Life in Progress, 9780241712207
Hardcover
Near-death, art, and endless curiosity: a curator’s life unfolds.
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Life in Progress

$44.01

  • Hardcover

    160 pages

  • Release Date

    5 January 2026

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Summary

Life in Progress: An Enchanting Journey Through Art and Discovery

World-renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, for the first time, grants a private view of how a near-death experience in young childhood catapulted him towards art and artists.

When Hans Ulrich was a young boy, he was knocked down by a speeding car. Hospitalized for weeks, he discovered the healing powers of art. Once he was able to travel again, he began to set out alone, on night trains, to meet artists in the…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780241712207
ISBN-10:0241712203
Author:Hans Ulrich Obrist
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:Allen Lane
Format:Hardcover
Number of Pages:160
Release Date:5 January 2026
Weight:500g
Dimensions:222mm x 138mm x 28mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Hans Ulrich Obrist manages to underline the value of art, to single it out from other human endeavours as something of paramount importance; to this, he brings an instinctive and profound love, a generosity of spirit (and heart) that he extends also to other fields of human expression – Etel AdnanHe is a passionate communicator. In result, half the world is starting to live in the future now – Yoko OnoHis words come out in an almost comical torrent, citations bobbing up and ideas colliding… ArtReview named him the most powerful figure in the field, but Obrist seems less to stand atop the art world than to race around, up, over, and through it * The New Yorker *

About The Author

Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans Ulrich Obrist is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. Prior to this, he was a curator at the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 300 shows. Obrist’s recent publications include Ways of Curating (2015), The Age of Earthquakes (2015), Lives of the Artists, Lives of Architects (2015), Mondialite (2017), Somewhere Totally Else (2018) and The Athens Dialogues (2018).

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