, popular media collages, and elephant dung.

The Madness of the Method

Edgar Allan Poe

Leading social critic Carol Becker offers a timely analysis of the nature of art and its role in politics and society. Completed just before the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center catastrophe, this book is remarkably prescient of the new concerns that have now become foremost in our thoughts since the attack. Becker raises the question of the place of art and the function of public intellectuals in a society desperately in need of creativity and leadership.

Global Transformations and the Changing Politics of Art

Surpassing the Spectacle

Leading social critic Carol Becker offers a timely analysis of the nature of art and its role in politics and society. Completed just before the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center catastrophe, this book is remarkably prescient of the new concerns that have now become foremost in our thoughts since the attack. Becker raises the question of the place of art and the function of public intellectuals in a society desperately in need of creativity and leadership. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Nico Daswani

Fumio Nanjo

The first monograph on the indefatigable explorer of relationships between people, technology, and environmental issues Dutch artist, Daan Roosegaarde, is one of the most innovative artists to emerge in the past decade. His sculptures and installations, made in collaboration with a team of engineers and designers, aim to create better conditions in cities and to make difficult areas habitable again, by rethinking processes and upgrading urban structures. At the core of Roosegaarde's practice is schoonheid, a Dutch word that stands both for 'clean-ness' and 'beauty.' It is this that has informed some of his most popular public projects, including Waterlicht (a virtual flood that shows the force of water); Smog Free Project (a large outdoor air purifier that turns smog into jewelry), and Smart Highway (an interactive road that charges throughout the day and glows at night).

Daan Roosegaarde

**Ina Garten named the Black & White cookie at William Greenberg Desserts the best in New York City** A Slice of Classic New York with Sweet Recipes that Cover Every Craving, from Rugelach to Lemon Bars to Matzoh Walnut Brownies and Coconut Layer Cake William Greenberg Desserts has been a New York City staple for more than seventy years. While maintaining and celebrating the signature recipes, such as the Linzer Tarts and classic Hamantaschen, and, of course, the Black & White cookie, this book will offer new and refreshing recipes as well. The bakery triggers nostalgia in certain generations, but a newer audience is building their own memories with inspiring new flavors—for example, without taking away schnecken and hot cross buns, modern goodies like cake pops, whoopee pies, and rainbow cakes are now available, too! Recipes will include: Honey loaf Chocolate pistachio biscotti Butter pecan sandies Rocky road brownies Raisin scones Chocolate chip pound cake And many more! This cookbook will carry on the tradition Mr. Greenberg started decades ago. It will maintain his legacy by including stories from Mr. Greenberg, as well as longtime customers, and members of the baking team who were trained by Mr. Greenberg himself, and are now teaching the next generation. Not only are original recipes still followed, but that attention to quality that established the bakery's reputation in the 1940s continues to this day. Like other New York icons—Russ & Daughters, Katz's Deli, Nathan's Hot Dogs—the upper east side mainstay has become part of the fabric of the city. The timeless recipes are exactly the type of simple yet immensely satisfying sweets everyone wants. These recipes transcend trends while appealing to modern palates. This book adds a fresh perspective to the bakery and its recipes, while also staying true to the tradition and community its customers have loved for decades.

Carol Becker

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