Public Space, Two Audiences

by Diedrich Diederichsen, Manuel Borja-Villel, Anton Herbert

This beautiful, hefty catalogue of the most important works from one of the world's finest collections of Minimal, Arte Povera and Conceptual art includes work by Carl Andre, John Baldessari, Marcel Broedthaers, Hanne Darboven, Gilbert & George, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Robert Smithson and Lawrence Weiner, among others. In her essay, the esteemed independent curator and art historian Anne Rorimer writes, "Such is the breadth and depth of the Herbert Collection that an entire book on the art of the 1960s and 1970s could be written based on the many exemplary works included in it. As a group, works in the collection point to the revolutionary activity occurring at a time when long-held conventions associated with painting and sculpture were being questioned or overturned in the interest of aesthetic renewal. Each work, separately, speaks volumes about innovations in art production labeled by terms such as Minimal art, Arte Povera or Conceptual art. These terms, although by no means carved in stone, identify shared methods and goals pursued by artists on both sides of the Atlantic during the years leading up to and extending beyond 1968.

Hardcover

First published August 1, 2006

About the author

Diedrich Diederichse is a German author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is one of Germany′s most renowned intellectual writers at the crossroads of the arts, politics, and pop culture.

Diedrich Diederichsen was born and grew up in Hamburg where he worked as a music journalist and editor of the German Sounds magazine in the heyday of punk and new wave from 1979 to 1983. Until the 1990s he was then the editor-in-chief of the influential subculture magazine Spex in Cologne. Diederichsen worked as visiting professor in Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Pasadena, Offenbach am Main, Gießen, Weimar, Bremen, Vienna, St. Louis, Cologne, Los Angeles and Gainesville. After teaching at the Merz Academy in Stuttgart for several years, he became Professor for Theory, Practice and Communication of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2006.

Diedrich Diederichsen is a prolific writer whose articles and texts are printed in a variety of periodicals and publications. Newspapers and magazines with contributions by Diedrich Diederichsen include Texte zur Kunst, Die Zeit, die tageszeitung, Der Tagesspiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Theater heute, Artscribe, Artforum, and Frieze.

With his thinking and his attitude Diedrich Diederichsen reflects a multitude of influences. His writing shows traces of Post-structuralism, Marxism, Cultural studies, New Journalism, Beat literature, Psychoanalysis, and Situationism. A main topic of his writing is the tension between subjectivity, identity politics, and culture industry in Post-Fordist society. In his writings he frequently refers to personal experiences and the links between zeitgeist, biography, and history.