Eric Wert: Still Life - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0764981900 ISBN 13: 9780764981906

Publisher: Pomegranate Communications, 2018

Synopsis

Eric Wert: Still Life chronicles the artist's rise to maturity, from otherworldly graphite drawings of cacti to the stunning oil paintings he is now known for. In essays, critic Richard Speer details Wert's artistic evolution, and longtime friend Shawn Vandor places Wert's art within a wider academic and cultural context. Finally, the artist details his meticulous process, providing a rare peek at the way these dripping, tumbling, tangled, restless depictions of flowers and produce are made.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Eric Wert's flowers, fruits, and vegetables are the stuff of a florist's or farmer's perfection-objects of incomparable beauty, hyperrealistic, radiant, and arranged in a tumult that's filled with life. Within this bounty, the artist also recognizes the realities of the garden, forest, and field: snails, slugs, and ants; ladybugs, bees, and butterflies; leaves that decay, petals that fall, fruits that bruise, and vegetables that scar. These things come from the soil and, given time, there they will return with the rest of us. What remains beyond everything is the painting.

Commentary on the wondrous nature of life and death, Wert's compositions also exist within the tradition of still life, taking cues from masters such as Rachel Ruysch, Henri Fantin-Latour, Ambrosius Bosschaert, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, and more. His backdrops-intricate tapestries rendered with historical accuracy-support each disheveled bouquet and overflowing centerpiece in form, color, and mood.

Born in 1976 and raised in Oregon on twenty-five acres of tree- and critter-filled land, Wert developed an observant eye for the details amidst a visual onslaught. His studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago led to work as a scientific illustrator at the Field Museum of Natural History. After earning an MFA from Northwestern University, the artist began to create the paintings documented here: a body of work that establishes Wert as a modern master.

Eric Wert: Still Life chronicles the artist's rise to maturity, from otherworldly graphite drawings of cacti to the stunning oil paintings he is now known for. In essays, critic Richard Speer details Wert's artistic evolution, and longtime friend Shawn Vandor places Wert's art within a wider academic and cultural context. Finally, the artist details his meticulous process, providing a rare peek at the way these dripping, tumbling, tangled, restless depictions of flowers and produce are made.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pomegranate Communications
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0764981900
• ISBN 13: 9780764981906
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128
• Illustrator: Eric Wert