George Tooker

25 x 28cm 190pp good paperback exhibition catalogue designed for a show at the National Academy Museum, New York October 2, 2008-January 4, 2009. Colour reproductions of the American figurative painter.'s works usually associated with magic realism, social realism, photorealism, and surrealism. His subjects are depicted naturally as in a photograph, but the images use flat tones, an ambiguous perspective, and alarming juxtapositions to suggest an imagined or dreamed reality. He did not agree with the association of his work with Magic realism or Surrealism, as he said, "I am after painting reality impressed on the mind so hard that it returns as a dream, but I am not after painting dreams as such, or fantasy." In 1968, he was elected to the National Academy of Design and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Tooker was one of nine recipients of the National Medal of Arts in 2007.