Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates - by Emma Enderby (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Agnes Denes, the queen of land art, made one of New York's greatest public art projects ever in 1982. Now, the world might be catching up with her." -Karrie Jacobs, New York Times

Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates accompanies the largest exhibition of the artist's work in New York to date, held at The Shed in fall 2019 as part of the arts space's opening season. Presenting more than 130 works, this comprehensive publication, presented in an embossed slipcase, spans the 50-year career of the path-breaking artist dubbed "the queen of land art" by the New York Times, famed for her iconic Wheatfield--A Confrontation (1982), for which she planted a two-acre wheatfield in Lower Manhattan on the Battery Park Landfill, in the shadow of the then recently erected Twin Towers.

A major undertaking, this superb catalog includes a comprehensive text by the exhibition's curator, Emma Enderby, an interview with Denes by Hans Ulrich Obrist, essays by prominent scholars and curators including Caroline A. Jones, Lucy R. Lippard and Timothy Morton that examine Denes' multifaceted practice in new ways, writings by the artist and reflections by curators who have worked with Denes over the course of her career. New works by Denes commissioned by The Shed for the exhibition are presented in a special insert.

Budapest-born, New York-based artist Agnes Denes (born 1931) rose to international attention in the 1960s and 1970s as a leading figure in conceptual, environmental and ecological art. A pioneer of several art genres, she has created work in many mediums, utilizing various disciplines--such as science, philosophy, linguistics, ecology and psychology--to analyze, document and ultimately aid humanity.

Review Quotes

[Absolutes and Intermediates showcases Denes'] varied body of work, which "spans many mediums, interdisciplinary modes of thinking, experimentation, and pushing boundaries..."--Josephine Minutillo "Architectural Record"

A fitting place to start in appreciating an artist who has taken the entire world into her compass.--Andrea Kirsh "Artblog"

tautly beautiful...--Holland Cotter "New York Times"

[Agnes Denes] has basically carved out an independent, label-free niche for herself and has been occupying and expanding it for over 50 years. Visionary is one label that does apply...--Holland Cotter "New York Times"

[The exhibit] examines Denes' breadth of work over the span of 50 years... "Absolutes and Intermediates" covers the multidisciplinary nature of her [art], and her manner of thinking.--Maxine Wally "WWD"

A half-century's worth of propositions arguing for the interconnectedness of the systems that underlie both the natural world and the structures of human thought designed to understand it, Absolutes and Intermediates feels like a sharp thorn of care and conscience planted in the paw of an immense plutocratic beast.--Jeffrey Kastner "4 Columns"

An overdue introduction to a formally audacious and technically exquisite oeuvre that defies easy art-historical and ethnographic classification.--Jeffrey Kastner "Artforum"

Denes has created land art, drawings, and sculptures that advocate for greater attention to our planet. Her first-ever retrospective in New York City, "Absolutes and Intermediates," ...positions Denes as a prophetic figure in the history of environmental activism.--Alina Cohen "Artsy"

Denes's ecological artworks, which she commenced in the late 1960s, are just as prescient as this early diagnosis of climate catastrophe. Over the ensuing decades, she has been called a visionary. But such encomiums risk eliding the depth and complexity they celebrate. Denes has never been just one thing.--Lauren O'Neill-Butler "Artforum"

Spanning half a century, this retrospective reveals Denes's art to be so forward-looking that some of it remains ahead of its time even today.--Louis Bury "Hyperallergic"