Buy this book on-line

Fronth, Per (Artist/Photographer) & Barth, Malin (Contributor) : Per Fronth: Lifedreams

Dillon Gallery, New York, 1999

ISBN 096483409x

First Edition / First Printing. As New in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. Unpaginated. Retrospective Exhibition Catalog. One of Per Fronth's finest achievements. Limited Edition of 3000 copies. Published as a softcover original only. The Exhibition Catalog is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Per Fronth: Regular-sized volume format. Pictorial softcovers with titles on the cover, as issued. Photographically-based art by Per Fronth. Essay by Malin Barth. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Published on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition held at the Dillon Gallery in 1999. Presents Per Fronth's "Lifedreams". Some of Per Fronth's finest and most representative photographic image-sequences. The great Norwegian artist/photographer enjoys cult status in both art and photographic circles throughout the world because he is a very special kind of artist: He begins with a photograph and then proceeds gradually to efface it by turning it into magical paintings ("totemic" is often used to describe the finished work). Per Fronth himself calls them "photo-transfers" that are beautiful not just because they evoke the elemental power of art, which is now absent in most "conceptual" contemporary painting: The power of his work may be traced to the fact that at the deepest level, Per Fronth is a humanist and Maximalist in a world largely populated by merely lapidary craftsmen and Minimalists. The transfer is so complete that it is often very hard to see whether the finished work is a photograph (which it isn't) or a painting (which it isn't either). Per Fronth takes on the entire history of Western art in his work and emphasizes its Romanticism. His work is about every human being's inner life, its happiness as well as its sadness, its burdens and concerns. While the technical finesse of his work is impeccable, Per Fronth's work can only be understood if one expects and demands radical vision rather than mere "ideas" from an artist: "I want to redefine photography by way of using my paintbrushes such that assumptions of verisimilitude, accuracy, and fictional narrative all become equally ungrounded. Sumptuous visuality, whether as photographic near-abstraction or as intricate webs of cracked paint, is paramount" (Per Fronth). An absolute "must-have" title for Per Fronth collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed and inscribed in black ink-pen on the title page by the artist/photographer: "Dear Martha, Here's what's up in NY till Nov 3rd. Hope you'll be able to see it. Best wishes, Per Fronth". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. The recipient, Martha Schneider, who is named, is an important art photography figure. This title is a contemporary art and photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed and inscribed copy of the Limited Edition available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. A rare signed copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with color plates. One of the finest artist/photographers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER PER FRONTH TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 096483409x.

1
1

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.