One Work

Helio Oiticica (1937--1980) occupies a central position in the Latin Americanavant-garde of the postwar era. Associated with the Rio de Janeiro-based neo-concretist movement atthe beginning of his car

In Sanja Ivekovic's Triangle ( Trokut, 1979),four black-and-white photographs and written text capture an eighteen-minute performance from May10, 1979. On that date, a motorcade carrying Josip Broz Ti

In Sanja Ivekovic's Triangle ( Trokut, 1979),four black-and-white photographs and written text capture an eighteen-minute performance from May10, 1979. On that date, a motorcade carrying Josip Broz Ti

Helio Oiticica (1937--1980) occupies a central position in the Latin Americanavant-garde of the postwar era. Associated with the Rio de Janeiro-based neo-concretist movement atthe beginning of his car

Almost a half-century after Yayoi Kusama debuted her landmark installationInfinity Mirror Room--Phalli's Field (1965) in New York, the work remainschallenging and unclassifiable. Shifting between the

Dan Graham's Rock My Religion (1982--1984) is a video essaypopulated by punk and rock performers (Patti Smith, Jim Morrison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and EddieCochran) and historical figures (including Ann L

Dan Graham's Rock My Religion (1982--1984) is a video essaypopulated by punk and rock performers (Patti Smith, Jim Morrison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and EddieCochran) and historical figures (including Ann L

In The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems (1974--1975)Martha Rosler bridged the concerns of conceptual art with those of political documentary. The work,a series of twenty-one black-and-whit

In The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems (1974--1975)Martha Rosler bridged the concerns of conceptual art with those of political documentary. The work,a series of twenty-one black-and-whit

In Jeff Koons's One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (1985), a Spalding basketball floatsin the center of a glass tank that stands on a four-legged black metal structure. It has been calledone of the defin

Jeff Wall's Picture for Women (1979) marks the transition of photography as an art form from the printed page to the gallery wall. Before this, photographs—from the orthodox photographic work o

Opening with a prolonged salvo of fiery explosions accompanied by the warning cry of a siren, Dara Birnbaum's video Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978–79) is a concise, action-packed

Following Marcel Duchamp's death in 1968, the Philadelphia Museum of Art stunned the art world by unveiling a project on which he had been working secretly for twenty years, long after he had suppose

Chris Marker's legendary "cine roman" ("film novel") La Jetee is considered one of the greatest and most influential experimental films of all time. This short film—a postap

In 1968, the Italian artist Alighiero Boetti renamed himself Alighiero e("and") Boetti, effectively expressing the duality of his personality and his work--and,by extension, the dichotomies of society

In 1971 Alighiero e Boetti commissioned Afghan embroiderers to create a map of the world, with each country bearing the colours and pattern of its flag. The commission grew into a beautifully crafted

An illustrated discussion of Fischli and Weiss's famous film The Way Things Go,marking the twentieth anniversary of its first screening, explores why this captivating workcontinues to fascinate viewer

"It is my overall concern to reveal people as they are engaged in various kinds of activities—alone, with each other, with objects—and to weight the quality of the human body towards that of objects a

"You want beauty? I'll give you beauty!" ;Mary HeilmannMary Heilmann is one of themost important abstract painters of her generation. Her distinctively fluid, humorous, and brightcanvases combine the

"You want beauty? I'll give you beauty!" ;Mary HeilmannMary Heilmann is one of themost important abstract painters of her generation. Her distinctively fluid, humorous, and brightcanvases combine the

Rodney Graham's The Phonokinetoscope (2001) is a five-minute 16mmfilm loop in which the artist is seen riding his Fischer Original bicycle through Berlin'sTiergarten while taking LSD, to the soundtrac

One of the defining paintings of British Pop art, Richard Hamilton's Swingeing London67 (f) depicts two men--Mick Jagger and Hamilton's art dealer Robert Fraser--handcuffed together inthe back of a po

A strikingly original analysis of Isa Genzken’s move towards merging sculptural and architectural morphologies into the critique of commodity culture.Fuck the Bauhaus, made in the year 2000 out of quotidian objects and cheap materials foraged from New York City by the German artist Isa Genzken, marked a poetic and provocative departure from Genzken’s earlier work. Since the 1970s, Genzken’s “post-Minimalist” works had been like ruins in reverse, conjuring the haunting specters of recent catastrophe, destruction, and failure in the United States, while also playfully suggesting a degree of freedom and elevation. Analyzing how this mode gave way to a new penchant for appropriation, collage, and montage, André Rottmann offers a strikingly original analysis of Genzken’s move towards merging sculptural and architectural morphologies into the critique of commodity culture. In this new addition to the One Work series, Rottmann draws on the writings of Deleuze and Guattari, Bruno Latour, and

An illustrated exploration of Helen Chadwick’s erotic, playful, and fierce 1986 installation. In 1986 the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London showed a new commission by the artist Helen Chadwick (1954–1996). What Chadwick conceived for the ICA exhibition explored her characteristic themes―the female body (her own), the aesthetics of pleasure, the material variety and wonder of phenomena―but took them in a new, flamboyant direction. In this illustrated volume, Marina Warner examines one part of Chadwick’s installation, The Oval Court. This work was erotic, playful, and fierce; it showed imaginative ambition on an exceptional scale and a unique, piquant sensibility, both raunchy and delicate. Despite the work’s recognition as a feminist monument of rare intensity, it has rarely been shown or discussed since the author’s catalogue essay for the original exhibition. Warner here reconsiders Chadwick’s influence as an artist who helped to shift conventional aesthetics and transvalue

A nuanced reading of an artwork that explores a place, transitory and pastoral, where childhood might be lived and imagined differentlySharon Lockhart's Pine Flat (2006) takes its name from a small ha

An illustrated examination of Mark Leckey's celebrated video montage. In 1999, the British artist Mark Leckey released his video-montage Fiorucci made me Hardcore, a dreamscape vignette that commune

An examination of one of Walker Evans's iconic photographs of the Great Depression.Kitchen Corner, Tenant Farmhouse, Hale County, Alabama shows a painstakingly clean-swept corner in the house of an Al

An illustrated examination of Glenn Ligon's iconic Untitled (I Am a Man) (1988) -- a quotation, an appropriated text turned into an artifact.The iconic work Untitled (I Am a Man) (1988) by the impor