Arne Ehmann Livres

Japanese bound and beautifully printed in deep, dark, black ink on several kinds of paper, this volume documents New York artist Banks Violette's recent solo exhibition at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg, where he showed recent sculptures and site-specific installations made of metal, neon, varnish and glass. Calling upon Banks' goth sensibility, one of the kinetic sculptural works actually destroyed itself over the course of the exhibition; another was fabricated of deep-frozen elements. According to the esteemed independent curator and former Director of Exhibitions at London's Royal Academy of Arts Norman Rosenthal, "Violette's gothic installations are operatic analyses of the dark side of American culture. Violette's heavy-metal stylings become a mirror of the anxiety in youth culture, an adopted language compensating and empowering those who suffer sensations of immense sorrow and despair... Fuelled by its associations with violence, satanism, racism and nationalism, Violette uses the Goth genre as both symptom and cause of individual amorality and social breakdown."

Embracing an overtly psychedelic aesthetic, German artist Daniel Richter (born 1962) creates bright, almost fluorescent, paintings that swell with activity and nervous intensity. Spagotzen includes the type of anarchic canvases that have made Richter famous. Rife with violence, these images feature boldly colored figures writhing amidst fiery urban scenes. In other works, couples and trios appear in desolate or otherwise deserted landscapes, blurring the line between an apocalyptic end and an Edenic beginning.

This publication offers an overview of the painting œuvre by Swiss artist Lori Hersberger (*1964), concentrating on the last five years. Color treatment and staging of the picture are the two essential parameters of his attitude. His technique of mixing serigraphy, fluorescent color, reproduction, and direct intervention on the images have all added to the conception of the artist's book and are genuine to his installations. Accumulation and fragmentation, mannerism, violence, and refinement co-exist both in Hersbergers' installations and paintings. * * The book includes texts by Mirjam Varadinis, Angelika Stepken, Karl Schawelka, and Annemarie Reichen. * * Published in collaboration with Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris/Salzburg.