Kurt Vonnegut Drawings - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1580933777 ISBN 13: 9781580933773

Publisher: The Monacelli Press, 2014

Synopsis

This collectible volume introduces Vonnegut’s legion of fans to an entirely new side of his irrepressible creative personality – his work as a gifted graphic artist.

Readers around the world know Kurt Vonnegut as the iconic author of books such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle. Far fewer fans know that Vonnegut was also a talented graphic artist who drew as prodigiously as he wrote.

Kurt Vonnegut Drawings brings together the finest examples of Vonnegut’s funny, strange, and moving drawings in one beautifully designed volume. With a hint of cubism, mixed with a Paul Klee gift for caricature, a Calder-like ability to balance color and line, and more than a touch of sixties psychedelic sensibility, Vonnegut’s aesthetic is as idiosyncratic and defiant of tradition as his books. For Vonnegut, making art was a joyful activity; his delight is evident in the work featured here.

Featuring 150 illustrations, some never before published, Kurt Vonnegut Drawings also includes an introduction by Vonnegut’s daughter, Nanette, who shares an intimate remembrance of her father, and an essay by Peter Reed, a scholar and Vonnegut’s longtime friend.

About this title

About the Author

Nanette Vonnegut, a painter and writer, is the daughter of Kurt Vonnegut. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Peter Reed was an emeritus professor of English at the University of Minnesota. A longtime friend of Vonnegut, he wrote extensively on the author’s work.

From the Back Cover

Those who know Kurt Vonnegut as one of America's most beloved and influential writers will be surprised and delighted to discover that he was also a gifted graphic artist. This book brings together the finest examples of his funny, strange, and moving drawings in an inexpensive, beautifully produced gift volume for every Vonnegut fan.

Kurt Vonnegut's daughter Nanette introduces this volume of his never before published drawings with an intimate remembrance of her father. Vonnegut always drew, and many of his novels contain sketches. Breakfast of Champions (1973) included many felt-tip pen drawings, and he had a show in 1983 of his drawings at New York's Margo Feiden Gallery, but really got going in the early 1990s when he became acquainted with the screenprinter Joe Petro III, who became his partner in making his colorful drawings available as silkscreens.

With a touch of cubism, mixed with a Paul Klee gift for caricature, a Calder-like ability to balance color and line, and more than a touch of sixties psychedelic sensibility, Vonnegut's aesthetic is as idiosyncratic and defiant of tradition as his books. While writing came to be more onerous in his later years, making art became his joyful primary activity, and he made drawings up until his death in 2007. This volume, and a planned touring exhibition of the drawings, will introduce Vonnegut's legion of fans to an entirely new side of his irrepressible creative personality.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Monacelli Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1580933777
• ISBN 13: 9781580933773
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176