Text by Bret Easton Ellis, Robert Grunenberg, Leif Randt, Norman Rosenthal.
A fascinating history of the palm in Western art, and the role it plays today in fashion, social media and ecological preservation
For more than 2,000 years, palm trees have been extraordinarily popular in both the East and the West. Regardless of continent, religion or culture, they symbolize wealth and serenity. No other motif conveys this promise of good fortune and happiness as convincingly as the palm tree does. Omnipresent in advertising and social media, it conjures up notions of luxury, the jet set and eternal sunshine. Nor are the visual arts resistant to its visual allure and metaphorical power.
With this rich cultural heritage in mind, Paradise Is Now shows the many ways that palm trees are depicted in contemporary art. What is behind the popularity of this emblem? Which layers of meaning and what kinds of contradictions are revealed in the wake of this artistic exploration?
Alongside essays by Bret Easton Ellis and Leif Randt, the publication features works by John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Rodney Graham, Secundino Hernández, David Hockney, Alicja Kwade, Sigmar Polke, Ed Ruscha and Rirkrit Tiravanija.
Sigmar Polke's "Palmen (Palm Trees)" (1968) is reproduced from 'Paradise Is Now.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
LA Weekly
Shana Nys Dambrot
Images that are at times whimsical, at times contemplative and even dark, witty, ironic and sensual, signifying wealth, luxury, exoticism and a certain balminess in the soul.
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"Café" from "Parade Triple Bill" (1979) by David Hockney is reproduced from Paradise Is Now: Palm Trees in Art, a staff favorite for Summer 2018. "Hockney integrates the homoeroticism that suffuses his themes into settings that render Los Angeles as tropical and urban at once," Eva Beck writes." The palm tree appears in this context as a sensual element, a phallic symbol whose visual quality he once described as ejaculatory." continue to blog
Featured image, a spread from Ed Ruscha's 32-page A Few Palm Trees (1971), is reproduced from Hatje Cantz's singular new release, Paradise Is Now: Palm Trees in Art. "California was a real lift for me;" Ruscha is quoted, "it was swanky and slick, its drive-in and drive-by architecture, perfect weather, palm trees, beaches, and waves—it promised a faster life than I had known, a pace that allowed me to lose things.…" Featuring work by John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Rodney Graham, Secundino Hernández, David Hockney, Alicja Kwade, Sigmar Polke and Rirkrit Tiravanija, among others, Paradise Is Now is the perfect gift for sophisticated summer hosts. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 12 in. / 160 pgs / 130 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $59.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $79 ISBN: 9783775744461 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 6/12/2018 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Bret Easton Ellis, Robert Grunenberg, Leif Randt, Norman Rosenthal.
A fascinating history of the palm in Western art, and the role it plays today in fashion, social media and ecological preservation
For more than 2,000 years, palm trees have been extraordinarily popular in both the East and the West. Regardless of continent, religion or culture, they symbolize wealth and serenity. No other motif conveys this promise of good fortune and happiness as convincingly as the palm tree does. Omnipresent in advertising and social media, it conjures up notions of luxury, the jet set and eternal sunshine. Nor are the visual arts resistant to its visual allure and metaphorical power.
With this rich cultural heritage in mind, Paradise Is Now shows the many ways that palm trees are depicted in contemporary art. What is behind the popularity of this emblem? Which layers of meaning and what kinds of contradictions are revealed in the wake of this artistic exploration?
Alongside essays by Bret Easton Ellis and Leif Randt, the publication features works by John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Rodney Graham, Secundino Hernández, David Hockney, Alicja Kwade, Sigmar Polke, Ed Ruscha and Rirkrit Tiravanija.
