Creative Arts Person of the Month - May 2017 - Contemporary Painter Mark Grotjahn

As an new initiative, each month the Library is going to shine a light on individuals who have made an impact on the creative world in which they work; this will include creative people past and present and from all walks of the creative arts, reflecting the wide range of disciplines studied at Plymouth College of Art.

This month's Creative is Contemporary Painter: -

Mark Grotjahn 

The Library recently purchased the exhibition catalogue of Mark Grotjahn’s Circus Circus, produced on the occasion of an exhibition held at Kunstverein Freiburg, May 16 - July 27, 2014.

Mark Grotjahn (born 1968) is an American painter best known for abstract work and bold geometric paintings. He lives and works in Los Angeles) and ranks among the best-known American painters of his generation.

His heterogeneous oeuvre includes depictions of anthropomorphic plants and masks as well as colorful abstract compositions in oil or wax crayon. After 1997, he also produced numerous monochromes. Grotjahn's "Butterfly" and "Face" paintings are animated by a dynamic dialectic between gestural representation and formalist structure.

Mark Grotjahn : Circus Circus

709.2 GRO

The lavishly designed book "Circus Circus" presents a selection of paintings from Grotjahn's new "Circus" series as well as a "Mask" bronze sculpture. The ambitious polychromatic works combine the geometric rigor of the "Butterfly" series with the gestural facture of the "Face" pictures, in which primary facial symbols emerge from flowing streams of color.

The essays by Caroline Kading and Mark Prince analyze the "Circus" series in light of the painterly traditions on which it draws and examine its place in Grotjahn's oeuvre.

Other books held in the Library which discuss Grotjahn work include

The forever now : contemporary painting in an atemporal world

759.07 HOP

xhich was published to accompany the exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art.

Timeless Painting presents the work of 17 contemporary painters whose works reflect a singular approach that is peculiarly of our time: they are a-temporal, a term coined by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, the originators of the cyberpunk aesthetic. A temporarily or timelessness manifests itself in painting as an ahistoric free-for-all, where contemporaneity as an indicator of new form is nowhere to be found, and all eras co-exist. Published to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art that explores the impact of this cultural condition on contemporary painting, this publication features work by an international roster of artists including Joe Bradley, Kerstin Bratsch, Matt Connors, Nicole Eisenman, Mark Grotjahn, Charline von Heyl, Julie Mehretu, Oscar Murillo, Laura Owens and Josh Smith, among others. An overview essay by curator Laura Hoptman is divided into thematic chapters that explore topics such as re-animation and reenactment, recontextualization, Zombie painting, and the concomitant Frankenstein approach, which describes a process of stitching together pieces of the history of painting to create a work of art that would be dead but for its juxtaposed parts, all working in association with one another to propel the work into life.

Grotjahn is also included in

Art Now Volume 2 : The new directory to 136 international contemporary artists

709.22 GRO

Unless you regularly trawl the Chelsea galleries, hang out at the Tate Modern, peruse the Pompidou, attend every Biennale, and religiously read Artforum, you could likely use a primer on the art scene in the world today. Fortunately we've created our second Art Now volume to keep art fans abreast of the latest trends and hottest names. Not only will you discover the most important artists in the international art market, you'll also learn how the art scene has changed dramatically in recent years-notably with a return to figurative painting and an increase in political topics. Featuring over 135 artists in A-Z entries, plus a special section about gallery representation and current market prices, Art Now Vol. 2 is the guide to what's happening and who's who in contemporary art. A-Z artist entries include: short biography, exhibition history and bibliographical information, images of important recent work. Bonus illustrated appendix features:names and contact information for the galleries representing the artists featured, primary market prices, the five best auction results.