Paul Chan | "The Libertine Reader", 2011 | (for Parkett 88)

Read a Parkett Text on Paul Chan
Parkett Vol. 88

Quote from Parkett
"When the question of art's political potential is raised in contemporary art discourse (and sometimes it seems nothing else is), the main tendency since at least the 1990s has been to question the distinction between its two terms: to ‘blur the line between art and life,’ as the phrase goes. a political activist and an artist, Paul Chan might be the exemplary figure for the great blur -- if he didn't spend all his time resisting it. as he puts it in an interview with George Baker, ‘the desire to bridge what we call art and politics is in fact a fear of both.’”
Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Parkett No. 88, 2011

Additional Quote
“Typical of Paul Chan's work, The Libertine Reader is a piercing political statement. Here, Chan smartly—and subtly—juxtaposes the economic and social devastation of the Great Depression with the morally devoid philosophy of libertinism. The Marquis de Sade, one of history’s most well-known libertines, features prominently in Chan’s work, and here (by way of the work's title), the Marquis's polarizing stance on sex, violence, and criminaliity is contrasted with a repurposed, clothbound textbook of 1930s America, one of the country's most distressing decades, and a delicate Chinese landscape by the artist.” -Artspace

"The Libertine Reader", 2011 (for Parkett 88)
Silkscreen on natural woven rayon cloth,
with foil stamping, on wooden frame,
25 x 16 1/2 x 3/4" (63,5 x 42, 1,9 cm).
Printed by Atelier für Siebdruck Lorenz Boegli, Zurich,
Ed. 35/XX, signed and numbered certificate.