The Conditions of Being Art is the first book to examine the activities of groundbreaking contemporary art galleries Pat Hearn Gallery and American Fine Arts, Co. (1983–2004), and the transnational milieu of artists, dealers, and critics that surrounded them. Drawing on the archives of dealers Pat Hearn and Colin de Land—both, independently, legendary players on the New York art scene of the 1980s and '90s, and one of the great love stories of the art world—this publication illustrates their distinctive artistic practices, significant exhibitions and events, and daily business. Hearn and de Land's gallery practices explored new experimental and ethical possibilities within the selling of art, testing the relationship of contemporary art to its markets. In this volume, full-color images, in-depth scholarly investigations and detailed gallery histories vibrantly document how Hearn and de Land tested new notions of what an art gallery could be.

Edited with text by Jeannine Tang, Lia Gangitano, and Ann Butler. Text by Johanna Burton, Jill Casid, Lauren Cornell, Diedrich Diederichsen, Jennifer King, Mason Leaver- Yap, and Kobena Mercer

Design by xSite.

Softcover, 304 pages with 240 illustrations, 6.75 inches x 9 inches, Dancing Foxes Press/CCS Bard. 

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