In East Germany, artistic practices that did not adhere to Socialist Realist imperatives were branded Formalist and barred from consideration for public commissions. One affected artist, Kurt W. Streubel, challenged the GDR’s policy and continued to produce a rich body of work. Actress and artist Susanne Sachsse’s recent show in New York pays tribute to Streubel with a sprawling installation that takes up elements of Streubel’s oeuvre and reconfigures it for the present. And, while Streubel’s presence looms large in the show – it opened on his 101st birthday, a year later than planned – it offers little historical context. Here, art historian Christian Liclair details some of this context, as well as Sachsee’s relationship to Streubel, offering a dynamic reading of the show’s many layers.

In the first pages of his new novel, Tom McCarthy writes, “Computer modelling won’t show you everything. Sometimes you have to actually do it, make a little world, get down amidst dumb objects and their messiness.” And so, in the midst of coding, of programming an imagined world, there are still material questions. McCarthy is interested in the efficacy and deficits of corporeal communication, gestures of poetry and language that can never be fixed down. This latest book reminds the reader that it is she – the spectator – who gives final meaning to all these movements and machines. Author Stephanie LaCava spoke with McCarthy about the book and the sea of references that inspired it.

Im Kapitalismus der Gegenwart, in dem Unkonventionalität längst selbst zur Norm geworden ist, scheint Subversion als kritische Kategorie obsolet geworden zu sein. Als Filmkritiker und -kurator Amos Vogel 1974 sein Buch „Film as a Subversive Art“ schrieb, das Generationen von Cinephilen und Programmgestalter*innen beeinflusste und das nun neu aufgelegt werden soll, waren die sozialen, politischen wie ästhetischen Vorzeichen noch andere. Und doch ist Vogels Methode des Kinomachens bis heute das Modell für Kinematheken, Filmmuseen und Filmfestivals, wie allein zwei aktuelle Würdigungen in Berlin und Wien zu Vogels 100. Geburtstag belegen. Vor welche Herausforderungen die Subversionsthese die kinematografische Gegenwart stellt, legt Autor und Filmkritiker Rainer Bellenbaum im Nachgang dieser beiden Hommagen dar.

The proliferation of online “Viewing Rooms” as an interim alternative for viewing art during the pandemic is hopefully not a permanent development. Bolstered by specious claims that they democratize art by delivering it to anyone with an internet connection, these virtual realities tend to reduce exhibitions to a flat, glossy interface that best serves the market, not art or viewers. Here, artist and writer Annette Weisser narrates her first post-lockdown exhibition visit – Vincent Fecteau in Kassel – and describes the sensations of this experience, reminding us, through Fecteau’s work, just what is so great about tangible encounters with artworks.

Im Juli dieses Jahres jährte sich zum 300. Mal der Todestag des französischen Malers Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). Schon zu Lebzeiten waren dessen Werke begehrte Sammelobjekte. Allerdings waren es nicht Watteaus Originalzeichnungen und -gemälde, die damals den Großteil des Umsatzes auf dem Kunstmarkt ausmachten, sondern druckgrafische Reproduktionen. Eine Sonderausstellung im Schloss Charlottenburg ehrt den Maler nun mit einer großen Werkschau unter den Aspekten des Handelns mit und Sammelns von Kunst. Mit ihren reichen Sammler*innen, spezialisierten Expert*innen, kunstbegeisterten Unternehmer*innen sowie renommierten Kunstkritiker*innen ähnelt die Pariser Kunstszene des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts, wie der Ökonom und Soziologe Michael Hutter argumentiert, strukturell dem heutigen „global art circuit“.

The open letter has long been utilized as a form for airing grievances in the art world, initiating and intensifying discussions on art's imbrication in dominant sociopolitical conditions and positioning art against those conditions. As we look forward to our December issue on collectivity, we are sharing writer Tom Hastings's 2016 text on open letters and artistic authorship. As Hastings argues, whether it is the individual or the collective who takes a stand, those undersigned publicly consolidate an authorial voice that must, intentionally or not, double back on the value of what they as artists do, and how they do it. The open-letter format maximizes distribution; effect all but guaranteed.