Hypermental: Rampant Reality 1950-2000: From Salvador Dali to Jeff Koons

by Griselda Pollock, Christoph Heinrich, Sibylle Berg (Contributor)

"Hypermental" tracks, with unprecedented insight, the unfinished project of surrealism, exploring the visual art of the modern era not in terms of genres, schools, or media, but through the lens of subjectivity. This new catalogue explores how the modernist critique of the subject--exemplified by the art and philosophy of the Surrealists--has continued on through the postwar period and through to the present day. From Merit Oppenheim and Yayoi Kusama in the 1950s and 60s to Cindy Sherman and Matthew Barney in the 90s, we find works that interrogate the construction of the subject, and the body, through sexual difference. From the Pop-era pieces of Richard Hamilton and James Rosenquist to the more recent work of Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger, we find a narrative of the production of desire, one that refers explicitly to the elevated status of the commodity. "Hypermental" presents work by these artists and many more, juxtaposing their work with that of the original surrealists, and the resulting book is an exceptionally unique history of the most radical trends in the history of 20th century art.

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2001

About the author

Griselda Pollock is a visual theorist, cultural analyst and scholar of international, postcolonial feminist studies in the visual arts. Based in England, she is well known for her theoretical and methodological innovation, combined with readings of historical and contemporary art, film and cultural theory. She is professor of social and critical histories of art at the University of Leeds.