Thomas Hirschhorn: A New Political Understanding of Art?

by David L. Westling Ed.D.

Overview

Thomas Hirschhorn, a leading installation artist whose work is owned and exhibited by modern art museums throughout Europe and the United States, is known for compelling, often site-specific and interactive environments tackling issues of critical theory, global politics, and consumerism. His work initially engages the viewer through sheer superabundance. Combining found images and texts, bound up in handcrafted constructions of cardboard, foil, and packing tape, the artworks reflect the intellectual scavenging and sensory overload that characterize our own attempts to grapple with the excess of information in daily life.

Christina Braun, the first to compile and systematically analyze the extensive source material on this artist’s theoretical principles, sheds light on the complicated yet constitutive relations between Hirschhorn’s work and theory. Her study, now translated into English, makes a major contribution to the study of contemporary art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512601626
Publisher:	Dartmouth College Press
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Series:	Interfaces: Studies in Visual Culture Series
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

CHRISTINA BRAUN received her PhD from the University of Cologne, Germany. She has been a freelance curator for the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and is currently working for documenta 14.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
Objectives and Structure
On the Sources
On the Current Status of Research
On the Method
PART 1: THE ARTIST’S THEORY AS A SOURCE AND OBJECT OF ANALYSIS
The Phenomenon of Artists’ Theories: A Historical Outline
Forms and Functions of Modern Artists’ Theories
On the Concept of the Artist’s Theory
The Platonic Topos of the Irrelevance of the Artist’s Theory
Four Theses on the Artist’s Theory as a Source and Object of Analysis
PART 2: AN INTERPRETATIVE PRESENTATION OF THE ARTIST’S THEORY
Formal and Rhetorical Stylistic Means
Characteristics and Function
Hirschhorn’s Understanding of Art: Central Concepts and Ideas
The Formation of Hirschhorn’s Theory in the Context of His Evolution as an Artist
PART 3: ANALYZING THOMAS HIRSCHHORN’S ARTIST’S THEORY
On the Iconography of Material
Critical Notes on the Process of Production
Hirschhorn’s Aesthetic-Political Concept of Work
“Constructing the Unconstructible”: “The Spirit of Utopia” in Thomas Hirschhorn’s Theory
Hirschhorn’s Elective Affinities: Genealogical System or Ingenious Self-Stylization?
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Elisa Schaar

“Thomas Hirschhorn’s statements are an integral part of his artistic practice. Christina Braun offers the first sustained analysis of them and their complex relation to the sculptural work. Elegantly navigating through Hirschhorn’s characteristic information overload in English, French, and German, this thoroughly researched book, which is grounded in Braun’s own direct exchanges with the artist, is invaluable for those studying Hirschhorn and also anyone more generally interested in the mechanics of how to engage with artists’ statements.”

Dieter Roelstraete

“I know of few artists working in the expanded field of cultural production today whose passion for art matches that of the peerless Thomas Hirschhorn. Here is an artist who truly loves art, and whose love for the work of art ultimately drives the potent political charge that is so defining of his oeuvre. It takes some scholarly passion to parallel Hirschhorn’s energy in critical, discursive terms—which Christina Braun’s book has in spades. A tour de force.”