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HUNTERS POINT PRESS
B. Wurtz: Pan Paintings
Edited by Barney Kulok. Text by Erica Cooke.
Gorgeous abstractions on roasting pans and takeout containers from a beloved figure of the New York art world
For nearly five decades New York-based artist B. Wurtz (born 1948) has transformed humble materials and discarded objects into humorous and wryly beautiful works of art. This full-color, Swiss-bound monograph focuses on the artist’s iconic series of “pan paintings” made on disposable aluminum roasting pans and to-go containers. In 1990, Wurtz discovered patterns stamped in the bottom of these mass-produced products and grasped their potential as “readymade abstract paintings.” In the three decades since, he has worked across a wide variety of pan shapes and sizes, applying dazzling combinations of color using the patterns as predetermined compositions. Pan Paintings provides the first overview of the various permutations in color and shape that comprise this long-term series. The book includes an essay by art historian and curator Erica Cooke which considers this critically acclaimed body of work and its deep entanglement with the craft-oriented ethos and amateur culture of postwar America.
Featured image is reproduced from 'B. Wurtz: Pan Paintings.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Forbes: Media
Natasha Wolff
Edited by artist and publisher Barney Kulok with an essay by art historian and curator Erica Cooke, this monograph centers on the work of New York-based artist B. Wurtz. The artist is famous for transforming nondescript disposable aluminum roasting pans and to-go containers into works of art by painting on them.
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Featured spreads are reproduced from B. Wurtz: Pan Paintings, a new release from Hunters Point Press collecting 70 out of more than 500 abstract paintings made by the artist on disposable aluminum roasting pans and to-go containers since 1990. Essayist Erica Cooke writes, "In salvaging these throwaway pans for works of art, Wurtz underscores the American tradition of making do with what we have by investing in quotidian items—of drawing out their life-affirming qualities. While his application of bold color vivifies the industrial templates—and, in turn, the anonymous designers behind them—there is equal vitality in the act of viewing these Pan Paintings in substantial groupings on the gallery wall or in the pages of this book. The variety of sizes and shapes in aluminum pans, from small circles to large ovals and perfect squares to subdivided rectangles, registers the breadth of contexts in which such containers might appear: single-serve TV dinner, backyard barbecue, Thanksgiving potluck, restaurant delivery, unfussy wedding buffet, leftover lunch at work, book-club spread, or church-basement support gathering. Whether providing food for one or many, in public or in private, these containers attest to daily nourishment; their capacity to also exist as ready-made abstractions reminds us that art partakes in such everyday sustenance, deepening our access to body and soul—and to each other." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.75 x 9.75 in. / 104 pgs / 70 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $49.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $69.95 GBP £44.99 ISBN: 9780578634302 PUBLISHER: Hunters Point Press AVAILABLE: 9/29/2020 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Hunters Point Press. Edited by Barney Kulok. Text by Erica Cooke.
Gorgeous abstractions on roasting pans and takeout containers from a beloved figure of the New York art world
For nearly five decades New York-based artist B. Wurtz (born 1948) has transformed humble materials and discarded objects into humorous and wryly beautiful works of art. This full-color, Swiss-bound monograph focuses on the artist’s iconic series of “pan paintings” made on disposable aluminum roasting pans and to-go containers. In 1990, Wurtz discovered patterns stamped in the bottom of these mass-produced products and grasped their potential as “readymade abstract paintings.” In the three decades since, he has worked across a wide variety of pan shapes and sizes, applying dazzling combinations of color using the patterns as predetermined compositions. Pan Paintings provides the first overview of the various permutations in color and shape that comprise this long-term series. The book includes an essay by art historian and curator Erica Cooke which considers this critically acclaimed body of work and its deep entanglement with the craft-oriented ethos and amateur culture of postwar America.
