Publications

New Book on James Casebere’s Work

webmaster 26-10-2011

New York’s Barnes & Noble Publishers to launch James Casebere. Obras 1975-2010, put out by Okwui Enwenzor, this Wednesday October 26.

Art critic and theorist Hal Foster, author of one of the texts included in this catalogue-book, is to attend the presentation, which is conceived as a lecture.

James Casebere, born in 1953, belongs to the so-called Pictures Generation, made up of artists who shed light on their works during the 1980s –at the height of the post Modernism– such as Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince. Casebere’s work has positioned him in the vanguard of built photography. He dedicated his first artworks to deconstructing suburb’s codes and the myth of American Western. Nevertheless, he would soon focus his attention on the type of work that presently fascinates him: the creation of “architectural” spaces, simplified models of monasteries, tunnels or factories from essential shapes, photographed in his studio. This element saw eye to eye with Michel Foucault’s theoretical assumptions, who talked during the 1990s about architecture and power in the American society.

Casebere’s creations are solidly based on the comprehension of architecture, as well as the history of arts and movies. He has tried typologies from all latitudes, studying, for instance, the blend among Islamic, Jewish and Christian cultures against the Inquisition. He has attended acclaimed events such as Whitney Biennial (1985) and Venice Biennial, Italy (1996). His works have been exhibited in Canada, Spain, England, Sweden, and the US, among others. He has been given numerous scholarships, among them three by National Endowment for the Arts, three by NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts), and one by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. His artworks can be admired as part of collections showcased at Whitney Museum of American Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The volume to be launched shows images of some of Casebere’s first works, sculptures and pictures. Enwezor contributes to the book with the introduction, as well as a conversation held with the artist. Another text is signed by Afro American narrator Toni Morrison.