Walter Grasskamp

Ein Urlaubstag im Kunstbetrieb
Bilder und Nachbilder
VOLUME 188

An Art Writer’s Anthology

When a critic spends a day off in the art world, it is not like he encounters different people and things than on workdays: artists, collectors, dealers, and curators; pictures, installations, and performances. But he sees them with different eyes. The probing account of such a day off is the point of departure for numerous excursions of a writer who has been familiar with contemporary art and its market for over four decades.

Exemplary essays offer concise descriptions of workplaces in the scene, while portraits drawn with a light touch bring the personalities of artists and those who explain their work to life; the volume concludes with an aesthetic etiquette handbook on how to deal with dead people. The texts convey a personal perspective and intertwine art criticism and the scholarly study of art in unorthodox ways. Edited by Wolfgang Ullrich, this selection from Walter Grasskamp’s writings reflects the intellectual physiognomy of a writer who expects more from art than just that it should be expensive.

Walter Grasskamp (b. 1950) is an art critic and professor of art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

Wolfgang Ullrich (b. Munich, 1967) was professor of art studies and media theory at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design from 2006 until 2015, when he retired from teaching to work as a freelance writer, cultural scholar, and consultant in Leipzig.