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THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART/BOSTON
Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design
Foreword by Jill Medvedow. Text by Jenelle Porter, Elissa Auther, Amy Goldin.
Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design is a multigenerational survey of strategies of pattern and decoration in art and design. Borrowing its ethos from Robert Venturi’s infamous retort to Mies van der Rohe’s modernist edict “less is more,” it includes works that privilege decoration and maximalism over modernism’s “ornament as crime” philosophy. The catalog begins in the 1970s with artists who sought to rattle the dominance of modernism and minimalism, such as those affiliated with Pattern & Decoration. Less Is a Bore includes experiments in patterning by Sanford Biggers, Jasper Johns and Miriam Schapiro; the transgressive sculpture and furniture of Lucas Samaras and Ettore Sottsass; and the installations of Polly Apfelbaum, Nathalie du Pasquier and Virgil Marti. Also included are works by Roger Brown, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Jeffrey Gibson, Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Ellen Lesperance, Sol LeWitt, Howardena Pindell, Lari Pittman, Pae White and Betty Woodman, among others.
This photo from Leigh Bowery and Fergus Greer's Looks series (1988–94) is reproduced from Less Is a Bore, published to accompany the ICA Boston’s summer show celebrating Maximalist—almost transgressively busy—art and design (opening June 26). “In the art world,” curator Jenelle Porter writes, “maximalism has yet to attain minimalism’s critical might. Perhaps maximalism is just too emotional, excessive, disorderly, overtly complex and showy… Maximalism is an attitude as much as a method. Maximalism welcomes the world into the studio rather than barring the door. Maximalism looks outward rather than inward to the artist’s spiritual and psychic struggle (as in abstract expressionism). Maximalism is the embrace to minimalism’s exclusions. It is hip-hop compared to punk: multiplying layers of samples versus sixty seconds of three chords.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 224 pgs / 125 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $35.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $39.95 GBP £30.00 ISBN: 9780997253849 PUBLISHER: The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston AVAILABLE: 6/18/2019 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Foreword by Jill Medvedow. Text by Jenelle Porter, Elissa Auther, Amy Goldin.
Less Is a Bore: Maximalist Art & Design is a multigenerational survey of strategies of pattern and decoration in art and design. Borrowing its ethos from Robert Venturi’s infamous retort to Mies van der Rohe’s modernist edict “less is more,” it includes works that privilege decoration and maximalism over modernism’s “ornament as crime” philosophy. The catalog begins in the 1970s with artists who sought to rattle the dominance of modernism and minimalism, such as those affiliated with Pattern & Decoration. Less Is a Bore includes experiments in patterning by Sanford Biggers, Jasper Johns and Miriam Schapiro; the transgressive sculpture and furniture of Lucas Samaras and Ettore Sottsass; and the installations of Polly Apfelbaum, Nathalie du Pasquier and Virgil Marti. Also included are works by Roger Brown, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Jeffrey Gibson, Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, Ellen Lesperance, Sol LeWitt, Howardena Pindell, Lari Pittman, Pae White and Betty Woodman, among others.
