Amor Mundi: The Collection of Marguerite Steed Hoffman delves deep into this remarkable singular collection. Over two volumes housed in a bespoke slipcase, Amor Mundi presents an edited selection of over 400 works of modern and contemporary art from the collection of Marguerite Steed Hoffman. Over 30 authors – artists and art historians – explore this fascinating collection, addressing specific artworks as well as the motivations behind the collection’s creation and ongoing evolution.
Features outstanding acquisitions such as Peter Doig’s Red Man (Sings Calypso) (2017), Maria Lassnig’s Self-Portrait with Hare (2000) and Steve McQueen’s Weight (2016), as well as Philip Guston’s Studio Landscape (1975), Jasper Johns’s Water Freezes (1961) and Cy Twombly’s Sunset Rome (1957).
Texts by Martin Jay, Renée Green, Susan L. Aberth, Sarah Celeste Bancroft, Renate Bertlmann, Anna Katherine Brodbeck, Susan Davidson, Gavin Delahunty, TR Ericsson, Tamar Garb, Robert Gober, Rachel Haidu, Merlin James, Wyatt Kahn, Ragnar Kjartansson, Anna Lovatt, Leora Maltz-Leca, Nic Nicosia, Charles Ray, Mark Rosenthal, Dana Schutz, Barry Schwabsky, Richard Shiff, Raphaela Simon, Michelle Stuart, Kirsten Swenson, Mary Weatherford, Terry Winters. Interviews by Martin Jay and Marguerite Steed Hoffman, Gavin Delahunty and Isabelle Graw.
‘Amor Mundi is the ambitious, thoughtful and beautiful complement to a unique venture in which Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, and later Marguerite alone, set out to build a private collection that would eventually have a public purpose.’
– Nicholas Serota
'A gentle discursiveness flows through these remarkable two-volumes, an education in collecting. Marguerite Steed Hoffman, initially with her late husband Robert Hoffman, has been gathering for the last twenty-five years in earnest, searching sets of artworks with clear and personal stakes. Close readings of individual works by scholars reveal some artists’ lifelong concerns, while homages and even confessions by fellow artists share in the uncertainties of making. The design of the book arcs subtly too, giving space for looking then thinking. Marguerite understands that each added work shifts the collection’s relations, but respect remains for what came before. Above all, her through line beautifully reaffirms the particularity and possibility of artists’ material decisions.'
– James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director,
The Art Institute of Chicago