Edited with text by Drew Sawyer. Preface by Anne Pasternak. Epilogue by Laurie Simmons.
The first comprehensive book on the surreal, queer and humorous photographic art of Jimmy DeSana, a central figure in New York’s art and music scenes of the 1970s and ’80s
This is the first overview of the work of Jimmy DeSana, a pioneering yet underrecognized figure in New York’s downtown art, music and film scenes during the 1970s and 1980s. The book situates DeSana’s work and life within the countercultural and queer contexts in the American South as well as New York, through his involvement in mail art, punk and No Wave music and film, and artist collectives and publications. DeSana’s first major project was 101 Nudes, made in Atlanta during the city’s gay liberation movement. After moving to New York in 1973, DeSana became immersed in queer networks, collaborating with General Idea and Ray Johnson on zines and mail art, and documenting the genderqueer street performances of Stephen Varble. By the mid-1970s, DeSana was a fixture in New York’s No Wave music and film scenes, serving as portraitist for much of the period’s central figures and producing album covers for Talking Heads, James Chance and others. His book Submission, made with William S. Burroughs, humorously staged scenes out of a S&M manual that explored the body as object and the performance of desire. DeSana was also an early adopter of color photography, creating his best-known series, Suburban, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This body of work explores relationships between gender, sexuality and consumer capitalism in often humorous, surreal ways. After DeSana became sick as a result of contracting HIV, he turned to abstraction, using experimental photographic techniques to continue to push against photographic norms.
"Sofa" (1977–78) is reproduced from 'Jimmy DeSana: Submission.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
The New York Times
Arthur Lubow
What is so refreshing about DeSana, in his work and apparently also in his life, is how he made everything seem like a fleeting glimpse, a momentary epiphany, a passing fancy. It was fabulous for an instant. It was fun. And then it was gone.
AnOther
Osman Can Yerebakan
Carve[s] slices of a bizarre anarchy through the familiarity of objects and bodies.
i-D
Sara Rosen
In place of desire and seduction, Jimmy crafted something more compelling and complex: the body as physical manifestation for our enigmatic inner lives.
New Yorker
Vince Aletti
At once laughable and alarming, playful and lethal, the work still lands like a psychological time bomb.
Town & Country
Erik Maza
A heartfelt tribute to community and queer love.
AIGA
The design is quiet, yet manages the feat of being so evocative.
Huck
Miss Rosen
A poignant meditation on grief, despair, disgust, rage, faith, hope, love, and prayers for deliverance from a man facing down death.
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"Marker Cones" (1982) is reproduced from Jimmy DeSana: Submission, published to accompany the highly anticipated exhibition opening this week at the Brooklyn Museum. The first comprehensive book on the compelling yet always unsettling photographer, who was not well known outside of the NYC underground in his short lifetime, this book makes the case for genius. "Jimmy DeSana was a compact bundle of contradictions," Laurie Simmons writes, "a man of few words, rather bashful socially (but it was often impossible to get off the phone with him). He was out all night but completely punctual and reliable by day, a semi-detached student and keen observer of the human condition. … I am immensely grateful for every moment Jimmy and I spent together, for every freezing second I floated naked in a pool or held an awkward pose for way too long, for this was my graduate program in photography—this is really where I learned to make a picture … standing within Jimmy’s quiet but determined force field, emulating his laserlike focus and his ultimate belief that making art was a space to play and dream." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 11.75 in. / 176 pgs / 240 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $59.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $82.95 GBP £49.99 ISBN: 9781636810591 PUBLISHER: DelMonico Books/Brooklyn Museum AVAILABLE: 11/29/2022 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by DelMonico Books/Brooklyn Museum. Edited with text by Drew Sawyer. Preface by Anne Pasternak. Epilogue by Laurie Simmons.
The first comprehensive book on the surreal, queer and humorous photographic art of Jimmy DeSana, a central figure in New York’s art and music scenes of the 1970s and ’80s
This is the first overview of the work of Jimmy DeSana, a pioneering yet underrecognized figure in New York’s downtown art, music and film scenes during the 1970s and 1980s. The book situates DeSana’s work and life within the countercultural and queer contexts in the American South as well as New York, through his involvement in mail art, punk and No Wave music and film, and artist collectives and publications.
DeSana’s first major project was 101 Nudes, made in Atlanta during the city’s gay liberation movement. After moving to New York in 1973, DeSana became immersed in queer networks, collaborating with General Idea and Ray Johnson on zines and mail art, and documenting the genderqueer street performances of Stephen Varble.
By the mid-1970s, DeSana was a fixture in New York’s No Wave music and film scenes, serving as portraitist for much of the period’s central figures and producing album covers for Talking Heads, James Chance and others. His book Submission, made with William S. Burroughs, humorously staged scenes out of a S&M manual that explored the body as object and the performance of desire. DeSana was also an early adopter of color photography, creating his best-known series, Suburban, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This body of work explores relationships between gender, sexuality and consumer capitalism in often humorous, surreal ways. After DeSana became sick as a result of contracting HIV, he turned to abstraction, using experimental photographic techniques to continue to push against photographic norms.
