Ed Moses – A Retrospective of Paintings & Drawings 1951–1996 - Softcover

Yau, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0914357425 ISBN 13: 9780914357421

Publisher: University of California Press, 1996

Synopsis

Ed Moses (b. 1928) is widely considered to be one of the central figures in the rich and complex history of postwar West Coast art. Like Richard Diebenkorn and Sam Francis, his work has been greatly influenced by the brilliant light of Southern California. Modernism and European and American abstract art are also echoed in Moses' work, and the vitality of his diverse oeuvre radiates throughout this first major retrospective of his paintings and drawings. Although he attended art school, Ed Moses is an autodidact who has laboured to overcome his inability, as he put it, 'to draw three dimensionally'. And drawing has been central to his work, the spine from which all of his art extends. From his egg tempera paintings in the early 1950's to the 'ror shock' paintings and drawings of the early 1990's, he has found ways to investigate the relationship between spontaneity (the legacy of abstract expressionism) and control and balance (inherited from Mondrian and the Russian constructivists).Moving decisively from abstraction to figuration, and from monochrome to tonality and colour, Moses, like de Kooning and Pollock, has consistently turned away from the predictable and has sought new ground. In his bold exploration of forms and methods, Ed Moses has avoided the label of a particular tradition and, instead, continues to reinvent himself. With over seventy paintings and drawings that span his career, this is the most comprehensive book on Ed Moses available today. 'I felt as though these paintings were not something I created; they were something I discovered' - Ed Moses.

About this title

About the Author

John Yau is an art critic, poet, and curator living in New York. He has contributed essays to more than 100 exhibition catalogs and published over 250 articles and reviews. His poems and fiction have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0914357425
• ISBN 13: 9780914357421
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132