ART BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS

Maryclare Foá, Jane Grisewood, Birgitta Hosea, Carali McCall, Performance Drawing, 2020, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN: 135011300X

What is ‘performance drawing’? When does a drawing turn into a performance? Is the act of drawing in itself a performative process, whether a viewer is present or not? Through conversation, interviews and essays, the authors illuminate these questions, and what it might mean to perform, and what it might mean to draw, in a diverse and expressive contemporary practice since 1945. The term ‘performance drawing’ first appeared in the subtitle of Catherine de Zegher’s Drawing Papers 20: Performance Drawings, in particular with reference to Alison Knowles and Elena del Rivero. In this book, it is used as a trope, and a thread of thinking, to describe a process dedicated to broadening the field of drawing through resourceful practices and cross-disciplinary influence. Featuring a wide range of international artists, this book presents pioneering practitioners, alongside current and emerging artists. The combination of experiences and disciplines in the expanded field has established a vibrant art movement that has been progressively burgeoning in the last few years. The Introduction contextualises the background and identifies contemporary approaches to performance drawing. As a way to embrace the different voices and various lenses in producing this book, the authors combine individual perspectives and critical methodology in the five chapters. While embedded in ephemerality and immediacy, the themes encompass body and energy, time and motion, light and space, imagined and observed, demonstrating how drawing can act as a performative tool. The dynamic interaction leads to a collective understanding of the term, performance drawing, and addresses the key developments and future directions of this applied drawing process.

FUKT Magazine No. 18 – The System Issue, ISBN: 978-3-9820098-1-0

The latest issue in the publications’ 20-year history looks at the innately human desire to create systems and how artists across the world interpret this subject. As it’s inevitable that we’ll deal with different types of systems throughout our lives, issue number 18 focuses on precisely this. Many artists create their own systems and methods; setting up rules for creating their art, sorting their materials, following specific schedules, creating new worlds. In a way, such structures provide us with a framework for stretching the possibilities of our creative freedom.

The System Issue features artists who comment and question the system surrounding us, as exemplified in the blunt, political cartoons of Jim Carrey. Politics is a recurring theme which can also be found in Pablo Helguera’s satirical observations of the art system and the Captured Project’s expose of the American judicial system. Systems are also to be found in our own body movements, illustrated through the expressive body drawings by Trisha Brown and Tony Orrico – just a few of the many artists operating along the fertile ground between performative dance and drawing. Other topics are robotic drawings, neuroscience and chess, together with extensive interviews with Julie Mehretu, Giorgia Lupi and many more.

Editor-in chief: Bjørn Hegardt
Editor: Alice Finney
Design: Ariane Spanier

Alain Fleischer, Alain Prochiantz, Le rêve des formes: arts, 2019, Seuil, ISBN : 9782021420166

A work of art is almost always the work of an artist, even if it is a “ready made”, and the one who perceives it also does so as a subject. Which makes any work of art inexhaustible. This is perhaps even how we recognize it. We never see, read, or hear the same work twice.
The question is different for scientists who, since Galileo and the “great book of nature written in mathematical language”, decipher the said book without the subject intervening other than through his skill as a decipherer. The truth is revealed and exists independently of the subject who reveals it since it is nature that reveals itself. Allegory has crossed the 19th century and remains very much alive. Even if, as we very often see, the veil sometimes shows more than the unveiling. Alain Prochiantz

What is a form and why should we be interested in it today? If we refer to common sense, a form is a set of characteristic features – visual, sound, tactile – that allow a physical reality to be conceived, then perceived. Addressing our senses or constituting themselves in our imagination, sometimes without our knowledge as in dreams, forms seem to be primary entities, with which all fields of knowledge and creation have to deal. Forms move, deform, erode, regenerate. Numerous and difficult to define are the passages from form to deformity, from deformity to formless. Are there forms that cannot be named? And, conversely, is language capable of emitting statements that evoke no form? What do forms make us dream of? What forms do we dream of? By questioning the dream that forms can arouse, perhaps we would be tempted to anticipate the moment when these forms, freed from their referent, having become signs devoid of meaning, would themselves begin to dream. We could then ask ourselves: “What do forms dream of? What is the dream of forms?” Alain Fleischer

The drawer n.11 : crash, 2016,  ISBN: 2840669188

A magazine made up of drawings and devoted to drawing, The Drawer gives the floor and the field – almost – free to the “drawers” alone, gathering biannually the drawings and written contributions of some thirty artists and creators.
In English, “the drawer” means “the drawer”. It also designates “the one who draws”. Assuming the polysemy of its title, the magazine The Drawer could therefore be considered as a “drawing drawer”. Which it is in a certain way: a magazine entirely made up of drawings and devoted to drawing, which can be opened and closed at will, finally conducive to the most unexpected associations, The Drawer therefore lives up to its name.
Monomaniacal, The Drawer is no less open-minded: all drawings, provided they are good, and all designers, interest it. Celebrating the practice of drawing in its broadest dimension, The Drawer therefore combines contributions from artists (visual artists, illustrators, designers, architects) as well as those from less expected creators (singers, writers, musicians, choreographers, directors). Their common point: the same taste and the same practice of drawing.

