Buy this book on-line

Cray, Fred (Artist/Photographer); Grundberg, Andy & Cooley, Martha (Contributors) : Fred Cray: Self-portraits: The Tremaine Gallery Exhibition Catalog

Tremaine Gallery of Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut, 1999

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. 12 pages. Exhibition Catalog. The first and only edition. Published in a tiny print run as a softcover original only. There is no ISBN. The Catalog is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Fred Cray: Regular-sized volume format. Pristine-white softcovers with black titles in front, as issued. Photographs by Fred Cray. Essays by Andy Grundberg and Martha Cooley. 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 eponymous exhibition held at the Tremaine Gallery of Hotchkiss School, where Fred Cray studied and graduated from in 1975. Presents a selection of Fred Cray's self-portraits and collage photographs. They hark back to the Pictorialist tradition of photography, which emphasized expressiveness and aspired to the level of painting, rejecting the sharpness, clarity, and reproducibility of the photograph. In Cray's singular case, "self-portrait" means NOT being recognized in any of the portraits. In one of his most beautiful images, his back is actually turned from the camera. In another, his extreme closeup is a study in the color red of the most abstracted, Minimalist kind. As Andy Grundberg points out, these painting-photographs will be recognized as powerful and eloquent responses to the "objective" art of such figures as Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman. The only works that approach Cray's self-portraits in ambition and achievement are Adam Fuss' and Christopher Bucklow's, both also influenced by the Pictorialist tradition. An esoteric, somewhat eccentric figure, he keeps American Surrealism and the very idea of art alive in our time, which desperately needs it. Fred Cray has not received the kind of recognition that he deserves because his art is quirkily personal. But he is The Real Thing: Thoughtful yet intuitive, and deeply moving. As such, he is an anomaly in the midst of industrial-scale, manufactured art. His time will come because it is on his side. An absolute "must-have" title for Fred Cray collectors. This title is now collectible. As far as we know, this is the only copy of the Exhibition Catalog available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. A rare copy thus. 9 full-page color and collage plates. One of the most brilliant American artists of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER FRED CRAY TITLES IN OUR CATALOG).

1
0

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.