Juan Muñoz at the Clark

The celebrated Spanish sculptor Juan Munoz (1953-2001) died at the height of his powers, when he was considered "one of the most complex and individual artists working today" ( Guardian). His challenging, enigmatic works almost inexorably draw in viewers. "The spectator," Munoz said about his installations, "becomes very much like the object to be looked at, and perhaps the viewer has become the one who is on view." This handsome book, distinguished by more than 30 stunning photographs, documents a group of Munoz installations at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Representing the full range of Munoz's sculpturesfrom First Banister(1987), which reflects the artist's early use of architectural language, to Conversation Piece(2001), a work that shows his later interest in the human figurethe book demonstrates how Munoz invented a mode of storytelling through objects that spoke to space, memory, and displacement. David Breslin contributes a reflection on notions of interiority and exteriority, and of perception and absorption, as expressed in Munoz's work.

Carmen Giménez is the Stephen and Nan Swid Curator of 20th-Century Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. David Breslin is an independent scholar based in Williamstown, MA. Michael Agee is chief photographer at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.