Dealing with––Some Texts, Images, and Thoughts Related to American Fine Arts, Co.

The New York gallery American Fine Arts whose name today is largely synony mous with that of its gallerist, Colin de Land, stands for a gallery practice in which a decided deviation from conventional models overlaps with successful activities within the institutional frame of the art market. Even today, AFA and de Land prove to be uncontested projection screens for the desire for independence or for bohemian resistance against the dictates of the market. Particularly in retrospect, a consistent image of the gallery just does not present itself. Faced with the obvious risk of romanticization, this publication seeks to understand how AFA actually functioned as a gallery within its specific context. Contributions from artists and academics including Andrea Fraser, Karl Holmqvist and Tobias Kaspar, Christian Philipp Muller, Josef Strau, Axel John Wieder, among others.