André Rottmann Publishes Critical Study of Isa Genzken's 'Fuck the Bauhaus' Series

In 2024, André Rottmann authored a 104-page illustrated examination of Isa Genzken's 2000 series 'Fuck the Bauhaus'. This publication analyzes the German artist's provocative architectural models for Manhattan high-rises, constructed from everyday objects found in New York. Rottmann interprets Genzken's shift from her 1970s post-Minimalist works, which evoked catastrophe and failed utopias, toward a practice merging sculpture and architecture through appropriation and collage. Drawing on theorists like Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Bruno Latour, the book argues that Genzken's late style reimagines avant-garde traditions rather than returning to them. David Joselit, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor at Harvard University, notes that Rottmann reframes assemblage as an aesthetic procedure relevant to a commodity-saturated world. Felicity Scott, Professor of Architecture at Columbia University, describes the work as tracing Genzken's defiance of sculptural conventions and her navigation of heterogeneous associations. The paperback, priced at £15.99, includes 33 color illustrations and is available through MIT Press and Google Books. Genzken's series marks a poetic departure in her career, exploring new principles of modeling amid modern architecture's unfulfilled promises.