GRAW, Isabelle; HAUSLADEN, Katharina; KOETHER, Jutta; LIPINSKY DE ORLOV, Genevieve (eds.)
Texte Zur Kunst 31/122 (Jun. 2021) Figuration

This June issue of Texte zur Kunst undertakes a wide-ranging inquiry into the figurative in art. The human body, and the figure more generally, is undoubtedly among the most widely depicted subjects in the history of art. Browsing the exhibition programs of museums and galleries today, one cannot fail to notice that figurative art and rhetoric are experiencing a renaissance. This issue takes up figuration both literally – as the subject of figurative representation in painting, literature, performance, theater, and social media – and in the broader sense, as the materialization and apprehension of social phenomena. Traditional figure-ground relationships in painting are examined, as well as the mass-mediated production of the celebrity through identity politics and questions of representation in Black figuration. [publisher's note]

This issue notably includes a conversation between Isabelle Graw and Kerry James Marshall, essays by art theoreticians Amelia Jones and Robert Slifkin, as well as writings by artists: “Figuring,” by Jutta Koether; an essay by Annette Weisser about Alina Szapocznikow; and last but not least, a text by Amy Sillman on Elizabeth Murray.

Published by Texte Zur Kunst, 2021
Art History / Periodicals