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Coverbild Sarah Morris
A minimalist two-page spread of a book's table of contents, titled Inhalt / Contents. The page on the right lists the book's sections bilingually in German and English, including Paintings, Films, Drawings, Essays, and an Interview, each with associated page numbers.
A minimalist, black and white artwork showing the word GUILTY in a large, bold, sans-serif font on the right side of a white canvas. A caption at the bottom reads: Guilty, 1995, Household gloss paint on canvas, 152.4 x 218.4 cm.
A page from a book or catalog displaying a square, pixelated painting on the right side. The artwork is an abstract, close-up portrait of a face, composed of a grid of colored squares with yellow lines. The face is rendered in light tones with red lips against a dark purple and black background. Below the image is the caption: KTMSS, 2000.
A page from an art book displays a square, geometric abstract painting titled Adnoc [Abu Dhabi], 2018. The composition is divided by thick black lines into a grid of colorful vertical stripes on the left and larger, angular planes of solid color on the right. The palette includes prominent areas of pink, yellow, and blue, along with black, white, and tan.
A large, two-panel abstract painting hangs on a white gallery wall. The artwork consists of a dense pattern of vertical stripes in various colors, primarily red and black, with accents of blue, green, and yellow. The lengths of the stripes vary to create a symmetrical, mirrored shape across the two panels, resembling a sound wave.
An abstract painting on a book page, featuring a vibrant blue background fractured by a black, web-like pattern that radiates from a white circle in the upper right. The geometric sections are filled with solid colors including white, yellow, orange, light green, and tan. The entire composition is overlaid with a scattering of small white, black, and orange dots.
A clean, two-page spread from a book. The left page features the title Aus der Höhle des Löwen in den Bauch der Bestie: Sarah Morris, 1995–2022, with its English translation below it, From the Lion's Den to the Belly of the Beast. The author is Bettina Funcke. The right page contains two columns of text, one in German and one in English, discussing the artist's work.
A grainy, black and white photograph of three young people putting up posters on a plywood wall at night. A woman with a bob haircut and sunglasses presses a poster onto the wall, joining a row of identical posters that feature an image of a highway and the words CLOSE-UP. Two men stand beside her, one holding more posters.
A two-page spread from a book with German and English text. The left page features a photograph of a spacious, white-walled artist studio in Berlin, 2000. A person on a ladder works on a large, colorful painting with a geometric pattern. A long table in the foreground is covered with dozens of paint cans and supplies.
A two-page spread from a book with black pages. The left page features a block of white text describing the film Midtown, 1998. The right page displays two vertically stacked color film stills. The top still shows an American flag waving in front of a dark skyscraper. The bottom still is a low-angle shot of a person's legs wearing dark high heels, standing on a stone plaza.
A two-page spread from a book about Los Angeles, featuring a collage of 16 photos on a black background. The images depict a variety of LA-centric scenes, including a woman applying red lipstick, film equipment, celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Brad Pitt, a modern cityscape, prescription medication, a man getting a shave, a pharmacy, a TV production control room, and palm trees against a clear blue sky.
A close-up, angled shot of a vintage Rolodex card. The yellowed card has handwritten entries in black ink for Andy Warhol, with phone numbers for his Home and Factory. Some of the numbers are crossed out. The card sits in an index against a dark blue background.
A two-page spread from a publication with the title Lost Cities: Sarah Morris in Conversation with Christopher Bollen. The interview text is presented in two columns, German on the left and English on the right. On the left page, a small color photo shows humorist Art Buchwald playing tennis.
An open book shows a two-page spread of artworks. The left page displays three vintage film posters overlaid with colorful, intersecting circles and lines. The right page features a single, large German film poster of Marlene Dietrich in Die Gejagten, which has been overlaid with bold, abstract lines and a drip of yellow paint.
A wide, low-angle shot of the ground floor exterior of the Lever House building at night. The ceiling of the open-air plaza is covered in a vibrant, colorful mural of abstract geometric shapes in yellow, red, green, blue, and black, separated by thick white lines and lit by spotlights. The ceiling is supported by numerous large, square, reflective stainless steel columns.
Sarah Morris
All Systems Fail
€ 48.00
VAT included. Shipping costs will be calculated at checkout
Edited by: Dr. Dirk Luckow
Graphic Design: Scott King, Tom Etherington
Texts by: Christopher Bollen, Bettina Funcke, Asad Raza
German, English
May 2023, 320 Pages, 508 Photos
Hardcover
250mm x 296mm
ISBN: 978-3-7757-5472-9

HATJE CANTZ VERLAG
Mommsenstr. 27
10629 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: contact@hatjecantz.de


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| The Psycho-Geography of Our Urban Existence
Since the 1990s, artist and filmmaker Sarah Morris has created a body of work that has been inspired by her interest in the psychology of urban environments. Her complex abstractions, which derive their vivid colors from each city's unique vocabulary and palette, trace the social and bureaucratic topologies of contemporary cities to reveal the architecturally encoded politics. In her films—a parallel practice intimately intertwined with her painting—Morris further explores the psycho-geography and the dynamic nature of cities in flux through multi-layered and fragmented narratives. She purposely leaves her work open for interpretation, conveying a heightened sense to the viewer of both our complicity in a larger system and an increasingly disorienting experience of modern urban existence. Featuring more than 60 paintings, including impressions of the 15 films to date, drawings, as well as an in-depth interview with the artist and two major essays, the catalogue offers the first comprehensive overview of Morris's oeuvre.

New York-based artist SARAH MORRIS (*1967, Sevenoaks/UK) is internationally known for her geometric abstractions and non-narrative films. Influenced by her degree in Philosophy and Semiotics at Brown University in 1989, she started to create paintings using bold text inspired by newspapers and advertisements. In the mid 1990s, she began to deconstruct architectural landscapes in order to explore concealed structures of power.
EXHIBITION
Deichtorhallen Hamburg - Halle für aktuelle Kunst
May 4-August 10, 2023
Kunstmuseen Krefeld - Haus Lange Haus Esters
October 15, 2023-March 10, 2024
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern March
April 6-August 11, 2024
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
September 21, 2024-February 9, 2025
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