No New Kind of Duck ― Would I Know How to Say What I Do?

What do we learn by making art? What do we discover by discussing our art with other people? These are the questions at the heart of No New Kind of Duck, which documents an exchange between Jan Verwoert and artists, critics, and other researchers at the Graduate School at the Berlin University of the Arts, including artists Alex Martinis Roe, Jeremiah Day, Azin Feizabadi, Lizza May David, and Ralf Baecker and composers Nuria Núñez Hierro and Björn Erlach.

Creating art and coining the terms to explain and define one’s artistic practice, the contributors find, are two closely related yet distinct practices. The book begins with an introduction by Verwoert that discusses the politics of art as a form of knowledge production. Verwoert’s introduction is followed by contributions that turn the focus on the stakes of an art practice today. The book also presents a careful selection of art, in which each piece is presented without accompanying explanations or justification, highlighting the possibilities for artists to coin their own terms to describe the concerns of their practice. Beautifully designed by artist Nienke Terpsma, the book will be an equally welcome companion for established or aspiring artists.

Jan Verwoert is a Berlin-based art critic and cultural theorist. He is professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and teaches at the Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam. A contributing editor for Frieze magazine, he is also the author of Bas Jan Ader: In Search of the Miraculous.