Harald Szeemann - Selected Writings

EXHIBITION: The Getty Research Institute, The Getty Center, February 6 to April 6, 2018. Exhibition will travel to Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland, June to September 2018, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Germany, October 2018 to January 2019, and Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Torino, Italy, February to May 2019. A satellite show, the reconstruction of Harald Szeemann's Grandfather: A Pioneer Like Us will be at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles February to April 22, 2018, and will then travel to Gerechtigkeitgasse 74, Bern, June to September 2018), Kunsthalle Dusseldorf October 2018-January 2019, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Torino, Italy, February to May 2019, and the Swiss Institute, New York Summer 2019.

Over seventy texts by Harald Szeemann (1933-2015) that bring the ideas of this important curator of twentieth-century art to an English-speaking audience for the first time.Born in Bern, Switzerland in 1933, Harald Szeemann was a crucial force in identifying, exhibiting, and writing about the important new movements in postwar contemporary art. This collection of seventy-four texts from the curator's vast body of written work-which includes essays, lectures, studio notes, reviews, interviews, correspondence, and transcripts-introduces the depth of his method, insight, and inclusive artistic interests. The pieces have been translated from German and French and collected in an informed, authoritative edition, making this the first time Szeemann's work is accessible in English. The first two sections of this volume republish Szeemann's anthologies "Museum der Obsessionen" (1981) and "Individuelle Mythologien" (1985). The final part assembles important writing from 1986 until his death in 2005 to represent the later years of his career and round out a record of his contribution to and dialogue with later twentieth century art and artists. The book's publication coincides with the opening of the Getty Research Institute's exhibition Harald Szeemann: Museum of Obsessions, as well as a satellite show that recreates on Szeemann's "Grandfather exhibition" at the Institute of Contempoary Art, Los Angeles.