Critical texts that span almost fifty years, mapping Haacke's
progression from engagement with biological systems to interrogation of
the social and economic underpinnings of art.
For five decades, the artist Hans Haacke (b. 1936) has created works
that explore the social, political, and economic underpinnings of the
production of art. His works make plain the hidden and not-so-hidden
agendas of those--from Cartier to David Koch--who support art in the
service of industry; they expose such inconvenient social and economic
truths as the real estate holdings of Manhattan slumlords, and the
attempts to whitewash support for the Nazi regime, apartheid, or the war
on terror through museum donations.
This book gathers interviews, difficult-to-find essays, cornerstones of
institutional critique, and new critical approaches by writers that
include Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Jack Burnham, Rosalyn Deutsche, and Leo
Steinberg. Haacke's 1971 Guggenheim exhibition was famously canceled
when the artist refused to withdraw several proposed works, including
one exposing the business dealings of a Manhattan real estate company.
This volume includes Edward Fry's catalog text for that show, as well as
Walter Grasskamp's "An Unpublished Text for an Unpainted Picture,"
redacted from an exhibition catalog in 1984 because of statements about
the German collector Peter Ludwig. Other essays consider such topics as
Haacke's controversial commission for the Reichstag; the activation of
the spectator, from Condensation Cube to the Polls; the conceptual
continuity of his practice with regard to General Systems Theory; and
his delayed and problematic reception in both the United States and
Europe. With contemporary essays and scholarly reassessments, this
collection serves as an essential guide to critical thinking on Haacke's
artistic practice, from the works of the 1960s that engage with physical
and biological systems to his later interrogations of the social and
economic underpinnings of art.
**Contributors
**Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Jack Burnham, Douglas Crimp,
Rosalyn Deutsche, Sam Durant, Edward F. Fry, Walter Grasskamp, Rosalind
Krauss, Jack McGrath, Luke Skrebowski, Leo Steinberg
