Jim Shaw: Distorted Faces and Portraits, 1978-2007 - Softcover

Gingeras, Alison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3905701138 ISBN 13: 9783905701135

Publisher: JRP | Ringier, 2007

Synopsis

Almost 16 inches tall and 12 inches wide and jacketed in a 53 x 37-inch foldout poster of Jim Shaw's deeply disturbing black-and-white oil painting of Ronald Reagan's distorted face (layered with smaller, ghostlike figures of American violence like Charles Manson and Rambo), this darkly riveting limited-edition artist's book contains works from five series of portraits made over the course of the artist's four-decade-long career: the Distorted Faces drawings (1978-85) and paintings (1986-2007); the Noir portraits of 1978; the sketches for Shaw's Giant Face paintings (1992) and other assorted faces from 1993-2006. The format and print quality of this one-of-a-kind publication truly allow Shaw's legendary graphic abilities to shine--particularly in the hyperreal Distorted Faces series. According to Alison M. Gingeras' catalogue essay, "The jingle-like language of Pop has been transformed into rambling, run-on sentences that describe fragmented ideas, associative thoughts and schizophrenic images. Too strange, too perverse, too lurid, too precise: Shaw is an elusive character that defies categorization."

About this title

About the Author:

Jim Shaw was born in Midland, Michigan, in 1952, and received his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. In the 70s, he founded the band Destroy All Monsters (with Mike Kelley and other artists originally from the Midwest). Since mid-1980is, Shaw has produced paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures influenced by a variety of sources: dream imagery, pulp fiction, thrift-store painting, underground comics, and religious cults. His work has appeared in numerous solo shows worldwide and in group shows like the 2002 Whitney Biennial. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

About this edition

• Publisher: JRP | Ringier
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 3905701138
• ISBN 13: 9783905701135
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96
• Editor: Blondeau Marc, Bovier Lionel, Davet Philippe