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ABN FIRST WORKS continued from page 64
"I AM NOT AFRAID OF NOSTALGIA OR SENTIMENT. I VALUE TAKING THE TIME TO MAKE A PAINTING
'BEAUTIFUL.' I WANT TO BREATHE LIFE INTO MY PAINTINGS."
—MARK RYDEN The Pumpkin President (1998) Mixing pop art and surrealist
themes with techniques reminiscent of the masters, Ryden has created a genre unto himself and earned a cult-like fol- lowing of art connoisseurs young and old, low-brow and high-brow.
"T ings I fi nd to be 'strange' I also
oſt en fi nd to be elevating," writes Ryden in the introduction to Pinxit. Aſt er receiving a BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1987, Ryden's fi rst public showing came courtesy of Los Angeles' Tamara Bane Gallery, as part of its 1994 "S deSidi e Show" exhibition. By 1998, Ryden was s Me
am
hibition, "T e Meat Show," which atured such works as the two pictured here T e Birth of Venus and T e Pump- kin President.
s standing center stage at Pasadena's Mendenhall Gallery for his fi rst solo exhi feat
here, kin P
"T is visual debris from contempo-
rary pop culture contains the specifi c archetypes that formed my conscious- ness while living in this particular period in history," says Ryden of his inspirational beginnings. "I oſt en fi nd archetypes in old children's books and toys, so these things make up a large part of my collection. I am attracted to things that evoke memories from childhood." Nostalgic and cutting-edge at the
same time, Ryden's work captures the viewer's attention with its familiarity and keeps them transfi xed by hinting at darker themes that seem to exist below the surface. ABN
Many books have been published on Mark Ryden, but none like Mark Ryden, Pinxit, TASCHEN's large-format monograph, released in a boxed Collector's Edition of 1,000 copies, each signed by the artist, as well as an Art Edition of only 50 cop- ies, each accompanied by a piece of art. This print retrospec- tive brings together nearly two decades worth of Ryden's work, one big page at a time. Visit www.taschen.com for more information.
62 62 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012
