Lari Pittman

". . . big, visually gripping and psychologically strange [paintings]." -The New York Times

Lari Pittman’s meticulously rendered paintings employ a complex mix of symbols and images to create dense and compelling narratives on love, violence, and desire. Drawing upon design, folk art, and decorative traditions, Pittman’s brightly colored paintings incorporate and rework a range of styles and genres—Victorian silhouettes, social realist murals, and Mexican retablos—to conjure a hallucinatory effect unique in contemporary painting. Pittman has earned numerous accolades in the art world and has been included in the Venice Biennale, Documenta X, and four Whitney Biennials. The first monograph on his thirty-year career, this book will be a vital addition to any art enthusiast’s library.

Lari Pittman has both a BFA and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. He has received many awards, including the Skowhegan Medal, three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for Visual Arts Fellowship Grant. He has had major exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva. Robert Storr is a curator, writer, and Dean of the Yale School of Art. Wayne Koestenbaum is an art critic and professor at the City University of New York. Helen Molesworth is chief curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Lisa Phillips is the Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum in New York.