Peter Saul

RICHARD SHIFF, ANNABELLE TÉNÈZE, AND BRUCE HAINLEY

The first major monograph on provocateur painter Peter Saul, featuring the largest collection of his work ever published, edited by the artist himself.

A Pop Art predecessor, Peter Saul is known for his luridly colored, contrarian depictions of popular culture and political history. In the 1950s and ’60s, reacting against Abstract Expressionism’s seriousness and influenced by Surrealist Roberto Matta, Saul began to paint everyday objects like iceboxes, steaks, and toilets in bright colors, along with political works like his series of graphic, cartoonish “Vietnam” paintings (1960s), which, though they had no clear moral message or political agenda, were evidently anti–Vietnam War. Jumbling references like Mickey Mouse, Ethel Rosenberg, and Willem de Kooning, his work also includes darkly humorous self-portraits. His work is often compared to the riotous palettes and caustic wit of artists such as Robert Colescott, Raymond Pettibon, and R. Crumb.

The book includes several contributions: Richard Shiff, renowned art historian, writes about the work from a more formalist and historical perspective; Annabelle Ténèze provides a substantive essay on every period of the artist’s long career; and critic Bruce Hainley addresses the satirical aspect of the artist’s work.

Richard Shiff holds the Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art at the University of Texas at Austin. Annabelle Ténèze is the director of Les Abattoirs/the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Toulouse, France. Bruce Hainley is a writer and critic and lives and works in Los Angeles.

ART

304 pages, 96 x 115” 225 color illustrations HC w/jacket: 978-0-8478-6866-7 $85.00 Can: $115.00 UK: £60.00 October 5, 2021 Rights: World RIZZOLI ELECTA