The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: Joe Brainard: The Art of the Personal, John Yau

Joe Brainard: The Art of the Personal

John Yau

The first major publication in twenty years on the prodigious and innovative work of this beloved twentieth-century New York multimedia artist and poet, whose work in collage and assemblage transformed the ordinary into the beautiful.

Known for his internationally popular memoir, I Remember, which uniquely captures 1950s America, Joe Brainard (1942-1994) was also a prolific and beloved artist. This beautifully illustrated book covers the entire range of his versatile art, including hundreds of drawings, collages, assemblages, prints, and paintings, many unpublished or never exhibited.

Brainard was closely associated with the New York School, a community of poets and artists such as Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Alex Katz, Jane Freilicher, Larry Rivers, and Fairfield Porter, who thrived in downtown Manhattan in the 1960s and '70s. Brainard transformed ordinary objects and ephemera collected from his Lower East Side neighborhood into stunning assemblages and collages. The book brings together Brainard's classic subjects, such as the comic strip heroine Nancy; Madonnas (inspired by Ukrainian images in the Lower East Side); his iconic pansies, poppies, and daisies; and erotic works (male torsos).

Poet and art critic John Yau describes in vivid detail how Brainard produced thousands of lush multimedia pieces radiant with poignancy, wit, intimacy, and a sheer beauty that express Brainard's unabashed affection for the world.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Rizzoli Electa
  • Publish Date: Oct 11st, 2022
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 10.70in - 8.50in - 1.00in - 2.80lb
  • EAN: 9780847872114
  • Categories: Individual Artists - Monographs

More books to explore

Book Cover for: Tomer Hanuka: Unknown Pleasures, Tomer Hanuka
Book Cover for: Judy Chicago: Herstory, Massimiliano Gioni
Book Cover for: Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts, Miyoko Ito
Book Cover for: Ed Ruscha / Now Then: A Retrospective, Ed Ruscha
Book Cover for: David Wojnarowicz: Dear Jean Pierre, David Wojnarowicz
Book Cover for: Kusama: The Graphic Novel, Elisa Macellari
Book Cover for: David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring in Normandy, 2020, David Hockney
Book Cover for: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eleanor Nairne
Book Cover for: Peter Beard, Owen Edwards
Book Cover for: Basquiat: A Graphic Novel, Paolo Parisi
Book Cover for: Kaws: What Party (Black on Pink Edition), Eugenie Tsai
Book Cover for: Monet. the Triumph of Impressionism, Daniel Wildenstein
Book Cover for: Basquiat X Warhol: Paintings 4 Hands, Editions Gallimard
Book Cover for: Rothko, Jacob Baal-Teshuva
Book Cover for: Matisse, Volkmar Essers

About the Author

John Yau is an award-winning poet, art critic, and curator who has published many books of poetry, fiction, and art criticism. He was the arts editor for the Brooklyn Rail (2007-2011) before he began writing regularly for Hyperallergic.

More books by John Yau

Book Cover for: Please Wait by the Coatroom: Reconsidering Race and Identity in American Art, John Yau
Book Cover for: Diary of Small Discontents: New & Selected Poems 1974-2024, John Yau
Book Cover for: Bijoux in the Dark, John Yau
Book Cover for: Tell It Slant, John Yau
Book Cover for: Liu Xiaodong, John Yau
Book Cover for: Foreign Sounds or Sounds Foreign, John Yau
Book Cover for: William Tillyer: A Retrospective, John Yau
Book Cover for: Genghis Chan on Drums, John Yau
Book Cover for: John Pai: Liquid Steel, John Yau
Book Cover for: Hawaiian Cowboys, John Yau
Book Cover for: Further Adventures in Monochrome, John Yau
Book Cover for: Forbidden Entries, John Yau
Book Cover for: My Heart is That Eternal Rose Tattoo, John Yau
Book Cover for: Thomas Nozkowski, John Yau
Book Cover for: Pia Fries: Tausend: Einerlei, Pia Fries
Book Cover for: Ing Grish, John Yau