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Dennis Oppenheim: Selected Works 1967-90 : And the Mind Grew Fingers

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The artistic trajectory of Dennis Oppenheim has always been characterized by incorrigible discontinuity. Following his earthworks (1967-69) and body-works, in which his own body was used as canvas and art material, came the installations (from 1972 onwards), using puppets as their main theme. Later on, at the end of the seventies, Oppenheim produced what he calls his "machine pieces" which, by denying the object its sculptural status, are presented as complex constructions, systems open to both an aleatory and an enigmatic mode of functioning. There is an interesting progression from the early machine pieces which seemed infused with a confidence in rationality and in the possibility of grasping the structure of the mind to the late works which were designed to celebrate disunity and confusion.

This book is a classy package, co-published by Harry Abrams and The Institute for Contemporary Art: textured black cloth over hardback boards with a heavy-duty dustjacket. Heavy stock. 194 illustrations, including 43 color plates. With an essay by Thomas McEvilley.

Table of Contents Highlights...

Introduction by Heiss
The Rightness and Wrongness of Modernism... by McEvilley
Interview with Oppenheim by Heiss

Chronology
Selected Exhibitions
Selected Bibliography
Picture Credits

The artistic trajectory of Dennis Oppenheim has always been characterized by incorrigible discontinuity. Following his earthworks (1967-69) and body-works, in which his own body was used as canvas and art material, came the installations (from 1972 onwards), using puppets as their main theme. Later on, at the end of the seventies, Oppenheim produced what he calls his "machine pieces" which, by denying the object its sculptural status, are presented as complex constructions, systems open to both an aleatory and an enigmatic mode of functioning. There is an interesting progression from the early machine pieces which seemed infused with a confidence in rationality and in the possibility of grasping the structure of the mind to the late works which were designed to celebrate disunity and confusion.

This book is a classy package, co-published by Harry Abrams and The Institute for Contemporary Art: textured black cloth over hardback boards with a heavy-duty dustjacket. Heavy stock. 194 illustrations, including 43 color plates. With an essay by Thomas McEvilley.

Table of Contents Highlights

Introduction by Heiss
The Rightness and Wrongness of Modernism... by McEvilley
Interview with Oppenheim by Heiss

Chronology
Selected Exhibitions
Selected Bibliography
Picture Credits