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Found Monochromes
Read an excerpt- Ridinghouse: London, 2010
- ISBN 978 1 905464 32 6
Since 1997, David Batchelor has been photographing single square and rectangular white planes and panels that he has encountered on walks through London and other cities. The images are informal and impromptu; shot from a uniform distance the white planes are seen against a diversity of backdrops: brick walls, car windows, wooden doors, metal fences and more. They are the backs of signs, blank screens, empty billboards, or faded messages. Batchelor started this body of work when thinking about the history of the monochrome in painting. There are now nearly 500 monochromes in the ongoing series and examples have been shown in small groups of prints and in slide installations. This volume, which contains the first 250 images, taken between 1997 and 2006, includes a conversation between David Batchelor and the philosopher Jonathan Rée.
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Colour
Read an excerpt- Whitechapel: London / MIT Press: Boston, 2008
- ISBN 978 0 854881 60 4
Edited by David Batchelor, Colour, is one in a series of books that document major themes and ideas in contemporary art. This chronological anthology reflects on the aesthetic, cultural and philosophical meaning of colour to artists within the broader context of anthropology, literature, film, philosophy and science. It includes over 130 texts written since c.1850 and concludes that those who loathe colour have had as much to say as those who love it. It establishes colour as a key if often overlooked theme in the story of modern art, and is an indispensable handbook to the definitions and debates around its history, meaning and use.
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Unplugged
Read an excerpt- Talbot Rice Gallery: Edinburgh, 2007
- ISBN 1 873108 53 2
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Unplugged held at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh in 2007. Contains installation shots and documentation of the Parapillar series and a ten year survey of drawings. Includes an essay by Briony Fer and a conversation between David Batchelor and Pat Fisher.
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Shiny Dirty
- Ikon Gallery: Birmingham, 2004
- ISBN 0 907594 96 4
Publication produced to accompany the exhibition Shiny Dirty held at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham in 2004. Includes an essay by Richard Noble and an interview with David Batchelor by Clarrie Wallis.
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Chromophobia
Read an excerpt- Reaktion Books: London, 2000
- Reprinted 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009
- English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Korean, Portugese, Greek and Japanese editions
- ISBN 978 1 861890 74 0
The central argument of Chromophobia is that a chromophobic impulse – a fear of corruption or contamination through colour – lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge colour, either by making it the property of some foreign body – the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological – or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic. Chromophobia has been a cultural phenomenon since ancient Greek times; this book is concerned with the motivations behind chromophobia and with forms of resistance to it. Batchelor considers the work of a wide range of writers and artists and explores diverse imagery including Herman Melville's ‘Great White Whale’, Aldous Huxley's ‘Reflections on Mescaline’, Le Corbusier's Journey to the East and L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. Batchelor also discusses the use of colour in Pop, Minimal, and more recent art.
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Minimalism
- Tate Publications: London, 1997
- Reprinted 2004
- English, Spanish, Portugese, Brazillian, Portugese, Dutch, Danish and Swedish editions
- ISBN 978 0 521627 59 7
While the term Minimalism has been applied to a vide variety of art, this book is concerned with the origins of the term in the 1960s and its application to a range of work that was typically abstract, three-dimensional, modular, geometric, preconceived in design and industrial in execution. This introduction examines the implications of these characteristics and the work of five key artists – Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt and Robert Morris. As well as looking at what these works had in common, the author also highlights some of the important differences in the development and direction of each artist's work. Batchelor also looks at the varied types of criticism and interpretation to which Minimalism has been subjected over the years. It ends by discussing how Minimalism has informed the work of many contemporary artists.