The Deutsche Bank honors the Japanese Koki Tanaka as Artist of the Year 2015. Tanaka follows Wangechi Mutu (Kenya), Yto Barrada (France/Morocco), Roman Ondák (Slovakia), Imran Qureshi (Pakistan), and Victor Man (Romania) as the sixth international artist to be presented with this award. “Koki Tanaka is one of the most original artists of his generation to emerge on the global art scene in the last decade. A shrewd observer of the most ‘indifferent’ matters of the everyday, he always manages to magically transform them into fantastic events with a sense of humor, offering open but pungent implications that reveal the uncanniness of existence,” explains Chinese curator Hou Hanru. Tanaka (*1975 in Tochigi, Japan) became known through installations and performances in which he implements everyday objects and material found in situ. A major share of his work consists of participatory projects that incorporate actors and exhibition viewers. Tanaka represented Japan at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, where his unsettlingly simple experiments proved that collaborations can pose a huge challenge.

Ausstellung/Exhibition: Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin 26.3.–25.5.2015

This first monograph to Ned Solakov's oeuvre presents works by the Bulgarian-born artist from the last ten years. Solakov gleans his ingredients for his fictive, often absurd narratives from classical works of art history. In his twelve-part series of "representative" paintings - as he calls them -, he juggles with the clichés of Romantic landscapes in the sense of Caspar David Friedrich. The pictures, painted in the manner of the old masters, quote the painterly rhetoric and construction schemes of German Romanticism but make its theoretical superstructure disappear: According to Peter Herbstreuth, "Solakov´s intention is a cozy house version of the Romantic." All pictures have "missing parts", blank spaces which are meant to irritate. On some pictures, there may be a moon missing, or a boat, on others a reflection - all of them carrying encoded meanings in Friedrich´s cosmology. The viewer finally turns to the inscriptions to the pictures for help, and there Solakov meticulously describes what the respective composition is "lacking". This way, he deconstructs traditional art historical preconceptions and the recipient's expectations: "Do-not-trust-me- or-yourself-too-much", in the artist's own words. The artist: Nedko Solakov, born in 1957 at Chevren Briag, Bulgaria. Studies of art at the Sofia Art Academy, graduation as a mural painter. In 1985/86 studies at the Nationaal Hoger Institut voor Shoone Kunsten in Antwerp. Participation in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Scholarships in Zurich, Vienna and at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien. In 2001, participation at the Venice Biennale. Lives and works in Sofia. Exhibition Schedule: Neuer Berliner Kunstverein 4.5.-16.6.2002 · Ulmer Museum 7.7.-1.9.2002

Through the work of 25 architects, the culturally and environmentally specific development of modern architecture in Australia, concentrating on housing, will be demonstrated. The publication Living the   Modern: Australian Architecture will depict the tradition and transformation of a diverse ’’Progressive Modernism.”

The goal of the book is to demonstrate the independent development of Australian Architecture through excellent architectural examples that are widely unknown in Europe. In Australia, aspects of Modernism have been transformed, interpreted, used, reformed and converted. The focus of the work presented will be on built examples of the last 15 years. Earlier references will be given in a panoramic overview, highlighted in an exemplary manner. (English edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2033-5)

Exhibition schedule: Deutsches Architektur Zentrum, Berlin, September 12 – November 11, 2007

Arnulf Rainer, the best-known Austrian artist in the post-war art world, carved out a completely new direction in European art with his overpaintings. Between 1995 and 1998 Rainer produced his remarkable sequence of Bible illustrations, in which he responded to originals ranging from 10th-century illustrated manuscripts to the art of the 19th century, drawing on works by Giotto and Sandro Botticelli, by Giovanni Bellini and William Blake, on Romanesque ceiling decorations and Gothic stained-glass windows, on miniatures from early sources like the highly illuminated Wenceslas Bible, on woodcuts from 14th century incunabula and on the Bible illustrated by Gustave Doré published in 1868. In his responses Rainer displays the full spectrum of his fascinating palette of overpainting techniques - from the most delicate of overdrawings to dense overpaintings which virtually obliterate the original.ì In this volume all 160 of Arnulf Rainer's cycle of Bible illustrations are reproduced in large-format plates accompanied by texts from the Authorized Version of the Bible from 1611 as well as informative art-historical data and detailed commentaries on the reworkings. In addition, essays by leading experts in the field address not only the art-historical aspects of these works but also the theological background to Arnulf Rainer's biblical overpaintings. (German edition available ISBN 3- 7757-0969-X, French edition available 3-7757-0972-X) The artist: Arnulf Rainer, born 1929 at Baden near Vienna. In 1949 acceptance to the University for Applied Arts in Vienna, which Rainer leaves after only one day. Subsequently acceptance at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, which Rainer attends for three days. In 1978, he receives the "Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis" award "in honor of his oeuvre" in the "area of Fine Arts". From 1981- 1995 professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin.

