DEALING WITH

Some Texts, Images, and Thoughts Related to American Fine Arts, Co.

Valérie Knoll, Hannes Loichinger & Magnus Schäfer

The New York gallery American Fine Arts—whose name today is largely synony- mous with that of its gallerist, Colin de Land (1955–2003)—stands for a gallery practice in which a decided deviation from conventional models overlaps with successful activities within the institutional frame of the art market. Even today, AFA and de Land prove to be uncontested projection screens for the desire for independence or for bohemian resistance against the dictates of the market. Particularly in retrospect, a consistent image of the gallery just does not present itself. Faced with the obvious risk of romanticization, this publication seeks to understand how AFA actually functioned as a gallery within its specific context. Contributions from artists and academics including Andrea Fraser, Karl Holmqvist and Tobias Kaspar, Christian Philipp Muller, Josef Strau, Axel John Wieder, among others.

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PETER DREHER

Homage to Painting

Since April of 1974, German artist Peter Dreher has been painting exactly one subject:a solitary drinking glass. For almost 40 years,he has made 5,000 oil paintings of the same glass, from the same distance, bathed in the same artificial light, each 8 by 10 inches, on canvas or cardboard. This exhibition catalog, for a show celebrating the Mannheim-born Dreher’s 80th birthday, features 500 color reproductions and installation photos of his signature work, each one titled Every  day  is  a  good  day. Dreher, now an Emeritus Professor at the Art Academy in Karlsruhe, originally thought he’d just do five or six paintings of the glass, but he became so immersed in the concept that he never stopped. With texts by Dreher and Christine Litz.

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