Bücher von Michael Paraskos

Pygmalion 1 is an attempt to start something essential to the future of carving. It is an attempt to start a real and meaningful debate as to the nature, purpose and future of carving in the twenty-first century. This is a time when we see not only the continuation of a long-term decline in demand for hand carving skills, but the increased replacement, including by some heritage bodies, of those skills by laser-guided cutting machines and even 3D printers. Carving in art education has been under threat for a very long time, but it is now almost non-existent outside of a very small number of highly specialist institutions.Despite this, Pygmalion 1 does not start from the standpoint that hand carving is doomed. But it does intend to provoke the carving community to acknowledge there are potentially serious problems we must face and that we have put off the difficult act of facing them for far too long.Intentionally challenging and provocative, we do not claim to have any answers, but we do claim the right to ask questions - what we call our provocations. Through them our aim is to provoke debate. Whether you want to join in that debate is up to you.

The Aphorisms of Irsee is a collection of definitive statements on the nature of art by the artist Clive Head and the writer Michael Paraskos. The aphorisms were formulated whilst Head and Paraskos were teaching at a summer art camp in Irsee, southern Germany. Sometimes controversial, often funny, the aphorisms are designed to challenge our understanding of art by defining its essential characteristics. Head and Paraskos do this not only in terms of the question "what is art?" but the equally important question, "what are the conditions in which art can appear?" With a new introduction for the third edition by Michael Paraskos, the Aphorisms of Irsee are radical, challenging and thought provoking, and a joy to read. They set out a new agenda for art in the twenty-first century.