Edited by Lionel Bovier. Text by Lionel Bovier, Fabrice Stroun.
Vern Blosum does not exist. The story can be told simply: in 1961 an artist paints five canvases inspired by pages in a horticulture book; then came parking meters, water hydrants, and animals. Some of them were shown at Leo Castelli Gallery, sold to collectors and public institutions, included in seminal exhibitions or books on Pop art—a seemingly normal progression in an artist's career, were it not for a rumor that emerged regarding his true identity. Alfred H. Barr, the legendary director of MoMA, started to worry about the rumor sometime in 1964 and, after extensive inquiries, came to the conclusion that Vern Blosum did not exist. His paintings were taken down or sent back to storage, and the artist's name fell into oblivion. Vern Blosum does not exist, but his work does. This book retrieves the oeuvre of this particularly elusive artist.
"Out Of Order" (1962) is reproduced from Vern Blosum.
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"Planned Anticipation" (1963) is reproduced from Vern Blosum, JRP|Ringier's concise study of the pseudonymous 1960s painter who showed hoax Pop paintings with Leo Castelli, one of which was acquired by MoMA and others of which were written about by leading critics, before it was discovered that he did not, in reality, exist. Editor Lionel Bovier writes, "Despite the short time span of his practice and whatever the level of (in)sincerity he put into these paintings, and, I would even say, whoever made these paintings, there is an artist’s work here: one that sits with Pop art in a singular way, that has less to do with the 'spectacularization' of culture than with the symbolic regimen of objects and language, and one that reflects on its own condition of production ... There is for me, beyond the anecdotal conditions of its emergence, a quite contemporary take on what it is to 'fabricate' a work, to construct an artist’s identity through painted surfaces, and to question its becoming through time. The question one should ask, rather than 'Who is Vern Blosum?' or 'Who made these pieces?' is: 'As an artist, can you avoid the construction of an oeuvre, whose meaning is by definition ephemeral, changing with context—somewhere between a planned anticipation and a planned obsolescence?'" continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 4.25 x 6.5 in. / 64 pgs / 24 color / 7 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $15.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $21.5 GBP £7.00 ISBN: 9783037643792 PUBLISHER: JRP|Ringier AVAILABLE: 2/24/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD Excl AT CH DE FR
Published by JRP|Ringier. Edited by Lionel Bovier. Text by Lionel Bovier, Fabrice Stroun.
Vern Blosum does not exist. The story can be told simply: in 1961 an artist paints five canvases inspired by pages in a horticulture book; then came parking meters, water hydrants, and animals. Some of them were shown at Leo Castelli Gallery, sold to collectors and public institutions, included in seminal exhibitions or books on Pop art—a seemingly normal progression in an artist's career, were it not for a rumor that emerged regarding his true identity. Alfred H. Barr, the legendary director of MoMA, started to worry about the rumor sometime in 1964 and, after extensive inquiries, came to the conclusion that Vern Blosum did not exist. His paintings were taken down or sent back to storage, and the artist's name fell into oblivion. Vern Blosum does not exist, but his work does. This book retrieves the oeuvre of this particularly elusive artist.
