Thursday 21 October 2010First major survey of a modern visionary artist

Published by D Giles Limited and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow features 47 artworks from private and public collections that trace the artist's career from Pond’s Edge (1986) to The Reef (2009), with its timely reminder of the fragile ecosystems that lie just out of sight but never out of danger. Inspired by nineteenth-century landscape painting, science fiction film, and firsthand field study, Rockman’s paintings proffer a vision of the natural world that is equal parts fantasy and empirical fact. Highlights include Evolution (1992), his first mural-sized painting, and Manifest Destiny (2003-04), an ambitious large-scale work commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art

Accompanying a major exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, this vividly illustrated volume highlights the artist’s unique synthesis of art and science, along with his meticulous attention to detail and striking use of colour. Rockman’s three monumental paintings—Evolution, Manifest Destiny, and em>South—exemplify the boundless imagination and extraordinary skill that go into every painting. The compelling mix of intensely coloured realism, scientific detail, and environmental concerns results in a stunning body of work that is a reflection of our times and a portent of events to come.

Author Joanna Marsh examines the evolution of Rockman’s career over three decades, convincingly linking his artistic development to the history of America’s environmental movement. Rockman’s ability to blur the boundary between fact and fiction appeals to both scientists and art critics. In two further essays art historian Kevin Avery considers the nineteenth-century-painting references in Rockman’s work, and Thomas Lovejoy offers the perspective of an expert on biodiversity and climate change.

This publication accompanies Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow showing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, November 19, 2010 – May 8, 2011

The Authors

Joanna Marsh is The James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Kevin J. Avery is a senior research scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Thomas Lovejoy is a leading biologist and Biodiversity Chair at The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, Washington, D.C.

ALEXIS ROCKMAN
A Fable for Tomorrow

160 pages, 292 x 241mm (9½ x 11½ in.), portrait
120 colour illustrations, hardback
Text: Up to 35,000 words
ISBN: 978 1 904832 86 7
Price: US$49.95/UK£35.00
Publication date: February 2011
Publisher: D Giles Limited, London

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