Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life Book

An incisive exploration of the still life genre as artists have rediscovered and reshaped it in the 20th century, Objects of Desire proves that despite the century's hostility toward older aesthetic conventions, avant-garde artists of many schools have made of the still life a vital opportunity for invention. From Matisse, Picasso, and Braque to the Dadaists, Surrealists, and Pop artists and finally to contemporary creators like Cindy Sherman and Charles Ray, the still life has hardly led a stolid, stable, or staunch existence. Originally a subject reserved for painting, the genre has progressively invaded the arena of sculpture, its themes reinvented in the provocative assemblages called "readymades," its forms recast continuously into the present. Published to accompany a major 1997 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Objects of Desire traces a radical rethinking of the genre in terms of subject matter and formal invention. Artists Include: Iwan Babij, Georg Baselitz, Max Beckmann, Umberto Boccioni, Georges Braque, Marcel Broodthaers, Patrick Henry Bruce, Carlo Carra, Paul Cezanne, Joseph Cornell, Tony Cragg, Salvador Dali, Stuart Davis, Jean Dubuffet, James Ensor, Dan Flavin, Lucio Fontana, Robert Gober, Philip Guston, Rchard Hamilton, Hannah Hoch, Jasper Johns, Frida Kahlo, Paul Klee,Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Piero Manzoni, Henri Matisse, Allan McCollum, Mario Merz, Joan Miro, Piet Mondrian, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, Meret Oppenheim, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Charles Ray, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, and Warhol amongst others. Essay by Margit Rowell.Foreword by Glenn D. Lowry.Read More