It is a book. Signed by Maja Hoffmann. Gerhard Steidl really wanted to publish this book. Its title: This is The House That Jack Built. The title comes from an English children’s nursery rhyme. At first sight, it’s disconcerting, then surprising and finally very seductive. .The freedom given by culture ,passion and money is fascinating? It allows all the choices and all the creativity. Behind this book, which uses all the tools of childhood and above all that of derision, lies one of the most beautiful collections of contemporary art. photographed by François Halard, one of the best decoration photographers , designed by Beda Acherman and orchestrated by Rirkrit Tiravanija, the book is a prelude to the exhibitions of Hoffmann’s collections that will be presented in the ateliers in Arles. In 2016, the ateliers will still be available to the festival Rencontres d’Arles.
Jean-Jacques Naudet
Tom Delavan of the New York Times has written this very balanced article about the book that we share with you today :
“This Is The House That Jack Built” is a book named after a nursery rhyme, a cumulative tale of a string of events in which, despite the repetitive mentions of his home, we never learn who Jack is. The subject of the book is the world-class collection of contemporary art assembled by the Hoffmann-La Roche heiress Maja Hoffmann, who would prefer, like Jack, to remain behind the scenes.
It is refreshing to see someone in the ego-driven art world understate her role, but it is increasingly difficult for Hoffmann to maintain a low profile, as she has become one of the most important art patrons in the world, with projects that include a Frank Gehry-designed cultural center in Arles for the Luma Foundation, which she created to produce and show work that would otherwise not be realized.
Photo
The book reflects her conflicting desires to share her art and convey the experience of living with it while still remaining private. Another kind of collector would be pictured proudly among her acquisitions in opulent settings, but Hoffmann is deliberately absent in the book, preferring to, as she says, “portray a very human environment without ever showing people in it.” Her homes seem incidental, appearing mostly in tightly cropped images, never identified and only mentioned in passing in the book’s afterword. With lush photography by François Halard and art direction by Beda Achermann, Hoffmann has created a poetic record of her collection that feels more like an art object than a conventional book. The text of the nursery rhyme is woven throughout in a font designed by the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, injecting a note of humor and, according to Hoffmann, “removing all traces of vanity that a book showcasing one’s collection could entail.”
“This Is The House That Jack Built” plays down Hoffmann’s actual houses while (like the nursery rhyme) conveying the centrality of the idea of home, yet one is struck by the breathtakingly original interiors furnished with the best examples of 20th-century design. Hoffmann’s eye for architecture and furniture is as discerning as it is for paintings, and she manages to create spaces where the art, despite its importance, doesn’t overshadow the life of a room.
BOOK
This is The House That Jack Built
By Maja Hoffmann
Steidl
Photographs by François Halard
Designed by Studio Achermann
240 pages, 159 Photographs
Softcover in slipcase
24.5 x 34 cm
English
ISBN 978-3-86930-935-4
€ 48.00
https://steidl.de
