Frieze Magazine | Archive

Issue 125 September 2009

The changing role of cultural theory, and its enduring importance for contemporary art by Sam Thorne

Saying & Doing

Contemporary art’s confusion about the difference between praxis and practice by Robert Storr

Out of the Picture

A friend of Dostoevsky and influence on Malevich, Vladimir Solovyov is now – thanks to Lenin’s censorship – the most important philosopher you’ve never heard of by Noemi Smolik

Literature

Deaths of the Authors

The publication of an unfinished novel by Vladimir Nabokov prompts a reflection on the aesthetic possibilities of the literary vanishing act by Thomas Karshan

Ideal Syllabus

Maria Fusco

In an ongoing series, frieze asks an artist, curator or writer to list the books that have influenced them

Philosophy

Real Abstractions

The application of theory to the modern world by Mark Fisher

Pretty, Pretty Good

Ancient & Modern

The evolution of theory and its impact on contemporary thought by Jennifer Allen

Music

La Revolución

Wisin y Yandel, Machete Music/WY Records, 2009 by Jace Clayton

Music

xx

The xx, Young Turks, 2009 by Sam Thorne

Books

Without Criteria / Prince of Networks

Steven Shaviro (MIT Press, Cambridge, 2009) / Graham Harman (Re.Press, Melbourne, 2009) by Mark Fisher

Books

What Is an Apparatus?

Giorgio Agamben, trans. David Kishik and Stefan Pedatella (Stanford University Press, 2009) by Brian Dillon

Books

The Coming Insurrection

The Invisible Committee (Semiotext(e), Los Angeles, 2009) by Nina Power

Written on Water

The highs and lows of the 53rd Venice Biennale, ‘Fare Mondi Making Worlds’ by Jennifer Higgie, Dan Fox and Barbara Casavecchia

Teaching Survey

Four leading teachers from universities and art schools around the world reflect on the importance of theory for students today

Interview

Intelligence Agency

Theorist Sylvère Lotringer talks to Nina Power about art and the market, the failings of capitalism and how radical thinking can help us survive 'the system'

Sight Reading

Do philosophers understand contemporary art? by Jörg Heiser

In recent years, the topic of abstraction has returned to photography. Curator Christopher Bedford discusses this resurgence of interest with artists Walead Beshty, Liz Deschenes and Eileen Quinlan

Focus

Thea Djordjadze

Delicacy, vitrines and Modernism; scaffolding, relics and arcades by Quinn Latimer

Focus

Kerry Tribe

Collective memory and amnesia; mapping cities and family life by Martin Herbert

Focus

Alicia Framis

Human rights and urban living; knowledge, complicity and the potential for change by George Stolz

Questionnaire

Art & Language

Art & Language’s earliest works date from more than 40 years ago. Its name describes an artistic practice developed in response to the collapse of the individualistic cultural protocols of Modernism. Since 1977, Art & Language has been identified with the collaborative work of Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden and their theoretical and critical collaboration with Charles Harrison. Harrison very sadly passed away in August, 2009. He contributed to this questionnaire shortly before his death. Baldwin and Ramsden live and work in Middleton Cheney, UK. A major exhibition of the recent work of Art & Language will be held at the Espoo Museum of Modern Art in Finland from 14 October 2009 to 10 January 2010.