First published 2019
Charles Haxthausen examines the pivotal transformation of Japanese artist Arakawa during his most experimental period. After relocating from Tokyo to New York as a Neo-Dada sculptor, Arakawa shifted his practice toward two-dimensional work that merged text with schematic imagery. His diagram paintings from the mid-1960s combined signs, shapes, words, and phrases in mysterious configurations designed to activate viewers' mental processes. Arakawa believed art should engage both visual and cognitive perception simultaneously. Over twenty years, he expanded this investigation through drawings and multi-panel canvases of varying scales, exploring human consciousness through diagrammatic forms. Haxthausen traces this crucial phase before Arakawa returned to sculptural work, supported by extensive illustrations and a historical essay by Italo Calvino. The book reveals an artist obsessed with how bodies experience the act of seeing and thinking.
Genres: biography, art, literary-fiction, contemporary, art-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: artistic-transformation, visual-perception
Setting: Tokyo, New York
Period: 1960s
136 pages · Hardcover · Gagosian / Rizzoli