Monopol's October Issue Returns to Art School with Grace Weaver, Anne Imhof, and Monica Bonvicini

The October issue of Monopol magazine revisits the art academy, exploring where creativity begins and how the myth of the free artistic life is both sustained and tested there. International art stars recount their student beginnings and present early works. American painter Grace Weaver describes the start of her master's studies as a period of psychic destruction and subsequent reconstruction of operatic proportions. Monica Bonvicini, Amy Sillman, Cao Fei, and Simon Denny also share stories of creative highs, bitter falls, and how they found their paths despite resistance. Anne Imhof advises today's first-semester students that what they do is about love and excellence. The issue also features a studio visit with Danish artist Esben Weile Kjær, whose mix of parties, performances, and sculptures traces late-capitalist existence. A portrait examines painter Jörg Immendorff, whose work is being rediscovered in a major retrospective in Düsseldorf 20 years after his death. A pro-and-contra piece weighs the gifted painter and feared macho Willem de Kooning. A fashion special explores the intellectual appeal of the house of Prada, and artist and fashion fan Claus Richter presents his favorite designs of the new season. The table of contents is available online.