Thomas Girst

A captivating exploration of the life and work of the iconic South African artist Esther Mahlangu, one of the great innovators of Pan-African Contemporary Art. 'Esther Mahlangu is one of the most important artists of our time who continues to inspire artists all over the world. Mahlangu is a visionary who brings art into society' Hans Ulrich Obrist Esther Mahlangu (b. 1935) is globally acclaimed for her bright and bold abstract paintings that are rooted in South African Ndbele art. She was a disruptor from an early age, becoming the first person to reimagine her visual heritage, historically used for decorating houses, on painting media such as canvas. Mahlangu is one of the most influential artists of Pan-African Contemporary Art. Esther Mahlangu: To Paint is in My Heart celebrates Mahlangu’s remarkable journey as a pioneer and innovator of contemporary African art, whose vibrant and distinctive paintings have captured the hearts of many worldwide. Through a series of interviews with Mahlangu conducted by Thomas Girst, Azu Nwagbogu and Hans Ulrich Obrist, readers will gain insight into her creative process, inspiration, and the cultural significance of her work – in the artist’s own words. With a preface by Nontobeko Ntombela, the curator of Mahlangu’s major 2024 travelling retrospective, this book presents stunning visuals and engaging narratives, offering an inspiring experience to the reader.

In collaboration with the sculptor Leelee Chan, a world- and time-spanning project has been selected for the 8th BMW Art Journey—an initiative of BMW and Art Basel. Chan explores old and new materials in order enter them into a dialogue with the present day. On her travels across Italy in 2020, she learned about traditional techniques used to extract and work marble, copper, iron, and bronze. In Switzerland and Germany, including at BMW’s Munich headquarters, she met engineers and scientists in order to learn about nanotechnologies and postindustrial materials. This richly illustrated volume brings together essays, documentary photographs, and works inspired by the trip to examine the core questions of Chan’s project: What does it mean to be a sculptor in the current time? What can we learn from the materials of yesterday? And how can tomorrow’s materials ensure a more sustainable future?

How can art, how can prose and poetry originate in spite of the restraints of manipulation, propaganda, and censorship? This study explores such issues by focusing on the cultural trajectory of Japanese American internment, both during and after World War II. Previously unknown documents as well as interviews with friends and family reveal new aspects of John Okada’s (1923–1971) life and writing, providing a comprehensive biographical outline of the author. The book refutes the assumption that Okada’s novel No-No Boy was all but shunned when first published in 1957. A close reading as well as a comparative study involving Italo Calvino’s (1923–1985) Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1985) position Okada’s only book as world literature.

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) has entered mainstream culture as one of the founding fathers of modern art. Despite his popularity, books on Duchamp often shroud his work in theoretical and critical writing. Here, instead, is a book exploring the artist’s life and work in a thoroughly new and engaging manner, with short, alphabetical dictionary entries written in lively, jargon- free prose that at last allow Duchamp’s work and influence to be accessible and enjoyable for a wide audience. The book features more than 200 entries on the most interesting and important artworks, relationships, people and ideas in Duchamp’s life, from chess, puns, the fourth dimension, love and genius, to the Bicycle Wheel and Fountain, Walter and Louise Arensberg, Peggy Guggenheim, Katherine S. Dreier and Arturo Schwarz. A contextual introduction shows how the dictionary form has been an inspiration to artists and writers from Flaubert to the Surrealists. Underpinned by the latest scholarship and research, Thomas Girst’s texts show how, in the words of contemporary artist Thomas Hirschhorn, Duchamp was ‘the most intelligent mind of his time’.