Bernard Blistène

One of the traits that Arte Povera artists have in common is to deconstruct things and not to privilege the material as an end in itself. It is likely that, among the artists of the movement, there is also a distinction between material and materiality. Arte povera artists, for example, do not have sculpture as their goal. Rather, they seek the process, the experience; rather, they have a critical look at aesthetic production. To borrow the word, they are rather ‘anaesthetic’. As in a certain way, moreover, Celant recognised in the intuition of his exhibition ‘IM spatio, image, space’ the search for a different dimension. Besides questioning the material, the primacy of experience, which seems to me absolutely fundamental, the duality between man and nature, there is the refutation of the concept of stability, the impermanence of things. This analytical and conceptual dimension is in Italy a way of positioning itself in relation to the dominance of a model that would come from America. Text in English and French.

The window as motif in the drawings and paintings of Ellsworth KellyThis monograph was copublished by Cahiers d'Art and Centre Pompidou on the occasion of the 2019 exhibition Ellsworth Kelly: Windows, which brought together, for the first time, the six Windows made by Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) in France between 1949 and 1950. Kelly's years in France were a period of perpetual invention, and are fundamental to an understanding of his work. As he wrote in 1969, "After constructing Window with two canvases and a wood frame, I realized that ... painting as I had known it was finished for me." This signal moment is evoked through more than 80 works, paintings, drawings, sketches and photographs, along with two beautiful essays by Yve-Alain Bois and Jean-Pierre Criqui. Ellsworth Kelly is one of the most important abstract artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as a key figure in the rebirth of Cahiers d'Art: the publishing house was reopened in 2012 with an exhibition of Kelly's work in its legendary gallery, and, in collaboration with Yve-Alain Bois and the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, it published the first volume of Kelly's Catalogue Raisonn of Paintings, Reliefs, and Sculpture, 1940-1953.

Five decades of Buren, with responses from his collaborators French conceptual artist Daniel Buren (born 1938) is famous for his “works in situ,” often transforming buildings through colorful glass and stripes placed on columns or walls. This career-spanning monograph includes contributions by curators, gallerists and fellow artists such as Sophie Calle, Hans Haacke and more.

“...perhaps the definitive tome on her life and career." – Nena Hawke, BlackBook "...an important new monograph about Alice Neel, one of the greatest portrait painters of the 20th Century, whose work continually pushes the boundaries of social justice" – The Art Newspaper "This is the defining treatise on Alice Neel." —Booklaunch “I have always believed that women should resent and refuse to accept all the gratuitous insults that men impose upon them.” – Alice Neel, 1971 One of the greatest portrait artists of the 20th century, Alice Neel’s vibrant, expressionistic paintings revealed a breath-taking depth of emotion within her subjects. From works exploring loss and grief, to communist political art, Neel’s work pushed boundaries of social justice throughout the 1900s. Her dedication to capturing the truth of humanity is evident: she painted those rejected by society, the victims of social or gendered oppression. Latin American and Puerto Rican immigrants, African-American writers excluded from the intellectual elite, single mothers struggling to raise their children, homosexual couples – all were presented with equal candidness by Neel’s brush. Her unflinching approach to the female body took a ground-breaking step towards reclaiming the nude from the male gaze, and the activism inherent to her art resonates with viewers to this day. This book highlights Neel’s political and social commitment to her art, as a figurative painter at odds with the artistic styles of the avant-gardes of her time. Structured in two thematic parts – social injustice and gender inequality – this retrospective includes some 60 paintings and drawings as well as numerous documents. Following the artist from her first works in the 1920s to her final evocative self-portrait, made shortly before her death, this is the defining treatise on Alice Neel. '"Neel places us directly in front of her models to engage our look. She literally pushes her subjects into our personal space to make us confront individuals who are normally invisible..." Angela Lampe finishes up with the following: "With great pictorial power, Neel forces them upon us: look at them!"

This comprehensive monograph on Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando covers the span of his impressive career, with previously unpublished material and insight into his sources of inspiration. This in-depth monograph offers insight into Tadao Ando's sober and elegant architecture through photographs, architectural drawings, and descriptions of eighty of his most significant works. His notable works span the globe: London's Tate Modern; St. Louis's Pulitzer Arts Foundation; Osaka's Church of the Light; Paris's UNESCO Meditation Space; Venice's Palazzo Grassi; Abu Dhabi's Maritime Museum; and exceptional buildings in South Korea, Taiwan, China, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Germany, and throughout the United States. Japanese design principles--from the use of concrete, simple geometric volumes, and the integration of natural elements such as light or water--are essential elements that Ando uses to provoke a physical experience through his architecture. An interview with the architect accompanies his own writings and critical essays on various aspects of his work. A portfolio of Ando's black-and-white photographs and colored-pencil drawings from his previously unpublished travel notebooks provide new insight into his sources of inspiration. The book is completed with a biography and a chronology of his works to date, including some unrealized projects.