| | | | Albert ContrerasText by Dave Hickey, Ed Schad, David Pagel, John Yau.
 Los Angeles painter Albert Contreras (born 1933) first won public acclaim in the early 1960s, with monochrome paintings featuring a central disc motif. By the early 1970s, with the “dematerialization of art” in the air, Contreras’ pursuit of extreme reduction led him to cease painting altogether, and he spent the next two decades driving garbage trucks and resurfacing roads for the City of Los Angeles. He returned to painting in 1997 (following an intensive period of psychotherapy), producing relatively small, square-ish canvases with thick, gridded swathes of bright colors and glitter, seemingly inspired by the aesthetics of cupcake bakeries, cosmetics counters and custom car shops--canvases that critic David Pagel describes as “obscenely edible.” This first substantial Contreras monograph surveys the painter’s recent and older works.
Featured image, "Untitled" (2005), acrylic/canvas, 12×14 inches, is reproduced from Albert Contreras. |
|  | Free Shipping UPS GROUND IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.
FOR CONSUMER ONLINE ORDERS | |
| | FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/8/2013 Featured image is an untitled 2010 work by Albert Contreras, who won early acclaim in the 1960s, quit painting in the 1970s, spent two decades driving garbage trucks and operating heavy equipment for the city of Los Angeles, then returned to painting in 1997 after five years in psychotherapy. It is reproduced from the first substantial monograph on Contreras—published by Marquand Books—in which essayist John Yau writes, "David Pagel has described Contreras’ paintings as 'obscenely edible,' and he is absolutely right. Their thick, creamy surfaces are measured X’s of yummy goop. That collision between the lusciously physical and the vibrantly visual is at the core of these paintings. They stop just short of being lurid. They can be gaudy, bright, even garish—like a wrist full of costume jewelry—but they never cross the line, never stop being eye-catching and straightforward in their beauty. They are resilient and scarred, intrepid and exposed. They are celebrations of the serious, wacky and witty. No one else makes paintings like these." continue to blog | ART BOOKS & MUSEUM EXHIBITION CATALOGS: FORTHCOMING AND RECENT RELEASES |  | HAUSER & WIRTH PUBLISHERSISBN: 9783906915722
USD $55.00 | CAN $76Pub Date: 1/17/2023
Active | In stock
|
|  | DELMONICO BOOKS/LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ARTISBN: 9781636810164
USD $49.95 | CAN $69.95 UK £ 43.99Pub Date: 1/17/2023
Active | In stock
|
|  | HATJE CANTZISBN: 9783775753807
USD $55.00 | CAN $76Pub Date: 1/17/2023
Active | In stock
|
|  | HAUSER & WIRTH PUBLISHERSISBN: 9783906915739
USD $45.00 | CAN $62Pub Date: 12/13/2022
Active | In stock
|
|  | SKIRA EDITOREISBN: 9788857248042
USD $45.00 | CAN $62Pub Date: 12/20/2022
Active | In stock
|
|  | DELMONICO BOOKS/LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ARTISBN: 9781636810805
USD $75.00 | CAN $105 UK £ 66Pub Date: 1/31/2023
Active | In stock
|
|  | STEIDL/DIOGENESISBN: 9783958299184
USD $75.00 | CAN $105Pub Date: 6/27/2023
Forthcoming
|
|  | OSMOSISBN: 9780991660889
USD $25.00 | CAN $34 UK £ 21.995Pub Date: 8/2/2022
Active | In stock
|
|  | LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF MODERN ARTISBN: 9788793659575
USD $45.00 | CAN $62 UK £ 40Pub Date: 3/28/2023
Forthcoming
|
|  | CENTRE POMPIDOUISBN: 9782844269256
USD $65.00 | CAN $90 UK £ 57Pub Date: 9/13/2022
Active | In stock
|
|  | JTT, NEW YORK/REGEN PROJECTS, LOS ANGELESISBN: 9781735555713
USD $60.00 | CAN $84 UK £ 53Pub Date: 10/4/2022
Active | In stock
|
|  | JRP|EDITIONSISBN: 9783037645949
USD $55.00 | CAN $76Pub Date: 1/31/2023
Active | In stock
|
|
|
| |
