The artistic polymath behind R.E.M. explores the potency of portraiture
Before his wildly successful foray into music—as frontman of the 1990s international sensation R.E.M.—Michael Stipe was a visual arts student at the University of Georgia in Athens. After the band dissolved in 2011, Stipe returned to his first love: generating illustrations, photography and sculptures. His diaristic photographs are perhaps his best known works, and he has previously published three photobooks with Damiani that largely consisted of portraits. In this fourth publication, portraiture once again takes focus. This time, however, Stipe articulates the form through a plethora of mediums: including plaster, concrete, rotocast plastics, bookmaking, ceramics, video and darkroom photographic printing. The book privileges process over product, displaying a series of works in progress that continue an exploration of contemporary portraiture, instinct and abstraction. Classical and conceptual forms create a cohesive whole from seemingly disparate elements, culminating in an inclusive and complete vision, in which the familiar and unfamiliar are granted equal grounding. The volume is published in conjunction with Stipe’s solo exhibition of his artwork at the ICA Milano, which opened in December 2023 and will be up through March 2024. The New York City–based artist Michael Stipe (born 1960) studied photography and painting before leaving school upon the formation of R.E.M. The sensibility that he began to develop during his time as an art student transferred to the spectrum of his work for R.E.M., from art directing all graphic, video and stage designs, to writing, composing and performance, and his iconoclastic personal style.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Michael Stipe: Even the Birds Gave Pause.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
PRINT
Steven Heller
Stipe’s employ of light and dark and seemingly disparate elements, together with photographic harmonies, results in alluring visions.
The New York Times Book Review
Emphasizes artistic process...presenting diaristic portraits of friends alongside unfinished plaster sculptures, ceramics and darkroom prints.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Tuesday, June 25, from 7–8 PM, LIVE from NYPL presents artist and former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe discussing his new book of photography, Even the birds gave pause, an exploration of contemporary portraiture, published by Damiani. Book signing to follow. Register here. continue to blog
"Portrait, South of France" is from Michael Stipe’s fourth and most recent photobook, Even the birds gave pause, collecting the artist and R.E.M. frontman’s poetic, sometimes enigmatic portraiture in unconventional media. Yes, celebrities show up—Michèle Lamy, Bono, Christy Turlington—because Stipe is documenting his world. But in reality, you’re seeing treasured friends and loved ones portrayed, somehow, at their most themselves. And that is an interesting thing to study. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 13 in. / 96 pgs. LIST PRICE: U.S. $55.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $79 ISBN: 9788862088145 PUBLISHER: Damiani AVAILABLE: 4/30/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA LA
The artistic polymath behind R.E.M. explores the potency of portraiture
Before his wildly successful foray into music—as frontman of the 1990s international sensation R.E.M.—Michael Stipe was a visual arts student at the University of Georgia in Athens. After the band dissolved in 2011, Stipe returned to his first love: generating illustrations, photography and sculptures. His diaristic photographs are perhaps his best known works, and he has previously published three photobooks with Damiani that largely consisted of portraits.
In this fourth publication, portraiture once again takes focus. This time, however, Stipe articulates the form through a plethora of mediums: including plaster, concrete, rotocast plastics, bookmaking, ceramics, video and darkroom photographic printing. The book privileges process over product, displaying a series of works in progress that continue an exploration of contemporary portraiture, instinct and abstraction. Classical and conceptual forms create a cohesive whole from seemingly disparate elements, culminating in an inclusive and complete vision, in which the familiar and unfamiliar are granted equal grounding. The volume is published in conjunction with Stipe’s solo exhibition of his artwork at the ICA Milano, which opened in December 2023 and will be up through March 2024.
The New York City–based artist Michael Stipe (born 1960) studied photography and painting before leaving school upon the formation of R.E.M. The sensibility that he began to develop during his time as an art student transferred to the spectrum of his work for R.E.M., from art directing all graphic, video and stage designs, to writing, composing and performance, and his iconoclastic personal style.