Jacques Soulillou, Artiste, travail, technique, 2019, ISBN: 2322013641

This book deals with the weightings that the triangulation artist, work, technique has undergone over the course of the history of what the author calls the Western area of ​​work. In the modern era, two weightings have profoundly altered the profile of the triangulation artist, work, technique: copyright on the one hand, the Duchampian ready-made on the other, the latter allowing for the first time to think of the work beyond the work of representation. In its current phase, the Western area of ​​work is confronted with the double challenge of its global hegemony conferred on it by the concept of contemporary art and the challenge of new contenders, first and foremost the non-human artist embodied by the intelligent machine and its claim to autonomy.

Espace art actuel n° 114 – Visages, ISBN: 77447086368603
 journal dedicated to art forms associated with spatiality, Espace dedicates its 114th issue to the place of the face in the artistic field. Contents: inaugural text by Jacques Py, “the indigenous mask as an object for reading identity” by Alexia Pinto Ferretti, “the double game of the contemporary face” by Marion Zilio, “biometrics, identity and the potential of the face” by Vincent Marquis, “the face: the other of the portrait?” by André-Louis Paré, “events” and “public art and urban practices” sections, exhibition reviews and reading notes.

Paul Crowther, Digital Art, Aesthetic Creation, 2018, Taylor & Francis, ISBN: 0429886152

Is art created with computers really art? This book answers ‘yes.’ Computers can generate visual art with unique aesthetic effects based on innovations in computer technology and a Postmodern naturalization of technology wherein technology becomes something we live in as well as use. The present study establishes these claims by looking at digital art’s historical emergence from the 1960s to the start of the present century. Paul Crowther, using a philosophical approach to art history, considers the first steps towards digital graphics, their development in terms of three-dimensional abstraction and figuration, and then the complexities of their interactive formats.

Paul Crowther, What Drawing and Painting Really Mean, 2017, Taylor & Francis, ISBN: 1315311844

Drawings and paintings are made, and the process of making creates unique meanings that transform our perception of space-time and our sense of finitude. By using a phenomenological approach, the understanding of art practice and its relation to particular historical and cultural contexts can be significantly enhanced.

Luca Beatrice, Robot: A Visual Atlas from Ancient Greece to Artificial Intelligence, 2018, Ore Cultura Srl, ISBN: 978-8866483717

 The definitive work on the robot aesthetic throughout history, from Ancient Greece to the present day -An inexhaustible source of inspiration for fashion, music and design From Ancient Greece onwards, humans have been swept up in a race to replicate and rebuild themselves. We design automatons that mimic human functions or improve on them, born from a desire to take evolution into our own hands, or even play God. In fact, every form of cultural expression has at some point investigated the rich and stimulating field of robotics, reaching different conclusions and outcomes every time. Robots have infiltrated our social consciousness. They are everywhere, from Leonardo da Vinci’s drummer robot to the futurist man-machine; from Frankenstein to the works of Isaac Asimov and Philip Dick, inventor of the ‘replicant’; from Edward Gordon Craig’s theory of the actor as a super-puppet to Daft Punk and Kraftwerk, the krautrock band who used replica mannequins of themselves at the end of their concert. It doesn’t end there, either. Robots feature heavily in cinema (Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and George Lucas’s Star Wars saga, to name a few). They star in innumerable comic strips and cartoons (from Astro Boy to Marvel comics and Japanese manga). Fields like design, architecture and fashion, where creativity encounters industry, turned the robot into a commodity rather than a character. ‘Robot’ became a style in itself: kitsch and chic, fun and futuristic. Nowadays, when laptops, tablets and smartphones, the robots of the contemporary age, are in every house, car and pocket, the tin-and-steel robots of yesteryear have acquired an irresistibly vintage flavor, which makes them all the more desirable. Robot: A Visual Atlas from Ancient Greece to Artificial Intelligence appreciates this rich variety. Through tracking the conceptual development of the robot through western cultural history, it uncovers the roots of our fascination with artificial humanity.

La dernière grande manifestation autour de “La nature morte de l’Antiquité au XXe siècle” fut organisée en 1952 à Paris par Charles Sterling. “Les Choses” rend hommage à ce grand historien de l’art, en actualisant le point de vue et en intégrant tout ce qui a renouvelé nos perspectives, tant en histoire de l’art ancien et contemporain, qu’en littérature, poésie, philosophie, archéologie, botanique ou écologie.0Élargissant les frontières chronologiques et géographiques, l’ouvrage ouvre des fenêtres sur d’autres cultures qui ont représenté les choses en majesté. Il convoque des artistes contemporains qui s’inspirent de leurs prédécesseurs en modifiant notre regard sur le passé. Longtemps déconsidéré, le genre de la nature morte, assimilé à la trivialité de la vie quotidienne voire à la mécréance, doit être reconsidéré à la faveur de notre attachement grandissant aux choses ainsi qu’aux relations nouvelles qui s’établissent entre le vivant et le non vivant.

