Item ID: 8616 Museum der Obsessionen, von/über/zu/mit Harald Szeemann [Merve No. 100]. Harald SZEEMANN.

Culled from “Towers of Manuscripts”

Museum der Obsessionen, von/über/zu/mit Harald Szeemann [Merve No. 100].

23 black & white illus. 239 pp. 12mo (169 x 120 mm.), gold geometric covers. Berlin: Merve Verlag, 1981.

First printing of this essential Harald Szeemann (1933-2005) anthology. Later printings can be identified by the lack of a price on the upper cover.

“In the summer of 1980, [Peter] Gente travelled on short notice to Ascona, where Szeemann had taken up residence during his research for the exhibition because he found the magnetic anomalies personally stimulating. Szeemann readily agreed to publish a book of collected occasional texts, supplied his visitor with ‘towers of manuscripts,’ and handed him the house keys, as he was just leaving on travels of his own. The selection Gente made in the course of a week was published as the 100th book in the Internationaler Merve Diskurs series with the title Museum der Obsessionen – ‘Museum of Obsessions.’ The jubilee book with gold rhombus on the cover marked another turning point in Merve’s history. After the year of theory fatigue, new options were opening up in the art world.”–P. Felsch, The Summer of Theory: History of a Rebellion, 1960-1990 (English ed.: 2022), pp. 149-50.

Fine copy. Ownership inscription to recto of first leaf.

Price: $150.00

Item ID: 8616