Faux Pas is the first collected volume of Amy Sillman's critical writing — essays, reviews, and lectures that trace a singular intelligence at work on abstraction, the body, colour, and the possibilities of art today.
About This Book
Amy Sillman is best known for large-scale gestural paintings that hold abstraction and representation in productive tension, but her writing has long been a vital parallel practice. Faux Pas gathers that writing for the first time: critical essays that reevaluate abstract expressionism through a queer lens, meditations on awkwardness and embodiment in the artistic process, and close readings of colour and shape as meaning-making tools. With a foreword by novelist Lynne Tillman and drawings made specifically for this publication, the book reveals the coherence of Sillman's critical vision — one that prizes excess over good taste, wrestling over dandyism, and humour as a mode of serious thought. Essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary painting and art criticism.
Key Features
- 272 pages of collected essays, reviews, lectures, and specially commissioned drawings
- Foreword by Lynne Tillman
- Published by After 8 Books, 2014
What You'll Discover
- A queer rereading of abstract expressionism that reframes the movement's key figures and assumptions
- Sillman's sustained investigation of awkwardness and the body as generative forces within the artistic process
- Close critical attention to colour and shape as carriers of meaning rather than mere formal properties
- A coherent artistic philosophy that favours excess and wrestling over refinement — articulated across multiple genres of writing
About the Author
Amy Sillman (born 1955) is a New York-based artist whose work combines the visceral with the intellectual across painting, zines, and iPad animation. She studied painting at the School of Visual Arts from the 1970s and received her MFA from Bard College in 1995. Her writing has appeared in Artforum and Bookforum, and she is represented by Gladstone Gallery, New York.
Specifications
- Format: [Details available upon request]
- Pages: 272
- Dimensions: 120 x 184 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9782492650048
- Publisher: After 8 Books
- Publication Date: 2014
Perfect For: Artists, critics, and curators interested in contemporary painting, art theory, and critical writing that operates at the intersection of abstraction, queer theory, and embodied practice.