Text by Derek Conrad Murray, Steven G. Fullwood, Tiana Reid. Contributions by Sadie Barnette, Alanna Fields, S*an D. Henry-Smith, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Ariel Goldberg.
The first monograph on Darrel Ellis' expressive transformations of photographic memory
Known for his experimental approach to painting and photography, New York–based mixed-media artist Darrel Ellis (1958–92) explored the psychic terrain between surface, memory and lyric self-representation. Working in part from his late father’s photographs, Ellis projected, deconstructed and reimaged his family history, creating uncanny portraits marked by voids and warps. His commitment to the self-portrait was no less inspired, particularly after his experiences of being photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Hujar. Ellis was on the cusp of major recognition when his life was cut short by AIDS in 1992, at the age of 33. This monograph provides the most comprehensive account of the artist to date, including 80 plates that chart his development from figurative painting to photographic experimentation and his later preoccupation with self-portraiture. Essays and an illustrated chronology featuring previously unseen excerpts from the artist’s journals provide new insights into Ellis’ life and work.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Darrel Ellis'.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Bookforum
Sarah Moroz
Addresses the myriad components of identity through patrimony, race, self-perception, and aesthetic tampering.
New Yorker
Chris Wiley
Darrel Ellis made a wrenchingly heartfelt body of work based on his late father’s photographs. They’ve remained obscure until now.
Hyperallergic
Megan Liberty
Rather than showcasing his best-known works, such as his self-portrait made after a photograph by Mapplethorpe, it instead leans into process, including unfinished works, pages of journals, and a section that considers how to treat the archive he left behind after his 1992 death at age 33 from AIDS complications.
ASAP/J
Peter Murphy
Darrel Ellis is not only the first book devoted to his work since 1996, it is also an indispensable collection of scholarship, history, interviews, and stunning reproductions of the artist’s oeuvre. The impressive essays by Derek Conrad Murray and Tiana Reid, a description of the artist’s archive by Steven G. Fullwood, an eye-opening interview with the artist from 1991, and a thought-provoking conversation between contemporary artists will lift the shroud of mystery that has surrounded Ellis’s life and art.
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“Untitled” (Self-Portrait, ca. 1981–85) is reproduced from Darrel Ellis, the enlightening new release from Visual AIDS, New York. The first monograph ever published on the artist, who died at just thirty-three years old in 1992, it’s one of our staff favorite new discoveries of 2022. “There is something incredibly powerful in Darrel Ellis’s ability to explore the beautiful and often tragic pageantry of everyday life,” Derek Conrad Murray writes. “Despite the volatility of his time, reflected in structural racism, an anti-gay legal culture, and the terrifying realities of AIDS, Ellis managed to turn inward, to tap into the inner workings, longings, joys, and forms of loss experienced by families. In many respects, these are the most universal and distinctly human themes one could explore: a kind of visual sympathy with the human banalities that bind us.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11 in. / 208 pgs / 210 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $49.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $67.95 GBP £39.99 ISBN: 9781732641556 PUBLISHER: Visual AIDS, New York AVAILABLE: 3/8/2022 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Visual AIDS, New York. Text by Derek Conrad Murray, Steven G. Fullwood, Tiana Reid. Contributions by Sadie Barnette, Alanna Fields, S*an D. Henry-Smith, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Ariel Goldberg.
The first monograph on Darrel Ellis' expressive transformations of photographic memory
Known for his experimental approach to painting and photography, New York–based mixed-media artist Darrel Ellis (1958–92) explored the psychic terrain between surface, memory and lyric self-representation. Working in part from his late father’s photographs, Ellis projected, deconstructed and reimaged his family history, creating uncanny portraits marked by voids and warps. His commitment to the self-portrait was no less inspired, particularly after his experiences of being photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Hujar. Ellis was on the cusp of major recognition when his life was cut short by AIDS in 1992, at the age of 33.
This monograph provides the most comprehensive account of the artist to date, including 80 plates that chart his development from figurative painting to photographic experimentation and his later preoccupation with self-portraiture. Essays and an illustrated chronology featuring previously unseen excerpts from the artist’s journals provide new insights into Ellis’ life and work.
