When Humour Becomes Painful

by Vito Acconci (Artist), John Bock (Artist), Olaf Breuning (Artist)

From Dada to Fluxus through Sensation to today, humor is at the heart of much of the most-beloved--and least comfortable--art out there. Humor's ambivalence, its ability to shift between the utopian and the destructive, and its refusal of absolute values, distinguish many of those twentieth century movements that continue to exert an influence. This catalogue of work from more than 30 artists, including Bruce Nauman and Jake & Dinos Chapman, parses humor's mechanisms in works that seduce us with a laugh and then stop us in our tracks with more painful or uncomfortable themes. Deconstructions of the male artist persona by Vito Acconci and Jurgen Klauke use wit to confront taboos head-on, which connects them with the more recent work of John Bock and Klara Liden. Among classic pieces included are Joseph Beuys's Capri Batterie and George Maciunas's Flux Smile Machine.

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

Reviews

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

essays ranging from "shitty and scatterbrained" to "good" to "hey this might come in handy" to "this might be interesting, but it's a bit cloudy, yet still i think there's one thing in here that he's saying that might be helpful, but it could have been more simply written." a good book to borrow if not to own. still, as a jp ringier book, it is of course beautiful.