August 2016
Bastokalypse by Swiss Artists M.S. Bastian & Isabelle L.
24-08-16 Filed in: Art
M.S. Bastian & Isabelle L. Bastokalypse
Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess AG, 2010. First Edition, First Printing. A fine copy in fine original wrappers. Inscribed and dated (“2016”) by the artists on inside of the back wrapper and embellished with original drawings. This stunning volume represents the culmination of a decade-long collaboration between two Swiss graphic artists, M. S. Bastian and Isabelle L. Bastokalypse tells a story of apocalypse and the end of the world that amalgamates images inspired by a wide range of eras and art examples, including medieval Tuscan mosaics, renaissance panels, baroque engravings, Meiji-era Japanese prints, and contemporary graphic novels. The resulting work is alternately terrifying and amusing, reflecting the horrors and surprises of the world as it they reach us day by day through the media. The thirty-two parts of this 168-foot long painting are gathered in an oversized sixty-four-plate concertina folder (13.7m(!) by 26cm) with an essay on apocalyptic motifs by art critic Konrad Tobler printed on the verso. The result is as much an art object as it is a book, as unusual and thrilling in its own way as the images it contains. It comes with an invitation to an exhibition of their works at the Alex Schlesinger Gallery in Zürich in August 2016 (and another invitation by Alex Schlesinger for an exhibition by Rémi Jaccard in December 2014). This item part of our catalogue on Art & Artists in Switzerland 1990-2020. CHF 500.