CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/24/2023

McNally Jackson presents a celebration of 'The Invisible Dragon' 30th Anniversary Edition by Dave Hickey

Tuesday, October 24 at 6:30 PM, McNally Jackson Soho presents the NYC launch of the expanded 30th Anniversary Edition of Dave Hickey's controversial and exquisitely written apologia for beauty, The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty and Other Matters. Join Art Issues Press for readings by Felix Bernstein, Gabe Rubin, Stephanie LaCava, Domenick Ammirati, Paige K. Bradley and Christopher Bollen, as well as remarks on the genesis of the book by its original publisher and editor, Gary Kornblau, and a special musical performance by Laura Ortman commemorating the concurrent release of Life As We Know It, a long-lost album of songs written, produced and sung by Hickey.

The 30th anniversary cloth edition of Dave Hickey's The Invisible Dragon brings back into print Dragon's four essays on beauty and commingles them with newly discovered essays by the MacArthur Foundation "genius." Art by Caravaggio, Bellini, Velzquez, Raphael, Warhol and Mapplethorpe is complemented by Hickey's tributes to Dolly Parton and Richard Pryor, outing of John Rechy's gay novel Numbers, essays on the art of writing and witty analysis of paintings by Ed Ruscha. An afterword by Hickey's friend and Dragon's editor queers the brash, heterosexual gambler as it situates the creation ofDragon squarely within the AIDS plague. At the time, the book made beauty visible under the looming presence of death and bodily decay. Today, Hickey's prescient diagnosis of the "therapeutic institution" resonates even louder and artists respond by harnessing beauty as a source of meaning and of joy.

Dave Hickey (1938-2021) was one of the preeminent arts and cultural writers of the turn of the 21st century. A MacArthur "Genius" Fellow known as the "beauty guy" in the popular press, Hickey opened A Clean, Well-Lighted Place gallery in Austin, Texas, in the 1960s, before becoming executive editor at Art in America magazine. In the 1970s, he was a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, where he coined and helped create the "Outlaw country" music movement. By the 1990s, Hickey had made a home in Las Vegas, from where he regularly traveled to speak with audiences worldwide.

'Invisible Dragon' 30th Anniversary book launch
Tuesday, October 24: 6:30 PM
McNally Jackson Soho
134 Prince Street
New York

Please note: In order to keep their events program running in uncertain times, McNally Jackson is asking attendees to hold their place with a $5 voucher, redeemable on the night of the event on any product in store. If you have a change of heart or plans, write to events@mcnallyjackson.com and they will gladly refund you and release your spot, up to 24 hours before the event. Thanks for understanding, and for supporting your local bookstore.

Reserve a Seat, $5
Reserve a Seat and a Book, $27.95