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Ken Price: Drawings
Text by Jean-Pierre Criqui.
Drawing was essential to the art of Ken Price (1935–2012): “For me drawing is really flexible, and I use it in different ways. It’s my way of developing ideas.” This volume provides the most substantial overview of Price’s widely lauded drawing practice. Price’s earliest drawings, from the 1960s, explore forms and colors for his abstract sculptures, but he also drew bizarre objects, like cups with a leaping frog or a cavorting nude for a handle. By the end of the 1960s the imaginary spaces they inhabited were fully realized in high-key colors and precise detail. Around 2002, when Price and his family moved permanently to Taos, New Mexico, the landscape of his drawings grew wilder. In their erupting volcanoes, cyclonic skies and turbulent seas, nature is a dominant force. By 2005 Price had begun incorporating his sculptural forms into this same primordial world, reimagining them as monumental figures.
"The Ocean" (2004) is reproduced from 'Ken Price: Drawings.'
“Around 1970–71 Ken Price and I drove across country from Los Angeles to New York in my wife’s 1961 Mercedes Benz 190 SL hard- top coupe with red leather interior. Kenny smoked big cigars constantly the entire distance. In Oklahoma we saw several motorcycle races and went to a circus with a sideshow featuring a tiny trailer that was home to a midget lady named ‘Princess Marguerita.’ We paid for our tickets to see her and saw that we were her only audience. Everything was in miniature, and our heads touched the ceiling. She came out and said, ‘Hello, I am Princess Marguerita, do you like my home?’ We were awe- struck, and time stood still. We nodded, smiled, and headed for the door. Neither of us had ever seen anything quite like the princess. Even in the noise of New York City, where we saw lots of art and artists, we would continually reference our experience with Princess Marguerita. Years later, with the heavy smell of cigars never leaving the car, the experience with the princess never left our minds.” – Ed Ruscha, in Ken Price: Drawings. Featured image is "The Beautiful West" (2005). continue to blog
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FORMAT: Pbk, 11.5 x 14.5 in. / 108 pgs / 85 color / 5 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $49.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $64.95 ISBN: 9781880146996 PUBLISHER: Matthew Marks Gallery AVAILABLE: 10/25/2016 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Matthew Marks Gallery. Text by Jean-Pierre Criqui.
Drawing was essential to the art of Ken Price (1935–2012): “For me drawing is really flexible, and I use it in different ways. It’s my way of developing ideas.” This volume provides the most substantial overview of Price’s widely lauded drawing practice. Price’s earliest drawings, from the 1960s, explore forms and colors for his abstract sculptures, but he also drew bizarre objects, like cups with a leaping frog or a cavorting nude for a handle. By the end of the 1960s the imaginary spaces they inhabited were fully realized in high-key colors and precise detail. Around 2002, when Price and his family moved permanently to Taos, New Mexico, the landscape of his drawings grew wilder. In their erupting volcanoes, cyclonic skies and turbulent seas, nature is a dominant force. By 2005 Price had begun incorporating his sculptural forms into this same primordial world, reimagining them as monumental figures.
