Published by Whitechapel Gallery. Edited by Emily Butler. Text by Dominic Eichler, Matthew Tyas. Interview by Iouri Podlatchikov, Kathy Halbreich.
German artist Kai Althoff (born 1966) is renowned as a figurative painter and creator of all-encompassing poetic environments that incorporate textiles, photographs, drawings and artifacts. Althoff draws from a wide range of literary, cultural and artistic influences in his work, and for his unique display at Whitechapel Gallery in London he pays tribute to British potter Bernard Leach (1887–1979), selecting around 20 of Leach’s ceramic vessels and tiles from the 1920s onward to be displayed in specially designed vitrines.
As a counterpoint to Leach’s own work, Althoff presents his own new paintings and sculptural installations, as well as recent pieces that bring together fabrics, found material and paintings inspired by Japonisme.
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Edited by Kai Althoff. Text by Rita Kersting, DovBer Naiditch, Yair Oelbaum, Constantin Rothkopf, Robert Storr, Rein Wolfs. Interview by Laura Hoptman.
Kai Althoff is one of the most consummate--and unpredictable--artists of his generation. A painter and a draftsman, he has experimented since the mid-1990s with combinations of unconventional mediums and exhibition formats to create all-encompassing environments that might include finely detailed drawings, collage, woven textiles, knitted fabric, soft sculpture, paintings, writing, video, fragrance and song.
Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, this publication presents Althoff’s work in all mediums made over a 25-year career. Created in close collaboration with the artist, the book features lavish color reproductions of Althoff’s most significant works. Contributions by scholars, art professionals and friends of the artist offer multiple perspectives on Althoff’s iconographically rich work.
Kai Althoff is an internationally-known German artist who lives in Cologne and New York.
Laura Hoptman is Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Whitney Chadwick is Professor Emerita of Art History at San Francisco State University.
Margaret Ewing is Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Rita Kersting is the Landeau Family Curator of Contemporary Art at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
DovBer Naiditch is a Chabad Lubovitch Rabbi in Brooklyn, New York.
Yair Oelbaum is a social worker in Brooklyn, New York.
Constantin Rothkopf is Associate Professor at the Institute of Psychology, Technical University Darmstadt.
Rob Storr is Professor of Painting/Printmaking and Dean of the School of Art at Yale University.
Rein Wolfs is Director of the Bundeskunsthalle Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn.
Published by JRP|Ringier. Text by Angus Cook, Antje Majewski, Patrik Scherrer.
This comprehensive publication is Kai Althoff's third monograph. It contains never-before-seen works in addition to images from every stage of the artist's career, concentrating most heavily on work since 2002. The artist considers this to be a more ideally composed retrospective than any exhibition of his work would be capable of achieving. The selection of images focuses on documenting the work in a way that addresses the character of the works as well as the artist's current and past perspectives on his oeuvre. Possessing the emotional charge of the artist's works, this book presents personal, previously unpublished photographs, paintings, and writings of "failed satire" with a deceptive sentimentality that oscillates between nostalgia and self-deprecation. This stands in contrast with the innate beauty and craftsmanship of the works, which engrossed the artist at the time of their conception. Souffleuse der Isolation is also concerned with re-evaluating past works and the emotional states in which they were spawned, and how this pertains to the act of revisiting past portrayals of oneself. This volume also features a text by the writer Angus Cook imaginatively inspired by Althoff's work, written specifically for this monograph, which served as a vital conceptual basis to its composition. Also included is a text by Dr. Patrik Scherrer on the use of textiles in the artist's work. Published in collaboration with Kunsthalle Zürich.
Kai Althoff: and then leave me to the common swifts
Kai Althoff: Souffleuse der Isolation