Dunham writes about what is made and why it matters with incisiveness,
wit and candor
Artist Carroll Dunham is one of the most acclaimed and innovative
painters of his generation. But he is also an astute writer who has
engaged with a wide variety of artists in the form of reviews, catalog
essays and interviews. Collected here for the first time, Into Words:
The Selected Writings of Carroll Dunham reveals the true depth of
Dunham's writing.
From reviews of Pablo Picasso and Jasper Johns to a gonzo Peter Saul
interview, to an appreciation of Kara Walker's films and reflections on
his own practice, Dunham writes about what is made and why it matters
with incisiveness, wit and candor. Considering the work of a range of
artists with a perspective inflected by a deep knowledge of art making,
Dunham's writings provide an alternative history of the art of the past
100 years. Featuring an introduction by Scott Rothkopf, Chief Curator of
the Whitney Museum of American Art and a publisher's foreword by Paul
Chan, Into Words is an expansion of the prescribed art history
curriculum, and an invaluable reader for anyone interested in
contemporary art and culture.
Carroll Dunham was born in New Haven in 1949. Working since the late
1970s in painting, drawing and printmaking, Dunham has fruitfully mixed
abstraction and representation. His work has been the subject of
numerous solo exhibitions, including a midcareer retrospective at the
New Museum, New York, as well as group exhibitions at institutions in
the United States and abroad. His writings have appeared in Artforum,
Bomb, The Journal and numerous exhibition catalogs.
