HIDDEN TRACK - How Visual Culture Is Going Places, edited by Robert Klanten and Sven Ehmann. Die Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, Germany; [...]. 2005. 208 pp. xxpricexx 9-3/4" x 11", ISBN 3-89955-084-6. color photographs.
"Hidden Track" demonstrates that "quite often works of extraordinary artistic quality come into existence in the context of design, advertising, and entertainment" by featuring over four pages on average works of 49 contemporary artists and art businesses in these areas. Office reception areas, street corners, lobbies, showrooms and store windows, walls, signs, and in a few cases art galleries are among the many and varied places where the works are seen. Besides briefly showcasing the work of the many contemporary, mostly commercial, artists, the anthology is meant to make the point of how much such art is already a part of public spaces playing a role in generating their ambiance and working toward both social and business purposes. The implication of the title is that this "track" of art has not been given sufficient attention or appreciation. The title can also be taken ironically in that this ubiquitous art making for the visual culture of contemporary life is so taken for granted that it is "hidden," and its influence on noncommercial artists and the public's preferences in art has been only barely explored. With the wide range of imaginative art styles hardly different and in many cases indistinguishable from works exhibited in many galleries and museums, one cannot disagree with the book's central point that the line between art work in design, advertising, and entertainment and art by pure artists outside of these areas has become porous and all-but-eroded. While this is not a new point, "Hidden Track" decisively, informatively, and visually attests to it.