Mount Atom

Hardcover, 88pp. No DJ as issued. Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition 'Mount Atom' at Grimm Keizersgracht 241, Amsterdam, Netherlands, from October 2nd to November 21st, 2020. From Jay Merrick's introductory essay titled 'Scaling Mount Atom': "This book is about paintings, mostly small works, that were imagined and produced in what might be described as small conditions - the [2020] lockdown in London, following William Monk's return from his other studio in New York." From the publisher's description: "Mount Atom is the imagined place name which describes Monk's new series of paintings; partly in the clouds, partly extending into the substrata of the earth, its exact coordinates are unknowable. Once one crosses the threshold and enters the unfamiliar realm of this dislocated world, a small mound of earth can easily be fooled for a mountain peeking through the clouds and the monumental and microscopic become the same. In fact, the harder you search for a landmark or familiar sign, the more its substance billows and shrinks away. It could be said that Mount Atom is more a state of mind than a locale. This body of work was produced when the artist was confined within the interior space of his studio during the recent lock down, and this experience is translated to the scale and intimacy of the paintings. As profiles of the landscape, the paintings mirror some of the qualities of architectural space in the way that slices of sky and sun and land are organised and divided. Monk exercises an economy of means that lends itself to bold visual impressions, where nature's enduring forms are dressed down but full of inner brilliance. Present in equal measure are sinister and sublime forces, a combination that feeds the human imagination with a sense of anticipation toward the unknown". Like new condition.…