Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany (Yellow Edition)
Over the course of his 35-year career, Christopher Williams (born 1956) has produced photographs that engage the conventions of photojournalism, picture archives and commercial imagery--often through a wry combination of parody and homage--and explore their sociopolitical contexts and implications. Using the process of reproduction as a point of entry, the artist questions the communication mechanisms and aesthetic conventions that influence our understanding of reality.
Printed in Germany is the second volume in an ambitious series of books developed by Williams in conjunction with his first major museum survey, The Production Line of Happiness, a critically acclaimed exhibition co- organized for 2014–15 by The Art Institute of Chicago with The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Whitechapel Gallery, London. Following the first publication, an exhibition catalogue that relied more heavily on text than image, Printed in Germany was conceived to exist as a stand-alone visual object and extend the artist's conceptual and aesthetic concerns into book form. A perfect companion to the first publication, it reproduces a carefully curated selection of the artist's painstakingly constructed photographs and features striking graphic design in the near-complete absence of language, with no essay, captions, or even a title page. Through clever manipulations of cropping, ordering, and pagination, Printed in Germany offers readers an original aesthetic experience and comprehensive insight into the practice of one of today's most thought-provoking artists, while--through pure visual splendor--pushing the boundaries of the artist's book into new realms. As with all books in the series, it has been produced in three colors--yellow, red and green--each of which features subtle differences in layout. A third publication in the series, slated for publication in 2015, will include installation photographs from all three presentations of The Production Line of Happiness, essays related to exhibition symposiums and full captions for all of the images included in Printed in Germany.
Born in Los Angeles in 1956, Christopher Williams studied at the California Institute of the Arts under the first wave of West Coast conceptual artists, including John Baldessari and Douglas Huebler, only to become one of his generation's leading conceptualists. Since joining David Zwirner in 2000, the artist has had seven solo exhibitions at the gallery, including recent presentations at the locations in London in 2013 and New York in 2014. Major museum collections which hold works by the artist include The Art Institute of Chicago; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in Cologne and Los Angeles.
Featured image is reproduced from the cover of the Yellow edition of Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Photo-Eye Blog
Alex F Webb
I understand why a lot of people don't like Christopher Williams. For me the rigorousness and detail of his entire practice makes way for a really enigmatic abstraction that this slightly confusing book encapsulates perfectly.
Photo-Eye Blog
Jeffrey Ladd
Get into Christopher Williams — work that increases brain activity and restores intellect to a world saturated with the easily digestible and superficial. Leave the words behind and use whatever you have.
Featured image is reproduced from Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany. Published by the renowned German publisher, distributor and bookseller Walther König–our partner through Sunday evening at Frieze New York–this highly collectible limited edition artist's book reproduces a carefully curated selection of Williams' painstakingly constructed photographs and features striking graphic design in the near-complete absence of language: there are no essays, captions, or even a title page. Many pages, in sequence, are simply monochromatic. Published in three colors–yellow, red and green–each featuring a slightly different layout, it is also available at our Frieze store in a limited edition of 50, which comes with a signed and numbered 77x57 offset print. continue to blog
May 14-17, visit ARTBOOK and König Books at Frieze New York! For four short days, our super-deep, collaborative pop-up bookstore will present more than 1,000 new, classic, signed and rare titles from around the world, alongside limited editions like the signed and numbered print edition of Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany (below). Our store is located at the Southern entrance to the fair, near the VIP lounge. Scroll down for information about other featured titles, editions and book signings. continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 8.25 x 10.75 in. / 372 pgs / 138 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $120.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $160 ISBN: 9783863356002 PUBLISHER: Walther König, Köln AVAILABLE: 1/31/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: FLAT40 PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR
Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany (Yellow Edition)
Published by Walther König, Köln.
Over the course of his 35-year career, Christopher Williams (born 1956) has produced photographs that engage the conventions of photojournalism, picture archives and commercial imagery--often through a wry combination of parody and homage--and explore their sociopolitical contexts and implications. Using the process of reproduction as a point of entry, the artist questions the communication mechanisms and aesthetic conventions that influence our understanding of reality.
Printed in Germany is the second volume in an ambitious series of books developed by Williams in conjunction with his first major museum survey, The Production Line of Happiness, a critically acclaimed exhibition co- organized for 2014–15 by The Art Institute of Chicago with The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Whitechapel Gallery, London. Following the first publication, an exhibition catalogue that relied more heavily on text than image, Printed in Germany was conceived to exist as a stand-alone visual object and extend the artist's conceptual and aesthetic concerns into book form. A perfect companion to the first publication, it reproduces a carefully curated selection of the artist's painstakingly constructed photographs and features striking graphic design in the near-complete absence of language, with no essay, captions, or even a title page. Through clever manipulations of cropping, ordering, and pagination, Printed in Germany offers readers an original aesthetic experience and comprehensive insight into the practice of one of today's most thought-provoking artists, while--through pure visual splendor--pushing the boundaries of the artist's book into new realms. As with all books in the series, it has been produced in three colors--yellow, red and green--each of which features subtle differences in layout. A third publication in the series, slated for publication in 2015, will include installation photographs from all three presentations of The Production Line of Happiness, essays related to exhibition symposiums and full captions for all of the images included in Printed in Germany.
Born in Los Angeles in 1956, Christopher Williams studied at the California Institute of the Arts under the first wave of West Coast conceptual artists, including John Baldessari and Douglas Huebler, only to become one of his generation's leading conceptualists. Since joining David Zwirner in 2000, the artist has had seven solo exhibitions at the gallery, including recent presentations at the locations in London in 2013 and New York in 2014. Major museum collections which hold works by the artist include The Art Institute of Chicago; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in Cologne and Los Angeles.