Most Popular Books by Karen Wilkin

Catalog for exhibit of Larry Poons work at the Sam & Adele Golden Gallery, August 19, 2011 -

The delightful tales and theatrical drawings of Edward Gorey (American, 1925-2000) reflect a special kind of genius for what is left unwritten and unseen. In Gorey''s vaguely Victorian world of well-tended gardens and opulent estates, smoke-belching factories and fog-shrouded streets, nothing seems certain or quite as it should be. Chaos lurks just beneath life''s tidy surface, occasionally erupting in surprising events with unexpected, often horrific consequences. But when tragedy befalls Gorey''s quirky cast of characters-hapless waifs, dusty dowagers, scheming tycoons, and unhinged maidens-somehow we can''t keep from laughing. Far from casting us into the abyss, Gorey reminds us to contemplate mortality with a smile. In Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey, more than 175 reproductions include samples from Gorey''s books, illustrations produced for other writers, theatrical sets and costume designs, and a wealth of individual pieces, many never before published. Sketches, typewritten manuscripts, doodles, and musings join the generous selection of finished works. Published on the occasion of the first retrospective of Edward Gorey''s work, at the Brandywine River Museum, Elegant Enigmas is a tribute to a master artist and writer, who with murderously dry humor created a body of work singular in its brilliance and charm.

This volume presents the work of this private and enigmatic twentieth-century Bolognese artist. Influenced by the work of Giotto, as well as Cezanne, the metaphysical painters, and the cubists, Morandi''s work defies any label. His still-lifes and landscapes are serene groupings of muted objects, yet Morandi provokes a tension between them which speaks of spacial relationships, negative space, and nuances of light and color.

Color field painting, which emerged in the United States in the 1950s, is based on radiant, uninflected hues. Exemplified by the work of Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, and Frank Stella, among others, these stunningly beautiful and impressively scaled paintings constitute one of the crowning achievements of postwar American abstract art. Color as Field offers a long-overdue reevaluation of this important aspect of American abstract painting. The authors examine how color field painting rejects the gestural, layered, and hyper-emotional approach typical of Willem de Kooning and his followers, yet at the same time develops and expands ideas about all-overness and the primacy of color posited by the work of other members of the abstract expressionist generation, such as Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. From the fresh historical standpoint of the 21st century, this fascinating reassessment ranges across the artists’ individual approaches and their commonalities, concluding with insights into the ongoing legacy of post-1970s color field painting among present-day artists.

Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) is one of the most important figures of postwar American art. Celebrated for his exuberant, color-filled canvases and renowned as an influential teacher for generations of artists -- first in his native Germany, then in New York and Provincetown -- Hofmann played a pivotal role in the development of Abstract Expressionism. Along with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Arshile Gorky, he gave impetus to this style, the first uniquely American school in painting. Published to accompany a retrospective of his work at the Naples Museum of Art, Florida, Hans Hofmann: A Retrospective examines the full range of his achievement and influence both as an artist and a theorist.

Clement Greenberg (1909-1994) is the most renowned American art critic of the twentieth century and the first to treat New York modern artists as an independent school. In the work of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and sculptor David Smith, Greenberg saw a vitality absent from the art of postwar Europe. His writings helped transform the bohemian colony huddled around Manhattan''s grimy Eighth Street into the churning center of an international movement. Far less known is the fact that Greenberg was also a major collector; because of his insistence on anonymity when loaning pieces to museums, the scope of his private collection surprises many. Recently acquired by the Portland Art Museum, his incredible collection is now coming to the public in a multi-venue traveling exhibition. This extraordinary book illustrates, in color and for the first time, the collection''s 155 works. Spanning five decades of American art, it features some of the twentieth century''s finest artists. Works by Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, and Adolph Gottlieb represent Abstract Expressionism. Paintings by Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, and others represent the Color Field movement, in which artists used liquid pure color on raw canvas. One highlight is Noland''s first ''''target'''' painting--a 1958 masterpiece exploring the flatness of paint. The collection also includes excellent examples of the movement Greenberg dubbed Post-Painterly Abstraction, including pieces by Walter Darby Bannard and Larry Poons. The works Greenberg collected reflect his ideas, passions, and personal associations. They reveal him as a reviewer and intellectual but also as a friend to the artists. Many of the more than two hundred color plates are accompanied by Greenberg''s comments about the artists--painters and sculptors now being rediscovered by young contemporary artists exploring formalism, the nature of paint, and the evolution of modern art. The text includes discussions of Greenberg''s significance to criticism, his famous studio visits, and the controversy attached to his work, as well as short biographies of each artist. PARTIAL EXHIBITION SCHEDULE: Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon July 14, 2001-September 16, 2001

