Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Book AK—Lives of the Artists
Spotlight on Jasper Johns

American artist Jasper Johns has been a leading figure in the art world for more than sixty years. He has brought his unique style to key art movements such as Pop art, Minimalism, and Conceptual art. He is perhaps best known for his works featuring images of the American flag, which he began creating in the 1950s and still creates today. Johns often incorporates familiar images in his works; in addition to flags, he has used iconic images such as targets, numbers, and maps of the United States.

Learn more about Johns and nine other leading contemporary artists by reading Lives of the Artists, the second Book AK selection. Book AK is a museum-hosted book club that provides an opportunity to explore the lives of artists and learn more about art- and museum-related topics. The Book AK discussion for Lives of the Artists will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from10:15 to 11:30 am. Learn More and Register

Book AK—Lives of the Artists
Spotlight on John Currin

American artist John Currin has successfully brought portraiture and figurative painting into the contemporary art world. While inspired by the masters of the Renaissance and Rococo eras, he is also influenced by the mainstream media, advertisements in women’s magazines, fashion models, and politics. These combined inspirations often result in erotic, figurative renderings of the female form that, at times, can be slightly distorted, dark, satirical, and provocative.

Learn more about Currin and nine other leading contemporary artists by reading Lives of the Artists, the second Book AK selection. Book AK is a museum-hosted book club that provides an opportunity to explore the lives of artists and learn more about art- and museum-related topics. The Book AK discussion for Lives of the Artists will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from10:15 to 11:30 am. Learn More and Register

Book AK—Lives of the Artists
Spotlight on Jeff Koons

American artist Jeff Koons, a leading figure in the contemporary art world, draws inspiration for his work from objects and images from popular culture and the media. He is best known for his unique sculptures, which have featured inflatable toys and a giant puppy made out of 60,000 fresh flowers, as well as large-scale works of commonplace items, including children’s balloon animals that he enlarges, produces in stainless steel, and finishes with a bright, colorful, reflective surface. In 2008, Koons garnered worldwide attention as seventeen of his sculptures were exhibited in the chambers and on the garden grounds of the Château de Versailles, the one-time home to King Louis XIV of France.

Learn more about Koons and nine other leading contemporary artists by reading Lives of the Artists, the second Book AK selection. Book AK is a museum-hosted book club that provides an opportunity to explore the lives of artists and learn more about art- and museum-related topics. The Book AK discussion for Lives of the Artists will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from10:15 to 11:30 am. Learn More and Register

Book AK—Lives of the Artists
Spotlight on James Turrell

James Turrell has long had a fascination with light. Early in his career, he was associated with the Light and Space art movement, which originated in Southern California in the 1960s. In his light tunnels and projection works, he manages to create shapes that appear to have both weight and mass, using only light. One such light installation, the Albright-Knox’s Gap from the series “Tiny Town,” 2001/2006, is a contemplative space where, through focus and stillness, the viewer can experience a plane of pure blue color.

Learn more about Turrell and nine other leading contemporary artists by reading Lives of the Artists, the second Book AK selection. Book AK is a museum-hosted book club that provides an opportunity to explore the lives of artists and learn more about art- and museum-related topics. The Book AK discussion for Lives of the Artists will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from10:15 to 11:30 am. Learn More and Register

IMAGE: Gap, 2001. Copyright James Turrell. Photograph by Jim Bush.

Book AK—Lives of the Artists
Spotlight on Richard Serra

Richard Serra is best known for his large-scale sculptures, many of which can be found outdoors in large, public spaces. His father’s work as a pipefitter in California shipyards had an early influence on Serra’s sculptures, which are minimalistic and often made from large rolls and sheets of metal. Many of his works—including the Albright-Knox’s Kitty Hawk, 1983—are composed of large, self-supporting geometric forms that depend solely on the laws of gravity to stay upright. This leads to a tension in the viewer, who logically knows the work is secure, but who can feel as if the work is resting precariously in place.

Learn more about Serra and nine other leading contemporary artists by reading Lives of the Artists, the second Book AK selection. Book AK is a museum-hosted book club that provides an opportunity to explore the lives of artists and learn more about art- and museum-related topics. The Book AK discussion for Lives of the Artists will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from 10:15 to 11:30 am. Learn More and Register

Book AK—Lives of the Artists
Spotlight on Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman’s art typically involves photographing herself in a variety of costumes and portraying numerous different characters. She draws influence from sources as varied as classic films, European portrait paintings, and fashion. One such series involves Sherman assuming the role of screen idols, including Marilyn Monroe, as in the Albright-Knox’s Untitled (Marilyn), 1982 (above). Sherman tries hard to ensure that the viewer does not see a depiction of the artist, but only the character she is embodying. 

Learn more about Sherman and nine other leading contemporary artists by reading Lives of the Artists, the second Book AK selection. Book AK is a museum-hosted book club that provides an opportunity to explore the lives of artists and learn more about art- and museum-related topics. The Book AK discussion for Lives of the Artists will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from 10:15 to 11:30 am. Learn More and Register

IMAGE: Courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures

Book AK—Lives of the Artists
Spotlight on Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney often creates works that combine elements of sculpture, photography, drawing, film, and installation. The five photographs in Barney’s Cremaster Suite, 1994–2002, depict characters from the artist’s “Cremaster Cycle,” a series of five films. Three of the photographs are of the three male characters—Gary Gilmore, the Entered Apprentice, and the Loughton Candidate—played by the artist himself. The other two photographs are of the films’ female characters: the Queen of Chain, played by the legendary film actress Ursula Andress, and Goodyear, played by the porn star Marti Domination. While overtly sexual in nature, the works are imbued with multiple layers of meaning, making complete interpretation impossible.

Learn more about Matthew Barney and nine other leading contemporary artists by reading Lives of the Artists, the second Book AK selection. The Book AK discussion for Lives of the Artists will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from10:15 to 11:30 am. Learn More and Register

Book AK—Lives of the Artists
Spotlight on Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel (American, born 1951) has created a varied body of work in more than forty years. First gaining acclaim for paintings created on the surfaces of broken plates, he has gone on to work in a variety of styles and materials. The Albright-Knox’s large-scale 1994 work Untitled (Japanese Painting), 1994 (above), is from a series of paintings that are abstract, highly gestural, full of color, and—as with all of his works—attempt to show the artist’s emotional state.

Learn more about Schnabel and nine other leading contemporary artists by reading Lives of the Artists, the second Book AK selection. Book AK is a museum-hosted book club that provides an opportunity to explore the lives of artists and learn more about art- and museum-related topics. The Book AK discussion for Lives of the Artists will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013, from 10:15 to 11:30 am. Learn More and Register

Spotlight on Lee Krasner

In the early 1950s, Lee Krasner—who was often highly critical of her own work—destroyed a number of her paintings. The process of slashing the canvases and the resulting detritus on the studio floor inspired the artist to incorporate the fragments into new paintings. Milkweed, 1955 (pictured above), includes some of these fragments over a background of large, vertical bands of color, characteristic of Krasner’s style. Nature, and, in particular, the landscape surrounding the artist’s East Hampton country studio, also had an influence on her work; this is evident in her choice of title for this painting, as well as the earthy brown, olive, and orange colors of the work.

Learn more about Lee Krasner with the debut of the Albright-Knox’s new book club, Book AK. The inaugural Book AK selection is Lee Krasner: A Biography, by Gail Levin. The discussion will take place on Saturday, March 23, 2013, at 10:15 am. Learn More and Register

IMAGE: © 2013 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York