Issue 121
March 2009

Dan Fox asks what it means to be a professional artist, and Jan Verwoert reflects on the best ways to negotiate the uneven line in the art world between work and private life. Steven Stern looks back at the career of David Hammons – a successful artist who has worked for decades without gallery representation. Renowned philosopher Boris Groys discusses the contemporary predicament of art criticism with Brian Dillon, and Sidney Smith traces the history of art’s uneasy relationship to television. The influential Swiss artist and designer Janette Laverrière, who turns 100 this year, talks to Vivian Rehberg in Paris about politics, gender and her recent collaborations with artist Nairy Baghramian. 

From this issue

How art can weave into life and vice versa

BY Carol Yinghua Lu |

A specially commissioned project

BY Olivia Plender |

The many ways of owning an image

BY Robert Storr |

Sometimes no art is better than more art

BY Tirdad Zolghadr |

What happens when images float free from the text they illustrate?

BY Jennifer Allen |

An Australian photography festival highlights the relevance of photojournalism at a time when the medium is in crisis

BY Mark Mordue |

Despite their contributions, female gallerists have historically been under-recognised. A new book seeks to make amends

BY Martin Herbert |

In an ongoing series, frieze asks artists and filmmakers to list the movies that have influenced their practice

Bruce Altshuler et al. (eds.) (Phaidon, London and New York, 2008)

BY Alex Farquharson |

Michael Fried (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2008)

BY Mark Bolland |

Geoff Dyer (Canongate, Edinburgh, 2009)

BY Jennifer Higgie |

Antony and the Johnsons (Rough Trade, 2009)

BY Sam Thorne |

What does it mean to be a professional artist?

BY Dan Fox |

For the past 40 years, the elusive artist David Hammons has explored race, creativity and politics – without gallery representation

BY Steven Stern |

Working in the field of art makes it very difficult to draw a line between a professional and private life. What’s the best way forward?

BY Jan Verwoert |

Boris Groys in conversation with Brian Dillon

BY Brian Dillon |

Sedimentation and submersion; the effects of images on the past, the present and the future

BY Kirsty Bell |

Dreams, songbirds and slimming; the imaginative and temporal possibilities of reduction

BY Amanda Coulson |

Blood, thread and cow dung; gender politics, myth and mysticism

BY Zehra Jumbahoy |

What are the reasons for television’s uneasy relationship to art?

BY Sidney Smith |

Janette Laverrière on politics, being a woman, utility, mirrors and her collaborations with artist Nairy Baghramian

Serpentine Gallery, London, UK

BY Devika Singh |

Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain

BY Max Andrews |

Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, USA

BY Andrew Berardini |

A show at Sadie Coles HQ heralds the welcome return of an artist whose work is elegantly funny and mystical 

BY Dan Fox |

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA

BY Natalie Haddad |

Office for Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway

BY Martin Herbert |

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand

BY Justin Paton |

Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany; Witte de With, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland

BY Catrin Lorch |

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA

BY Ara H. Merjian |

Alison Jacques Gallery, London, UK

BY Conor Carville |

Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, USA

BY Benjamin Carlson |

Nottingham Contemporary, UK

BY Jonathan Griffin |

Galerie STAMPA, Basel Switzerland

BY Yvonne Volkart |

Parsons The New School of Art and Design, New York, USA

BY Jenni Sorkin |

Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland

BY Burkhard Meltzer |

Picture This, Bristol, UK

BY Mia Jankowicz |

Ballroom Marfa, USA

BY Emily Liebert |

Peter Blum and Nicole Klagsbrun, New York, USA

BY Melissa Ragona |

Raucci/Santamaria, Naples, Italy

BY Alessandro Rabottini |

Americas Society, New York, USA

BY Morgan Falconer |

Extra City, Antwerp, Belgium

BY Doreen Mende |

Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, Republic of Ireland

BY Tim Stott |

Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany

BY Kirsty Bell |

Lombard-Fried Projects, New York, USA

BY Christopher Bedford |

The Crypt, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, UK

BY Brian Dillon |

Franz Ackermann is an artist living and working in Berlin and Karlsruhe in Germany. He is currently participating in the Tate Triennial in London and will have a solo show at Kunstmuseum Bonn in December 2009.