Michael Archer
Softcover | 14.94 x 1.09 x 20.96 cm | 120 pp
Afterall | 2011 | 9781846380792
The One Work series is a library of small books, each title focusing on a single artwork that has significantly shaped the way we understand art and its history.
In Jeff Koons's One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (1985), a Spalding basketball floats in the centre of a glass tank that stands on a four-legged black metal structure. It has been called one of the defining works of the 1980s - but also described (by such critics as Craig Owens, Rosalind Krauss, and Hal Foster) as "an endgame," "misleading," and "repulsive." The work presents what the artist called "the ultimate state of being" - neither death nor life but the absence of change. It captured a spirit of the time, characterised by commodification, seduction, and political inactivity. Its stillness embodied the opposite of social revolution. But the "total equilibrium" of the work is actually temporary. For purely physical reasons, the equilibrium is lost every six months and must be reset.
In this extended essay on Koons's famous work, Michael Archer puts One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank in an art historical framework, describing its initial exhibition at International With Monument in New York and related issues of media, commercialism, and class. He discusses the wider context of the 1980s art world, in which a renewed attention to painting practices met the legacy of Pop and appropriation art - setting the stage for the negative critical reception Koons's artwork first received. Archer goes on to consider sport as celebrity-maker and industry; the physical science of equilibrium; and the implications of the fact that the equilibrium of One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank is indeed total - but temporary.
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John Broadley is one of my favorite illustrators and also one of my absolute favorite books ever!
The special shipping to Switzerland arrived very quickly and the book was perfectly wrapped! I E-Mailed the owner for a request to ship the book to Switzerland and he answered really fast and was very friendly.
I'm very happy about my purchase and can only recommend it.
This is the most beautiful book recording the last days of an iconic building. A book to leave open on certain pages, to devour & enjoy as you wish.
Quick delivery and the books are in perfect condition. I cannot recommend Books About art enough. Thank you!
This book made me think & appreciate painters & their work in a different way. Full of concise information to accompany each selected artist. Very glad to have a copy.
An excellent enjoyable book, very comprehensive in all aspects of varying designs. A must for all interested the creation of many things.