Robert Phelps – författare

James Salter had written two novels, The Hunters and The Arm of Flesh, but it was his third, remarkable novel A Sport and a Pastime, together with his film Three and a script he had written for Downhill Racer, that in 1969 elicited a letter of admiration from a writer and critic he did not know—Robert Phelps. The correspondence that resulted went on to span two decades. The letters themselves are exceptionally alive, uninhibited, gossipy, touching, and brilliant. The successes of Salter and the struggles of Phelps are fully explored by the writers themselves in an honest exchange only letters can divulge. Along with an insightful foreword by Michael Dirda, this book gives voice to a nearly forgotten figure and his friendship with a man he admired.

Presents new scholarship, images, and primary sources that explore the art and legacy of a critical yet under-recognized figure in Abstract Expressionism and twentieth-century American art."The gentleman Abstract Expressionist," in the words of poet John Ashbery, Bradley Walker Tomlin was known for his elegance in both painting style and personal comportment. The book includes over forty paintings, works on paper, and printed materials, charting Tomlin's development from art nouveau illustrations of the 1920s to large-scale Abstract Expressionist paintings of the 1950s. The exhibition explores his formative years in Syracuse, early patronage by Condé Nast, and the important role played by the Woodstock art colony. Tomlin is best known as a key figure in the New York School and had close friendships with Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, and Robert Motherwell. Unlike most of his peers, Tomlin focused on the impersonal possibilities of art. His carefully orchestrated paintings resonate with our time's renewed interest in abstraction and design.