Beauty's Nothing

Beauty's Nothing by Nadav Kander. First edition (2001). First impression. Large format hardback in fine condition. No markings. Comes with a protective transparent dust jacket. Please see pictures. Any questions please get in touch.

About Beauty’s Nothing

Beauty’s Nothing, my first book published in 2001. It contains works photographed over the previous 11 years. The title references the Rainer Maria Rilke poem Duino Elegies. The quote from this poem, has a resonance with in me. “For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so, because it serenely disdains to destroy us”. In 2000, I wanted to book end my work up to that point. Books have the power to encapsulate a body of work and put a full stop after the last picture. I have found that this "puts to bed” the work and lets me move on. After pinning up approximately 1500 pictures in my studio, Michael Mack and I distilled the work down into various chapters. We approached 7 writers being Peter Carey, Rachel Cusk, Nick Cave, Julia Alvarez, J.T. Leroy, Peter Josephs and Gerard Malanga, to respond to a series of works we sent them by writing poetry, prose or a story. This took over a year to pull together and Michael wrote an essay too. Although this book is disparate in subject matter, there is no doubt that a thread of common sentiment runs through all the work. I show that with out imperfection, there can be no beauty. It is the imperfection that is the mustard upon the chocolate cake of beauty. Nadav Kander. As Mack states, “ For Kander the symptoms of beauty are his lure, the gloss of pleasure a beguiling snare for disconcerting enquiries into questions of morality and desire, our inconsistent response to the female nude and the tradition of representing majestic nature in idyllic views."

Related Links

More books by Nadav Kander here. More books by Arena Editions here.