Psychoaktiv

(English / German Edition)

Pia Stadtbäumer

9783954763030

316 pages

Distanz Verlag Gmbh Llc

Hardback $68.00

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Overview

A Pioneer of Field Research into Bodies and Spatial Relations. Pia Stadtbäumer (b. Münster, 1959; lives and works in Düsseldorf) isa leading exponent of the rediscovery of the human figure insculpture. Like fellow artists such as Katharina Fritsch, PaulMcCarthy, Thomas Schütte, and Kiki Smith, she rose to renown inthe 1980s with now-canonical works that pursued a probingexamination and exposition of the representation of the body in arapidly changing contemporary world. In Stadtbäumer's early oeuvre,the focus is on the engagement with bodies in sculptures andinstallations—the proportions, demeanor, and modelling of theprotagonists of her compositions are spare, restricted to thetraditional role models of man, woman, and child. Anonymous andexchangeable, they become active protagonists in the exhibitionspace only by virtue of their unconventional gestures. Over the years,the artist has allowed other irritations to inform her sculptures,intervening into the physicality of her figures: outsize hanging arms,fragile hermaphrodites standing before the viewer, periwigs andattires molded after models from the Rococo. Defying the apocalypticdiscourse of the post-human, Stadtbäumer's sculptural gesturesevince organically unfolding and inventive variations on the nature ofman.The indispensable monograph offers a synopsis of three decades inStadtbäumer's career (1989–2019) and illustrates her equallyconceptual and intuitive approach. With a survey of her oeuvre byJulian Heynen and essays by Prof. Beate Söntgen and Ariadne vonSchirach.