Softcover | 22.23 x 1.27 x 29.85 cm | 98 pp

New Museum of Contemporary Art | 1990 | 9780915557714

Rhetorical Image examines how artists of different backgrounds and generations use their work to respond to political conditions. Guest Curator Milena Kalinvoska invited an international group of artists— from Europe, the Soviet Union, Brazil, Japan, Canada and the U.S.—whose work emphasises the importance of representation and images in thinking about propaganda and other issues of ideology and official culture.

Considering this legacy of Conceptual art of the 1960s, the exhibition consists of multimedia installations, wall drawings, paintings, collages, and mixed-media sculpture. Rhetorical Image is concerned with exploring the political efficacy of art as well as the individual’s relationship with larger sociopolitical forces.

Essays by Susan Daitch, Nena Dimitrijevic, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Bruce Ferguson and Milena Kalinovska examine the development and current usage of artistic rhetoric on an international level, with special emphasis on Eastern European trends. Includes artist interviews. Published on occasion of the exhibition Rhetorical Image, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York with a preface by Marcia Tucker.

Featured Artists
Dennis Adams
Art & Language
Judith Barry
Lothar Baumgarten
Braco Dimitrijevic
Rose Finn-Kelcey
Félix González-Torres
Tomislav Gotovac
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Thomas Huber
Ilya Kabakov
On Kawara
Jiří Kolář
Jaroslaw Kozlowski
Cildo Meireles
Tatsuo Miyajima
Antonio Muntadas
Barbara Steinman
Lawrence Weiner
Krzysztof Wodiczko