Painted Nudes - Hardcover

Leiter, Saul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 190963106X ISBN 13: 9781909631069

Publisher: Sylph Editions, 2015

Synopsis

Saul Leiter’s prolific career as a photographer spans seventy years. Since the publication of Early Color in 2006, his work has found widespread acclaim, leading to a series of exhibitions throughout Europe and the US, including a 2012 retrospective at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg.
           
But Leiter was more than a great photographer; he was―and always had been―a prolific painter, though this side of his creative life has received far less attention. One strand among his paintings is noticeable: the art of painting over prints of nudes that he himself photographed and printed. Painted Nudes is the first and only book dedicated to this rich and unique part of Leiter’s oeuvre. It features over eighty color reproductions of Leiter’s painted photographs―intimate, small-scale pieces that merge Leiter’s two foremost artistic passions and showcase his remarkable sense of color and composition.
           
This long overdue book sheds light on the vitality and originality of Saul Leiter’s art and his mastery of color.

About this title

About the Author

Saul Leiter (1923-2013) was a painter and photographer. Monographs of his work include Early Color and Early Black and White.

Review

"The effect is of a turbulent maelstrom of color, created with impulsive, almost dancing brushstrokes. In these painted nudes, color seems to have been unleashed; it is a carnival, a riot, an irresistible force." (Mona Gainer-Salim New Yorker)

"Painted Nudes reveals yet another hidden aspect of the strange life of the quiet man of American postwar photography, this reluctant and mysterious pioneer of color. . . . Sixty years on, [Leiter's] work is finally getting the recognition it deserves--and the received history of American colour photography is being revised accordingly." (Guardian)

"The photographs were taken at moments of extreme intimacy, featuring women in the throes of personal pleasure, and the act of painting over them could be seen as a form of concealment. Yet Leiter’s brush acts as illumination rather than censorship, creating a riot of colour that heightens the beauty of these private moments, creating contemplation rather than mess. They speak to Leiter’s love of colour at a time when it was still deemed inferior, clumsy even, in comparison to black and white. And they preserve the mystery that was at the heart of him as an artist and as a man." (Tish Wrigley AnOther Magazine)

"The previously unseen images have been splashed with vibrant paints--adding life, color, and texture to the once monochrome collection of photographs. You can feel the energy oozing from the paintings and sense the freedom Leiter felt when passionately vandalizing his own work and intriguingly making it greater." (Sacha Musgrove IDOL)

"This new volume, a welcome addition to the Leiter canon, showcases a hitherto little-known aspect of his oeuvre: the painted photograph. . . . From a subtle soaking of colour to a rapidly applied fiesta of brush strokes, the application of textured layers of vibrant pigment or translucent wash creates real emotional depth in the images.  The sheer exuberance of creation is shown in his frequent  reworking of the images (sometimes over decades). Leiter’s reworkings also reveal his tenderness towards the photographed subjects." (Roy Clark Cassone)

Edition details

• Publisher: Sylph Editions
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 190963106X
• ISBN 13: 9781909631069
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160