FRANCESCO BONAMI

Gabriele Basilico (b.1944) is a photographer whose work blurs the boundaries between photography and contemporary art. Coming from the long-established tradition of landscape art, his is an idiosyncratic representation of architecture and landscape. His photographs of cityscapes, residential buildings and factories seem to deny the presence of the artist and ask viewers to form their own conclusions about relationships between structures, and between structures and landscape. Stripping bare the urban context of any human activity, his work transcends mere instances and seeks to reveal the very essence of the metropolis, town or village.

Maurizio Cattelan is the best-known Italian artist to have emerged internationally in the 1990s, and his reputation continues to grow. This mini second edition, updated to include all of the artists work to the present, represents a unique collaboration between Phaidon and this important artist. In fact, Cattelan, who often works with shifts in scale in his sculpture, conceived of this mini edition almost as a work of sculpture itself, creating a highly desirable and collectable object/catalogue. The artists uncompromising, often dangerous will to provoke his audience is exemplified in the notorious Frankie and Jamie(2002), an image of two wax-figure policemen leaning upside-down against a wall the artists own ambiguous commemoration of 9/11. Francesco Bonami survey Massimiliano Gioni update Nancy Spector interview Barbara Vanderlinden focus Artists choice Philip Roth Or Not to Be A Collection of Suicide Notes (ed. Marc Etkind) Maurizio Cattelan writings

Gabriele Basilico An introductory monograph on one of Italy's leading fine art photographers.Francesco Bonami Trained as an architect, Italian-born Gabriele Basilico (b.1944) is one of Italy's leading fine art photographers Basilico's photographs of cityscapes, residential buildings and factories transcend reality, revealing the essence of the metropolis, town and village Chronologically presented photographs include the early coastal landscapes of Normandy and the Beirut cityscapes of 1991, with picture-by-picture commentaries by Basilico himself The best introductory monograph to Basilico's work, this book also features an essay by Francesco Bonami - a specialist on the photographer - which assesses Basilico's importance in the history of photography Gabriele Basilico (b. 1944) is one of the most important Italian photographers. Coming from the long-established tradition of landscape art, his is an idiosyncratic representation of architecture and landscape. His photographs of cityscapes, residential buildings and factories seem to deny the presence of the artist and to ask viewers to form their own conclusions about relationships between structures, and between structures and landscape. Stripping bare the urban context of any human activity, his work transcends mere instances and seeks to reveal the very essence of 'place' and of our relationship with it. Basilico is one of the best-known 'documentary' photographers in Europe. He eschews the traditional picturesque forms of landscape imagery to turn his attention the city and the industralized landscape photographed in black and white, with a precision and clarity that is almost alarming. An architect by training, Gabriele Basilico's camera imposes discipline on the buildings on which it focuses - he banishes human life to reveal the life of the building itself. Basilico travels extensively and in-depth, often working with government bodies to catalogue the appearance of the urban landscape for posterity. He travelled to Berlin in 1990, where he documented the gradual demolition of the Berlin Wall. In 1991 he worked in Beirut, capturing the life and remnants of a city after years of war had

Voici le récit, par son ami Francesco Bonami, du parcours de lartiste italien, une des plus grandes figures du monde de lart. De ses débuts dans les milieux populaires de Padoue, dans les années 1960, a lannonce de la fin de sa carriere dartiste, associee a la retrospective qui lui a ete consacree en 2011 au Guggenheim, a New York, sont evoquees la genese de ses grandes uvres et sa propre reaction au monde de lart, et aux exigences liees a lidentite dartiste. Je suis Maurizio Cattelan a deja eu de multiples occurrences, quand tel ou tel endossait, pour des entretiens ou des conferences, la personna de cet artiste italien abonne des magazines, des collectionneurs et des rumeurs les plus enthousiastes du monde de lart.Francesco Bonami a pris les commandes comme un pirate qui detourne lavion en vol du jet(set) de la Cattelan Air, pour une autobiographie non autorisee, ou le ruse commissaire dexposition tient le je de lartiste en haute estime au point decrire sans filet ses faits et gestes depuis lenfance a Padoue jusqua sa recente demission de lart apres une retrospective magistrale au musee Gugenheim de New York.a 52 ans, Cattelan met un point final (?) a une carriere brillante, ponctuee doeuvres derangeantes, polemiques et poetiques a la fois.Bonami, son ami, le considere pour ce quil est ; un artiste ne pauvre dont la success story est restee sous controle hinterland italien aidant. Jai ete Maurizio Cattelan le temps dun court livre qui devoile des moments furieux quand jai du faire le choix du gendarme ou du voleur, de la maman ou de la putain, du clown blanc ou de lamuseur public, quand jai eu lidee de devenir artiste dart contemporain cette discipline qui permet tout et son contraire, qui autorise, parfois, tout un chacun a froler les sommets sans perir foudroye, qui a su, il y a si longtemps, creer les conditions dun bouleversement du monde, et qui a echoue en fin de compte.Heureusement... Je deviendrai Maurizio Cattelan si Dieu le veut et si Francesco Bonami le souhaite encore. Le reste est deja une legende urbaine qui setudie dans les classes propedeutiques.Il aurait pu sendormir dans les delices de Padoue, il en a jure autrement ; aujourdhui, Maurizio Cattelan, qui a repris son nom veritable, officie incognito aux commandes de la plus belle boutique de la ville ; un magasin general.

Tutti, almeno una volta nella vita, davanti a un'opera di arte contemporanea abbiamo pensato: Ma come! Questa non e arte! Lo potevo fare anch'io!. Eppure i critici ci assicurano che si tratta davvero di capolavori, e celebri collezionisti spendono cifre da capogiro per quadri che sembrano tele imbrattate. Che siano tutti impazziti? Francesco Bonami ci aiuta a capire cosa distingue un grande artista da uno pessimo, cosa ha fatto si che Marcel Duchamp o Andy Warhol abbiano superato la prova del tempo. E se e senz'altro vero che nell'ultimo secolo l'arte si e evoluta al punto da essere quasi irriconoscibile, il lavoro di Bonami ci fa capire perche non e vero che potevamo farlo anche noi.