Fiona Tan: Monomania (Rijksmuseum)
last copies sold out
Fiona Tan, Douwe Draaisma, Mayken Jonkman
Nai010 Publishers & Rijksmuseum, 2025
€34,95
Out of stock
A small but exceptionally beautiful publication, designed by Irma Boom.
In Monomania,Dutch artist Fiona Tan (b. 1966) delves into the way the human mind has been depicted throughout the centuries. Central to this is the tension between the visible and the invisible—and the enduring urge to visualize the intangible, the inner life.
Tan begins her quest with the intriguing painting “Portrait of a Kleptomaniac” by Théodore Géricault. From this nineteenth-century perspective on psychiatry, she focuses on a now-forgotten diagnosis: monomania. Using personal impressions, archival material, and visual analysis, she explores the interplay between art, science, and representation. What was considered “madness” at the time? How was it depicted? And what do these images tell us today?
This in-depth study culminates in Janine’s Room (2025), a large-scale video installation in which reality and imagination increasingly merge. In addition to the installation, the prints, photographs, paintings, Japanese masks, and other objects Tan selected from the Rijksmuseum’s collection are also included in this publication.
Monomania is a compelling social and art historical portrait of the limits of the mind—and our ongoing attempts to understand them.
ISBN: 9789462089075
