Edward Kienholz

This new Ed Kienholz overview casts the Los Angeles assemblage pioneer as a powerful moral force in postwar art. Kienholz (1927–1994) was a polarizing presence in American art from the start of his career, when his first large-scale installation Roxy’s--a recreation of a brothel--was shown at the Ferus gallery in 1962 (it later caused a huge stir at Documenta 4 in 1968). War, racism, sexism and media exploitation were among his recurrent themes, and he tackled them with an ethical clarity that, at the time, was frequently mistaken for shock tactics. This substantial monograph--the first since his major touring retrospective of 1996--includes more than 200 color plates of Kienholz’s assemblages, reasserting his art as a morally driven enterprise, and pointing towards his ongoing influence among contemporary artists such as Jonathan Meese, Thomas Hirschhorn and John Bock.
Edward Kienholz (1927–1994) was born in Fairfield, Washington, and grew up on a farm, where he acquired the mechanical and carpentry skills that he was later apply to his art. He moved to Los Angeles in 1955, and opened the NOW gallery in 1956. That year he met Walter Hopps, with whom he opened the legendary Ferus gallery, and began to construct assemblages from detritus found on the streets, which soon developed into large tableaux. Throughout the 1960s, Kienholz’s art was frequently a subject of controversy for its brutal depiction of racism and misogyny in America. In 1981, Kienholz officially declared that all his work from 1972 on should be retrospectively understood to be coauthored by his wife and collaborator, Nancy Reddin Kienholz. Kienholz died suddenly in Idaho on June 10, 1994, from a heart attack. He was buried inside one of his works, a 1940 Packard coupe containing a deck of cards, a bottle of wine and the ashes of his dog Smash.

Edward Kienholz’s life-size tableau “Five Car Stud” (1969–72) depicts four automobiles and a pickup truck, arranged on a dirt floor in a dark room with their headlights illuminating a shocking scene: a group of white men exacting their gruesome “punishment” on an African American man. “Five Car Stud” is a harsh reminder of a shameful part of our history whose traces still linger. It was seen only in Germany in 1972 and has since remained in storage in Japan for almost 40 years. On the occasion of its first public showing in the United States, this volume examines an extraordinarily powerful artistic statement that has lost none of its potency. The catalogue presents essays by Roberto Ohrt and Thomas McEvilley, as well as an interview with American artist Paul McCarthy.

This landmark catalogue is the first complete monograph on the work of Edward Kienholz, one of the century's most significant artists, and his wife and partner Nancy Reddin Kienholz. A co-founder (with Walter Hopps) of L.A.'s legendary Ferus Gallery, and a leader in the Californian assemblage scene, Kienholz emerged internationally as one of the most powerful figures to work against the omnipresence of Abstract Expressionism with his assemblages, which incorporated a variety of found and sculptural materials. Kienholz dramatized the complexity of postwar America in these assemblage-tableaux, addressing issues of war, abortion, racism, prostitution, government indifference and human cruelty. Published on the occasion of an important retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, this book reproduces in more than 300 illustrations a selection of works ranging from intimate collages to life-size tableaux made between 1954 and 1994. The accompanying text explores the evolution of Kienholz's career, examining both his solo work and work made in collaboration with his wife. An illustrated chronology is provided by Nancy Reddin Kienholz.