Christian Boltanski : Elokuun Yö. Augustinatt. Night in August. 22.8.-4.10.1998
Helsinki: Helsingin Taidehalli, 1998. First edition. Hardcover. Large quarto (13-1/4" x 10"). 86, (2)pp. Imprint and foreword in Swedish, Finnish and English, text mainly in Swedish with some English. Gray cloth, front cover lettered in black and red. Illustrated with 19 black & white double-page photographic spreads of Boltanski's exhibited works. A fine, as new copy.
Christian Boltanski (1944-2021) was born in Paris to a Ukrainian Jewish father and a Corsican mother. He is a photographer, painter, sculptor, and installation artist. Boltanski's early years were marked by the Nazi occupation of France, which forced his father to go into hiding. In 1958, after leaving school around the age of 12, he began to create plasticine sculptures and painted large-format figurative works centered around macabre historical subjects. He eventually gave up painting in favor of photography and sculpture, and it was around this time, in 1968, that his first solo exhibition, La vie impossible de Christian Boltanski (The Impossible Life of Christian Boltanski), was held at the Théâtre le Ranelagh, Paris. The artist culls photographs from vernacular sources such as postcards, newspapers, police registries, and family photo albums, creating vast groupings or installations of these mementos that merge everyday life with high art. His work deals with the concepts of loss, memory, childhood, and death, often functioning as memorials or shrines to collective cultural rituals and events. Many of his installations may reference the lives lost in the Holocaust, striking both collective societal and personal chords. (Guggenheim Museum). Fine. Item #51511
ISBN: 9519750924
Price: $95.00