The New York Times Book Review, December 2, 2001 –Andy Grundberg
Mysterious, ominous and perplexing…like stills from a nightmarish dream…yet they can be appreciated solely in terms of their individual beauty.
Book Description
A childhood encounter with a crow at a zoo led to a lifetime fascination with avian life for the American artist Jim Dine. This encounter with the bird was perceived by the young Dine with a mixture of fear, fascination, and a deeper understanding of his unconscious world, and from it grew a mythic symbolism for the artist, which he explores in "Birds", a series of remarkable black-and-white photographs. Here, an everyday, unspectacular bird might appear to the beholder as a character of mythology, as a jester at the medieval court, as a strange messenger from a world behind the scenes. These are rich, intimate, darkly detailed images imbued with symbolism and meaning. They are also beautiful and compelling, particularly as published in this spectacular volume, which, with 36 images printed using a technique called heliogravure, and with a Japanese binding, is a truly beautiful object in itself, and reveals a new aspect of the work of American artist Jim Dine. Trade Edition 36 heliogravures. 11.5 x 12.5 in.
About the Author
Jim Dine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1935. He studied art at the Cincinnati Art Academy, the Boston Museum School, and Ohio University during the 1950s, and made his entrance into the art world with his Happenings of the late1950s and early 1960s in New York. He has since had many exhibitions of his paintings, drawings, and sculptures that reinterpret common objects, including venues like the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati; he has taught art at institutions including Yale University, Oberlin College, and Cornell University, and currently lives in New York and London.
Jim Dine: Birds FROM OUR EDITORS
Jim Dine's inspired camera work transforms even common, everyday birds into rarae aves in this spectacular collection of dramatic black-and-white photographs. Each copy of this limited edition book comes packaged with an original print, suitable for framing.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
This Limited Special Edition comes with an original print. A childhood encounter with a crow at a zoo led to a lifetime fascination with avian life for the American artist Jim Dine. This encounter with the bird was perceived by the young Dine with a mixture of fear, fascination, and a deeper understanding of his unconscious world, and from it grew a mythic symbolism for the artist, which he explores in Birds, a series of remarkable black-and-white photographs. Here, an everyday, unspectacular bird might appear to the beholder as a character of mythology, as a jester at the medieval court, as a strange messenger from a world behind the scenes. These are rich, intimate, darkly detailed images imbued with symbolism and meaning. They are also beautiful and compelling, particularly as published in this spectacular volume, which, with 36 images printed using a technique called heliogravure, and with a Japanese binding, is a truly beautiful object in itself, and reveals a new aspect of the work of American artist Jim Dine.
Art & Photography
Book Info
