Foreword by Marcia E. Vetrocq. Text by Alexandra Schwartz, Anna Katz. Interview by Thomas Mellins.
The first retrospective on a fascinating protagonist of the 1970s Pattern & Decoration movement, who defied Minimalist orthodoxy with humorous multimedia explorations of domesticity and ornament
This is the first comprehensive volume on Cynthia Carlson (born 1942), a key artist of the Pattern & Decoration group who responded to Minimalism’s dominance in the 1970s. The work of this group has recently been revisited and reappraised in exhibitions and by art scholarship. A Chicagoan under the influence of the Chicago Imagists, Carlson landed in New York City in 1965 and has exhibited widely (she was included in Lucy Lippard’s seminal 1971 exhibition 26 Contemporary Women Artists at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art). Her interest in the domestic—as a source of shapes and as a realm of familial experiences, chores and memories—intersects with the works of contemporaries ranging from Jennifer Bartlett to Joel Shapiro and Elizabeth Murray. Carlson's utilization of architectural motifs might align at one moment with the vernacular embraced in the buildings of Venturi & Scott Brown and, at another, with the postmodern rehabilitation of Beaux-Arts ornament. Her hand-painted "wallpaper" is considered a significant contribution and influence on contemporary installation art. Carlson’s artistic identity continues to morph: from room-size wallpaper and a life-size gingerbread house to unexpected shaped canvasses, architectural constructions and pet portraits. Whatever she creates, however eccentric, is high-spirited, genial and insightful.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
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Julia Vitale
A beautiful book examining both her whimsical eye and under-appreciated imprint on the art world. Not only does it offer fascinating insight into Carlson’s impressive career, but it also provides the much-needed inspiration to finally add that pop of color to your white walls.
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Thursday, September 14 at 6 PM, Rizzoli Bookstore presents Cynthia Carlson in conversation with Thomas Mellins to launch her first comprehensive monograph, which positions her as a fascinating protagonist of the 1970s Pattern & Decoration movement who defied Minimalist orthodoxy with humorous multimedia explorations of domesticity and ornament. PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 PM. Click here to register. continue to blog
Featured spreads are from new release Cynthia Carlson: Sixty Years, the first comprehensive overview on the fearlessly experimental (and openly humorous) artist most associated with the 1970s Pattern & Decoration movement, but whose work goes way beyond. From braided and woven early paintings to paintings and “wallpaper installations” made with cake-making tools, to a life-sized gingerbread house sculpture, she has refused to be labeled or held to any one style or idea. For example, essayist Anna Katz writes, “By her own admission, Carlson had not set out to make politically feminist work, or even political work. Carlson has averred that ‘issues’ such as ‘feminism and a return to craft’ were misapplied to her work. She’s insisted that her overarching focus was to ‘mess up’ and ‘deliberately confuse’ previously separated categories of decoration and art, yet also did not deny that extruding flowers and curlicues, repetitively, from no more feminized a tool than a cake pastry piping bag to simulate nothing other than wallpaper invariably invites interpretation along feminist lines.” continue to blog
Featured spreads are from new release Cynthia Carlson: Sixty Years, the first comprehensive overview on the fearlessly experimental (and openly humorous) artist most associated with the 1970s Pattern & Decoration movement, but whose work goes way beyond. From braided and woven early paintings to paintings and “wallpaper installations” made with cake-making tools, to a life-sized gingerbread house sculpture, she has refused to be labeled or held to any one style or idea. For example, essayist Anna Katz writes, “By her own admission, Carlson had not set out to make politically feminist work, or even political work. Carlson has averred that ‘issues’ such as ‘feminism and a return to craft’ were misapplied to her work. She’s insisted that her overarching focus was to ‘mess up’ and ‘deliberately confuse’ previously separated categories of decoration and art, yet also did not deny that extruding flowers and curlicues, repetitively, from no more feminized a tool than a cake pastry piping bag to simulate nothing other than wallpaper invariably invites interpretation along feminist lines.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 11 x 11 in. / 224 pgs / 280 color / 10 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $65.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $94 GBP £57.00 ISBN: 9781636811079 PUBLISHER: D.A.P. AVAILABLE: 9/5/2023 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by D.A.P.. Foreword by Marcia E. Vetrocq. Text by Alexandra Schwartz, Anna Katz. Interview by Thomas Mellins.
The first retrospective on a fascinating protagonist of the 1970s Pattern & Decoration movement, who defied Minimalist orthodoxy with humorous multimedia explorations of domesticity and ornament
This is the first comprehensive volume on Cynthia Carlson (born 1942), a key artist of the Pattern & Decoration group who responded to Minimalism’s dominance in the 1970s. The work of this group has recently been revisited and reappraised in exhibitions and by art scholarship. A Chicagoan under the influence of the Chicago Imagists, Carlson landed in New York City in 1965 and has exhibited widely (she was included in Lucy Lippard’s seminal 1971 exhibition 26 Contemporary Women Artists at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art). Her interest in the domestic—as a source of shapes and as a realm of familial experiences, chores and memories—intersects with the works of contemporaries ranging from Jennifer Bartlett to Joel Shapiro and Elizabeth Murray. Carlson's utilization of architectural motifs might align at one moment with the vernacular embraced in the buildings of Venturi & Scott Brown and, at another, with the postmodern rehabilitation of Beaux-Arts ornament. Her hand-painted "wallpaper" is considered a significant contribution and influence on contemporary installation art. Carlson’s artistic identity continues to morph: from room-size wallpaper and a life-size gingerbread house to unexpected shaped canvasses, architectural constructions and pet portraits. Whatever she creates, however eccentric, is high-spirited, genial and insightful.
