Essential Paul Laffoley – Works from the Boston Visionary Cell (Emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) - Hardcover

Laffoley, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022631541X ISBN 13: 9780226315416

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2016

Synopsis

Paul Laffoley, who once worked for Frederick Kiesler and Andy Warhol, emerged in recent years as one of the leading visionary artists of our time. Lavishly illustrated, The Essential Paul Laffoley documents the evolution of his unique intellectual, spiritual, and artistic approaches. Living and working in a tiny space in Boston he called the "Boston Visionary Cell," Laffoley became best known for his large mandala-like paintings filled with symbols and texts. Their titles range from the paranormal and arcane, such as The Ectoplasmic Man and The Sexuality of Robots, to the organic, as with Das Urpflanze Haus, to the erudite, including De Rerum Natura, a reference to the Roman poet Lucretius. Whether focused on working with plants to create living architecture or centered on the process of alchemy, these detailed, brilliantly colored works reflect Laffoley's utopian hopes and transdisciplinary interests: throughout, he aimed to unite the boundless freedom of human imagination with the mathematical precision of the physical world. Nearly one hundred of Laffoley's works are showcased here along with his accompanying "thought-forms," texts specific to each painting that comment on its particular content. Together with an introduction by editor and gallerist Douglas Walla, a biography by fellow artist Steven Moskowitz, and essays by scholars Linda Dalrymple Henderson and Arielle Saiber, this book is a long-awaited celebration of the theories, writings, and artworks of an extraordinary mind.

About this title

Review

"Walla provides an essential and informative study that complements Laffoley's complex painted and constructed visionary narratives. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice

"This important book in the genre provides a complete retrospective of Laffoley's works, which was lacking during much of his artistic career."--Library Journal

"This stunning, indeed mind-boggling, monograph is the ultimate resource on the art of Paul Laffoley."--Artblog

"Imagine if Picasso or Dalí hadn't been discovered as teenagers whose genius would flower and develop in the public eye, but as senior citizens with a fully formed body of mature work in the closet. This is a document of seismic cultural importance."--Richard Metzger, founder of Dangerous Minds

About the Author

Paul Laffoley (1935-2015) was an artist and architect based in Boston. Douglas Walla is the founder of Kent Fine Art in New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 022631541X
• ISBN 13: 9780226315416
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 336