One of Boltanski’s favorite themes is his own life story, both actual and reinvented, which he evokes through startling collections of photographs and objects. In other pieces, he assembles seemingly mundane elements to address some of the most fundamental and disturbing contradictions of twentieth-century life.
Following the success of the first two MONUMENTA events, featuring Anselm Kiefer in 2007 and American sculptor Richard Serra in 2008 – both of which attracted over 140,000 visitors in five weeks – leading French artist Christian Boltanski takes up the Monumenta challenge in 2010.
Christian BOLTANSKI Bibliography. a selection (links redirect to amazon.com)
Christian Boltanski. Boltanski can be described as an alchemist, philosopher, potential suicide, clown or Rasputin. His installations are made up of collections of everyday objects such as clothing or shoes; and photographs - such as passport photographs, school portraits and family albums. They memorialize ordinary people - the unknown children killed in the Holocaust, the people of a Swiss canton, or the employees of a Halifax carpet factory.
Christian Boltanski (Flammarion Contemporary). The author worked closely with the artist to produce a strong, visual work that provides a clear picture of the creative development of a major artist working today. Fully illustrated, the book includes an introductory portfolio of key installations, first hand interviews with the artist, analyses of the significance of individual works, and a full chronology and bibliography.
The Possible Life of Christian Boltanski. Boltanski’s oral autobiography. In it, he recounts his unusual wartime childhood ("my mother hid my father under the floorboards. He stayed there for a year and a half, between two floors in the house. He’d come out from time to time—I’m living proof of that!"), his career, friendships and marriage, successes and regrets, his approaches to art and teaching, how he created various installations, his relations with dealers and the public, and other matters that illuminate as never before his complex, enigmatic works.
Artist biography, artworks, statement, interview, review, exhibition:
Auctions & Auction Results
From leading auction houses worldwide, Christian Boltanski on Mutualart
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Christian Boltanski exemplifies his investigation of collective memory by intertwining his own personal history. Starting from his birth date, September 6th,
1944, the artist has chosen to focus on the cinematographic and televised news from 1944 to 2004. The extracts diffused and accelerated 2000 times, constitute a unique film which is projected slightly differently on three walls. A device to stop the image and the time, allows each person to reconstitute their own history. Marian Goodman Gallery