At once emphatically abstract and culturally specific, the work of Seung-taek Lee (born 1932) draws on the subtle beauty of Korean aesthetic traditions and folk art, also reflecting contemporaneous developments in earth art, Mono-ha and postminimalism―while maintaining resolute independence from its peer groups.
Lee's oeuvre spans painting, drawing, sculpture, installation and performance, often within the same piece. Notions of negation―which he alternately refers to as “dematerialization,” “anti-concept,” and “non-sculpture”―structure his approach, by which he transforms ordinary objects, imbuing them with multiple meanings and affects. Embracing invisible forces and unorthodox materials such as tree branches, wire, stones, human hair, fabric and rope, his art elevates the mundane to the level of myth. This is the first English-language overview of his work.

Seung-taek Lee

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Lévy Gorvy

As a self-taught artist who confidently forged her own path, Carol Rama (1918–2015) pursued an inventive approach to structure and composition, seasoning her art with unconventional mediums, industrial material, provocative imagery and psychologically charged legends. Accompanying an exhibition at the Archivio Carol Rama at the Palazzo Ca’ nova in Venice, this publication includes full-color illustrations of Rama’s works featured in the show―an unprecedented selection representing the broad range of materials and styles that comprise her iconoclastic oeuvre. The catalog also features newly commissioned texts by curator and founder of Participant, Inc. Lia Gangitano and Turin-based novelist Andrea Bajani, as well as an introduction by Maria Cristina Mundici and Raffaella Roddolo of the Archivio Carol Rama.

Carol Rama: Space Even More than Time

Bajani, Andrea

Gangitano, Lia

Individual Artists

Since 1967, renowned artists Gilbert &amp; George (born 1943 and 1942) have made themselves into their art, sacrificing their individual identities to devote themselves to a more democratic art practice, which they call “Art for All.” This catalog presents their formative early work, The General Jungle or Carrying on Sculpting (1971). Comprised of 23 monumental, multi-panel charcoal-on-paper sculptures depicting the artists wandering streets and parks in London and inscribed with philosophical slogans, The General Jungle or Carrying on Sculpting was first exhibited at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York in 1971. Published in conjunction with Lévy Gorvy’s exhibition of the work, this fully illustrated catalog features a newly commissioned essay by Michael Bracewell based on a recent interview with the artists, an original poem by Kostas Anagnopoulos, newspaper reviews from the Sonnabend exhibition and a facsimile of the postal sculpture A Day in the Life of George &amp; Gilbert, the Sculptors (1971).

Gilbert & George: The General Jungle or Carrying on Sculpting: Late Summer 1971

The most recent series by New York–based painter Pat Steir (born 1940) evolved out of her seminal Waterfall paintings, created by pouring, throwing or dragging pigment across her canvases. The book offers an intimate introduction to the Kairos series and includes essays, Steir’s poems, an artist interview and illustrated chronology.

Pat Steir

This two-volume publication accompanies the exhibition Ileana Sonnabend and Arte Povera held at Hauser &amp; Wirth New York in 2017. The larger of the two books includes a comprehensive chronology, including every exhibition presented by the Sonnabend galleries between 1962 and 2014, with expanded sections on Arte Povera exhibitions featuring artists Giovanni Anselmo, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Gilberto Zorio. This generous volume also includes never-before-published archival photographs from the Sonnabend Archive; an interview with Germano Celant about his friendship with Ileana Sonnabend and the global dissemination of Arte Povera; texts written by the artists in the exhibition; and extensive bibliographies for each artist, the Sonnabend galleries and the Arte Povera movement, respectively. The second book in the set features color plates of each artwork in the exhibition, installation views from Lévy Gorvy and a complete checklist of the works included.

Ileana Sonnabend and Arte Povera

Marking Lévy Gorvy’s first solo exhibition with acclaimed conceptual artist and philosopher Adrian Piper (born 1948), this focused presentation includes examples from The Mythic Being series (1973–75), It’s Just Art (1980) and Here, an installation work conceived in 2008 and realized for the first time at the gallery. Together, these three bodies of work delve into interrelated themes Piper has explored throughout her career―the intersubjective formation of self, identity, race and gender; racism, sexism, xenophobia and competing conceptions of political responsibility. The book includes an essay by Begum Yasar and Aliza Shvarts, “Alienation, Too, Has Its Uses,” which thinks through Piper’s writings and works to discuss contemporary manifestations of xenophobia and racism. Also included are a biography of the artist and color plates of the works.

Adrian Piper

The work of American sculptor and musician Terry Adkins (1953–2014) often started with a theme or idea, illuminated by sculptural components that sometimes housed a performative element. The performative and sculptural aspects of his practice evolved in tandem, and utilized materials that had likely served another purpose, be they instruments, materials from his printmaking experiences or locally sourced items.
This catalog accompanies Lévy Gorvy's first solo exhibition of Adkins' works, exploring the materiality of his sculptures. The exhibition was curated by Charles Gaines, a celebrated artist and longtime friend and collaborator of Adkins', who contributes an essay to this publication that explores the experience of viewing Adkins' sculptures. Also included are an essay by Michael Brenson and newly commissioned poetry by Robin Coste Lewis.

Terry Adkins: The Smooth, the Cut, and the Assembled

United in their desire to create images "absolutely of the moment," Polke, Lichtenstein and Laing―three artists on separate but interrelated artistic journeys―turned their attention in the early 1960s toward the Ben-Day dot. Featuring works inspired by this printing method, Source and Stimulus connects these artists on this basis.

Source and Stimulus: Polke, Lichtenstein, Laing

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Focusing on the recent portraiture of Nouveaux Réaliste protagonist Martial Raysse (born 1936), this volume includes an essay by art historian and curator Jane Livingston, a poem by Leopoldine Core, plus three texts by the artist and an illustrated chronology.

Martial Raysse: VISAGES

This fully illustrated catalog accompanies the first exhibition curated by Brett Gorvy for the Lévy Gorvy gallery in New York. The exhibition features nearly one hundred artworks by twenty-seven artists, including Lee Bontecou, Bruce Conner, Joseph Cornell, Eva Hesse, Jasper Johns, Robert Ryman, Cy Twombly and Hannah Wilke. Documenting masterpieces that are rarely on public display, the publication offers a unique perspective on viewership and collecting. An essay by Suzanne Hudson examines works by Johns, Ryman and Twombly, while Sarah K. Rich considers the use of hallucinogens to break down boundaries within the self. A new translation of an excerpt from Henri Michaux’s Infinite Turbulence offers a window into the mind of an artist on mescaline. Miranda Mellis’ work of short fiction “The Emissaries” conjures a dystopian narrative that beautifully responds to works by Bellmer, Conner, Dubuffet and Rama, and Pablo Neruda’s poem “Ode to Things” accompanies reproductions of works by Cornell.

Intimate Infinite

Michaux, Henri

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Books by Lévy Gorvy