Foreword and introduction by Gregor Jansen. Text by Elodie Evers, Lars Bang Larsen, Alexander Koch, Bob Nickas.
This is the first comprehensive publication on the work of Chris Martin (born 1954), one of America’s finest contemporary abstract painters. Martin’s enormous, sunny canvases are enthusiastic in execution, heroic in scale while also expressing something of the rogue spirit of outsider art. Many of them are dedicated to such artists and musicians as Harry Smith, Frank Moore and James Brown, whose names are inscribed in coarse strokes upon the works. Martin’s paintings are underlain with such everyday detritus as stuck-on coins, vinyl records, banana skins, newspaper articles and slices of bread. Despite such rough, utterly profane surfaces, it is a spiritual tradition of abstraction that Martin’s work draws from: Native American folklore, religious mysticism, anthroposophist symbolism, the landscape painting of North American romanticism--and the great melting pot of New York City itself, where Martin has lived since 1975.
FORMAT: Hbk, 8 x 10.75 in. / 152 pgs / 90 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $54.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $72.5 ISBN: 9783863350918 PUBLISHER: Walther König, Köln AVAILABLE: 2/29/2012 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR
Published by Walther König, Köln. Foreword and introduction by Gregor Jansen. Text by Elodie Evers, Lars Bang Larsen, Alexander Koch, Bob Nickas.
This is the first comprehensive publication on the work of Chris Martin (born 1954), one of America’s finest contemporary abstract painters. Martin’s enormous, sunny canvases are enthusiastic in execution, heroic in scale while also expressing something of the rogue spirit of outsider art. Many of them are dedicated to such artists and musicians as Harry Smith, Frank Moore and James Brown, whose names are inscribed in coarse strokes upon the works. Martin’s paintings are underlain with such everyday detritus as stuck-on coins, vinyl records, banana skins, newspaper articles and slices of bread. Despite such rough, utterly profane surfaces, it is a spiritual tradition of abstraction that Martin’s work draws from: Native American folklore, religious mysticism, anthroposophist symbolism, the landscape painting of North American romanticism--and the great melting pot of New York City itself, where Martin has lived since 1975.
