Pushwagner

Edited by Anthony Spira and Natalie Hope O’Donnell
with contributions by Lars Bang Larsen, Martin Herbert,
Natalie Hope O’Donnell, Will Bradley and Petter Mejlænder

Obsessive and sardonic, provocative and visionary, cult Norwegian artist Hariton Pushwagner was fêted as a celebrity in his home country, renowned for his hedonistic lifestyle as well as for his epic satires on modern life. For more than four decades, his depictions of a dehumanized metropolis under perpetual siege from pollution, totalitarianism and mass destruction offered a prescient vision of a world increasingly like our own.

This compelling book, which accompanied the artist’s first international touring exhibition, features all of Pushwagner’s key works, including the graphic novel Soft City, arguably his defining creation, the silkscreen series A Day in the Life of Family Man, and the intricate Apocalypse Frieze paintings, the zenith of his technical and imaginative accomplishment. Critical writings on these and other works, a colourful and frank interview with the artist, and an illustrated biography of his extraordinary life complete this visually striking and timely volume.

Anthony Spira is director of MK Gallery and co-curator of ‘Pushwagner’.

Natalie O’Donnell is an independent writer, curator and translator, and co-curator of ‘Pushwagner’.

Lars Bang Larsen is a writer, art historian and curator based in Copenhagen, Kassel and Barcelona.

Martin Herbert is a writer, critic and lecturer based in Tunbridge Wells and Berlin.

Will Bradley is a British artist, writer and curator based in Oslo.

Petter Mejlænder is a freelance journalist and writer based in Oslo.

 

 

The official trailer for the 2011 documentary film about Pushwagner

 

Watch a day in the life of the Soft City residents – where work and life are a never-changing cycle – in this animation by Pushwagner.
Copyright © 2008 Pushwagner. All Rights reserved.