September 2010 in Artforum
Questions of Style. The notion of style has loomed large throughout the twentieth century. Long associated with the shallow and the ornamental, or with retrograde categories of art history, the concept needs rethinking now: From typography to toothbrushes, ancillary characteristics have taken center stage. Style may be less superficial than operative—a field of actions and systems that pose new connections between surface and structure. Artforum asked notable contributors from the fields of art, art history, film, architecture, and design—including cover artist Tauba Auerbach, Alexander Nagel, Peter Saville, Sturtevant, Denise Scott Brown, Ina Blom, Partha Mitter, Ryan McGinley, Adrian Piper, and Jil Sander—to take a fresh look at matters of style.“Style may be seen as a key component of media apparatuses that are not just presentational frames but also social machines.” —Ina Blom
“The logical notions of progress that were the hallmarks of the analog past seem rudimentary in comparison with the atomized multiplicity of style in the digital era.” —Peter Saville
“Everyone knows that these days it’s harder to avoid being branded.” —Francesco Vezzoli
Also: Christine Mehring unpacks the full legacy of Charlotte Posenenske, who radically renounced art altogether in 1968 after examining industrial forms, interactivity, and political action during her brief career, which has recently been the subject of several survey exhibitions.
“Posenenske’s transition from a world of rubble to one awash in shiny new buildings and commodities was, in a sense, a transition from chaos to design.” —Christine Mehring
And: Mark Leckey presents a special project for Artforum, picturing an otherworldly network of dumb things and animate beings; artist Lucy Raven talks with legendary Los Angeles filmmaker Thom Andersen about film technique, politics, and following the trails of global industrial production.
Plus: An international selection of writers preview more than forty shows opening this fall worldwide, including Rachel Harrison on Paul Thek at the Whitney Museum, New York; Alastair Wright on Paul Gauguin at Tate Modern, London; and many more.
Also this month: Graham Bader gets caught up in the catch-22 of writing on Gerhard Richter; Cory Arcangel scrolls through the revolutionary history of Internet links pages; Tom Gunning revisits the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany; Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy reports from Mexico City; Matthew S. Witkovsky lays bare the connections between Arte Povera and Conceptual art in exhibitions in Munich and Liechtenstein; Nuit Banai examines Yves Klein’s US debut at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC; Krautrock hero Michael Rother tallies his Top Ten; Lynne Cooke reflects on the life and work of Louise Bourgeois; and Arthur C. Danto remembers visionary artist and architect Arakawa.
All this and more, as Michelle Kuo takes the helm as the magazine’s new editor in chief.
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