Modern art

Drawing on extensive documentation and unpublished sources, this collective publication proposes an ambitious re-examination of Hans Hartung's prolific work and eventful personal trajectory as an actor in a broader history of abstraction, which also provides a fertile matrix for many other reflections on twentieth-century art.

A painter and an inventor, Eugène Frey (1863-1930) pioneered techniques of animated sets for the theatre at the same time period as the cinema was invented. While he is contextualized beside the creations of Loie Fuller, Georges Méliès or Lotte Reiniger, he is reinterpreted by the artist João Maria Gusmão. First publication devoted to the work of Eugène Frey, the luxurious catalogue of the exhibition at the New National Museum of Monaco presents texts by Stéphane Tralongo (University of Lausanne) and Laurent Mannoni (Cinémathèque française), as well as a work of fiction by João Maria Gusmão.

How have artists over the past 150 years related to migration and exile? And what role can a museum play in times of mass migration?

The stakes of Francis Picabia's creative process, between exaltation and rejection of the self, at the heart of the constitution of modernity.

An anthology.

How to explain the intersection, during the twentieth century, of the ideology and theories on violence and creativity?

Hans Hartung and the cinema.

Rendez-vous in Paris: Picasso, Chagall, Modigliani & Co (1900-1939) is a collaborative publication between Kaph Books, Louvre Abu Dhabi and Centre Pompidou, which serves to discover the Paris of the “Roaring Twenties”—a Bohemian hub for artists from across Europe. This group of artists came together at a moment of extraordinary creativity to produce some of the most innovative art of the 20th century.

Rendez-vous in Paris: Picasso, Chagall, Modigliani & Co (1900-1939) is a collaborative publication between Kaph Books, Louvre Abu Dhabi and Centre Pompidou, which serves to discover the Paris of the “Roaring Twenties”—a Bohemian hub for artists from across Europe. This group of artists came together at a moment of extraordinary creativity to produce some of the most innovative art of the 20th century.

A closer reading of the late poetry of Jean Hans Arp (1886-1966), major figure of the Dada movement in Zurich, a friend of the surrealists, painter, sculptor, also author of an important bilingual poetic work, which covers more than half a century of creation (with a choice of poems previously unpublished).

Jean Laude's writings on art.

First French edition of an essential manifesto of modern art written by Russian writer, poet and journalist Ilya Ehrenburg in 1921.

A collective reassessment of Gertrude Stein's relationship to the arts, allowing to understand the complexity of the relationship between writing and visual arts in her work.

How did autonomous art become such an effective tool of the capitalist state? A thorough analysis of the connection between contemporary art and modern biopower.

The reference monograph deepens, for the first time in an exhaustive way, the pioneering installations created by Fontana since the late 1940s.

Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, and the Neuf Moules Mâlic (Nine Malic Moulds): the genesis, the history and the destiny of an artwork as exceptional as the relation between an artist and his collector, of which it was the vector.

This illustrated essay creates a dialogue between the works of Fluxus artist Jean Dupuy and dadaist Marcel Duchamp around their shared interest with eroticism.

This catalogue looks back at Hartung's artistic production and life during the Second World War.

The growth of thought on ornament, applied arts and architecture in the industrial age, between ornamental impulse and decorative project.

A review of the epistolary correspondence of Gustave Courbet, by an ethnologist, a writer, a psychoanalyst, a hunter, a philosopher, a gastroenterologist, a psychiatrist, two curators, and six art historians.

An essay by Frédéric Valabrègue on the American avant-garde artist, one of the main actors of the Fluxus movement.

Narrative essay developping the notion of abhumanism, a critical philosophy which questions the centrality of mankind in our relationship to the world. With illustrations by Camille Bryen and a foreword by Michel Giroud.

The first publication to pay tribute to Ambroise Vollard the Reunionese and to the exceptional gift made to his island in 1947, exhibited at the Léon Dierx museum.

Eight essays on the German avant-gardes (Hugo Ball, Max Beckmann, Marcel Breuer, Franz Marc, Merzbau, Expressionnism, Dada…).

In her brilliant essay, Helen Molesworth pinpoints the significance of the return of the handmade in Duchamp's artistic oeuvre of his later years and, at the same time, and for the very first time, makes this fundamental paradigmatic change the focal point of academic debate.

A story of the Grévin wax museum in Paris from 1881 to 1921.

Rereading L'Origine du monde and the relationship between Gustave Courbet and James Whistler.

The first French translation of Yve-Alain Bois' reference study on modernism

This historical essay assesses the impact of Dadaist ballet Relâches on the French artistic community by restoring the historical context that has transformed the collaboration of Picabia, Satie and Börlin into a unique event in the history of dance and performance.

The critical edition of Hans Hartung's autobiographical writings.

The critical edition of Hans Hartung's autobiographical writings.

The great Brazilian critic Mário Pedrosa (1900-1981)'s farewell to art criticism, written to his countrymen in the manner of Montesquieu's Persian Letters.

A typology of erasure as artistic gesture throughout the twentieth century.

An examination of the relationship between Antoine Bourdelle and Alberto Giacometti, thus also exploring the more general history of heritage and artistic education under modernity.

An historical and ethnographic investigation into the popular origin and environment of Cubist innovations.

A collection of texts by Robert Lebel on surrealism.

Ambiguity is inherent in images because visual perception is an interpretative act involving memory and imagination. Modern art has made this aspect of perception crucial to its relationship with the viewer. Images potentielles (Potential Images), the first systematic exploration of this topic, considers those works of art that rely to a great degree on imaginative response.

The influence of cartoon on Duchamp's work.

An investigation into the enigma of the first abstract painting by Kandinsky.

A facsimile edition of a surrealist poem by Robert Lebel and originally published in 1943. Illustrated with seven constructions by artist Isabelle Waldberg.

A facsimile edition of the first ever monograph dedicated to Marcel Duchamp and originally published in 1959. A complete introduction to his works and personality as well as a reflection on the artist's role in modern society. Graphic design by Marcel Duchamp. With texts by Duchamp, André Breton & Henri-Pierre Roché. Featuring a bibliography and a catalogue raisonné.

The relationship between Modern art and its destruction.

This publication aims to explore how the multiple production of Raoul Hausmann, a central figure of Dada, has helped to shape the art of modernity.

The never-before-published selection of Carlo Scarpa's writings and illustrations (photographs, architectural plans, sketches, etc.): an invaluable tool to understanding exhibition history and the importance of the architectural conception of exhibitions.

Uses and Utopias – The Exhibition in the Pre-Revolutionary Russian Avant-Garde: an essay on the exhibition practice in Russia in the years 1910-1920, and in particular on the relationship between exhibition and public space in the projects of the historical avant-gardes.

Thierry de Duve's writings on Marcel Duchamp.

Seven essays about Marcel Duchamp's work.

The origins of the writing of the history known as the history of modern art (catalogue).