Edited by Karen Marta, Nell McClister, Eleni Michaelidi. Text by Germano Celant, Dakis Joannou.
A hybrid of archive and oral history, Deste 33 Years: 1983–2015 tells the colorful and nontraditional story of Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art and its founder, Dakis Joannou, whose deeply personal approach has informed the foundation’s ability to embody a given cultural moment—all while defying convention. "Deste was always really about ideas," Joannou says. "And the first idea was to create a museum of contemporary culture. Looking back, I’m not sure I was really collecting art. I think I was collecting relationships." Retracing more than three decades of one of the world’s most important contemporary art foundations through archival photographs, press clippings, critical reviews, correspondence and unabashed conversations with many main protagonists—Maurizio Cattelan, Jeffrey Deitch, Urs Fischer, Massimiliano Gioni and Jeff Koons, among others—this more than 850-page book walks the reader through not only the extraordinary, artist-centric work, but also through the recent and entertaining history of contemporary art itself.
Featured image is reproduced from Deste 33 Years: 1983–2015.
Reproduced here is one of the endpapers to Deste 33 Years: 1983-2015, the deluxe, thousand-page overview of the super-adventurous, world renowned art (and design) collection initiated by Dakis Joannou in 1983. Familiar to virtually everyone even remotely connected to the contemporary art world in the 1990s, the original source of this image, which reads, "spiritualizing it," is the catalogue (designed by Dan Friedman) to the landmark 1990 Deste exhibition Artificial Nature (curated by Jeffrey Deitch), which featured work by Ashley Bickerton, Walter De Maria, Jeff Koons, Liz Larner, Ed Ruscha, and Robert Smithson, among others. Collection catalogues often feel tired and mausoleum-like. This book goes in another direction entirely, presenting an over-the-top roadmap down memory lane, reminding us how far out front Joannou has been, and stayed, for more than three decades. It is, the words of Linda Yablonsky, who profiles Joannou in the current issue of Interview magazine, a copiously illustrated oral history of a program that has been as uninhibited as it has been groundbreaking. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.25 x 11.25 in. / 868 pgs / 1,080 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $85.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $119 ISBN: 9786185039172 PUBLISHER: DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art AVAILABLE: 2/23/2016 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR ME
Published by DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art. Edited by Karen Marta, Nell McClister, Eleni Michaelidi. Text by Germano Celant, Dakis Joannou.
A hybrid of archive and oral history, Deste 33 Years: 1983–2015 tells the colorful and nontraditional story of Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art and its founder, Dakis Joannou, whose deeply personal approach has informed the foundation’s ability to embody a given cultural moment—all while defying convention. "Deste was always really about ideas," Joannou says. "And the first idea was to create a museum of contemporary culture. Looking back, I’m not sure I was really collecting art. I think I was collecting relationships." Retracing more than three decades of one of the world’s most important contemporary art foundations through archival photographs, press clippings, critical reviews, correspondence and unabashed conversations with many main protagonists—Maurizio Cattelan, Jeffrey Deitch, Urs Fischer, Massimiliano Gioni and Jeff Koons, among others—this more than 850-page book walks the reader through not only the extraordinary, artist-centric work, but also through the recent and entertaining history of contemporary art itself.