Black holes, dark matter, gravity, time, motion—these phenomena fascinate physicists and artists alike. Both strive to discover how they shape our world. The connection between art and science is gaining increasing significance in contemporary art.

Now, the influence of physics on today’s art, design, and architecture is being more closely examined. Curated by Ariane Koek, the founder of the arts program Arts at CERN, the exhibition Entangle – Physics and the Artistic Imagination and its companion catalog present the works of fourteen contemporary artists who are inspired by physics and its investigation of natural phenomena. Besides their works, this ground-breaking publication also contains interviews with the artists and physicists who share their different ways of seeing.

Featuring interviews with and works of art by Julius von Bismarck, Julian Charrière, Sou Fujumoto, Iris van Herpen, Ryoji Ikeda, William Kentridge, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Goshka Macuga, Davide Quayola, Solveig Settemsdal, Sarah Sze, Keith Tyson, Jorinde Voigt, and Carey Young.

Exhibition:
16.11.2018—14.04.2019, BIldmuseet Umeå

Since the nineties, Olafur Eliasson has been exploring cognitive and physical phenomena from the natural sciences and nature. He uses both technically sophisticated equipment and deceptively simple means such as water or light to create artificial landscapes and moments of perception that let viewers perceive or re-enact natural phenomena. Their deeply atmospheric (but entirely constructed) nature makes viewers become painfully conscious of how far modern civilization has progressed from immediate experience, questioning the acceptance of authenticity in the area of perception. This lavish over-sized book, conceived in co-operation with the artist, features a series of landscape photographs by Eliasson from his native Iceland, exploring the limits and conventions of our traditional view of landscape. They show that our perception of nature has been fundamentally affected by cultural influences, memories and expectations.

Can corporate history be art? This question can only be asked if one is not familiar with the fascinating long-term project by the Chinese artist Xiaowen Zhu. Anyone who has experienced Oriental Silk will answer this question with a clear “yes.” The project’s title is also the name of a company founded in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. Specializing in trading and distributing silks, it was headed for decades by Kenneth Wong and his family. Through her multi-sensory works Zhu opens up a multifaceted view of a firm that is distinguished, like its silk products, through its own haptics, style, colors, and values. The people, places, and stories that make up the phenomenon of Oriental Silk form a fascinating, vivid tapestry in which the past and present, art and life, are closely interwoven.

XIAOWEN ZHU (*1986, Shanghai) calls herself a “visual poet and aesthetic researcher.” For her artistic studies she combines diverse materials and media to create an experience that articulates the specific world she inhabits. She lives in Berlin

Apart from his seminal portraits, party images, and still lifes that gained him recognition in the nineties, Wolfgang Tillmans (*1968 in Remscheid) long ago began dealing with more abstract motifs. In the past decade he has consistently developed his approach to create totally non-representational works that examine themes such as the process of exposure and image supports. From the delicate veils of color in Blushes and Freischwimmer or the sculptural paper drops made of rolled-up photographic paper, to the colorfully compelling works of the Lighter series, the photograph itself—essentially divorced from its reproductive function—becomes the objet d’art, as the book here, designed by the artist himself, impressively demonstrates.

Nevin Aladağ lets wind and rain play music. It pursues the sound of traces that she finds in the city and apparently makes objects sound melodies by itself. There is an ingenious and always humorous "score" that has an ironic and poetic quality. Aladağ's works are represented in many international collections and are regularly shown in exhibitions and biennals worldwide. The Museum Villa Stuck shows its most comprehensive individual presentation and combines famous working groups, like that on the Documenta 14 shown Music Room Athens, with some surprises. The accompanying catalog offers over 200 mostly full -page images. Essays of renowned artists such as Rachel Jans and Adam Szymczyk and a contribution of the much -distinguished writer Ulrike Draesner shed light on the work of the artist from different perspectives. The special character that Aladağ developed for the envelope gives the publication a special artistic touch.

Nevin Aladağ (*1972) studied from 1994 to 2000 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Since 2019 she has been a professor of interdisciplinary artistic work at the University of Fine Arts Dresden. She lives and works in Berlin.

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) liberated the world from the restraints of gravity in his images, allowing it to enjoy the enraptured freedom of poetry. In the process, he was inspired by the folklore of his White Russian homeland, Wizebsk, as well as his Jewish ancestry, Christian iconography, and the expressive forms of international avant-garde art, which he explored more intensively after 1911 in Berlin and Paris.