Bruno Durant, Generer des dessins, 2018, Canope editions, ISBN: 9782240047465

Avant même l’ère du numérique, l’art contemporain regorgeait déjà de machines, de protocoles de travail ou de programmes
informatiques pour dessiner. Ces manières d’envisager le dessin, plus globalement l’oeuvre et son processus de création, ont contribué à l’évolution globale des pratiques, des démarches et des attitudes artistiques.

Quelle est la nature et le statut du geste artistique dès lors que l’artiste n’est pas l’unique inventeur ou producteur du
dessin ? Quels rapports entretiennent l’art et les artistes avec les machines, les protocoles et les programmes ?

Pour répondre à ces questionnements, l’ouvrage met en perspective les pratiques de trois artistes – Les Méta-matics de
Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), les Wall Drawings de Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) et les dessins assistés par ordinateur de Vera Molnár (née en 1924), qui reconfigurent, élargissent ou déplacent les manières de convoquer ou de générer le dessin – avec d’autres modalités de création contemporaine.

Pamela Scorzin, Kunstforum Vol 278, AI ART: New positions and technical aesthetics.

How creative is artificial intelligence (AI)? Will it soon be an autonomous artist? Research with AI is now encouraging people to not only better understand what consciousness and intelligence, but also makes them think anew about our modern concept of creativity and art. Are creative abilities and skills tied to a sensitive body or to a human consciousness with free will? Will an AI soon greet us in galleries and museums with a friendly “I am your artist” – almost like in Maria Schrader’s successful film “I am your person”, which is in the Oscar race for Germany in 2021? And what about the concept of authorship? Can AI make art? The special volume discusses AI ART as a complex network phenomenon made up of human and non-human actors. It considers AI as a tool and topic for the arts with analyses and statements from theorists such as Peter Weibel and Arthur I. Miller as well as discussions with practitioners such as Nora Al-Badri, Refik Anadol and Trevor Paglen. Because AI is currently fundamentally changing the arts: With its help, technized cultural aesthetics are emerging that go beyond human imagination. Are works that are (co-)created by smart machines and designed through algorithmic processes, culturally speaking, still on the same level of bizarreness as those of ‘painting monkeys’ or are they already more art than art: AI ART?!

Form 266, Verlag form GmbH, 2016, ISBN: 

Interview by Franziska Porsche. 

Trebuchet 7, Portraits, 2019, ISBN: 977175383002

Roxana Halls: The Figure Strikes Back
Carl-Martin Sandvold: The big reveal
Markus Åkesson: Finding what is hidden
Charlie schaffer: The Emotion of Experience
Patrick Tresset: Robotic Portraits
Massimiliano Pironti: Hyperreality
David Treloar: Gestural Portraits and Simple Joy
Hail the New Ertuscan
Luciana Haill: Portrait waves on the canvas of consciousness
Justin Hession: Caught on film
An obscure review of the 2019 BP Portrait Awards
Portraits in the marketplace
Nigel Grimmer: this is not what you’re looking for
Nieto: Linguistic chaos
Hedley Roberts: Unknown faces, arch pleasures
Dr. Heba El Aziz: Petri Portraits
John Claridge: Being Aware

The Tickle issue #79 – Patrick Tresset edition

“I didn’t study painting, not in a college,” Tresset tells me. “I had some private, local evening classes, but prior to that I had studied computing, so I had a mixture of science and art in my interests, all my life.” It’s this space – the junction between science and art – that his current work inhabits. Fifteen years as a painter gave way to studying at Goldsmiths College in London for an MPhil in arts and computational technologies, moving his practice from the tactile to the ostensibly more cerebral realm, where the code (its planning, development, and execution) acts as the creative force.

Paolo Gallina, La protoarte dei robot, 2022, Mimesis, ISBN: 8857598306

 Viviamo in una società in cui la tecnologia è entrata in simbiosi con le nostre vite. Inevitabilmente anche l’arte è stata toccata dalle ultime frontiere del sapere. Questo saggio esplora i punti di contatto esistenti tra la robotica e l’arte, tra il rigore della scienza e la libertà dell’azione pittorica, tra la percezione e il senso estetico. Con un’analisi multidisciplinare e traendo dalla propria esperienza personale di robotico e artista, l’autore presenza un’attività espressiva dell’uomo – quella dell’arte robotica – che sta compiendo i primi passi nella nostra dimensione umana.