CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ
James Siena’s catalogue raisonné is the definitive record of all works created by the artist dating back to 1989, the year that he began to paint almost exclusively on metal, a decision that has defined his painting practice ever since. Also included is an extensive selection of early works dating from 1977 to 1988. The first volume of the catalogue raisonné, published in February 2017 by Artifex Press, includes the artist’s paintings, sculptures, and gouache works. A volume of the artist’s drawings will follow.
Cover: James Siena, Edith Piaf, 2013. © James Siena. Photo by Tom Barratt, courtesy Pace Gallery Above: James Siena with Just Read the Instructions, 2013. © James Siena. Photo by Sam Deitch, courtesy BFA NYC
James Siena (b. 1957) is actively creating new work, and the catalogue raisonné will expand as his oeuvre grows. To date, the catalogue contains records of more than 430 artworks, 400 publications, and 275 exhibitions. There are approximately 900 high-resolution images, hundreds of which have never been published before, and recently unearthed audio and video content can be found in a multimedia archive. Siena’s voice is found throughout the catalogue in excerpts of interviews and, notably, in comments that he has written exclusively for this publication.
“I consider this painting my first work on aluminum that employs a specific constraint imposed on a sub-constraint (lines may not cross, a rule used in other works like Untitled Yellow Mouth and Untitled (for Dan Schmidt), also from 1991). The use of yellow and black in this and other works refers to its deployment in road signage. What is also unusual about this painting is that it was made by painting the black figure over a yellow ground, the only other work made by this method being Untitled GreyWhite, 1991. All other works are painted with no ground other than a metal primer; meaning, any ‘background’ is painted alongside the figure.” —Note by James Siena
Above: James Siena, Untitled Yellow-Black, 1991. © James Siena. Photo courtesy the artist Facing page, clockwise: James Siena, Eschatologist, 2013-2014 (two views); James Siena, Eschatologist (first version), 2013 (two views). © James Siena. Photos by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery Back cover: James Siena, Manifold: 20 Torus, 12 Torus, 6 Torus, 9 Torus, interlocked, 2017. © James Siena. Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery
Ariela Alberts is the Editor of the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné. She has been actively researching Siena’s body of work and collaborating directly with the artist and his studio on this project since 2014. Prior to working for Artifex Press, Alberts contributed research to Shannon Jackson’s “Life Politics/Life Aesthetics: Environmental Performance in red, black & GREEN: a blues” for Performance and the Politics of Space: Theatre and Topology (Routledge: 2013) and to Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby’s book-inprogress, Creole Looking: Portraying France’s Foreign Relations in the Nineteenth Century. She received a B.A. in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2013. Subscribe to the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné at artifexpress.com/subscriptions