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A collection of critical and artists' writings investigating the concept of failure in contemporary art.
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
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About the author
Lisa Le Feuvre
45 books2 followersLisa Le Feuvre is a curator, writer, editor and public speaker.
Le Feuvre is the inaugural Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation that continues the creative and investigative spirit of the artists Nancy Holt (1938-2014) and Robert Smithson (1938-73).
Focusing on art as a powerful force to retune perceptions, Le Feuvre has a track record of world-class programming and effective leadership. At the core of her work is a dedication to supporting artists and inspiring audiences. Between 2010 and 2017 Le Feuvre led the Henry Moore Institute, a centre for the study of sculpture, as Head of Sculpture Studies. A part of The Henry Moore Foundation, the largest artist endowed foundation in Europe, the Institute expands the understanding and scholarship of historical and contemporary sculpture, presenting a year-round programme of exhibitions, conferences and lectures, as well as developing research, collections and publications.
Prior to this she co-curated the quinquennial exhibition British Art Show 7 (2009-10, with Tom Morton) taught on the post-graduate Curatorial Programme at Goldsmiths College (2004-10), led the contemporary art programme at the National Maritime Museum (2005-09) and until 2004 was Course Director of the post-graduate Arts Policy and Management course at Birkbeck College, University of London. She regularly contributes to journals, publications and exhibition catalogues, as well to academia. Editorial work includes the Henry Moore Institute's journal 'Essays on Sculpture,' the MIT Press compilation 'Failure' in the Whitechapel Art Gallery's 'Documents on Contemporary Art' series and the second issue of 'NOIT,' the journal of John Latham's Flat Time House, on the topic of burning.
Le Feuvre served on the 2018 Turner Prize Selection Committee and the 2019 Arnaldo Pomodoro Sculpture Prize; the selection panel for the 2015 British Pavilion at the Venice Biennial; and the jury for the first Hepworth Sculpture Prize in 2016. She sits on the Advisory Committee for Artists' Lives, a part of the British Library's National Life Stories oral history program, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Tate Etc. She has written on artists that include Katrina Palmer, Gunter Förg, Alberto Giacometti, Anne Hardy, Katie Paterson, Fred Sandback, Jiro Takamatsu, and on her two long-term research projects - the topics of failure and relationships between art and prosthetics.
Le Feuvre is the inaugural Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation, an artist-endowed foundation that continues the creative and investigative spirit of the artists Nancy Holt (1938-2014) and Robert Smithson (1938-73).
Focusing on art as a powerful force to retune perceptions, Le Feuvre has a track record of world-class programming and effective leadership. At the core of her work is a dedication to supporting artists and inspiring audiences. Between 2010 and 2017 Le Feuvre led the Henry Moore Institute, a centre for the study of sculpture, as Head of Sculpture Studies. A part of The Henry Moore Foundation, the largest artist endowed foundation in Europe, the Institute expands the understanding and scholarship of historical and contemporary sculpture, presenting a year-round programme of exhibitions, conferences and lectures, as well as developing research, collections and publications.
Prior to this she co-curated the quinquennial exhibition British Art Show 7 (2009-10, with Tom Morton) taught on the post-graduate Curatorial Programme at Goldsmiths College (2004-10), led the contemporary art programme at the National Maritime Museum (2005-09) and until 2004 was Course Director of the post-graduate Arts Policy and Management course at Birkbeck College, University of London. She regularly contributes to journals, publications and exhibition catalogues, as well to academia. Editorial work includes the Henry Moore Institute's journal 'Essays on Sculpture,' the MIT Press compilation 'Failure' in the Whitechapel Art Gallery's 'Documents on Contemporary Art' series and the second issue of 'NOIT,' the journal of John Latham's Flat Time House, on the topic of burning.
Le Feuvre served on the 2018 Turner Prize Selection Committee and the 2019 Arnaldo Pomodoro Sculpture Prize; the selection panel for the 2015 British Pavilion at the Venice Biennial; and the jury for the first Hepworth Sculpture Prize in 2016. She sits on the Advisory Committee for Artists' Lives, a part of the British Library's National Life Stories oral history program, and is a member of the Advisory Board of Tate Etc. She has written on artists that include Katrina Palmer, Gunter Förg, Alberto Giacometti, Anne Hardy, Katie Paterson, Fred Sandback, Jiro Takamatsu, and on her two long-term research projects - the topics of failure and relationships between art and prosthetics.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 17, 2017
A majority of this book focuses on critics and colleagues interpreting the nature of other artists' work. I felt some essays are more honest than others. As case studies the individual incorporations of entropy, deterioration, and incompletion by particular artists through the lens of an observer is mesmerizing and a kind of post-modernist resistance to institutionalizing artists into collectivized methods or movements. However, I would have enjoyed more essays that placed these artistic practices within a socio-politico-cultural perspective. What does work that uses or is about failure (not) accomplishing, how do viewers engage with this art in a meaningful way, how does its sometimes self-professing failure contribute or undermine our ability to receive its messages. These essays skirt around what I feel is the tantamount issue--why is failure and art that acknowledges failure so important?
There are many ways to approach these questions and I would suppose many kinds of responses to it. We owe it to ourselves to first articulate the question, as I'm sure many of these artists are doing, before attempting and perhaps failing to formulate the answers.
There are many ways to approach these questions and I would suppose many kinds of responses to it. We owe it to ourselves to first articulate the question, as I'm sure many of these artists are doing, before attempting and perhaps failing to formulate the answers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review