Hannah Wilke

"Wilke's practice is rooted in her devotion to malleability and her interest in vulnerability. Throughout her career she created art from unusual materials, plastic and fragile in composition, and then placed these objects in compromising situations--hinged with pins or glued to walls and boards, placed freely on the floor, always seemingly on the verge of disaster, always questioning: Will it fall? Will it crack? This vulnerability, so much a part of Wilke's work, is also a carefully constructed strategy, perilous but orchestrated by the artist. The combination of these seemingly opposing forces creates a unique tension through her artistic production."
Tracy Fitzpatrick, excerpted from her text to Hannah Wilke: Gestures.

MONOGRAPHS & CATALOGS

Hannah Wilke: Gestures Text by Tracy Fitzpatrick with Saundra Goldman, Tom Kochheiser, Griselda Pollock. The act of folding is the salient gesture in the sculptures of American artist Hannah Wilke (1940-1993). Taking such materials as clay, bubble gum and Play-Doh, Wilke fashioned serial forms that
go to book page >>
NEUBERGER MUSEUM OF ART
ISBN: 9780979562921
$29.95 | In stock

Hannah Wilke Artwork by Hannah Wilke. Text by Laura Cottingham, Alfred Fischer, Donald Goddard, Saundra Goldman.
go to book page >>
NIKOLAJ, COPENHAGEN CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER
ISBN: 9788788860610
$25.00 | Not available

Hannah Wilke

In Gestures, Hannah Wilke describes this work as "womblike blossoms resembling Venus mounds, a centerfold evolving from a circular plane, universally existing in both primary and secondary colors. Food from heaven, hence spiritual nourishment. Called angel's food."

Hannah Wilke: Gestures

Text by Tracy Fitzpatrick with Saundra Goldman, Tom Kochheiser, Griselda Pollock.
Published by Neuberger Museum of Art

The act of folding is the salient gesture in the sculptures of American artist Hannah Wilke (1940-1993). Taking such materials as clay, bubble gum and Play-Doh, Wilke fashioned serial forms that folded inward or opened out with overtly labial sensuousness. Wilke often placed these objects in compromising situations--hinged with pins or glued to walls and boards, placed freely on the floor, always seemingly on the verge of disaster. Today she is famed for her many nude self-portraits, which have threatened to eclipse the sculptural basis of both the portraits themselves and her work in general. By emphasizing folding as a gesture, this catalogue--the first on the artist to appear in many years--unites Wilke's sculpture and photography under the rubric of performance, and the performing of material. With an abundance of color reproductions and critical commentary, Hannah Wilke: Gestures offers a fresh assessment of a pioneer in sculpture, feminist art and performance.

Hannah Wilke

A Retropsective

Artwork by Hannah Wilke. Text by Laura Cottingham, Alfred Fischer, Donald Goddard, Saundra Goldman.
Published by Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center