For Keeps: Selected Parkett Editions 1984-2017

About

This group exhibition features works by more than forty artists created in collaboration with the celebrated long-running international art publication Parkett, including Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Yayoi Kusama, Sherrie Levine, Julie Mehretu, Bruce Nauman, Sigmar Polke, Bridget Riley, and Andy Warhol, among others. Complementing the presentation in New York, the online feature includes key works from the exhibition as well as a selection of editions on view exclusively online. It will additionally highlight the history and making of Parkett’s artist editions through ephemera such as sketches, archival studio images, and correspondence between artists and the publication. Several of the works included in this combined presentation are rare, last-remaining editions of sold-out works, which have been made available exclusively for the exhibition.

The works in this exhibition reflect the broad spectrum of creativity promoted by Parkett as well as the spirit of experimentation and exchange that was central to the publication. Founded in Zurich in 1984, Parkett was a unique voice in contemporary art publishing, built on the ideals of transatlantic interchange and artistic collaboration. In its 101 volumes—the last of which was published in 2017—the magazine featured collaborations with more than 300 artists as well as new texts in German and English by influential authors, critics, and curators. Each issue of Parkett was produced in close cooperation with artists, 270 of whom were also commissioned to create an editioned artwork in the medium of their choice, which could range from sculpture, painting, photography, prints, and drawings to multimedia work and installations. Several artists made numbered series of unique works, while others created multiples in close collaboration with printers or fabricators. In both cases, Parkett was instrumental in pairing artists with the appropriate collaborators to realize their visions. 

Included in this presentation will be noteworthy editions such as Franz West’s bookshelf, which was created in 2004 for the publication’s twentieth anniversary and designed to hold a then-complete set of Parkett volumes; a pair of leather shoes by Sherrie Levine made in 1992 that reproduced those featured in her important 1977 Shoe Sale at 3 Mercer Street in New York; and Marlene Dumas’s series for the final issue of Parkett, an intimate work on paper titled Art is/Always/Having to say/Goodbye (2017) that pays homage to the publication and depicts a female figure in profile above the titular phrase. Additional works on view include Meret Oppenheim’s pair of sky-blue goat suede gloves embroidered with hand-stitched red veins from 1985, which realized a design she had made almost fifty years prior for fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, as well as Bruce Nauman’s Violent Incident—Man-Woman, Segment (1986), a two-act video derived from his seminal twelve-monitor installation Violent Incident (1986; now in the collection of Tate, United Kingdom), which marked the artist’s return to video after an almost fifteen-year hiatus. 

Online-only works include John Baldessari’s 1991 screenprinted porcelain enamel steel plate depicting six mouths with different expressions, all in varying hues. Viewed in tandem, the online presentation and exhibition not only illustrate the rich artistic history of Parkett but act as a survey of more than three decades of international contemporary art. 

The presentation will also highlight a selection of artist-designed inserts. Featuring text, drawing, painting, and graphic elements, the inserts, which honor the tradition of the artist’s book, take a variety of forms and show the creative possibilities of the printed page.