On The Benefits Of Friendship

Isabelle Graw’s latest book reflects on the purposes and struggles of friendship in competitive social milieus. By focusing on her own social milieu—the art world—Graw demonstrates how friendships are neither totally disinterested nor reduceable to their use. Written in the intimate form of a fictional diary, this book laments useful friendships while praising true friendship in all its forms. For Graw, friendship is an existential necessity—if only because it points to how we relate to and depend on others. Friendship, she finds, is as important as the air we breathe—with it, we are able to fully live.

DETAILS

6" x 9"

140 Pages

Softcover

ABOUT

Isabelle Graw lives and works as an art critic in Berlin. She is Professor of Art History and Art Theory at the Städelschule and founded together with Daniel Birnbaum the Institue for Art Criticism in summer 2003, which focuses on the practice of criticism and its manifold relationships to other disciplines. In 2018, Isabelle Graw published The Love of Painting: Genealogy of a Success Medium (Sternberg Press, Berlin). Other publications include High Price. Art between the Market and Celebrity Culture (2010), Texte zur Kunst. Essays, Reviews, Interviews (2011), Thinking through Painting: Reflexivity and Agency beyond the Canvas (co-editor, 2012) and Über Malerei. Eine Diskussion (with Peter Geimer, 2012). In December 2018 Isabelle Graw was awarded the VW-Stiftung OPUS MAGNUM grant, which enables her an unabridged commitment to the research project "The Value of Art".