Always Starts with an Encounter: Wols-Eileen Quinlan

An encounter across time and space between Wols, a pioneering artist of the early twentieth century, and Eileen Quinlan, a contempory American artist.

Wols (1913–1951) was celebrated posthumously as one of the pioneering artists of the Art Informel movement. His distinctive early photographic work of the 1930s is, however, very little known. In an unusual connection across time and space his work is discussed in relation to that of contemporary American artist Eileen Quinlan (b. 1972). This book, a companion to the exhibition Always Starts with an Encounter: Wols–Eileen Quinlan, curated by Helena Papadopoulos and organized by Radio Athènes at the Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, in 2016, further explores the relationship between the work of the two artists.

Spectral and suggestive, but also precise and factual, through an indexical structure, a variety of textual forms and inflections, different registers of images and textures, this richly illustrated book reflects on a circular idea of time as it wanders in the abstruse physicality of the photographic. It includes texts by Olivier Berggruen, Quinn Latimer, Helena Papadopoulos, and Laura Preston, as well as two interviews with Eileen Quinlan.

Copublished with Radio Athènes