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EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO
Retro/Active: The Work of Rafael Ferrer
Edited by Deborah Cullen. Text by Edward J. Sullivan, Vincent Katz, Carter Ratcliff.
Retro/Active: The Work of Rafael Ferrer is the first major publication to examine the breadth and depth of Puerto Rican-born Rafael Ferrer's influential production over the past 55 years. From Ferrer's avant-garde art actions in the 1960s through his more recent brightly colored paintings paying homage to island life, his artistic journey has always reflected his intelligence, humor and a uniquely Caribbean perspective. Here, essays by curator Deborah Cullen and scholar Edward Sullivan chronicle Ferrer's biography and artistic output, consider the Caribbean and western influences in his work, and chart his early sources, including the Surrealists, Dada, Wifredo Lam and Puerto Rican master Francisco Oller y Cestero. This volume also includes Carter Ratcliff's reprisal of his out-of-print 1973 opus "Rafael Ferrer in the Tropical Sublime" and Vincent Katz's interview with the artist. In all, Retro/Active features over 100 full-color plates and archival images, and will spark a critical reconsideration of Ferrer's work.
Featured image is Essay by Rafael Ferrer, reproduced from Retro/Active: The work of Rafael Ferrer.
"Rafael Ferrer’s art is restless. His images reach beyond themselves, sometimes in the oblique drift of reverie, sometime in a flash, as lightning or the look that darts from behind a shaman’s mask. In any case, Ferrer’s imagery display none of that drive toward 'clarity' which is typical of so much recent American art- and which has produced so much that is obscure in its over-specialization. In its internal development as well as its relation to present day trends, Ferrer’s work has avoided the obsessive lock-step of modernist orthodoxy...He understands its issues and their contribution to the climate for serious art. At moments turbulent and engulfing, at other moments, calm and reflective, gathering itself into its own depths, Ferrer’s imagination gently overflows historical, cultural, and artistic boundaries or sweeps through them, allowing itself to be deflected only if deflection will focus its power."
FORMAT: Pbk, 8.75 x 10 in. / 160 pgs / 102 color / 2 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $35.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $40 ISBN: 9781882454273 PUBLISHER: El Museo del Barrio AVAILABLE: 7/31/2010 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available
Published by El Museo del Barrio. Edited by Deborah Cullen. Text by Edward J. Sullivan, Vincent Katz, Carter Ratcliff.
Retro/Active: The Work of Rafael Ferrer is the first major publication to examine the breadth and depth of Puerto Rican-born Rafael Ferrer's influential production over the past 55 years. From Ferrer's avant-garde art actions in the 1960s through his more recent brightly colored paintings paying homage to island life, his artistic journey has always reflected his intelligence, humor and a uniquely Caribbean perspective. Here, essays by curator Deborah Cullen and scholar Edward Sullivan chronicle Ferrer's biography and artistic output, consider the Caribbean and western influences in his work, and chart his early sources, including the Surrealists, Dada, Wifredo Lam and Puerto Rican master Francisco Oller y Cestero. This volume also includes Carter Ratcliff's reprisal of his out-of-print 1973 opus "Rafael Ferrer in the Tropical Sublime" and Vincent Katz's interview with the artist. In all, Retro/Active features over 100 full-color plates and archival images, and will spark a critical reconsideration of Ferrer's work.
