On the life and afterlives of Jay DeFeo’s Estocada, a work created in the shadow of The Rose
In 1965, Jay DeFeo (1929–89) was evicted from her San Francisco apartment, along with the 2,000-pound colossus of a painting for which she would become legendary, The Rose. The morning after it was carried out the front window, DeFeo was forced to destroy the only other artwork she’d started in six years, an enormous painting on paper stapled directly to her hallway wall. The unfinished Estocada—a kind of shadow Rose—was ripped down in unruly pieces and reanimated years later in her studio through photography, photocopy, collage and relief. Drawing from largely unpublished archival material, Rip Tales traces for the first time Estocada’s material history, interweaving it with stories about other Bay Area artists—Zarouhie Abdalian, April Dawn Alison, Ruth Asawa, Lutz Bacher, Bruce Conner, Dewey Crumpler, Trisha Donnelly and Vincent Fecteau—that likewise evoke themes of transformation, intuition and process. Foregrounding a Bay Area ethos that could be defined by its resistance to definition, Rip Tales explores the unpredictable edges of artworks and ideas.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Rip Tales: Jay DeFeo's Estocada and Other Pieces'.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Griel Marcus
Rip Tales breathes a sense of ferment: Jay DeFeo and others taking in the Bay Area air and breathing out not just pieces of art, but ideas, fragments, throwaways—stuff for which there was no market. That some of it is here in this book is a lucky break.
Elizabeth Sussman
Nothing short of a remarkable account of what it is to make and write about art in the magical world of the Bay Area. Stein listens closely, looks slowly, and writes clearly and with feeling not only about DeFeo, but on the other artists he attaches to her orbit.
author of Under the Sign of [sic]: Sturtevant’s Volte-Face
Bruce Hainley
An ode to San Francisco and its artistic ecologies, Rip Tales provides a hugely compelling treatise on art as pursuit (one that often comes to naught) and conversation (balm passed between fellow believers that assuages that knot).
author of White Girls
Hilton Als
Rip Tales is so self-assured, heartfelt, and consistently touching, funny, and brilliant, that its various intimacies and ideas feel like a gift. And they are. A deeply moving debut.
East Bay Express
Lou Fancher
Stein's slim, provocative book presents DeFeo in a format almost as revelatory as the artist's body of work.
KQED
Sarah Hotchkiss
Rip Tales is a refreshing, necessary reminder that art can be “always on its way,” unclear and uncategorizable even to its maker.
Art Agenda
Chris Murtha
Stein’s achievement lies less in having discovered or reconstructed an unknown artwork, but rather in so successfully piecing together its scattered representations, found among and within obscure artworks and DeFeo’s countless photographs of her studio.
Brooklyn Rail
Maymanah Farhat
Offers an insider’s view of an art scene that is storied yet often ignored... Stein presents a template for how documentation and analysis can be used to honor the region’s idiosyncratic art-making practices and artists.
Rain Taxi Review of Books
Patrick James Dunagan
Rip Tales offers an intimate look back at significant works by San Francisco artists of recent decades.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Wednesday, January 5 at 7pm EST, Paula Cooper Gallery and 192 Books present the virtual launch of Jordan Stein's Rip Tales: Jay DeFeo's Estocada and Other Pieces, published by Soberscove Press. Stein will appear in conversation with noted writer and theater critic Hilton Als, live-streamed on PCG Studio. There is no login or rsvp required. A recording will be posted shortly afterwards. continue to blog
Wednesday, December 8 at 6:30 PM PST, the San Francisco Art Institute and Soberscove Press present a reading, screening and celebration marking the publication of Jordan Stein's new book, Rip Tales: Jay DeFeo's Estocada and Other Pieces. In addition to sharing passages and stories, the curator and SFAI alum will present a selection of moving image works related to the book, which focuses on several artists critical to the history of the Bay Area and San Francisco Art Institute, including its principal subject, Jay DeFeo, in addition to Dewey Crumpler, Trisha Donnelly and Bruce Conner. continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 5.75 x 8.75 in. / 160 pgs / 54 color / 10 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $28.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $34 GBP £22.50 ISBN: 9781940190297 PUBLISHER: Soberscove Press AVAILABLE: 12/7/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: WORLD
On the life and afterlives of Jay DeFeo’s Estocada, a work created in the shadow of The Rose
In 1965, Jay DeFeo (1929–89) was evicted from her San Francisco apartment, along with the 2,000-pound colossus of a painting for which she would become legendary, The Rose. The morning after it was carried out the front window, DeFeo was forced to destroy the only other artwork she’d started in six years, an enormous painting on paper stapled directly to her hallway wall. The unfinished Estocada—a kind of shadow Rose—was ripped down in unruly pieces and reanimated years later in her studio through photography, photocopy, collage and relief.
Drawing from largely unpublished archival material, Rip Tales traces for the first time Estocada’s material history, interweaving it with stories about other Bay Area artists—Zarouhie Abdalian, April Dawn Alison, Ruth Asawa, Lutz Bacher, Bruce Conner, Dewey Crumpler, Trisha Donnelly and Vincent Fecteau—that likewise evoke themes of transformation, intuition and process. Foregrounding a Bay Area ethos that could be defined by its resistance to definition, Rip Tales explores the unpredictable edges of artworks and ideas.
