Anna Richards Brewster

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Ralph Rugoff

Scene of the Crime surveys thirty-five years of West Coast art, investigating aesthetic practices that address the art object as a kind of evidence, a clue to absent meanings and prior actions. From seminal works by Ed Ruscha, Bruce Nauman, Barry Le Va, and Vija Celmins to recent works by artists such as Paul McCarthy, James Luna, Anthony Hernandez, and Sharon Lockhart, this art declares that it is about more than meets the eye and raises the suspicion that a significant segment of contemporary art demands a forensic reading.

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foreword by Leo Castelli

Jasper Johns, one of the most influential artists of our time, has been the subject of intense public scrutiny since his landmark first exhibition in 1958. Yet this book, published in conjunction with the 1996-97 exhibition "Jasper Johns: A Retrospective" at The Museum of Modern Art, is the first to present this very private figure in his own words. It brings together Johns's few written articles, key interviews, and the fullest selection ever of his sketchbook drawings and notes. Important parts of this material are published here for the first time; others have previously been unavailable in English. The provocative originality and subtlety of Johns's thoughts on art, and his well-known concern with precision in language, are evident throughout. This volume will be indispensable for the study of the artist, and will provide fascination and pleasure for all readers interested in contemporary creativity.

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Alice Rae Yelen

In recent years, the artwork of the self-taught has gained increasing recognition in the mainstream art world. The New Orleans Museum of Art, a leading institution in the field, organized this exhibition identifying and documenting the superb aesthetic achievement of selected artists from thirteen Southern states who, by definition, have not sought didactic art training, traditional diplomas, or association with other artists or with the established art world in general. This overview of painting and sculpture is the first large-scale effort to consider the work of self-taught Southern artists according to intrinsic artistic merit and without regard to race, religion, or gender.--Adapted from foreword, p. 6.

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curator, Siumee H. Keelan

This book offers the unique opportunity to look at contemporary art enriched by a multicultural experience and framed by a shared Arab identity.