Documents 

Etude de l'oeuvre et de la vie de l'artiste analysées dans le contexte historique, social et politique de son époque. A l'instar de son compatriote Otto Dix, les oeuvres de Grosz dénoncent l'absurdité de la guerre et la décadence morale de la bourgeoisie allemande de son temps. Sa série de tableaux aux visions apocalyptiques laisse prévoir l'enfer qui s'en vient. En 1938, Grosz est déchu de sa nationalité allemande par les nazis, qui le détestaient et considéraient son art dégénéré.

A comprehensive overview of the visionary work of the Japanese artist.Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (b.1929) has pursued her themes of infinite repetition, self-image and sexuality since she took the New York art world by storm in the late 1950s. Compulsively covering all surfaces in dots and repeated patterns or forms, Kusama has worked in painting, collage and assemblage and was a pioneer of installation art . This is the first monograph on the 40-year career of this distinguished, highly innovative artist who has also been a writer, fashion designer and film-make. [editor summary]

This book explores Fritz Scholder’s at times controversial depictions of contemporary Native Americans including rarely seen monumental canvases and lithographs that situate Scholder as a figurative artist and highlight his brilliant use of color. Over the past two centuries the lives of American Indians have been romanticized and idealized in everything from Hollywood films to souvenir shops. Fritz Scholder took another approach in his artwork. He blended figurative and Pop Art influences to create compelling and revolutionary images that challenge viewers to look beyond the stereotype and reveal the raw reality of being an American Indian. Part American Indian himself, Scholder defied the label “Native American artist.” This paradox and others are evident in these works from his renowned Indian series, which spanned the years 1967–1980, and which are characteristic of the era’s revisionist and rebellious spirit. Full color reproductions of works from the Denver Art Museum and public and private lenders display the full range of Scholder’s vision. Essays from noted scholars discuss Scholder’s influences and artistic process, including, for the first time, an assessment of the impact of his foreign travels on his work. [editor summary]

L'arène de la corrida et celle du cirque forain, dans leur apparence même, font commerce avec la sphère des dieux. Cirque, le circulus qui désignait les orbes des planètes, c'est l'espace magique où les corps échappent à la gravité. Ces derniers décrivent sous le ciel du chapiteau des courbes précises, dessinent des figures dans lesquelles, pareilles qu'elles sont aux signes du zodiaque, se devine un destin. Mais le circulus, c'est aussi le cercle des charlatans et des rhéteurs chez les Romains, autour duquel s'agglutine la foule des badauds. Le cirque est plébéien comme il est d'élection, bas comme il est divin, sale comme il est sublime, fascinant comme il est sordide. Le cirque est une figure du sacer antique. Et le forain est lui aussi un hors-la-loi que la justice humaine ne saurait punir.

The presence of two figures, often a man and a woman, in a shared predicament is a common theme in the work of Max Beckmann. The linked fate of the couple in Aerial acrobats (1928; Fig.37) anticipates the airborne man and woman holding masks in Joumey on the fish (1934; G 403). Gravity as an endangering, but possibly also as a liberating force is another recurring motif in Beckmann's art. He painted his most celebrated image on this theme, Falling man (1950; G 809), in the final year of his life. […]