Charline von Heyl - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0884541223 ISBN 13: 9780884541226

Publisher: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 2012

Synopsis

Charline von Heyl (born 1960) synthesizes elements of Cubism, Abstract Expressionism and the brasher imagery of popular culture in a fascinating brand of abstraction that seems eternally poised on the lip of figuration. Resolutely devoted to energetic gesture and joyous expression, von Heyl also aspires to create images that declare an enigmatic self-sufficiency: “What I’m trying to do is to create an image that has the iconic value of a sign but remains ambiguous in its meaning,” she told Bomb magazine in a 2010 interview. “Something that feels like a representation but isn’t.” In the spirit of von Heyl’s work, this volume--published for the artist’s first U.S. museum survey-- attempts to break free of the conventions of the museum catalogue, with an artist-designed cover and poster-sized reproductions of each of the 18 paintings included in the show.

About this title

Review

In Von Heyl's work, a single painting can contain the history of painting, just as each human being retains various selves over the course of lifetime. Yet she dramatizes this sense of the unfixed within a fixed sense of order. Her canvases may journey from megalithic substantiality to rudimentary marks, from colliding patterns and color to near-empty fields of dissipating lines, but each composition is assembled with an eye toward both decisiveness and contingency. (Jennifer Coates Time Out New York)

Edition details

• Publisher: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0884541223
• ISBN 13: 9780884541226
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 90