Author Description

How Marcel Broodthaers reimagined the exhibition as art In 1963, Marcel Broodthaers (1924–76), then a poet, decided to embark on a career in art. Far from making a complete divorce from poetry, however, Broodthaers’ art continued his focus on linguistic play, and thereby permitted a certain critical distance from the art world, most explicitly expressed in his exhibitions. These highly conceptual exhibitions posed questions to viewers about the fundamental nature of art, its mediums, its conceptions of what constitutes an artwork and its representation in museums.This volume presents all of the solo exhibitions that took place during Broodthaers’ lifetime and highlights exhibition-making as an essential element of the artist’s legacy. In addition to scholarly essays and many texts by Broodthaers himself, the publication also features an extensive series of photographic documentation of the major retrospective at the Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany.