**A definitive and long overdue monograph revealing the extraordinarily
prolific career of the American artist Wes Lang, whose frenetic and
manic paintings bring together ideas and icons mined from a post-pop
American landscape.
**
In the Wes Lang universe, recurring figures and symbols--horses,
reapers, skulls, Native American chiefs, even nods to his favorite
painters, country and jazz musicians--serve as emblems in one way or
another for freedom and inspiration. References to the Tao Te Ching and
the lectures of Ram Dass are scattered throughout the work, revealing a
central ethos that underlies the artist's complex iconography. The
repetition of these sometimes paradoxical images and phrases, motifs and
mantras, gives Lang's work a ritualistic aspect seemingly at odds with
his eclectic and spontaneous style.
Introduced with an exploratory essay by the critic Arty Nelson, the book
draws on more than 25 years' worth of material, from stark paintings on
wood that formed the artist's first exhibition to richly layered oil
paintings exhibited in Paris in 2020, and from unpublished pencil
drawings to imagery made iconic by his enigmatic commercial
collaborations. Oversized and with pull-out gatefold pages, the book is
testament to the scope and richness of Lang's work: expansive in its
iconography, deceptively intimate in its detail, and juxtaposing a
textured, painterly style with a playful acceptance of the diversity of
his own influences.
