Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman

Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman
by Jim Jarmusch, Harold Schechter

Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman
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Book Summary Information

Author: Harold Schechter, Jim Jarmusch
Contributor: Jim Jaramusch
Contributor: Harold Schector
Contributor: John Yau
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-07-15
ISBN: 0963812963
Number of pages: 155
Publisher: Green Candy Press

Book Reviews of Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman

Book Review: Wild Brilliance
Summary: 5 Stars

Nothing can prepare you for a Joe Coleman painting if you've never seen one before-- the beauty of these works will literally rip your eyeballs from your skull. With a scholarly, yet fierce courage Coleman reinvents the characters and scenes he portrays, with a technical skill which borders on the supernatural. In a recent show in Rotterdam, Coleman's work was hung beside those of Hieronymus Bosch, a deserved honor.

The essays in this book are excellent, describing Coleman's ground-breaking history as a performance artist as well as a painter. The design of the book by Katharine Gates is beautiful, and enhances appreciation of Coleman's work. I recommend this book to anyone who cares about art in the early 21st Century (or the 15th Century for that matter!).

Summary of Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman

Joe Coleman is a powerful artist whose paintings in acrylic on Masonite contain within their bizarre decorative borders an astonishing profusion of specific, intensely colorful nightmare images. He does not try to be pretty. He does not flinch from depicting revolting details of body parts and violence. (Click on the cover illustration for a closer look.) Often he places a totemic figure, such as Edgar Allan Poe or Ed Gein in the middle of the canvas, then he explores his fascination with that person by surrounding the figure with vignettes about the individual's life and work. After hours of meticulous labor with tiny brushes, every square millimeter of the canvas is covered with quotations, faces, glyphs, documents, dramatic scenes, and horrifying creatures. His paintings are often compared to illuminated manuscripts. Original Sin contains 48 pages of color plates, many with accompanying detail views, and numerous illustrations in black and white. Essays by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, art historian John Yau, and writer Harold Schechter offer insights into Coleman's psyche and world-view. Detailed keys explain the allegorical and historical references in 19 of the paintings. Warning: this is strong stuff, both gory and sexual. To view more of Coleman's art, see the cover illustration of Coleman's Cosmic Retribution.

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