Christian Boltanski: Lessons of Darkness (1988) catalogs the first in-depth exploration of Christian Boltanki’s art in a American Museum. With essays from the artist and exhibition organizer Lynn Gumpert, the catalogue invesitgates the significance and origins of the artist’s major themes: life and death, childhood and memory, and the blurred lines between art and daily life. Extensive illustrations reveal Boltanski’s dramatic use of light and shadow in both photographic and installation work. The catalogue includes a biographical essay and a 16-page photo-essay by the artist, “Detective,” exploring the faces of anonymity and individuality. “I was eleven years old in 1955 and I resembled these sixty-two children, whose photos were pictured in that year’s Mickey Mouse Club magazine. They had each sent in the picture that, according to their opinion, represented them best: smiling and well-groomed or with their favorite toy or animal. They had the same desires and the same interests that I did. Today they must all be about my age, but I can’t learn what has become of them.” -Christian Boltanski, quoted by Lynn Gumpert, “The Life and Death of Christian Boltanski,” p. 58. Exhibition catalogue.

Christian Boltanski: Lessons of Darkness.
Exhibition Catalogue
1988
119 pages; paperback; 15 color illustrations, 224 black and white illustrations
Musem of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary art, Los Angeles; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York 
ISBN: 0914357158