Joel Perlman Hardcover by Philip F Palmedo

Product Details

• Publisher: Abbeville Publishing Group (2006-05-01)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 192 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780789208644
• Item Weight: 567.0 grams
• Dimensions: 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 cm

This handsomely illustrated book is the first monograph devoted to the work of Joel Perlman (b. 1943), an acclaimed sculptor in steel and bronze, whose works are represented in the permanent collections of America's top museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Perlman's best works from the 1970s to the present day — from the austerely abstract Chevy Short (For Jeannie Day), shown at the 1973 Whitney Biennial, to the lyrical Sky Spirit, a monumental commission completed in 2004 — are depicted in here in stunning full-page photographs, most in full color. All readers with an interest in contemporary sculpture will appreciate not only the book's striking illustrations but also its thoughtfully written text, which relates Perlman's art to his life.

Author Philip F. Palmedo, drawing on extensive interviews with his subject and his subject's colleagues, engagingly describes how each chapter of Perlman's life — from his early days of teaching alongside Kenneth Noland and Jules Olitski in the Bennington College art department to his struggle, ultimately very successful, to establish himself in SoHo's vibrant 1970s art scene — served to strengthen his commitment to his own abstract, Modernist aesthetic. This thoughtful narrative, which seamlessly synthesizes Perlman's intimate art-world anecdotes and Palmedo's own keen critical observations, is beautifully complemented by an insightful foreword by renowned art dealer André Emmerich, whose gallery represented Perlman for twenty years.

About the Author

Philip F. Palmedo studied art history and physics as an undergraduate at Williams College, and received his PhD in nuclear engineering from MIT. Retired from a distinguished career as a research scientist and entrepreneur, Palmedo is the author of several books on art, most recently The Experience of Modern Sculpture: A Guide to Enjoying Works of the Past 100 Years.