Edited by Todd Bradway. Introduction by Mika Brzezinski. Text by John Beardsley, Aneta Georgievska-Shine. Interviews by Barbara Rose, Aneta Georgievska-Shine.
Emilie Brzezinski began her art career in the 1970s, initially working in a variety of media such as plastic, latex and wood fiber. Equally inspired by Minimalism and natural forms, her early work consisted of transparent resin casts of trees and site-specific arrangements of expressionistic, figurative molds. Since the early 1990s, she has focused entirely on monumental wood sculpture, using a chainsaw and axe to carve forms that breathe new life into found wood--arches, bowls, chairs, columns and discs. "Nature has a grand design," she writes, "but its manifestations unfold in imperfection and specificity. Respect to this persistent individuality in natural form is the underpinning of my work … as I carve the trunk, I retain the essential outline and gesture of the tree." Brzezinski’s sculptural approach, which conjures the work of artists as varied as David Nash, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Ursula von Rydingsvard, celebrates the knots, hollows, wounds and cracks of wood, and the myriad possibilities suggested by organic forms. The Lure of the Forest, designed by Katy Homans, explores the entirety of the artist’s career, documenting over 80 works. Highlights include her magnum opus Forest (1997–2005), a monumental work composed of 46 tree trunks, and Family Trees (2010–2013), in which she combines sculpture and photography to create a vivid portrait of her family members. In addition to contributions by art historians John Beardsley, Barbara Rose and Aneta Georgievska-Shine, the book includes an introduction by Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" and the artist’s daughter.
Born in 1932 in Geneva, Switzerland, Emilie Brzezinski immigrated to the US and grew up in California. She graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts with a degree in the history of art. During the last two decades, the artist has had many gallery and museum installations in the US and overseas. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Corcoran Museum, Washington, DC and has been shown at the Virginia Museum of Art, Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC, and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art. It can also be seen at sculpture parks across North America, such as the Grounds for Sculpture, New Jersey, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, New York and the Socrates Art Park, New York.
"Children’s Arch" (1991), gum, 11.5 x 9 x 2.5 feet, is reproduced from Emilie Brzezinksi: The Lure of the Forest.
STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely.
FROM THE BOOK
"I have never known my mother not to be an artist. Trees line our entire relationship, and the path of our family. The love that she has for her sculptures literally clings to her—evidenced by the fine sawdust that is often speckled in her hair—and it's embedded in every hand-carved ridge that she's chiseled into the surface of a piece. As I run my hands over my mom's towering, magnificent sculptures, I can't help but think, 'This is her. This is amazing. I could never do this.'" -Mika Brzezinski, excerpted from her Introduction, My Mother in Her Element
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough featured an advance copy of The Lure of the Forest, DAP Publishing's forthcoming monograph on sculptor Emilie Brzezinksi, yesterday on Morning Joe. Brzezinksi will be a featured speaker next month at Ariana Huffington and (daughter) Mika Brzezinski's Thrive Third Metric conference in New York. continue to blog
Sculptor Emilie Brzezinski, whose first major monograph comes out in May from D.A.P. Publishing, is interviewed by her daughter, reporter Mika Brzezinski, for this special on CBS Sunday Morning in May 2002. continue to blog
Featured image, of sculptor Emilie Brzezinski axing a felled willow on a farm outside Lodz, Poland, in 1991, is reproduced from Emilie Brzezinski: The Lure of the Forest, the first major monograph on the artist and a key new title in the media this month. Presenting works produced between 1974 and 2013 and featuring an essay by Brzezinski's daughter, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, among other noted writers, the book launches with upcoming mother-daughter events Saturday, May 10, at the New Canaan Library; Thursday, May 29, at Books & Books, Coral Gables; and Monday, June 2, at Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 12 in. / 200 pgs / 180 color / 20 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $49.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $67.5 GBP £44.99 ISBN: 9781938922312 PUBLISHER: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers AVAILABLE: 5/31/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Emilie Brzezinski: The Lure of the Forest Sculpture 1979-2013
Published by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers. Edited by Todd Bradway. Introduction by Mika Brzezinski. Text by John Beardsley, Aneta Georgievska-Shine. Interviews by Barbara Rose, Aneta Georgievska-Shine.
Emilie Brzezinski began her art career in the 1970s, initially working in a variety of media such as plastic, latex and wood fiber. Equally inspired by Minimalism and natural forms, her early work consisted of transparent resin casts of trees and site-specific arrangements of expressionistic, figurative molds. Since the early 1990s, she has focused entirely on monumental wood sculpture, using a chainsaw and axe to carve forms that breathe new life into found wood--arches, bowls, chairs, columns and discs. "Nature has a grand design," she writes, "but its manifestations unfold in imperfection and specificity. Respect to this persistent individuality in natural form is the underpinning of my work … as I carve the trunk, I retain the essential outline and gesture of the tree." Brzezinski’s sculptural approach, which conjures the work of artists as varied as David Nash, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Ursula von Rydingsvard, celebrates the knots, hollows, wounds and cracks of wood, and the myriad possibilities suggested by organic forms. The Lure of the Forest, designed by Katy Homans, explores the entirety of the artist’s career, documenting over 80 works. Highlights include her magnum opus Forest (1997–2005), a monumental work composed of 46 tree trunks, and Family Trees (2010–2013), in which she combines sculpture and photography to create a vivid portrait of her family members. In addition to contributions by art historians John Beardsley, Barbara Rose and Aneta Georgievska-Shine, the book includes an introduction by Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" and the artist’s daughter.
Born in 1932 in Geneva, Switzerland, Emilie Brzezinski immigrated to the US and grew up in California. She graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts with a degree in the history of art. During the last two decades, the artist has had many gallery and museum installations in the US and overseas. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Corcoran Museum, Washington, DC and has been shown at the Virginia Museum of Art, Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC, and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art. It can also be seen at sculpture parks across North America, such as the Grounds for Sculpture, New Jersey, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, New York and the Socrates Art Park, New York.
