Böcker av Jim Dine

Jim Dine ist ein außergewöhnlicher Künstler, der mit einer schier endlosen Bandbreite unterschiedlichster Kunstformen arbeitet: Druckgrafik, Fotografie, Zeichnung, Malerei, Skulptur, Prosa und Lyrik, Performance und - für Jim Dine ein besonders wichtiges Medium - Buch. Anders als viele Künstler:innen, die sich auf ein einzelnes Medium konzentrieren, hat Dine, seit seiner ersten künstlerischen Arbeit in der Schulzeit und schließlich über sieben Jahrzehnte hinweg, verschiedenste Materialien und Arbeitsweisen ausprobiert und deren Grenzen immer wieder bewusst überschritten.In Dog on the Forge, dem hier vorliegenden Buch, das Dines Ausstellung im Palazzo Rocca bei der Biennale in Venedig begleitet, ist er diesem Prinzip treu geblieben: Er erfindet seine mittlerweile klassischen Motive wie Venus und Pinocchio, Werkzeuge, Herzen und Selbstporträts ganz neu und verbindet sie zu einer eklektischen Kombination verschiedener Materialien, indem er zum Beispiel Bronze bemalt oder Kollagen auf Leinwand bringt. Es entstehen Kunstwerke von rastloser, bisweilen rasender Energie, die spannende Einblicke in Dines unermüdliche Kreativität ermöglichen.

Renowned for his depictions of self, which early in his career were often purely symbolic-most famously in the form of a bathrobe or a set of tools-Jim Dine reveals in Last Year's Forgotten Harvest another portrait of sorts, providing the viewer both with insight into his deep commitment to drawing and to the individuals in his orbit who have helped shape him. Presenting nearly seven decades of drawing, from 1957 to the present, Last Year's Forgotten Harvest demonstrates the deep fusion between Dine's practice and those who have long been part of his world. In the artist's words: "Besides being a diary, having the quality of a diary, the exhibition is essentially about drawing." Present here, then, are members of Dine's family. His wife photographer Diana Michener appears in multiple, heavily worked portraits. Images of close friends and fellow creatives move throughout the publication, including drawings of artist Susan Rothenberg, printer Aldo Crommelynck, poet Robert Creeley, and printer and publisher Gerhard Steidl, with whom he created this book. The blemishes, wrinkles and even stains that imprint themselves upon skin similarly appear upon the surfaces of Dine's drawings as he encounters and grapples with his subjects over time. Providing a poignant reflection upon a career characterized by digesting the world through making, Dine concludes: "This is what I'm left with. I'm left with drawing."Co-published with the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, BrunswickExhibition: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, 7 December 2023 to 2 June 2024

Storm of Memory celebrates 25 years of Jim Dine's ongoing residency in Göttingen and productive friendship with his printer and publisher Gerhard Steidl. Dine's eclectic choice of subject and media for the book reflects what he calls "the climate of everything possible here with Gerhard S." Works include "Elysian Fields," a series of grand plaster heads inspired by antiquity and "lost friends and fragments of my life"; "The Secret Drawings," majestic, dark, vibrating, abstract with hints of figuration; prints of his beloved motifs Pinocchio, hearts, bathrobes, tools and classical torsos; and photo documentation of "Poet Singing (The Flowering Sheets)," Dine's site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Göttingen of handwritten poetry, sculpture and self-portraiture. Published to coincide with Dine's 88th birthday on 16 June 2023 and the opening of his exhibition of the same name at the Kunsthaus, Storm of Memory chronicles the restless present of his nearly seven-decade career and underlines the roles Göttingen and Steidl have played as a crucible for his creativity.Exhibition 17 June - 17 September 2023 at Kunsthaus Göttingen

This book explores the uncompromising processes of autobiographical excavation at the heart of Jim Dine's art today. Here his focus lies on three self-reflective series from the past three years, each in a different medium. In the self-portraits of "Drawing the Minutes" Dine less draws with pencil on paper than carves into it, feverishly erasing and redrawing to create a shifting typography of self and a study on the effects of time. The densely painted self-portraits of "Me" comprising oils mixed with sawdust and sand deepen Dine's acts of looking out and in, each layer of pigment a layer of self-knowledge. Finally we witness the monumental bronze sculptures of "Three Ships" whose title references the ships that carried the relics of the Three Wise Men on their final journey. Five years in the making, Dine's ships are dynamic masses studded with branches, ropes and dozens of tools-one of his most beloved motifs, born from childhood hours of intense observation spent in his grandfather's hardware store. Accompanied by short personal texts by the artist and photos documenting him at work at the Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen foundry, Three Ships is a testament to Dine's vitality and transformative versatility-which sweep across six decades and show no sign of abating.

Few contemporary artists can demonstrate an oeuvre as varied, consistent and influential as that of Jim Dine-incorporating painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and photography, and sweeping across more than six decades. Fewer still can say they are respected poets. Dine has been writing and performing intensely autobiographical poems since the late 1960s, and With Fragile Spirit is his latest collection, consisting of five volumes. These differ greatly and include "A Beautiful Day," exploring Dine's polarities of experience from delight to melancholy, from disillusion to celebration; and "Like the Big Boy Tomato," a hand-written version of his 2021 hate poem "Electrolyte in Blue," probing themes of anti-Semitism, racism, climate change and failed world leaders. Together, these books affirm poetry as the unceasing critical flow that augments and energizes his visual work.

Inspired by a semi-autobiographical book by the mid-20th century German printmaker HAP Grieshaber, the author has used Grieshaber's idea to create a story of fifty years as a printmaker. He includes interviews with his printers and memories of his life around the prints he made at that time.

Using dense charcoal and dripping washes, this book depicts the sinister edge to Carlo Collodis story and Pinocchios isolation in the author's quest to become a real boy. It presents the his portrait of Gerhard Steidl, an ambitious suite of nine drawings made by the artist in his Gottingen studio.

Jim Dine is commonly seen as a prolific painter, printmaker and photographer whose central practice is drawing. This book shows that sculpture is just as important in his oeuvre. It lets us discover Dines favourite motifs: hearts, tools, skulls, and Pinocchio, as well as Classical sculpture in the form of Venus de Milo and Winged Victory.

Discusses about the author's friendship and working relationship with Aldo Crommelynck, the printer of Matisse and Picasso. This work charts the extent to which his experience of working with a man who was not only a great printer, but also a skilled draughtsman, an aesthete, dandy and bon viveur.