David Breslin – författare

Arguably the most important living artist in America, Jasper Johns (b. 1930) has been a leading advocate of drawing as an artistic genre in its own right, not just a preparatory medium for other works. This catalogue brings together 41 of Johns’s drawings, spanning more than 60 years of his illustrious career and, beginning in 1954, the origin of his mature practice. It encompasses his most famous recurring motifs, including flags, targets, and numbers, and an essay by David Breslin contextualizes this reiterative aspect of Johns’s career. Exquisite reproductions and large-scale details reveal the touch and process of this master draftsman, imparting to the reader a feeling of being in close contact with the artist himself. As this intimate book shows, Johns’s art, at once simple and enigmatic, is above all a meditation on the world around him, a constant investigation of what he calls “the condition of being here.”Distributed for The Menil CollectionExhibition Schedule:The Menil Collection, Houston(11/03/18–01/27/19)

This exploration of Petrit Halilaj’s site-specific installation reflects the artist’s personal experience as a refugee of war and the universal hopes and fears captured in children’s drawings  Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj (born 1986, Kostërc, former Yugoslavia) creates complex, immersive installations that claim space for freedom, desire, intimacy, and identity while expressing his wish to alter the course of personal and collective histories. In his first major outdoor installation, the artist reflects on his experience as a refugee and explores the intersection of reality and fantasy through the rich world of children’s drawings. This volume examines Halilaj’s inspiration for the work in found inscriptions, carvings, and scribbles collected from desks at his former primary school and other schools in Eastern Europe—a record of young people’s fantasies, fears, and private messages conveyed in many languages. An interview with Halilaj connects his practice with those of artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Julio González, situates this project within his broader career, and considers how memory, identity, and history present in his work. This publication reveals his new installation to be at once a story of children in a time and place marked by social and political conflict and a universal reflection on youthful imagination, hopes, yearnings, anxieties, and dreams.Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York(April 30–October 27, 2024)

A survey of two icons of Abstract Expressionism that examines their distinct but connected careers and artistic legaciesKrasner and Pollock: Past Continuous examines the connected lives and distinct practices of Lee Krasner (1908–1984) and Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), two trailblazing artists of the twentieth century. Spanning the full arc of their careers—including before they met, their married years, and Krasner’s life after Pollock’s death—this book illustrates more than one hundred paintings and works on paper. The publication highlights the range and art historical importance of Krasner’s work, evaluates Pollock’s significance anew, and considers the pair as artistic interlocutors against the backdrop of the postwar United States. Essays explore key periods in their creative trajectories, from their parallel emergence in the 1940s New York art scene to their later move to Springs, Long Island. The authors situate the artists within their historical context and trace important breakthroughs in their careers, such as Pollock’s deployment of the “drip” technique and Krasner’s turn to collage. Personal reflections from twenty-first-century artists attest to Krasner’s and Pollock’s ongoing legacies.Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York(October 4, 2026–January 31, 2027)