The Art of Rachel Whiteread

by Chris Townsend (Editor), Rachel Whiteread (Editor)

An appraisal of the full range of work by one of the most significant British artists of the past fifty years. Based upon a practice of inverted castingmaking space tangibleRachel Whiteread's work offers both intimate and public meditations on vital questions of history, memory, and social change. But these are also artworks with profound and carefully weighed formal concerns and an affiliation with the critical issues of sculpture raised throughout the twentieth century. Whiteread's work is, perhaps, provoking because it so successfully melds artistic and historical issues, restoring to public attention neglected issues that more dominant interests would wish forgotten. Out of the solidification of space Whiteread creates an archive that compacts and makes legible those intangibles that comprise so much of ordinary life. This collection of essays by leading authorities on contemporary art examines Whiteread's work from her earliest domestic objects of the late 1980s through controversial projects such as House to her recent, large-scale public works, including Water Tower in New York, Monument in London's Trafalgar Square, and Holocaust Memorial in Vienna. The book includes discussions of both Room 101 , her cast of George Orwell's room at the BBC, and recent gallery installations. Whiteread's work is appraised both in terms of its relationship to art history and its social and political impact, and examined for theoretical approaches through which we may better understand this most complex and challenging of contemporary artists. 60 illustrations. With contributions Angela Dimitrikaki, Jennifer Gross, Shelley Hornstein, Susan Lawson, Pamela M. Lee, Melanie Marino, Blake Stimson, James Young.

Genres: Art

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2004

Reviews

[Nanaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Dense, academic writing. I felt like I was studying from a book used in graduate level art college classes.

[Dani Shuping · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rachel Whiteread is one of the most important, and somewhat controversial, artists of the last 20 years with her sculptures based upon the negative space of an object, such as the underside of a chair or the back of an entire bookshelf full of books allowing the viewer to see each individual page cast in relief. This book is comprised of ten different essays, placing Whiteread's works not only in the context of art history, but its relationship to the world around it. For example, one essay focuses on one of Whiteread's most well known works, House, and the controversy surrounding it and the reaction of the world to it. Where this book may falter a bit is that each essay is written by someone who is obviously a fan of Whiteread's works and thus there is no dissenting opinion of her place in history. In many cases the writers are overly glowing of Whiteread's works. While it isn't necessary to have a different opinion piece, it would be helpful in placing her work in better context. Overall though the book does offer important context to Whiteread's works and its place in history.