The German-American artist Winold Reiss (1886-1953)—painter; designer, teacher—has been characterized as “a modern Cellini;” defying instant categorization and labels. To this day, he remains something of an enigma to art critics. Winold Reiss stands at the beginning of a new American Modernism approach to depicting the vitality of African American culture. In 1920, while struggling through a creative and personal crisis, he went on a two-month-long trip through Mexico. His diary offers a unique glimpse into the artist’s mind and heart. Reading it in conjunction with his drawings helps us better understand the function of Mexican art, folklore, religiosity and the history of mestizaje in the context of the stylizations of the cultural space which James Weldon Johnson called “Black Manhattan.” The Mexico Diary makes Reiss's text available in the original German as well as in English and Spanish translations and interlinks it with his sketches and paintings. The book also features an audio CD with key parts of the diary set to music and performed by Jens Barnieck and Frank Mehring. Winold Reiss's Mexico diary is a remarkable soliloquy of America's little known but hugely influential transnational visual artist. We see him traversing borders and breaking free of American materialism to a nature-based vision of New World spirituality. But we also learn that this premier multiculturalist was more successful embracing the New Negro and the New Mexico than the New Woman. In that, he reminds us of the breakthroughs and bugaboos of twentieth century modernism. -Jeffrey C. Stewart Professor & Chair at the Department of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara Frank Mehring is at the forefront of scholars re-writing the history of American art by focusing on those artists who championed the racial diversity of the New World. In his Mexico Diary, Winold Reiss can be seen as a romantic and a realist: romantic in his rejection of European/American commercialism and realist in his understanding that native peoples have been profoundly influenced by values, religions, and markets that are both European and indigenous. –Patricia Hills Professor Emerita, Boston University

Das Rauschen der Kräfte Ton, Bronze, Kupfer, Glas, Holz, Stein, natürliche und gefundene Materialien sind die Grundelemente, aus denen Katinka Bock (geb. 1976 in Frankfurt am Main, lebt und arbeitet in Berlin und Paris) ihre Skulpturen und Installationen schafft, die Zeitlichkeit und Raum erforschen und Zeugnis von einer intensiven Beschäftigung mit Geschichte, Topografie und Geografie ablegen. In ihrem künstlerischen Arbeitsprozess verbindet Katinka Bock häufig Außen- und Innenraum miteinander und hebt dadurch die Trennung von Ausstellungsort und Produktionsstätte auf. Ihre Werke können den Eindruck von Flüchtigkeit erwecken oder wie ein die Zeiten überdauerndes Denkmal wirken. Der Katalog dokumentiert drei Ausstellungen, die die Künstlerin von 2019 bis 2020 im Pivô in São Paulo, in der Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover und bei Anticipations in Paris realisiert hat, und verwebt die einzelnen Stationen zu einer Erfahrungseinheit. Voneinander unabhängige historische Ereignisse werden in den drei Ausstellungsprojekten auf Bedeutungsebene miteinander verschränkt. Eine besondere Rolle nimmt dabei das Material Bronze ein, das für Katinka Bock neben schützenden und isolierenden Qualitäten auch die Fähigkeit des Energietransports besitzt. Somit werden die raumgreifenden Installationen zu Sinnbildern von Zusammenhalt, Wissenstransfer und emotionaler Anteilnahme. Mit Texten von Lea Altner, Thomas Boutoux, Fernanda Brenner, Adam Budak, Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, François Quintin, Clara Schulmann, Christina Végh und der Künstlerin. The noise of forces Clay, bronze, copper, glass, wood, stone, natural and found materials: these are the basic elements out of which Katinka Bock (b. Frankfurt am Main, 1976; lives and works in Berlin and Paris) creates sculptures and installations that probe time and space and bear witness to her sustained engagement with history, topography, and geography. Bock’s practice often connects interior and exterior settings, undoing the division between exhibition site and scene of production. Her works by turns exude an air of evanescence or stand before the beholder as enduring monuments. The catalogue documents three exhibitions that the artist realized at Pivô, São Paulo, the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, and Anticipations, Paris, in 2019–2020; and weaves the different stations together for a new encompassing experience. The three exhibition projects interlink mutually independent historic events on the semantic level. Bronze as a material plays a key role in this connection; to Katinka Bock’s mind, it possesses protective and isolating qualities, but also the capacity to transport energy, making the sprawling installations compelling visualizations of cohesion, the transfer of knowledge, and emotional sympathy. With writings by Lea Altner, Thomas Boutoux, Fernanda Brenner, Adam Budak, Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, François Quintin, Clara Schulmann, Christina Végh, and the artist.