Walther König Books

‘The ghosts of Gertrude Stein and Francis Ponge hover about these short texts, in which objects become subjects, surface depth and language reality.’ – Tom McCarthy‘In Commuters, the material world is being remade: as confounding and saturated as we pretend that it isn’t.’ – Sally O’Reilly‘…a way of seeing that is startlingly original, and profoundly consoling.’ – Claire-Louise BennettAboard a beaten bus, fragile passengers are transported to a gloomy stop, while a cat stares silently, alone in a stationed trailer.‘Commuters’, the third book of writing by British artist Toby Christian (b.1983), bids us to work with a new train of accounts, travelling between objects and spaces from Vienna to Matera, Liverpool to London.Written in Christian’s trademark dazzling detail, passages teem with feral poetics in descriptions that tilt between the headspaces of guided meditation and hyper-forensic rave. ‘Commuters’ is a searching shuttle through alternative text, zooming to a stellar end.With an introduction by Chris Fite-Wassilak.

A chronological record of overheard and collected remarks, from movie quotes to elevator chats This artist’s book by New York–based artist Lutz Bacher (born 1962) is a chronological record of remarks collected by Bacher from a variety of sources, including cable television advertisements, movies, news broadcasts, radio, novels, airplanes, subways, sidewalks and elevators between 2013 and 2018.

"In 1903 W. E. B. Du Bois's text The Souls of Black Folk made history as a work of sociological thought, and would go on to become a cornerstone of African American literature. In it, Du Bois combined music, history and memoir to advance a vital message of resistance in the uniquely dehumanising context of the so-called 'Jim Crow' era. It was in this collection that Du Bois, in 'Of Our Spiritual Strivings', wrote of the 'double consciousness' experienced by the Black subject -- a 'sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity'. Refusing this fate, Du Bois passionately and creatively makes the case for the rights of Black people of the South to be treated with equality and justice. Over a century later, artist Christina Quarles brings new energy to Du Bois's unfinished project, speaking to his melodious text with her own distinctive visual poetics, testing and inverting the 'double consciousness' idea. Quarles, whose work is informed by her own daily experience with ambiguity, engages with the world from a position that is multiply situated."-- Provided by publisher

A tribute to the life of a German Jewish gallery owner, from dispossession to success in Canada In 1934, the art dealer Max Stern (1904-86) took over Galerie Stern, which was founded by his father on Königsallee in Düsseldorf. This publication follows Stern's extraordinary life, from being forced to abandon his business to the Nazis, to becoming one of Canada's most influential gallery owners.

In her stirring essay, Art on the Frontline, scholar and activist icon Angela Y. Davis asked, in 1985, ?How do we collectively acknowledge our popular cultural legacy and communicate it to the masses of people, most of whom have been denied access to the social spaces reserved for arts and culture?? Looking to the cultural forms born of Afro-American struggles, Davis insists that we attempt to understand, reclaim and glean insight from0these in preparing a political offensive against the racial oppression endemic to capitalism. Working from a site of racial uprising some 35 years later, artist Tschabalala Self responds to Davis?s words with a new series of characteristically vibrant, challenging and provocative works on paper. Her series of three individual subjects emerge collectively as something greater than their parts, suggesting in the ebbs and flows in joy and disdain a kind of0shared social consciousness

This special edition of KÖNIG is published on the occasion of Juergen Teller's solo exhibition "Heimweh" in Japan. Teller created a unique layout especially for this issue. Some of his photographs are presented in isolation, others are juxtaposed or layered over other images. This creates new and unexpected congruencies and themes between individual works and series. The publication gives an insight into the world of Juergen Teller as he sees it.00Exhibition: König Galerie, Tokyo, Japan (10.11.2019 - 25.01.2020).

The artistic practice of Itziar Okariz and Sergio Prego is defined by a principle of immanence in this body-space relationship.The work of Itziar Okariz is characterized by performances which question the norms regarding the language and production of signs that define us as subjects. She approaches the private and public space from an ideological, social feminist perspective that engages in a dialogue with its artistic legacies.On this occasion the artist carries out a series of actions consisting of murmured conversations and confrontations with statues and art objects. By directly confronting inanimate objects, the artist imbues them with anima, life and subjectivity.Through performance, text, video and sound installation, she explores the displacements between the subject, the language and its physical presence.Sergio Prego's work explores the limits of sculpture with constructions that are usually ephemeral or can be taken apart, using basic geometric volumes and unconventional materials.His work explores the nature of sculpture as it relates to architecture, calling materiality into question with their lightweight, flexible materials that allow the form to only exist in a specific state or as a result of a continuous action on the constituent material.Both artists reiterate the alternative functions of the body in our technified society.Published on the occasion of the Venice Biennale 2019.

In 1969, Sol Lewitt started to regularly produce what he called 'folds', which were first conceived as gifts to friends. In 1971, he added the 'rips', drawings made of ripped paper. LeWitt went from ripping papers of various sizes and colours in different ways to working with city maps and airview photos of Florence, Manhattan and Chicago. The book comprehensively presents the 'folds' and 'rips' for the first time.

This is an anthology of the artist?s collected comics from 2011 to 2020, only allegedly a casual branch of her practice. It includes November (2011) and At the cool table (2013) as well as lesser known, shorter comics of the last few years. Von Wulffens comics address the social codes of the art world, the daily life of being a female artist, and nightmare-like, surreal psychogeographies. They poignantly and parodically observe fears of failure, loneliness, competition, so-called good taste, and sexual affairs, while questioning a clear cut distinction between high and low, artistic genius and amateurism.00Exhibition: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (28.11.2020 - 14.02.2021).