The boundary of a contemporary art object or project is no longer something that exists only in physical space; it also exists in social, political, and ethical space. Art has opened up to transnational networks of producers and audiences, migrating into the sphere of social and distributive systems, whether in the form of “relational aesthetics” or other critical reinventions of practice. Art has thus become increasingly implicated in questions of ethics. In this volume, Ethics, artist and writer Walead Beshty evaluates the relation of ethics to aesthetics, and demonstrates how this encounter has become central to the contested space of much recent art. He brings together theoretical foundations for an ethics of aesthetics; appraisals of art that engages with ethical issues; statements and examples of methodologies adopted by a diverse range of artists; and examinations of artworks that question the ethical conditions in which contemporary art is produced and experienced. In Unethics, Beshty includes all the text left out of the original volume.
Artists surveyed: Michael Asher, Tania Bruguera, Christoph Büchel, Merlin Carpenter, Paul Chan, Lygia Clark, Dexter Sinister, Fischli & Weiss, Andrea Fraser, Liam Gillick, David Hammons, Sharon Hayes, Thomas Hirschhorn, Khaled Hourani, Martin Kippenberger, Sharon Lockhart, Renzo Martens, Hélio Oiticica, Seth Price, Walid Raad, Martha Rosler, Tino Sehgal, Santiago Sierra, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.
Writers: Giorgio Agamben, Ariella Azoulay, Alain Badiou, Roland Barthes, Claire Bishop, Nicolas Bourriaud, Simon Critchley, Keller Easterling, Isabelle Graw, Jean-François Lyotard, Scorched Earth, Susan Sontag, Hito Steyerl, Triple Candie, Jan Verwoer,t and Eyal Weizman.
Published by Walead Beshty, Whitechapel Gallery, and MIT Press
Language: English
2 softcover books in a linen slipcase: 570 pages
8 5/8 x 2 3/8 x 6 inches
Edition of 150
About the artist
Walead Beshty (b. 1976, London, U.K.)
Walead Beshty was born in London, United Kingdom in 1976 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied at Bard College and received his Masters in Fine Art from Yale University in 2002. He has held academic positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA; Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; and currently at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA.
Beshty has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2014, 2022); Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich (2016, 2021); Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2019); Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2018); Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo (2017); Travesía Cuatro, Guadalajara (2015); Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, New York (2015); Curve Gallery, Barbican Centre, London (2014); Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2011); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2009); the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2006); and MoMA PS1, New York (2004), among others. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Cloud Seven, Brussels (2022); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017, 2022); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2019); Tate Modern, London (2018); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2014); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2013); Gemeente Museum Den Haag, The Hague (2013); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2011); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010), among many others.
Walead Beshty has also curated many exhibitions, including Luma Arles, Arles, France (2018 & 2016); Hessel Museum, Center for Curatorial Studies, Hudson, NY (2017); Petzel Gallery, New York (2014); Thomas Dane Gallery, London (2014); Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (2013); and MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (2006).
Beshty has works in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; the de la Cruz Collection, Miami; the Fond Régional d’Art Contemporain Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque, France, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
