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Boltanski, Christian (Artist); Beil, Ralf & Assmann, Aleida (Contributors) : Time

Hatje Cantz Publishers, Ostfildern-ruit, Germany, 2006

ISBN 3775718257

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 160 pages. Exhibition Monograph, presented as an Artist Book. One of the most beautiful books on the art of Christian Boltanski. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Christian Boltanski: Oversize-volume format. The book weighs 3 pounds. Blue hard boards with titles embossed on cover and spine, as issued. Art by Christian Boltanski. Essays by Aleida Assmann and Ralf Beil. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Germany to the highest standards. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents Christian Boltanski's "Time". New work as well as previous work in a new light. The emphasis Boltanski places on the most fragile objects, particularly photographs, to evoke our "struggle against death" (his phrase) is the central idea behind his sublime art. As such, Boltanski's work is not "about" death but "against" it, through art rather than polemics. His obsession with death is often mistakenly seen as acceptance or even embrace of it when as Boltanski himself repeatedly says, the role of memory is to insist on the sanctity of human life, that whenever we remember those who have died, we remember their lives, not their death, and that memorial, archive, and elegy, which all pause Time, ultimately affirm Life. At the same time, Boltanski acknowledges, more than any other artist of our time, that death is a fact of life, and that even as we struggle against it, we intuitively realize from a series of "death experiences" throughout our lives (the end of childhood, the death of a loved one, the end of a friendship, romance, or marriage, extreme physical and psychological violence) that denying the reality of death is more dangerous than our fear of it. "I am for an art that is sentimental. I want to make people cry. Art should create emotions. The task is to create a formal work that is, at the same time, recognized by the spectator as a sentimentally charged object. Everyone will recognize their own history, their own world, which is more felt than perceived. The artist is someone who holds a mirror and those who look in the mirror recognize themselves but each one sees a different image" (Christian Boltanski). An absolute "must-have" title for Christian Boltanski collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Christian Boltanski. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great art photography book. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. A rare signed copy thus. One of the greatest artists of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 3775718257.

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