John Currin: New Paintings
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
John Currin: New Paintings Details
Review "...showcased in the elegant slip-cased volume...gorgously grotesque...the book is a must-read for art aficionados and novices alike." -- Dec 06 ZINK MAGAZINE "Packed with elegant reproductions, this eye-catching monograph captures Currin's evolution..." -- Nov 06 TIME OUT NEW YORK "a rich new coffee-table collection from Rizzoli..." -- Nov 06 GQ "...a rich new coffee-table collection from Rizzoli..." -- GQ, November, 2006"...showcased in the elegant slip-cased volume...gorgously grotesque...the book is a must-read for art aficionados and novices alike." -- ZINK MAGAZINE, December,2006 "Packed with elegant reproductions, this eye-catching monograph captures Currin's evolution..." -- TIME OUT NEW YORK, November, 2006 Read more About the Author John Currin has a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University (1984) and an MFA from Yale University (1986). His paintings are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou in Paris; Tate Gallery in London; and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He lives and works in New York. Allison Gingeras is an art critic who is adjunct curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Dave Eggers is the author of the best-selling A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and the editor of McSweeney's. Read more
Reviews
These art books are getting crazy, price wise. At least someone is making an effort to publish. (Gagosian who also gave us Saville's book) This is Currins raisone to date. Kind of odd considering his age. (What an ego trip that must be!) I like him, so it was a must buy for me. The book is large to begin with, 13 x 10. Color wise the reproductions are excellent. I have seen many of these in real life and as best I remember they have done a good job capturing the image. The general layout of the book is such that the main image being shown is on the right side and the image info is on the left. Many times there is also a drawing or photograph showing Currin's ideas for the painting. It works very well, I thought. Every once in a while there will be a closeup, which there can never be enough for my taste. My beef is that they reproduced some images with far to much margin around the picture. I have to assume based on the sizes of the paintings given that they were trying to keep the ratio of picture to reproducton consistent. What I mean is that I think they were trying to reproduce large paintings larger and smaller paintings smaller. Why, I dont know. Size is ALWAYS a problem for me with art books. The good old days when a publisher would print a horizontal image sideways on the page are long gone. (Heaven forbid we have to turn the book.) Currin doesnt have to many horizontal pictures so its not a big issue. Eggers involvment with the book is in producing a fictional narative of what is occuring in the a few of the images (11 in total). Interesting idea. The two essays are very well written. If you are a Currin fan I think this is a book worth having. Its big and beautiful, even if all of the reproductions arent as large as they could be. If you think you want it, get it now. Im thinking there wasnt a big print run on this one. A big tip of the hat to Gagosian! Thanks snookie!! Keep em comming!!
