COWBOYZOOM

BUT IS IT ART?

Books

The New Spirit of Capitalism

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The New Spirit of Capitalism
Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello

In this major work, sociologists Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello go to the heart of the changes in contemporary capitalism. Via an unprecedented analysis of the latest management texts that have formed the thinking of employers in their reorganization of business, the authors trace the contours of a new spirit of capitalism. They argue that from the middle of the 1970s onwards, capitalism abandoned the hierarchical Fordist work structure and developed a new networkbased form of organization that was founded on employee initiative and autonomy in the workplace – a ‘freedom’ that came at the cost of material and psychological security.

The authors connect this new spirit with the children of the libertarian and romantic currents of the late 1960s (as epitomised by dressed-down, cool capitalists such as Bill Gates and ‘Ben and Jerry’) arguing that they practice a more successful and subtle-form of exploitation. Now a classic work charting the sociological structure of neoliberalism, Boltanski and Chiapello show how the new spirit triumphed thanks to a remarkable recuperation of the left’s critique of the alienation of everyday life that simultaneously undermined their ‘social critique.’ In this new edition, the two author reflect on the reception of the book and the debates it has stimulated.

Designer: Neil Donnelly
Size: 155x240mm
Pages: 656
Publication: 2019
Binding: Softbound book

Counter Print

Karel Martens: Re-Printed Matter

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Karel Martens: Re-Printed Matter

Karel Martens: Re-Printed Matter

The work of Karel Martens occupies an intriguing place in the present European art-and-design landscape.

Martens can be placed in the tradition of Dutch modernism, in the line of figures such as Piet Zwart, H.N. Werkman, Willem Sandberg. Yet he maintains some distance from the main developments of this time: from both the practices of routinized modernism and of the facile reactions against this. His work is both personal and experimental. At the same time, it is publicly answerable.

Over the decades of his practice, Martens has been prolific as a designer of books. He has also made contributions in a wide range of design commissions: including stamps, coins, signs on buildings. Also a renowned teacher of graphic design, Karel Martens is co-initiator of the Werkplaats Typografie, a two-year master’s design program related to ArtEZ, Arnhem, and guest professor at Yale University, New Haven.

Intimately connected with this design work has been his practice as an artist. This started with geometric and kinetic constructions and developed in work with the very material of paper. And he has been making monoprints over a long period.

This book looks for new ways to show and discuss the work of Martens as a designer and artist and is offered in the same spirit of experiment and dialogue that characterizes the work it presents.

Its first edition was published in 1996 on the occasion of the award to Karel Martens of the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Art. In response to continued demand, the book has been extended to 2019 and appears now in this fourth edition presenting almost sixty years of practice.

Designed by Jaap van Triest and Karel Martens

Published by Roma Publications, 2019

Softcover, 280 pages, full color, 6.75 × 9.15 inches

Draw Down Books

Aesop: the book

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Aesop: the book

Our debut volume, a 336-page, linen-bound hardback, published by Rizzoli New York, chronicles our first thirty-three years—from product formulation to the design of our spaces; and from our earliest years to the present day—accompanied by exquisite photographs and archival images.

Written by Dennis Paphitis and Jennifer Down, with photographs by Yutaka Yamamoto.

Aesop

Karel Martens: Still Moving

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Karel Martens: Still Moving

This catalog accompanies a 2018 exhibition of both new and old work by Karel Martens at Platform-L Contemporary Art Centre in Seoul, Korea, curated by Sang Un Jeon.

In both format and content, Karel Martens: Still Moving offers a succinct overview of the world of the renowned Dutch graphic designer, who has produced an extensive array of works over the six decades of his career.

The various influences he has absorbed during this period, combined with his socially conscious approach, have made him an idiosyncratic designer who brings together rational schemes and literary sensibility in a remarkable way.

The publication was designed by Sulki Choi and Min Choi, former students of Martens at Yale University.

Designed by Sulki & Min

Published by Platform-L Contemporary Art Center, 2018
In Korean and English

Softcover, 128 pages, color and b&w, 6.75 × 9.5 inches

ISBN: 979-1-19-578745-6

Draw Down Books

The Museum Is Not Enough

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The Museum Is Not Enough
CCA/Sternberg Press, 2019

The Museum Is Not Enough is the result of collective reflections on architecture, contemporary social concerns, institutions, and the public undertaken by the CCA in recent years. Building on years of thematic investigations and of a continued questioning of the role of cultural institutions and the issues they face today, the book puts forward the CCA’s own positions and opens them up to a dialogue with designers, curators, photographers, publishers, and other institutions who ask themselves similar questions.

This publication is conceived as the first volume of a yearly magazine, with which the CCA will explore urgent questions defining its curatorial activity. Topics addressed in this volume include the institution’s engagement with the present, the significance of the archive as a site for the production of new ideas, display strategies in architecture exhibitions, the need for mediation in art, and the impact of the digital in current museum practices.

Edited by Giovanna Borasi, Albert Ferré, Francesco Garutti, Jayne Kelley, and Mirko Zardini
With contributions from Noura Al Sayeh, Greg Barton, Ruth Estévez, Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen, Stefano Graziani, Dan Handel, Martin Huberman, Wilfred Kuehn, Kalle Lasn, Maria Lind, Kieran Long, Ligia Nobre, Mike Pepi, Damon Rich, Filippo Romano, Mika Savela, Bernd Scherer, Jack Self, Astria Suparak, Shirley Surya, Jesús Vassallo, James Voorhies, and Mark Wigley.
Graphic design by Studio Jonathan Hares

Published in French as Le musée ne suffit pas
Co-published with Sternberg Press

Softcover, 200 pages

CCA & mdash; Canadian Centre for Architecture

Architecture of Appropriation

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Architecture of Appropriation

Architecture of Appropriation
On Squatting as Spatial Practice

Architecture of Appropriation. On Squatting as Spatial Practice acknowledges squatting as an architectural practice. The publication analyzes a series of case studies through architectural drawings, interviews, and archival material to build up a record of past and current struggles, spaces, and oral histories, forming the basis for a new acquisition policy for the State Archive for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning. The project brings the expertise of the squatting movement together with architects, archivists, scholars, and lawyers, to discuss approaches to the research, archival practices and representation of precarious, non-author-based, and often criminalized spatial practices in the institutional framework of an archive and museum.

Artistic and General Director Het Nieuwe Instituut: Guus Beumer
Editors: René Boer, Marina Otero Verzier, Katía Truijen; in collaboration with the communities of ADM, Landbouwbelang, Plantage Dok, Poortgebouw, Vluchtmaat and Wijde Heisteeg 7
Graphic Design: Maud Vervenne
Photography: Johannes Schwartz
Art Director: Maureen Mooren
Published by Het Nieuwe Instituut. Printed by Raddraaier. English edition, 369 pages, 222 illustrations.

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