Purple Anthology

Performance by André for the book launch at Colette, Tuesday, May 27, 2008, Illustration by Jean-Philippe Delhomme

Introduction of the Purple Anthology by OLIVIER ZAHM

PURPLE ANTHOLOGY 1992/2006, published by Rizzoli

 

An alternative magazine is a poetic and political response. We launched purple prose in the early 1990s without any means, and without any experience, because we wanted to make a magazine that was radically different. We wanted to support the artists around us no one else supported, much less talked about.

We wanted nothing to do with the demands of advertising or advertisers. Writing exhibition reviews based on press releases was out of the question.

We didn’t want to publish theory or criticism; we thought that most of the time it was irrelevant in art magazines. We wanted to make a magazine that reflected the way we were, and the way we wanted…