Paul Chan. Selected Writings 2000–2014

The work of Paul Chan (born 1973) has charted a course in contemporary art as unpredictable and wide-ranging as the thinking that grounds his practice. "Paul Chan: Selected Writings 2000–2014" collects the critical essays and artist’s texts that first appeared in leading art journals such as "Artforum", "October", "Texte zur Kunst" and "Frieze", as well as previously unpublished speeches and textual works. From comedy to Duchamp’s artistic freedom, to the contradictions that bind aesthetics and politics, Chan’s writings revel in the paradoxes that make the experience of art both vexing and pleasurable. Paul Chan reflects on artists as diverse as Henry Darger, Chris Marker, Sigmar Polke and Paul Sharits, and grapples with writers and thinkers who have played decisive roles in his practice, including Theodor Adorno, Samuel Beckett and the Marquis de Sade. Along the way, Chan lays bare the ideas and personalities that inform his work and shows a masterly understanding of ways to test and refresh the role and potential of art in a host of broader social and political arenas beyond galleries and museums.