What do you think?
Rate this book
Hanne Darboven: Boundless
Compiling columns of numbers on typewriter paper, Hanne Darboven (1941-2009) catalogued time. Probably the most important German Conceptual artist, Darboven added, cross-totaled, wrote down, recorded. In her hands, notated moments in time coalesced into works of art. This collage-like biography focuses on a fascinatingly androgynous female figure, setting out on a search for the traces of her life. Born into an upper-class family in Hamburg, Darboven experienced her artistic awakening in New York in the 1960s and ultimately carved out a stellar career as an artist. Here, transcribed conversations, narrative passages and interviews with fellow artists such as Lawrence Weiner, Carl Andre, Joseph Kosuth, Kasper König and Rainer Langhans are interspersed with one another. This intimate perspective demonstrates Darboven's artistic development and enables readers to more easily access her influential oeuvre.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published February 23, 2016
15 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 9, 2018
Verena Berger interviewing Carl Andre:
VB: In the United States, there's always been a special interest in Hanne Darboven's work. She is represented with her works in many big museums here. What fascinates the American art scene about her so much?
CA: She was simply mixed up with the so-called conceptualists. Even I have been accused of being a founder of Conceptual Art. And I have to say: See, there aren't any ideas under these plates. They're simply plates and nothing else. The ideas are gone. My art doesn't come from an idea. Joseph Kosuth's idea of "art as idea as idea" is a wonderful absurdity for me. I don't reject it. It's simply his idea. But to me it's absurd.
VB: And you wouldn't put Hanne Darboven's work close to that of Conceptual artists?
CA: Certainly not! It's like Chinese calligraphy. It's not Conceptual. It's an art form. An artwork is nothing other than what it is. That's something people simply can't understand about art. "What does it mean? What's behind it?" they always ask. They want an explanatory sentence. "It's like ding-dang-dong. Next, please. Oh, that's Cubism, you must know!" That's how the old hands work -- as if they were identifying birds. But artists like to fly. Barnett Newman said, art criticism is to art what ornithology is to birds. Normal people don't make art. Somebody who makes art has a screw loose. Something makes him itch that doesn't make others itch. I think an artist is someone who can't be prevented from making art in any way. If you can stop yourself from making art, you're also not an artist. You simply have to make it. And in Hanne's work, it's very clear she was driven.
VB: In the United States, there's always been a special interest in Hanne Darboven's work. She is represented with her works in many big museums here. What fascinates the American art scene about her so much?
CA: She was simply mixed up with the so-called conceptualists. Even I have been accused of being a founder of Conceptual Art. And I have to say: See, there aren't any ideas under these plates. They're simply plates and nothing else. The ideas are gone. My art doesn't come from an idea. Joseph Kosuth's idea of "art as idea as idea" is a wonderful absurdity for me. I don't reject it. It's simply his idea. But to me it's absurd.
VB: And you wouldn't put Hanne Darboven's work close to that of Conceptual artists?
CA: Certainly not! It's like Chinese calligraphy. It's not Conceptual. It's an art form. An artwork is nothing other than what it is. That's something people simply can't understand about art. "What does it mean? What's behind it?" they always ask. They want an explanatory sentence. "It's like ding-dang-dong. Next, please. Oh, that's Cubism, you must know!" That's how the old hands work -- as if they were identifying birds. But artists like to fly. Barnett Newman said, art criticism is to art what ornithology is to birds. Normal people don't make art. Somebody who makes art has a screw loose. Something makes him itch that doesn't make others itch. I think an artist is someone who can't be prevented from making art in any way. If you can stop yourself from making art, you're also not an artist. You simply have to make it. And in Hanne's work, it's very clear she was driven.
April 25, 2020
partly an oral biography; some fantastic photos also
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews