Shannon Crider, the ballad of Polynices

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Jacquelyn Days Serwer

American Kaleidoscope: Themes and Perspectives in Recent Art features fourteen contemporary artists who live and work in the United States. The book's three major themes - Spiritual Expressions, Shared Concerns, and Historical Perspectives - are discussed in an insightful introductory essay by Jacquelyn Days Serwer, chief curator at the National Museum of American Art. Building on these themes, brief essays on each of the artists by Serwer and other members of the NMAA curatorial staff illuminate the chosen works in the context of the careers of these artists. Forty-one of their paintings, sculptures, and installations are illustrated in color, supplemented by eighty-six black-and-white reproductions.

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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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Nari Ward

The Jamaican-born, Harlem-based artist Nari Ward makes sculpture out of everyday objects that weave together culture, history, and personal narrative. His work often deals with social and historical themes such as slavery, oppression, and dislocation. He has participated in the Whitney Biennial, been Artist-in-Residence at the Walker Art Center and the Studio Museum in Harlem, and has received an NEA Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. This book presents new work made for an exhibition in Torino, Italy.

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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.