This publication features an exclusive selection of over one hundred treasured works from all of Chagall’s creative phases: paintings, book illustrations, and gouaches, including works in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Tretjakov Gallery in Moscow. A key role is played by the spectacular ensemble of murals, influenced by the Russian avant-garde and Cubism, which Chagall painted in 1920 for the Jewish Theater in Moscow. Its central painting alone measures an unusual three by eight meters.

Exhibition schedule: Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, July 7–October 29, 2006

Picturesque Views presents an exquisite selection of sixty-nine masterpieces by the most important photographers of nineteenth-century India. Felice Beato, Thomas Biggs, Samuel Bourne, and John Murray, among other great figures from the pioneering age of photography, are represented with exemplary works. In addition to the impressive prints, the book contains large-format waxed negatives, which were painstakingly retouched with gouache, as well as examples of stereoscopic photography popular at the time. European photographers paid special attention to the architecture and gardens of the Mughals, and this publication includes striking views of the Taj Mahal, the famous monument in Agra, and its surroundings. Photographs from the Kashmir Valley—the erstwhile summer retreat of the Great Mughals—and fascinating, often shocking images of the city of Lucknow succeed in bringing the reader closer to the nineteenth-century India of the Mughals. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2122-6 )

Exhibition schedule:  Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin,  November 9, 2007 – March 2,  2008  Museum Rietberg, Zurich, July 4–October 26, 2008

This publication focuses on works by Yehudit Sasaportas (*1969 in Ashdod, Israel, lives and works in Berlin) from the past ten years. Besides six sculptures, the artist’s large, dramatic ink drawings and watercolor sketches from the Shichecha series are evidence of her distinct approach and are being reproduced here for the first time. Their motifs make reference to a marsh in northern Germany and revolve, like a maelstrom, around the processes of forgetting and remembering. In addition, the volume documents a video by Sasportas devoted to an exhibition ensemble in Jerusalem and presents the entire installation in various sculptural contexts.

The artist strives to create visual bridges with her work and recover the raw material that lies hidden in the soul of the viewer. Her oeuvre demonstrates a continued interest in baring deeper, submerged layers and exposing their political, social, and spiritual meaning for the visible world “above ground.”

Exhibition schedule: Israel Museum for contemporary art, Jerusalem, opening May 28, 2013

Reality and fiction, matter and spirit, subject and object – the artist Rebecca Horn constantly blurs these boundaries. The different media she uses are not clearly separated and their interweaving is part of her artistic principle. This catalogue, published to accompany the artist’s comprehensive exhibition at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, is dedicated to this aspect of her work. Essays by renowned authors provide new perspectives on Horn’s oeuvre, which spans five decades: from her early body instruments and performances, to her feature films and kinetic sculptures, to her site-specific installations, drawings, and poems. The countless connections to art, literature, and film traditions are illuminated, as well as Horn’s proximity to subjects from mythology and myths.

REBECCA HORN (*1944) became known in 1972 as the youngest participant in documenta 5. Since her solo exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1993), the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (1994) or the Tate Modern in London (1994), she is considered one of the most important German artists.

In 2008, the American photographer Hadley Hudson discovered her passion for photographing models within the privacy of their own homes– locations proving much more intimate than the usual studio settings. Hudson was fascinated by how much of the models’ personalities and histories were expressed in their private spaces that ranged from model apartments in New York to long-outgrown childhood bedrooms in Paris and London to squats and squalid flat shares in Berlin and Vienna. 

Influenced by C. G. Jung’s concept of the persona (Greek for mask), Hudson’s blunt documentary style permits an unobstructed view into the private world of these teenagers who return Hudson’s intimate gaze with tenderness, defiance, uncertainty, and ambition. This photobook offers an exclusive look at the fashion world while deconstructing the industry’s pristine exterior.

The Japanese-born artist Leiko Ikemura has been living in Europe for almost thirty years. Her artistic activities are characterized by an exploration of these two cultures, featuring paintings, drawings and sculptures that always deal with questions central to human existence: If Ikemura still concentrated on probing allegorical picture narratives in the eighties, around 1990 her interest shifted to cosmological problems manifesting themselves in transcendence and religious aspects. Since then, her works have predominantly been living from colour with very little narrative, depicting atmospherical situations of bodies in space. For this book, the artist created numerous new works, paintings, watercolours and sculptures whose central theme is the depiction of space extending beyond the material and the measurable, a contemplative space of spirituality and sensuality. The various media of expression compliment each other to create a strong spatial effect for the viewer. He or she is drawn into an event which can no longer be assigned to one particular form of culture. The artist: Leiko Ikemura, born 1951 at Tsu/Mie, Japan. She studied at Osaka State University and came to Europe in 1972, first living in Spain and then in Zurich. In 1983, she became "Stadtzeichner" (artist in residence) at Nuremberg, finally settling in Cologne. Since 1991, she has been a professor at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Exhibition Schedule: Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz March 8, 2002 - May 12, 2002