In The Worlds of Hunt Slonem author Dominique Nahas delves deep beneath the decorative surface of Slonem's work to reveal the fascinating sources of and influences on his art. The chapter, “Set Out on a Journey," examines the places in which he lived and worked in his youth, from his boyhood in Hawaii to a formative sojourn in Nicaragua as a teenager to his training at Tulane University, and how his early experiences impacted his development as an artist. “Multiplicity," presents a visual lexicon of the innumerable creatures he has celebrated over and over in his paintings, starting with his early Broadway Bug Series (c. 1974), and including rabbits, ocelots, monkeys, butterflies, moths, frogs, turtles, fish, and insects, as well as all manner of birds: cockatoos, toucans, Cordon Bleu finches, macaws, magpies, mynahs, eagles, and rhinoceros hornbills. In “Let There Be Light," Nahas shows how Slonem works with and invokes light in his art, using techniques that allow light to refract, multiply, and radiate, exhilarating the senses. “The Grid: Structure as Image" focuses on his painting techniques and his use of grids, repetitive patterning, and multiples as an organizing principle of expressivity. The last chapter, “Saints, Boddhisatvas, and the Celebrated," is devoted to his portraits, including icons of the church (St. Francis), Hollywood (Valentino, Bette Davis, et al.), and Washington (Abraham Lincoln).
This major retrospective concludes with a biographical timeline, an extensive listing of Slonem's solo exhibitions and works held in public collections, and a Selected Bibliography.
*Sloan/Hall is honored to have hosted a book signing with Hunt Slonem himself making this copy possible.*
Author: Dominique Nahas is an art critic and independent curator based in Manhattan. He is also a regular reviewer for Art in America and other publications, teaches art history at Pratt Institute, and is critic-in-residence at the Maryland Institute College of Art's Hoffberger School of Painting.
11 x 14 inches with 288 pages filled with 600 color illustrations
Hardcover with french fold jacket
Published: 10/15/2011
