Polaroids
Attila Richard Lukacs and Michael Morris
Description
Attila Richard Lukacs is one of Canada's most talented and controversial contemporary artists. He is best known for his epic paintings that depict masculine, homoerotic imagery, featuring figures such as gay skinheads and military cadets. His work has been exhibited at documenta in Kassel, Germany, as well as in New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Cologne, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, among others; he has also had numerous shows, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Alberta.
A co-publication between Arsenal Pulp Press,
Presentation House Gallery of North Vancouver, and the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, this will be the first book to document the work of this important artist, from an unusual perspective--a collection of some 1,200 full-colour Polaroid images (twelve per page)
taken by Lukacs over the past twenty years as core referents for his paintings, assembled and collaged by Vancouver artist and curator Michael Morris.
Lukacs regularly uses a Polaroid camera as part of his artistic process, using his friends and acquaintances in Berlin, New York, Vancouver and elsewhere as models; taking advantage of the Polaroid's unique characteristics, his painterly sensibility is evident in the rich hues and romantic sensuality of these photographs, which are strikingly similar to the paintings that resulted from them.
The book will feature essays by award-winning author Michael Turner (Hard Core Logo, The Pornographer's Poem); Scott Watson, director of the Morris & Helen Belkin Gallery in Vancouver; and Vince Aletti, the American curator, critic, and journalist.
Stunning and bold, Polaroids: Attila Richard Lukacs and Michael Morris is a remarkable visual and written document on Lukacs, one of Canada's greatest artists working today, and his unique collaboration with Morris, a hugely important artist in his own right.
Awards
- Runner-up, Alcuin Design Society Awards 2011
Reviews
Hot gay skinheads take the German thug Ubermensch look to a homoerotic extreme in this collection of 1,200 polaroids. The faded colours and heroic poses make each one look like a painting and there's a religious aura even if they're wearing a gasmask or face down in a doggy bowl. -Gay Times (UK)
Lukacs fans will swoon over Polaroids ... It's a fascinating look at Lukacs's source material, complemented by essays by Michael Turner (Hard Core Logo) and Stan Persky and an extended interview with Lukacs. -Montreal Mirror
An impressive, big-format book. And since the Polaroid era is over, nostalgia gives the enterprise tenderness and sweetness, two emotions Lukacs isn't normally known for. -Uptown magazine
Regardless of their sexual orientation, or state of (un)dress, there is a beauty, a joy in it all, the unbound ecstasy of a young man on his own away from home for the first time, free to be what he wanted, as he wanted. Would that every young man could have as good a mentor and friend as Michael Morris, a boyfriend like Michael Danger, the manager of Oranienbar in Berlin. All of these elements made up Attila Richard Lukacs, and all of Attila Richard Lukacs goes into his art.
-Gay People's Chronicle
Massive (forget being a "coffee table book" -- put four legs on it and it could be a coffee table), beautifully presented, the book is a must-have for anyone who has an interest in the avant-garde gay visual arts scene. -EDGE Publications (Boston, Philadelphia, etc.)
An exploration not only of Lukacs' work, but also of Canadian painting, artistic archives, and the queer art scene of the era. Polaroids is a must for university libraries with any interest in contemporary Canadian art. -American Library Association GLBT Round Table