Hans Haacke: AnsichtsSachen-Viewing Matters

Hans Haacke

ISBN 10: 3928762613 / ISBN 13: 9783928762618

Published by Richter Verlag, 1999

About this Item

Hardback book (200 pages) illustrated with color and black and white photographs. Text in English and German. Light rubbing to dust jacket - international shipping may require additional charge. Bookseller since 1995 (UL-3-TS-down-L) rareviewbooks.

Seller Inventory # RVB09211705

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Hans Haacke: AnsichtsSachen-Viewing Matters
• Publisher: Richter Verlag
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3928762613
• ISBN 13: 9783928762618
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Throughout his career, Hans Haacke has explored the social, political and economic conditions of making, funding, exhibiting and collecting art. When Haacke curated his own legendary Viewing Matters exhibit at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, he brought into focus the often concealed relationship between commerce and high art in a complex installation that included hundreds of pieces of art, merchandising from the museum store and portraits of the previous directors of the museum. In this publication, the artist explores both the dialects of the art exhibition and the socio-economic role of the museum in contemporary society.

Reviews

Currently mired in a brouhaha over his Whitney Biennial piece, Haacke may be looking back with affection on this show at Rotterdam's Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 1996. Haacke was invited not to show his own works but to rehang selections from the permanent collection. More than 200 pieces are grouped into sections titled "Artists," "Reception," "Power/Work," "Alone, Together, Against Each Other," and "Seeing." The juxtaposition of old masters and modern and contemporary works is just one of Haacke's tricks to get the viewer to look at these works in a fresh light. The book may be even more effective than the exhibition in this endeavor, as it allows for cropping to focus on details as well as installation views that emphasize the groupings. An introduction by Haacke touches on political themes and does shed some light on his current piece at the Whitney, though a longer explication of his goals as well as more extensive captions for the pictures would have been welcome. A survey of one museum's holdings as well as a look through the eyes of an underrecognized contemporary artist, this is recommended for larger public and all academic libraries.
-Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.