Video Art, Book signing, reception
23 February 2004
Thames and Hudson, Inc
London and New York
bookinfo@thames.wwnorton.com
www.thameshudson.co.uk
Book signing, reception
February 23, 2004, 6-7:30pm
Klemens Gasser and Tanja Grunert gallery
524 W. 19th St. NY, NY
VIDEO ART by Michael Rush published by Thames and Hudson
“Engagingly written, exhaustively researched and filled with hundreds of images of video works and installations, the book provides a trenchant historical overview with a more focused thematic analysis.” Publisher’s Weekly
“A key strength of Rush’s analysis is his explanation of the link among performance, conceptual art, and video…..provides a clear conceptual grid to the potentially confusing world of film-based art….beautifully illustrated.” Library Journal
“****” Art Times
New York, NY — The medium of video is everywhere in contemporary art making–yet until now there has been no complete, up-to-date overview of this influential art form in English.
Video Art by Michael Rush, author, critic and Director and Chief Curator of Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, now provides a history and critical context for art’s defining medium, born less than 40 years ago and even now continuing to evolve in the digital age. Video Art charts the development of video art as it has moved from brief showings on tiny screens in alternative art spaces to dominance in international exhibitions and artistic events, in which vast video installations sometimes occupy factory-sized buildings or video projections take over the walls of an entire city block.
Abundantly illustrated with frames and sequences, Video Art offers a history of the medium seen through the perspectives of its early practitioners – such as Bruce Nauman and Vito Acconci, who used the video camera as an extension of their own bodies – through the vast array of conceptual, political, personal and lyrical installations of the 1980s and 90s by such artists as Gary Hill, Bill Viola, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Mary Lucier and Michal Rovner. Over 120 artists are discussed, with “in focus” attention given to several key artists including Andy Warhol, Frank Gillette, Jean-Luc Godard, Valie Export, Doug Aitken and Eija-Liisa Ahtila.
Author of the best-selling New Museum in Late 20th Century Art, published by Thames and Hudson in 1999, Rush is widely recognized for his writings on art and media in The New York Times, Art in America, artnet, artext, PAJ and other publications. His curatorial projects have extended from broad surveys of media art, sculpture and painting to monographic exhibitions of such individual artists as Sue Williams and Gunther Brus. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from St. Louis University and doctorate from Harvard University.
In the 1980s and 90s Rush also worked as an experimental theater artist and filmmaker. He is the creator of more than a dozen award-winning mixed-media theater works, videos and documentaries on art. His work has been seen on Public Television, in theaters and festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe, and in museums including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunsthaus, Zurich; and the Whitney Museum. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts and The New England Foundation for the Arts (with the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations) and is frequently featured as a lecturer and panelist on issues relating to contemporary art, especially new media.
In the Fall, 2004, Rush will co-curate a survey of media art showcasing the work of more than 30 artists from Europe, Asia, Latin America, the US and Africa. The exhibition, the first of a planned regular survey of media art at PBICA, will be curated by an international team led by Rush with Christine van Assche of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Berta Sichel of the Reina Sofia, Madrid, Lori Zippay and Galen Joseph-Hunter of Electronic Arts Intermix and Jody Servon of PBICA.
Video Art:
Currently available
383 illustrations, 296 in color
224 pages
ISBN: 0-500-23798-0
Thames and Hudson books are distributed by W.W. Norton