John Mellencamp: American Paintings and Assemblages

(Hardback)

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Description

In John Mellencamp: American Paintings and Assemblages, a survey of the artist s large-scale oil portraits and mixed-media pieces documents America s heart and soul, revealing unsettling but beautiful truths with a kind of anti-establishment frown and a rich sense of narrative. A foreword by Dr. Lou Zona, Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Butler Institute of American Art, and an essay by New York Times critic and cultural writer David L. Shirey put Mellencamp s work in context as a true American painter. As his musical career flourished, Mellencamp began to paint in the 1980s with an early affinity for portraiture influenced by the works of Otto Dix and Max Beckmann. His kinship with the German Expressionism of the early twentieth century, with its existential focus on the human condition, serves as the foundation for the development of Mellencamp s oeuvre. An interview by SPIN magazine founder Bob Guccione Jr. further delineates the connection of Mellencamp s music and art, both carefully composed through the structural requirements of harmony, rhythm and order, and imbued with the small-town, earnest voice of America s Heartland.

Reviews

"JOHN MELLENCAMP: AMERICAN PAINTINGS AND ASSEMBLAGES is the definitive surveycurated by the artist himselfof Mellencamps oeuvre as an expressionist painter, grabbing our attention through the canvas. . .Full of self-portraits made over the years as well as portraits of other well-known subectsincluding Marlon Brando, Johnny Cash, and Meg Ryanas well as a variety of everyday people, Mellencamps art is storytelling at its finest."BACKSTAGEAXXESS

"John Mellencamp: American Painting and Assembledgesis a self-curated book documenting 'Americas heart and soul' with an 'anti-establishment frown.' The book features 170 original works, essays from David L. Shirley and Bob Guccione Jr, and a forward written by Dr. Louis A. Zona."AMERICAN SONGWRITER

Author Bio

John Mellencamp, award-winning singer-songwriter and member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, is also a painter, collector, and longtime activist who has exhibited his work in galleries and museums across the United States. Dr. Louis A. Zona is the executive director and chief curator of the Butler Institute of American Art, in Youngstown, Ohio. David L. Shirey is a former foreign correspondent, critic, and editor with Newsweek magazine, a critic and cultural writer for the New York Times, and former chair of the MFA Fine Arts program at New York City s School of Visual Arts. Award-winning editor and publisher Bob Guccione Jr. has created and managed some of America s most iconic publishing brands, including Spin magazine and Gear magazine.