N6494.B63V47

The Body as Language. Body Art and Like Stories Lea Vergine Vito Acconci Giovanni Anselmo Keith Arnatt John Baldessari Gianfranco Baruchello Ben Vautier Valentina Berardinone Joseph Beuys Marcel Broodthaers Trisha Brown Giinter Brus Enrico Bugli Pierpaolo Calzolari Cioni Carpi Giuseppe Chiari Giorgio Ciam Jole De Freitas Giuseppe Desiato Alain D'Hooghe Terry Fox Howard Fried Gilbert & George Dan Graham Rebecca Horn Enrico Job Joan Jonas Michel Journiac Ketty La Rocca Urs Liithi Elio Mariani Tom Marioni Denis Masi Eliseo Mattiacci Fabio Mauri Annette Messager Otto Muehl Hidetoshi Nagasawa Ugo Nespolo Hermann Nitsch Luigi Ontani Dennis Oppenheim Jean Otth Stanislao Pacus Gina Pane Luca Patella Giuseppe Penone Gianni Pisani Vettor Pisani Arnulf Rainer Klaus Rinke Allen Ruppersberg Lucas Samaras Rudolf Schwarzkogler Richard Serra Katharina Sieverding Aldo Tagliaferro Antonio Trotta Janos Urban Franco Vaccari Gruppo Zaj Michele Zaza Diffused Body and Mystical Body Lea Vergine Selected Bibliography

When The Body as Language ("Body-art" and Performance) appeared in 1974, it was immediately a huge publishing hit, reviewed by some of the most influential art historians and writers (Giulio C. Argan, Edoardo Sanguineti, Max Kozloff, Lucy Lippard, François Pluchart, Peter Gorsen, Evelyn Weiss and many others). A direct testimony of the birth and development of one of the most controversial art trends, Lea Vergine's book avails of a series of texts by the artists themselves, whom the author had asked to contribute with a statement about the illustrations of their work. Featuring a thorough documentation of original photographs and film photograms, videotapes, happenings, actions and performances, the book analyses the evolution of this phenomenon through the works of sixty artists, including Gina Pane, Gilbert & George, Urs Lüthi and Katharina Sieverding, Rebecca Horn, Trisha Brown, Günter Brus and many others who have worked with and on the body. In an absolutely unusual publishing event, nearly thirty years after the first edition, the text--by now a classic--is republished with all the original photographic material. The volume is enhanced and brought up-to-date by an afterword by Lea Vergine, who observes the changes of Body Art throughout the nineties: Orlan, Stelarc, Ron Athey, Franko B., Yasumasa Morimura, Jana Sterbak, Matthew Barney are "virtuosos of disorder and hungry for afflictions of any and every kind, mystics--like persons who display the subjection of their bodies to cruel and invasive devices, or who revel in virtual fantasies of such self-inflicted pains--destroy themselves in order newly to find themselves. . . . They finally pay a visit to the world of the saints and victims, exploring and prolonging its seductions." When The Body as Language ("Body-art" and Performance) appeared in 1974, it was immediately a huge publishing hit, reviewed by some of the most influential art historians and writers (Giulio C. Argan, Edoardo Sanguineti, Max Kozloff, Lucy Lippard, François Pluchart, Peter Gorsen, Evelyn Weiss and many others). A direct testimony of the birth and development of one of the most controversial art trends, Lea Vergine's book avails of a series of texts by the artists themselves, whom the author had asked to contribute with a statement about the illustrations of their work. Featuring a thorough documentation of original photographs and film photograms, videotapes, happenings, actions and performances, the book analyses the evolution of this phenomenon through the works of sixty artists, including Gina Pane, Gilbert & George, Urs Lüthi and Katharina Sieverding, Rebecca Horn, Trisha Brown, Günter Brus and many others who have worked with and on the body. In an absolutely unusual publishing event, nearly thirty years after the first edition, the text--by now a classic--is republished with all the original photographic material. The volume is enhanced and brought up-to-date by an afterword by Lea Vergine, who observes the changes of Body Art throughout the nineties: Orlan, Stelarc, Ron Athey, Franko B., Yasumasa Morimura, Jana Sterbak, Matthew Barney are "virtuosos of disorder and hungry for afflictions of any and every kind, mystics--like persons who display the subjection of their bodies to cruel and invasive devices, or who revel in virtual fantasies of such self-inflicted pains--destroy themselves in order newly to find themselves. . . . They finally pay a visit to the world of the saints and victims, exploring and prolonging its seductions."