Books by Michael Philipp

Van Gogh Still Lifes

by Ortrud Westheider, Michael Philipp

Learn how Vincent van Gogh's still life paintings, alive with ecstatic color and emotional exuberance, hold the key to understanding this complex artist's life and work.

From his first compositions to the colorful flower images of his late years, Vincent van Gogh repeatedly painted still lifes. In this genre, he could try out various pictorial techniques--from depicting space through light and shadow to experimentation with color. Although many of his still life compositions employed traditional approaches to the genre, he ultimately formulated an unmistakably unique artistic style. This lavishly illustrated book revisits the development of Van Gogh's career and focuses on his still life paintings, offering new insights into the working process and creative evolution of one of the most radical innovators in the history of modern art.

Are Communists Allowed to Dream?: The Gallery of the Palace of the Republic

by Ortrud Westheider, Michael Philipp

This collection of sixteen large-scale paintings, commissioned 1975 by the East German government, holds a mirror up to the social and political aims of former East Germany before the onset of reunification.

The Palace of the Republic was opened in 1976 to house East Germany's parliament and to provide a cultural and historical center for the public to enjoy. During its construction, the government commissioned sixteen artists to create paintings in response to the question, "Are Communists allowed to dream?" Artists like Bernhard Heisig, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Willi Sitte, Werner Tübke, Walter Womacka, and Hans Vent contributed large-size works. They painted in their personal styles, but still stayed within the tradition of realistic painting in East Germany. With the fall of the wall and reunification, the paintings were removed from public view in 1990. The palace itself was demolished in 2006. This volume accompanies the first public exhibition of the paintings since 1995 and sheds new light on the East German government's understanding of art and its idea of self-representation.

Gerhard Richter: Abstraction

by Ortrud Westheider, Michael Philipp

Located somewhere between Pop Art and Realism, Gerhard Richter's abstract works are the subject of this unique book that brings together 80 works from collections worldwide.

Trained in the 1950s as a realistic painter, by the mid-1970s Gerhard Richter began to evolve into a more abstract artist. His large, colorful paintings from that time exposed the process of painting as much as its creative aims. Focusing solely on Richter's abstract work, this book features 80 works on canvas that represent the full range of the artist's experiments away from representational painting. It includes his early works, which called painting itself into question and incorporated personal documents and newspaper images. Also examined here are Richter's series of gray paintings from the 1970s--a reaffirmation of artistic purity; his "Inpainting" series, which made the application of paint and brushstrokes themselves the subject; his color chart paintings, which both neutralize and glorify painting's most emotionally charged element: color. Also included are his later works in which he applied paint with a brush, scraper, and palette knife. Taken as a whole, these brilliant works reveal an artist consistently in dialogue with his work, and with the overarching artistic trends of the time.

The Honest Eye Camille Pissarro's Impressionism

by Christoph Heinrich, Ortrud Westheider, Michael Philipp, Clarisse Fava-Piz

This stunning exhibition catalog celebrates one of Impressionism's pivotal figures with a comprehensive look at his life and artistic evolution.

Born in the Caribbean, Camille Pissarro arrived in France an outsider but quickly became a central figure within the Impressionist collective, where he found like-minded people who valued progressive ideals and revolutionized the art world with their groundbreaking approach to capturing light and everyday life.

Filled with high-quality reproductions of landscapes, cityscapes, still lifes, and figure paintings, this volume traces Pissarro's artistic journey from detailed realism to vibrant Impressionism, his pioneering use of light and color, and his later exploration of post-impressionist techniques.

This volume also looks at the social implications of his art, exploring how his beautiful and heroic depictions of farmers and laborers were informed by his utopian ideals and how he envisioned art as a necessary vehicle for social commentary and reform.

Kandinsky's Universe Geometric Abstractions in the 20th Century

by Ortrud Westheider, Michael Philipp

Spanning six decades, three continents, and multiple mediums, this exhibition catalog explores one of the most significant and influential artistic movements of the twentieth century.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, painting underwent a profound transformation. Artists no longer wanted to depict the visible; they aspired to a new visual language that reduced artistic expression to an interplay of colors, lines, and shapes; reflected the modern world; and transcended national boundaries. A central figure of this art movement was Wassily Kandinsky, who laid the theoretical foundations with his work Point and Line to Plane.

This lushly illustrated and highly researched volume showcases how Geometric Abstraction found radical expression in all its variations in Europe, the USA and beyond. It features more than one hundred works by over seventy artists, including Josef Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Barbara Hepworth, El Lissitzky, Agnes Martin, Piet Mondrian, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella, and Victor Vasarely.

Essays by leading scholars illuminate the ways these artists were inspired by the advanced technologies and theories of their time, including concepts of the fourth dimension and the space- time continuum. The authors explore the movement through a transnational lens--from Belgium, Germany, and Great Britain, to France, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and the United States; and emphasize the long-neglected role of women in the movement's advancement. Through its insightful essays and stunning visuals, this volume offers a definitive exploration of how geometric abstraction revolutionized modern art and continues to inspire artists across the globe.