Christian Marclay: Liquids is one of the recipients of The Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2015, awarded 2016.

This book was published to coincide with the major solo exhibition by Christian Marclay at White Cube Bermondsey in 2015. The presentation, ambitious in its scope, included a range of new work with the aqueous motif introduced with the paintings running throughout the exhibition.

The recent paintings of Marclay (born 1955) take as their point of departure wet sounds suggestive of the action of painting. These paintings, bridging Abstract Expressionism and Pop art, represent a continuation of the artist’s longstanding experimentation with the relationship between images and sounds. Christian Marclay: Liquids, includes the recent Onomatopoeia paintings, as well as the films Pub Crawl (2014) and Surround Sounds (2014) and an installation of found glassware.

Revered in the worlds of art and music for a body of work that bridges the two, Marclay planned a lively program of collaborative musical performances led by the London Sinfonietta to accompany his exhibition and set up facilities for the on-site recording, pressing and screen printing of vinyl records in the gallery, also documented in this volume.

To reflect the scope and variety of the exhibition, this publication mixes different printing techniques, paper types and sizes, making it a unique object in its own right. Designed by Laurent Benner, who has collaborated with Marclay on numerous publications, this title is a fitting record of the work of one of the most creative and innovative contemporary artists to master so many different media.

Edited by Honey Luard
Text by Tom Morton
Designed by Laurent Benner
308 x 230mm, hardback
148 pages, 128 colour illustrations
ISBN 978-1-906072-95-7
Published by White Cube, 2015

Tom Morton is a curator, writer, and regular contributor to Frieze, ArtReview and Art Basel Stories. He has curated over 70 exhibitions, both as a curator at the Hayward Gallery, London, and Cubitt Gallery, London, and as an independent curator. His recent and forthcoming exhibitions include 'A Room Hung With Thoughts: British Painting Now' at the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2025), and 'You Must Change Your Life' at Grimm, New York (2026).