"Stuart Davis (1892-1964), once described as "the ace of America''s Modernists," regarded drawing as central to his art. He believed that all his works were drawings, and developed his images as carefully adjusted black-and-white "configurations" which he translated to "color-space compositions" only at the last stage of his painting procedure. He even retranslated some of his most ambitious and best-known paintings back into large-scale black-and-white drawings on canvas, apparently as a final version of the image." "This volume examines, for the first time, the full range of Davis''s activity as a draftsman, from his early naturalistic drawings in the manner of the Ashcan School to the economical near-abstractions of his maturity. A broad interpretation of the notion of drawing, in keeping with Davis''s own understanding of the term, allows the inclusion of works on paper in a variety of mediums, including watercolors, gouaches, and some late black-and-white drawings on canvas." "Included as well are selections from Davis''s extensive writings, which contain innumerable references to drawing: attempts to define what constitutes a good drawing, and discussions of the role of drawing in his work and in the formulation of his complex theories of composition. Just as important, Davis''s notebooks contain many images, ranging from diagrams that illustrate theory to fully developed, self-sufficient drawings." "Karen Wilkin and Lewis C. Kachur, both eminent Davis scholars, draw heavily on his unpublished writings and less well-known images to deepen our understanding of Davis and of American modernism in its formative years."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Collected in three volumes, this is the highly anticipated, definitive reference on Stuart Daviss paintings, watercolors, drawings, and published illustrations.

The essay & over 40 color & 20 b/w photographs are on a little known aspect of Smith''s work; his reliefs in bronze, plaster & painted assemblage.

Helen Frankenthaler has received international recognition since the 1950s, when, in her twenties, she emerged as a leading New York artist who played a pivotal role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to the Colorfield painting of the 1960s. Over the past decade, in fact, the artist''s works on paper have assumed a stature equal to that of her canvases and often catch the most highly charged and vibrant aspects of her art. Her masterful use of drawing, space, and color is redefined to shed new light on her entire career.

A look at the artist and his work, including his illustrations for T.S. Eliot''s Old Possum''s Book of Practical Cats and the animated credits for the Mystery! series on public television.

This monograph documents the range of Noland''s (b. 1924) expansive and colorful abstractions, including silkscreens and works of handmade paper as well as canvases. with 107 illustrations, 97 in color. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Stephen Achimore, Scott Bennett, Darryl Hughto, Mark Raush and Susan Roth.

Dandy, renowned for his good looks, his skills as an amateur boxer, and his ability to play Beethoven symphonies on the accordion. His art suggests a far different persona, however, for Braque was intensely serious, technically meticulous, and devoted to making thoughtful, deeply felt images--whether as a Fauve, a Cubist, or a mature painter working in his own distinctive style. The greatest adventure of Braque''s life was his six-year collaboration with Picasso, and.

The essential Morandi, in pictures and words Giorgio Morandi''s (1890-1964) steady pursuit of a poetic vision in still-life and landscape painting (as well as engravings and etchings) has secured him a singular and revered position in the history of modern art. While drawing on the achievements of Giotto, Cézanne, the metaphysical painters and the Cubists, Morandi''s work finally resembles no one else''s, and quietly defies paraphrase: everything is enigmatically clarified in the work itself, in all its apparent simplicity, on terms entirely specific to the artist''s compositional gifts, in which respect he might almost be described as the Erik Satie of painting. The original writings and interviews collected in this substantial new volume trace Morandi''s various influences, illuminate the atmosphere of Bologna that so characterized the artist''s sensibility, and allow us to analyze the myth that has formed around his life and personality. Karen Wilkin, editor of this volume and the author of monographs on Georges Braque, Anthony Caro, Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, Kenneth Noland and David Smith, has assembled an important contribution to the critical understanding of this great artist.

This text presents Cynthia Polksy''s best works - works on paper and paintings. Each entry is fully illustrated in colour, either on one page or as a double spread.

Published to coincide with an exhibition of Caro''s sculpture at the Tate Gallery, London, 16th October, 1991 - 5th January, 1992