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PUBLISHER
Pork Salad Press

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 360 pgs / 2 color / 300 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2011 p. 109   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9788791409585 TRADE
List Price: $49.95 CAD $67.50

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

TERRITORY
NA ONLY

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PORK SALAD PRESS

Concrete Comedy

An Alternative History of Twentieth-Century Comedy

By David Robbins.

Conventional histories of comedy address the verbal comedy presented on stage or screen, or in broadcast media. During the twentieth century, however, there emerged another form of comedy--a comedy of doing rather than saying--that yielded prop-like conceptual objects and gestures of public theater. Termed “concrete comedy” by internationally known artist and writer David Robbins, its origins date from around 1915, with the work of Karl Valentin, a German comedian of stage and screen who also made comic objects, and Marcel Duchamp, who used the art context as a site as for comedy. Concrete Comedy discusses visual artists (Manzoni, Warhol, Cattelan, Kippenberger, among many others) alongside entertainers (Albert Brooks, Andy Kaufman, Robert Benchley, Jack Benny), musicians (The Ramones, The Replacements, Frank Zappa), couturiers (from Chanel to Viktor & Rolf), architects (SITE Architects) and dozens of other comic imaginations. It offers both an alternative to conventional comedy and an alternative reading of certain abiding strategies in recent art.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Art in America

Stephen Maine

The author's unassuming, slightly crackpottish voice and enthusiasm for his subject—and it does seem to be his subject, with little other literature around-makes for an engrossing read.

Concrete Comedy

STATUS: Out of stock

Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

THOMAS EVANS | DATE 9/29/2011

An Interview with David Robbins about Concrete Comedy

An Interview with David Robbins

David Robbins--artist, comedian, writer--defines Concrete Comedy as "a comedy of doing rather than saying." On the occasion of his booksigning at the New York Artist's Book Fair (at MoMA P.S.1, Sunday 1 pm), Robbins talks to Artbook about his fantastic new book, Concrete Comedy: An Alternative History of Twentieth-Century Comedy.

continue to blog


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