Steidlville

Artists is an ambitious exercise in catalogue some of the most important and exciting artists working today. For the past six years Jason Schmidt has photographed international contemporary artists in their studios, galleries, biennales and wherever the artist happens to be making work. More than a series of classic portraits, Schmidt’s insistence in photographing the artists at work or in their environments allow for an intimate glimpse into the creative processes behind the artworks themselves.
Additionally, in texts which accompany the photographs, the artists speak in their own words, putting themselves in the context of a particular place and within the larger picture of a personal body of work. Artists documents the incredibly heterogeneous practices of comtemporary artists today including painters (Ed Ruscha, Tracey Emin), photographers (Roe Ethridge, Andreas Gursky), Video artists (Aida Ruilova, Doug Aitken), sculptors (Liz Larner, Marc Quinn), installation artists (Maurizio Cattelan, Gregor Schneider), and artists who defy the categorical imperative of medium (Matthew Barney, Sophie Calle, Paul McCarthy, Richard Prince).
There is no pretense toward forging a coherent international contemporary art scene. Each ot the 125 artist portraits collected here is its own self-contained world, specific to the artist’s mythology and methodology that inform and ultimately become their art.