Edited with text by José Luis Blondet. Foreword by Michael Govan. Text by Luz Carabaño, Carribean Fragoza, Karin Gulbran, Jenni Sorkin, Ricky Swallow, Jonas Wood, Shio Kusaka.
Frimkess’ sculptural ceramics draw from an eclectic repertoire of cartoons and masterworks
This book presents the work of Venezuelan artist Magdalena Suarez Frimkess (born 1929) and features a selection of her works from the ’70s to the present, including utilitarian objects, decorative figures and tiles. Her pieces are imbued with an equal sense of humor and dread. Their fragility and precarity increase the expressive power of these funny, outrageous, grotesque objects, which often seem as though they might collapse before our eyes at any moment. In her studio, one is likely to encounter figurines inspired by Japanese horses or vintage American cartoons; vases ornamented with patterns from the ancient Americas; and tiles, plates and cups decorated with flowers or scenes from her life in Venice. A trio of characters recur throughout her oeuvre: a distressed Olive Oyl, an oblivious Minnie Mouse and the savvy Condorito—a Chilean cartoon from the ’50s that is still very popular in Latin America. Frimkess affirms the wisdom of these cartoons; in her eyes, they are philosophers.
"Bowl with Mickey Mouse, Condorito, and Pansy Pattern," 2010, is reproduced from 'Magdalena Suarez Frimkess: The Finest Disregard.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Los Angeles Times
David A. Keeps
Her deft brushwork, dazzling sense of color and unpretentious approach transform her humble, charming ceramics into artworks that captivate the eye and engage the heart and mind.
Artnet
Miranda Carolina
Suarez Frimkess takes the heroic and brings it into the realm of the everyday.
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"Mickey Mouse Circus Jar with Minnie Mouse Finial" (2008) is from Magdalena Suarez Frimkess: The Finest Disregard—published to accompany the first-ever museum exhibition the of 95-year-old, L.A.-based, Venezuelan-born artist—on view now at LACMA. “When assembled together, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess’s ceramics offer the tantalizing feeling of stepping inside a funky and cluttered curio storefront and being transported back in time,” essayist Jenni Sorkin writes. “Produced in a variety of clay bodies, colors, shapes and sizes, her figurines of funny animals and characters are hand-rendered, appropriated from mid-twentieth-century comic strips, cartoons and animated films, and grouped together alongside tiles, cups, vases, plates and teapots. A combination of crockery and decorative objects, Suarez Frimkess’ ceramics are imbued with a pervasive melancholy, like stepping into an antique shop on a forgotten street and encountering castoffs from another time and place. With the past still twinkling in her peripheral vision, Suarez Frimkess is a nonagenarian who … still sustains an artistic practice, living each day as a version of now.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.75 x 10 in. / 128 pgs / 107 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $49.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $73 GBP £44.99 ISBN: 9781636810645 PUBLISHER: DelMonico Books/Los Angeles County Museum of Art AVAILABLE: 9/17/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by DelMonico Books/Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Edited with text by José Luis Blondet. Foreword by Michael Govan. Text by Luz Carabaño, Carribean Fragoza, Karin Gulbran, Jenni Sorkin, Ricky Swallow, Jonas Wood, Shio Kusaka.
Frimkess’ sculptural ceramics draw from an eclectic repertoire of cartoons and masterworks
This book presents the work of Venezuelan artist Magdalena Suarez Frimkess (born 1929) and features a selection of her works from the ’70s to the present, including utilitarian objects, decorative figures and tiles. Her pieces are imbued with an equal sense of humor and dread. Their fragility and precarity increase the expressive power of these funny, outrageous, grotesque objects, which often seem as though they might collapse before our eyes at any moment. In her studio, one is likely to encounter figurines inspired by Japanese horses or vintage American cartoons; vases ornamented with patterns from the ancient Americas; and tiles, plates and cups decorated with flowers or scenes from her life in Venice. A trio of characters recur throughout her oeuvre: a distressed Olive Oyl, an oblivious Minnie Mouse and the savvy Condorito—a Chilean cartoon from the ’50s that is still very popular in Latin America. Frimkess affirms the wisdom of these cartoons; in her eyes, they are philosophers.
