342 SPRING 2023 FUCK THE BAUHAUS (NEW SCULPTURE)

Over the past decade, sculpture as a medium has undergone considerable stress and reappraisal. It has been hybridized into increasingly installational (in tandem with set design and display) and performative forms. In this regard, we have noted that artists using sculpture as their primary medium today — from Aria Dean to Mimosa Echard to Anne Imhof — are predominantly female. We have also noticed greater attention being paid to sculpture in the context of fashion, the work of Craig Green and the designer duo Ottolinger among recent examples.

An investigation of new forms of sculpture in this latest issue was almost unavoidable. The aesthetics of these sculptures are largely incorporated into our daily lives. Think of the great contemporary art museums of Europe: Kunsthaus Bregenz, Kunstmuseum Basel, Martin-Gropius-Bau. The Bauhaus is everywhere. It has been the indelible sculptural sensibility of artists who revolutionized contemporary sculpture — such as Klara Liden, Nora Schultz, and Isa Genzken — who have brought a kind of positive-negative balance to these spaces.

In her essay on Isa Genzken, Chiara Mannarino states: “In the mid-1970s, sculpture was still a largely under-engaged medium in Germany, and women sculptors were nowhere to be found.” Since the beginning of her practice some fifty years ago, Isa Genzken’s work has encapsulated the subject matter, material, and cultural climate of our era. The title of this issue, FUCK THE BAUHAUS (NEW SCULPTURE), is a tribute to the German artist, and refers to her sculpture series “Fuck the Bauhaus (New Buildings for New York)” from the early 2000s, when Genzken transitioned from concrete and industrial materials into handmade assemblage.

Genzken’s work is featured as one of the covers of this issue, along with that of Isabelle Albuquerque, whose practice is considered through the lens of transhuman desire by Estelle Hoy. This whole issue investigates new forms of sculpture-making: Mimosa Echard’s biological complexity is analyzed by Pascale Krief; Valerie Werder reflects upon Aria Dean’s computer-assisted renderings; Cole Lu’s mythological world-building is unpacked in conversation with Thora Siemsen; Isabelle Andriessen talks with Natasha Hoare about the agency of materials; Bri Williams and Margaret Kross think about psychic redemption; Gioia Dal Molin writes about the nautical apparitions of Dominique White; and Jordan Strafer’s visceral yet droll reenactments of trauma are discussed with Marie de Brugerolle.

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