Ana Lupas (b. 1940) has been one of the most important artists of her generation in Eastern Europe since the 1960s. Her practice is closely linked to the locality where she has lived and worked all her life, Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Her work has many links to conceptual art, land-art, and other (neo)avant-garde movements of the late twentieth century.
Despite navigating the constraints of a totalitarian regime in Romania, Lupas followed her own path and did so consistently and imperturbably. Her experimental art practice encompasses textile objects, sculptures, installations, actions, and environments that engage with themes of collective participation and resistance. During her long artistic career, she made several large-scale ephemeral installations, which were jointly achieved with local communities in Romania’s countryside.
This comprehensive catalogue, accompanying two solo exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (Ana Lupas – On this Side of the River Elbe, May 9, 2024 – September 15, 2024) and Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein in Vaduz (Ana Lupas: Intimate Space – Open Gaze, November 1, 2024 – March 16, 2025), marks the first extensive monograph to appear on Lupas’s practice. The publication, also available with a German-language insert, offers a deep exploration of the artist’s more than six decades of rich and diverse work, inviting the reader to consider the transformative power of Lupas’s oeuvre.
Edited by Gwen Parry, Masha van Vliet, Carlos Zepeda Aguilar
Foreword by Letizia Ragaglia, Rein Wolfs, Philippe Van Cauteren
Introduction by Leontine Coelewij and Letizia Ragaglia
Contributions by Tanja Boon, Leontine Coelewij, Marina Lupas, Ramona Novicov, Letizia Ragaglia, Christian Rattemeyer and Mechtild Widrich
Graphic design by Akiko Wakabayashi
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Köln, 2024
Softback, 25 cm x 18.8 cm
160 pages, 102 colour and 31 b/w illus.
ISBN 978-3-7533-0634-6 (English with German supplement)