Markus Brüderlin

Ulrike Groos

Ever since the Rudolf Steiner's panel drawings were first exhibited in a contemporary art context in the summer of 1992 at the Galerie Monika Sprèuth in Cologne, they went on tour as the transmitter of an 'anthroposophy for the future' through the best known museums in the world. In addition to his paintings, drawings and sculptures, these panel pictures are clearly located at the junction between art and science, programmatically pointing to the key interrelationship between mankind and the cosmos. It was always Steiner's extraordinary way of seeing objects and non-objects that led to sustainable reform projects in such fields as agriculture, education and medicine. This book examines for the first time Anthroposophist thought as reflected in contemporary art and to what extent its integral concepts and aesthetic ideas are realized in the visual arts.

Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Art

Donald B. Kuspit

Expressiv!

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

At last, the broader movements of twentieth-century Swiss art--and the individual artists behind them--are tracked through the present day in one standard-setting publication. Swiss Made: Precision and Madness sets the famous Swiss tendency toward precision and order alongside the tendency toward obstinacy and chaos, pairing canonical works with pieces made within the past 40 years. Provocative pairs include Max Bill and John Armleder, Ferdinand Hodler and Urs Lüthi, Alberto Giacometti and Rémy Zaugg, Louis Soutter and Martin Disler, Robert Müller and Sylvie Fleury, Paul Klee and Silvia Bächli, Adolph Wölfli and Ugo Rondinone. Tensions emerge between the focused and the expansive, over everyday life in the Swiss state, and naturally over the mountains. Swiss Made: Precision and Madness is of interest on its own analytic terms, and as an excellent overview of the country's art since 1850.

Swiss Art from Hodler to Hirschhorn : Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg : Swiss Made+ : 03/03-03/24/2007, 07/07-10/21/2007

Precision and Madness

Fondation Beyeler

Some of the oldest and most enduring myths involve the tree. Why this is, should be obvious, for without trees there would be no oxygen, fire, heat, wood, paper, nor dwellings -- in short, no life as we know it. Like water, trees are not just metaphors for life, they are life. This book celebrates the tree as it inspires artistic imagination, and gathers together the arboreal images of such artists as Friedrich, Monet, Cezanne, Giacometti, Ernst, Beuys, Baselitz, Penone, and many others, as well as artists and artisans From Africa and the Pacific. Here, those who have identified with trees for their symbolic, aesthetic, and natural principles of life preservation, are represented and discussed, and the role of the tree in folklore, magic, religion, and aesthetics, is considered.

The Magic of Trees

Stephen Addiss

Katharina Epprecht

In Western art, Minimalism is characterised by the rejection of figurative representation in favour of reduction and simple geometric configurations. In Japanese culture, emptiness and simplicity have long been the central principles of design, and are allied closely to Zen Buddhism. This fascinating book explores Western Minimalism and the concept of 'm̀eaningful emptiness' in Zen art, examining their differences and similarities. Examples of traditional Japanese craftsmanship are juxtaposed with works of Western art. Japan and the West poses fundamental questions about artistic production and the reception of twentieth-century art, and highlights significant influences on art forms throughout the ages.

Markus Brüderlin

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