CORNERSTONES

Juan A. Gaitán, Nicolaus Schafhausen and Monica Szewczyk

If it’s not an oxymoron to describe something as both distinguished and cutting edge, that’s the perfect description for Rotterdam’s Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art. This illustrated softcover book brings together a series of essays on contemporary art based on the center’s high-octane Cornerstones lecture series. At each of the monthly lectures, one leading art historian focuses on one artist who is foundational to contemporary art. Among this volume’s treasures are Donald Kuspit on Louise Bourgeois, Helmut Friedel on Gerhard Richter, Vanessa Joan Müller on John Baldessari and Douglas Crimp onGordon Matta-Clark. These essays share the fascination that each of the authors has with the work of an artist and how this work functions in relation to larger contexts and broader ideas.

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JULIAN DASHPER

This Is Not Writing

The first collection ever of writing by the internationally acclaimed and widely exhibited New Zealand artist Julian Dashper, who died in 2009. Dashper’s writing – clean yet reflective, poignant and often confrontational – reads like a diary, moving from freeform texts to poetry, from journal-like reflections to rigorous art criticism. His relaxed style engages the reader, offering a deeply human contrast to academic tomes. His critical observations on the influence of Modernism on the way we look at contemporary art are particularly powerful. He was an early factor in forcing the art community to open its doors and hear voices from around the world, and his curiosity, humor and passion make us realize what was lost with his death at only 49.

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