Bohemia

The publication accompanies the exhibition Bohemia: History of an Idea, 1950-2000, which examines the historical persistence of the idea of bohemia. From its origins in mid nineteenth-century Paris, the idea of bohemia has been a powerful component of what it means to be an artist. While artists have always in part had a reputation for living outside societal norms, it was here that such a way of life was first codified.The exhibition curator and editor of the publication Russell Ferguson, Research Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, will look at the world of bohemia from the end of the Second World War until the end of the century, when the culture of the commodity began to erode even a way of life predicated on its refusal. Structurally, the publication will be organized around an examination of how bohemia manifested itself in ten cities in Europe, North America and Asia at particular moments in the second half of the twentieth century. Each of these chronotropic moments is intended to foreground a different aspect of what bohemia has meant over time. The publication will present, within the framework of prevalently photographic works, the artist such as Fred W. McDarrah, Rudy Burckhardt, David Bailey, William Gedney, Nan Goldin, Alvin Baltrop, David Wojnarowicz, David Hujar, Anita Steckel, Libuse Jarcovjáková, Roy Arden, Wang Jin or Wolfgang Tillmans.