Joachim Pissarro

“Wild Art” refers to work that exists outside the established, rarified world of art galleries and cultural channels. It encompasses uncatalogued, uncommodified art not often recognized as such, from graffiti to performance, self-adornment, and beyond. Picking up from their breakthrough book on the subject, Wild Art, David Carrier and Joachim Pissarro here delve into the ideas driving these forms of art, inquire how it came to be marginalized, and advocate for a definition of “taste,” one in which each expression is acknowledged as being different while deserving equal merit. Arguing that both the “art world” and “wild art” have the same capacity to produce aesthetic joy, Carrier and Pissarro contend that watching skateboarders perform Christ Air, for example, produces the same sublime experience in one audience that another enjoys while taking in a ballet; therefore, both mediums deserve careful reconsideration. In making their case, the two provide a history of the institutionalization of “taste” in Western thought, point to missed opportunities for its democratization in the past, and demonstrate how the recognition and acceptance of “wild art” in the present will radically transform our understanding of contemporary visual art in the future. Provocative and optimistic, Aesthetics of the Margins / The Margins of Aesthetics rejects the concept of “kitsch” and the high/low art binary, ultimately challenging the art world to become a larger and more inclusive place.

Based on an exhibition organized by Joachim Pissarro and curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Lauren Haynes, Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today explores the complex and varied connections between crystal and art throughout the world. Included are both ancient artifacts-such as engraved gems, figurines, and vases-and works from contemporary artists around the world that explore the power of crystal in art by drawing on its form, properties, and mysterious qualities. Featuring more than sixty-five works from ancient Egypt and Greece, through to Rome, China, India, Japan, the Middle East, the Americas, and beyond, this book invites readers to discover how the power of crystal transcends the boundaries of time and space. Taken together, all of these objects illustrate how crystal has bridged the gap between things we can see and things we can't: science and art, fact and faith, medicine and magic-the visible and the invisible. Published in collaboration with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and University of Arkansas School of Art.

In light of a large selection of previously unpublished personal archives - documents, photographs and films - this title explores Picasso's 'Olga period' by contextualising his work during this period and by questioning the contrast between the subject and its portrayal. A favourite model since their meeting in 1917, Olga Khokhlova, a Russian ballet dancer who married Picasso in July 1918, is the most represented female figure in the artist's work of the late 1910s and 1920s. Picasso renders the ambiguity of his first wife, her beauty, her Ingres-like contours, and her deep, pensive, melancholy, in many of his most famous portraits. The exhibition that this book accompanies brings to light materials conserved by Olga's family until recently, including memorabilia of her life as a dancer, photos of Picasso, their son Paul, and their daily life together, and their travels to Barcelona, Naples, and Monte Carlo.

“Wild Art” refers to work that exists outside the established, rarified world of art galleries and cultural channels. It encompasses uncatalogued, uncommodified art not often recognized as such, from graffiti to performance, self-adornment, and beyond. Picking up from their breakthrough book on the subject, Wild Art, David Carrier and Joachim Pissarro here delve into the ideas driving these forms of art, inquire how it came to be marginalized, and advocate for a definition of “taste,” one in which each expression is acknowledged as being different while deserving equal merit. Arguing that both the “art world” and “wild art” have the same capacity to produce aesthetic joy, Carrier and Pissarro contend that watching skateboarders perform Christ Air, for example, produces the same sublime experience in one audience that another enjoys while taking in a ballet; therefore, both mediums deserve careful reconsideration. In making their case, the two provide a history of the institutionalization of “taste” in Western thought, point to missed opportunities for its democratization in the past, and demonstrate how the recognition and acceptance of “wild art” in the present will radically transform our understanding of contemporary visual art in the future. Provocative and optimistic, Aesthetics of the Margins / The Margins of Aesthetics rejects the concept of “kitsch” and the high/low art binary, ultimately challenging the art world to become a larger and more inclusive place.

This book is an important addition to the studies of Agnes Martin, as the author met with her and discussed her work in Taos. The Agnes Martin Gallery at the University of New Mexico's Harwood Museum in Taos, New Mexico, is a sacred space. It resonates with connections to Giotto's Arena Chapel in Padua, Matisse's Chapel of the Rosary at Vence, the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. In order to sustain such a bold claim, Joanna Weber looks at the Agnes Martin Gallery within the trajectory of the history of Western thought, specifically the Judeo-Christian tradition about how the presence of the sacred is apprehended through objects and in them. Weber considers both the continuities and the discontinuities, in the shift from churches to museums as containers for objects made available for contemplation, in order to assess the significance of the Gallery. The author also looks at Agnes Martin's work (paintings, writings, filmmaking, and the houses and studios she built) in order to explore the sublime that is integral to her oeuvre. She physically built her spaces for living and painting. Weber also consider the impact that this building process has on her paintings. Drawing on other works of art, philosophy, and theology to deepen our knowledge about how objects participate in making space for the sacred, the author also relies on Agnes Martin's own writings as a guide. In addition to considering the Gallery as an architectural space, she examines the ways in which Martin's paintings as objects create sacred space and make her Gallery in Taos a contemporary pilgrimage site.