Synopses & Reviews
An American sculptor, painter, and installation artist,and#160;Paul Thek (1933--1988) is primarily known for hyper-realisticand#160;works of human body parts executed in fleshlike beeswax and for his strongly symbolic, room-size installations constructed from transitory materials. A major figure on the 1960s New York art scene, Thek also spent time in Europe, where he paved the way for artists adopting collaborative strategies. Although he gained a large following and was featured in more than one hundred solo and group exhibitions, the anti-establishment and#8220;artistand#8217;s artistand#8221; was practically forgotten at the time of his death.
Major exhibitions abroad and critical attention from younger artists have done much to revive his reputation, and Paul Thek: Diver expands on those efforts by bringing the artistand#8217;s resounding influence on the art world up to date. Published to accompany Thekand#8217;s first retrospective in the United States, this landmark publication includes nearly 300 chronologically arranged illustrations of sculptures, paintings, prints, and other works featured in the exhibition as well as four special and#8220;in-depthand#8221; image sections focusing on key installations, projects, and pages from the artistand#8217;s journals.and#160; An extensive selection of documentary photographs, many never before published, illuminate Thekand#8217;s artistic aesthetic and production process. With a bibliography, exhibition history, and checklist of works in the exhibition, this overdue acknowledgment of Thekand#8217;s brief, but broad-reaching career will be the authoritative volume on the artist for years to come.
Review
"This carefully, genuinely critical appreciation of Thek's art reinforces and raises readers' admiration for the artist and will shape analyses of his contributions to the neo-Dada tradition."and#8212;W. B. Folkestad, CHOICE
Review
andquot;This photographic essay captures the poignancy and exuberance of those wildly free and creative years before the AIDS crisis. The 75 black-and-white photos combined yield a surprisingly subtle, and all the more vivid, documentation of an era and community.andquot;andmdash;Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
The first comprehensive overview of an influential American photographer and filmmaker whose work is known for its intimacy and social engagement
Coming of age in the 1960s, the photographer Danny Lyon (b. 1942) distinguished himself with work that emphasized intimate social engagement. In 1962 Lyon traveled to the segregated South to photograph the civil rights movement. Subsequent projects on biker culture, the demolition and redevelopment of lower Manhattan, and the Texas prison system, and more recently on the Occupy movement and the vanishing culture in China's booming Shanxi Province, share Lyon's signature immersive approach and his commitment to social and political issues that concern those on the margins of society. Lyon's photography is paralleled by his work as a filmmaker and a writer.
Danny Lyon: Message to the Future is the first in-depth examination of this leading figure in American photography and film, and the first publication to present his influential bodies of work in all media in their full context. Lead essayists Julian Cox and Elisabeth Sussman provide an account of Lyon's five-decade career. Alexander Nemerov writes about Lyon's work in Knoxville, Tennessee; Ed Halter assesses the artist's films; Danica Willard Sachs evaluates his photomontages; and Julian Cox interviews Alan Rinzler about his role in publishing Lyon's earliest works. With extensive back matter and illustrations, this publication will be the most comprehensive account of this influential artist's work.
Synopsis
The work of Eva Hesse (1936and#150;1970), one of the greatest American artists of the 1960s, continues to inspire and to endure in large part because of its deeply emotional and evocative qualities. Her latex and fiberglass sculptures in particular have a resonance that transcends the boundaries of minimalist art in which she had her roots. Hesseand#8217;s breakthrough solo exhibitionand#151;
Chain Polymers at the Fischbach Gallery in New York in 1968and#151;was a turning point in postwar American art.
Eva Hesse: Sculpture focuses on the artistand#8217;s large-scale sculptures in latex and fiberglass and provides a rare opportunity to look at Hesseand#8217;s artistic achievement within the historical context of her life in never-before-seen family diaries and photographs. Essays consider Hesseand#8217;s art from a variety of angles: Elisabeth Sussman discusses the sculptures shown in the 1968 solo exhibition; Fred Wasserman delves into the Hesse familyand#8217;s life in Nazi Germany and in the German Jewish community in New York in the 1940s; Yve-Alain Bois examines Hesseand#8217;s works within the context of the art and aesthetic theories of the 1960s; and Mark Godfrey analyzes the importance of Hesseand#8217;s celebrated hanging sculptures of 1969and#150;70. In addition to color reproductions of the artistand#8217;s sculpture, the book features a copiously illustrated chronology of the artistand#8217;s life.
Synopsis
An unprecedented look at a moving photographic series that chronicles the gay communities of Los Angeles and San Francisco from 1969 to 1972and#160;
Synopsis
This is the first book to explore the historically significant and moving photographs taken by Friedkin in gay communities of Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1969 and 1970.
Synopsis
For more than forty years, American photographer Anthony Friedkin (b. 1949), creating full-frame black-and-white images, has documented people, cities, and landscapes primarily in his home state of California. During the culturally tumultuous years of 1969 and 1970, Friedkin made a series of photographs that together offer an eloquent and expressive visual chronicle of the gay communities of Los Angeles and San Francisco at the time. This is the first book to explore the series, titled
The Gay Essay, in depth, within the broader historical context that gave rise to it.
and#160;
1969 witnessed the Stonewall riots in New York City and was a turning point in the history of community building and organized political activism among homosexuals in the United States.and#160; The Gay Essay provides a singular, intimate record of this crucial moment. Friedkinand#8217;s portraits, taken in streets, hotels, bars, and dancehalls, demonstrate a sensitivity and an understanding that has imbued the photographs with an enduring resonance. This handsome book features seventy-five full-page plates and is accompanied by engaging essays and a poem by Eileen Myles.
About the Author
Julian Cox is the founding curator of photography and chief administrative curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Nayland Blake is an artist, writer, and educator, and is chair of the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies at the International Center of Photography, New York. Eileen Mylesand#160;is a New York-based poet, whose recent books include Snowflake/different streets and Inferno.
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