THE ART OF JOE COLEMAN
With essays by Asia Argento, Jack Sargent, and Anthony Haden-Guest
“Joe Coleman is probably the most significant contemporary outsider artist to emerge in the past decade.” —Michael Bonesteel, The Outsider art magazine
“Joe Coleman may be the last great painter of religious icons today.” —Jim Jarmusch
“Coleman’s bitter intensity and microscopic detail give his apocalyptic vision a manic power.” —John Maizels, author of Raw Creation
(from the jacket)
Joe Coleman’s paintings are unflinching autopsies of the human condition. Wielding his single-hair brush like a scalpel, Coleman forces us to join him in a brutal project to document the frailties and cruelties of the flesh and the bizarre junctions between saint and sinner, sacred and profane, holy and horrifying.
In tortured self-portraits, apocalyptic “humanscapes” and portraits of historical figures from outlaw hero John Dillinger to Gangs of New York-era mercenary Albert Hicks to outsider artist Henry Darger, Joe Coleman packs his images with fascinating information and excruciating, hallucinatory detail.
Joe Coleman’s paintings have been exhibited at the American Visionary Art Museum, the Hieronymus Bosch Museum, and the Wadsworth Athenaeum.
The Book of Joe includes essays by filmmaker/actor Asia Argento (Scarlet Diva), film critic Jack Sargeant (Deathtripping) and art critic Anthony Haden-Guest (Famous), plus 150 pages of reproductions and glorious details of his most recent works, in-depth keys to each of the major paintings in the book and a bibliography of Coleman’s performances, interviews, and exhibitions for Colemaniacs everywhere.
ISBN 0-86719-578-9
Published by La Luz de Jesus Gallery / Last Gasp
$50.00 USD
Available exclusively from JoeColeman.com, a author's slipcased limited edition containing a signed hand-printed etching is available here.
