Tuesday 8 January 2013

Lucas Samaras - Samaras Album



Brilliant artist book cited by both Bertolotti and Roth. "Everything Lucas Samaras has created is to a degree a self-portrait. This book - autobiographical psychoanalysis, autophoto album, autointerview - is a unique multimedia portrait of the artist. What he says becomes visible in his photographs, and the photographic images are implicit in his writing. A statement made by Samaras to the critic Lawrence Alloway six years ago provides a few clues to his subtle, devious, poetic contents of his works: 'The manner in which art objects are made are erotic gestures . in the presence of an artistic creation there is a seeming merging of the self with a highly erotic reality called beauty. The eroticism isn't connected with life and death or with a partner's changing moods it is continuous. AUTOEROTIC. Narcissism is making one's body into art.' Samaras has done just that in this most extraordinary book, which we consider his most important work to date." Jean Lipman.