Next week (13 Feb) sees the opening of the new Kader Attia exhibition, The Museum of Emotion at the Hayward Gallery in London and we’ll be distributing the fantastic book that goes alongside. There is a also an artist’s talk on the themes behind the artist’s work and this exhibition in particular (13 Feb, Hayward Gallery, 19:00), so if you are able to attend there may still be tickets left. Part of the exhibition includes a video, Reflecting Memory (2016) which explores phantom limb syndrome – the medical condition where amputees still experience sensations from missing body parts.
We’re really proud that Hayward Publishing has had a long-standing bookish relationship with Cornerhouse Publications, and more recently, with our mother ship, HOME. To that end, we’d love to take this opportunity to remind you of just some of their interesting list of past titles, as well as highlight those forthcoming in the not too distant future.
Published alongside the main Kader Attia book is another forthcoming title, Kader Attia: The Landing Strip, a set of intimate portraits he took of a community of Algerian prostitutes (many of whom were illegal immigrants) in Paris, from 2000-02. His work has often concentrated on people living on the periphery of society, those often marginalised by the rest of the world. These photos are the result of his closely built relationships and depict all aspects of his subjects’ daily life.
With its creation being considered a seminal work of 20th Century British Art, this next book, Field for the British Isles: Antony Gormley was published 25 years after the artwork itself was first shown. Writer Hugh Brody offers new insights into this hugely popular and widely captivating field of hand-made clay figures that has subsequently been created at venues all over the world.
Talking of touring, every 5 years, British Art Show is the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK, providing a vital and important overview of what is currently being produced in Britain. With British Art Show 9 opening in our home town of Manchester in 2020, we are well excited as our very own HOME will be hosting some of the works, which will then tour on to Wolverhampton, Aberdeen and Plymouth. The book to go alongside the tour is produced by Hayward Publishing, and here is their last offering from 5 years ago: British Art Show 8. It gives great insight into the quality and dynamism of British Art today.
Dayanita Singh: Go Away Closer is the book produced alongside Hayward’s 2013 exhibition of the same name. It concentrated on this pioneer of contemporary photography who originally trained as a photo-journalist and bookmaker. She is best known for her portraits of the Indian urban middle class, and her images deliberately challenge the stereotypical exotic views of the West.
Drawn from Life: People on Paper celebrates images of people that have been captured on paper and is taken from the collections of the Arts Council and British Council. Over 60 drawing masterworks are included here, plus a detailed essay by Martin Herbert, concentrating on how post-war drawings of people developed within British Art.
Back in 2010 the Hayward Gallery hosted the work of Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto who filled the gallery’s concrete spaces and brutalist architecture with new site-specific sculptural works. This monograph, Ernesto Neto: The Edges of the World was published at the same time, and it surveyed the artist’s work up to that date in time.
For over half a century now, the Hayward Gallery has commissioned important essays about modern and contemporary art and in 2018 they re-published a selection of these texts to share and celebrate their anniversary in a book entitled Fifty Years of Great Art Writing. They are both interesting and very informative texts.
The next book Gary Hume Flashback is the third in the Art Council Collection’s Flashback series, with the aim of surveying the career of a particular British Artist, alongside a touring show. This one concentrates on Turner Prize nominee and Royal Academician Gary Hume, one of the YBAs, who first found international fame in the early 1990s for his bold, abstract ‘door paintings’.
On the other hand, Shonky: The Aesthetic of Awkwardness was published alongside a very different touring show of 2017-18, curated by artist John Walter, which examined something that hadn’t previously been examined before – awkwardness. Concentrating on works of art that were hand-made, but not well-crafted, the bright as well as the exuberant, the book of this touring show brings together a number of international artists and architects to explore the very nature of visual awkwardness.
In contrast, The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century explores how the new digital age, with its modern printing techniques and the accompanying rise in self-publishing has given way to an explosion in this field of literary creativity that first came to light in the 1950s and 1960s.
Published to accompany the first major survey of the 2001 Turner Prize winner, Martin Creed: What’s the Point of It? is a comprehensive monograph spanning his range and scale of works including installations, videos and performances. His key art works are included and so too essays by music journalist Paul Morley, comedian Bill Bailey and exhibition curator Cliff Lauson.
Louise Bourgeois was a prolific printmaker. Louise Bourgeois: Autobiographical Prints features 25 print works from this influential artist, all dealing with her strong autobiographical themes of desire, anxiety and jealousy. This book was produced alongside her touring show that has visited various venues in both the UK and Ireland since 2015.
There is also Hayward’s large format set of posters: On Display: 50 Posters Designed for the Hayward Gallery. Not only can you tear out the individual posters that were used to promote Hayward’s exhibitions over the years, the book also acts as an informative resource on how the graphic design of posters has evolved over time.
Two exciting titles that we want to highlight as forthcoming from Hayward Gallery’s publishing fold are Kiss My Genders (due June 2019) and Chicago Imagists. Kiss My Genders will celebrate the work of 20 international artists who explore and engage with gender fluidity and will accompany a summer exhibition at the gallery. Meanwhile Chicago Imagists, due out a lot sooner in March 2019, will act as a compact illustrated introduction to this group of innovative 1960s artists’ works who used grotesque realism, cartoon energy and vivid colour. At the same time they were very careful to work on their own terms, and not those directed by the art world. Both are titles to look out for soon!
Hopefully you now have some insight into the spread of interesting publications that Hayward Publishing has produced over the years. To see the full list of their still-available-titles then head to our website to further browse their titles. Unfortunately some of their classics were so popular that they are now out of print. We’re sure you’ll find something you’ll like and enjoy in their current list – so get them whilst you still can.