Keith Coventry - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 377574293X ISBN 13: 9783775742931

Publisher: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2018

Synopsis

With this publication, Keith Coventry (*1958, Burnley, Great Britain) presents an overview of his oeuvre from its beginnings in the early 1990s to the present day, shedding light on his exploration of the legacy of modernism and post-modernism. In his series Junk Paintings (2012), for example, a new visual vocabulary containing elements of the famous McDonald’s logo shifts into focus, blending with Minimalism and Pop Art. In the white Pure Junk Paintings (2015/16) he continues his work with these formal elements, but using new materials: wood, muslin, beeswax, glass, and gesso lend the paintings a sculptural presence. The same is true of the series Golden Arches (2016), for which parts of the McDonald’s logo were cast in bronze and heavily gold plated, contrasting a cheap, mass produced commodity with materials representing permanence, craft, and value. In Coventry’s art the consumer world and mass production encounter an aesthetic characterized by beauty and timelessness.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Bracewell is the author of many books, including England is Mine. He is a regular contributor to Frieze and The Burlington Magazine.

From the Back Cover

Consumer critique in gold. Overview of the British artist's focus on modernism and postmodernism over the past three decades.
With this publication, Keith Coventry (*1958, Burnley, Great Britain) presents an overview of his oeuvre from its beginnings in the early 1990s to the present day, shedding light on his exploration of the legacy of modernism and post-modernism. In his series Junk Paintings (2012), for example, a new visual vocabulary containing elements of the famous McDonald's logo shifts into focus, blending with Minimalism and Pop Art. In the white Pure Junk Paintings (2015/16) he continues his work with these formal elements, but using new materials: wood, muslin, beeswax, glass, and gesso lend the paintings a sculptural presence. The same is true of the series Golden Arches (2016), for which parts of the McDonald's logo were cast in bronze and heavily gold plated, contrasting a cheap, mass produced commodity with materials representing permanence, craft, and value. In Coventry's art the consumer world and mass production encounter an aesthetic characterized by beauty and timelessness.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hatje Cantz Verlag
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 377574293X
• ISBN 13: 9783775742931
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 212
• Editor: Diederichsen Diedrich, Bracewell Michael