Arthur Tress ~ Talisman ~ 1986 ~ BOOK SALE

Up for auction is "Talisman" by Arthur Tress ~ Edited by Marco Livingstone ~ Published by Thames and Hudson, New York City ~ ISBN: 0-500-27438-X (softcover) ~ This superb book measures 8-1/4" x 9-1/4" and contains 158 pages with 172 illustrations, 22 in color and 150 in duotone ~ This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition "Arthur Tress: Talisman" presented at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, with the assistance of the Visiting Arts Unit of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ~ Copyright 1986 ~ Printed and bound in Great Britain ~ About the photographer: Arthur Tress (b.1940) is one of the most eminent, and consistently imaginative, photographers of his generation. His style originated in the 1960s surrealist staged photography movements, but he evolved a style all his own that was both dreamlike and formally composed. His male nude work powerfully combines tenderness with cruelty, the wounds of the fallen skateboarders depicted below echoing the St. Sebastian icons of gay art. The relationship between the photographer and his imagination is stated openly. The artist invites us into a dream world that can be playful yet threatening. Images abound filled with weapons and saws, machines, and ruins. Both the children and the male nudes in his photographs are rarely portrayed at rest or in formal portraits. They are rather engaged in modern tableaux acting out symbols of modern life, a pretend world with violence and mystery ever at hand. In the reviews of his major Corcoran retrospective one reviewer dubbed him “a national treasure,” fitting for a photographer who captures symbolically so wide a range of modern life............. The overall condition of the book is very good. The pictorial stiff paper wrappers show some surface scuffs, smudges and some light discoloration towards the extremities. The back cover shows some price sticker residue. The interior pages, while showing some very faint edge discoloration, are clean, unmarked and tight. The reproductions are excellent..... Please checkout my other books starting at just $4.95.... I will always combine multiple items to save my customers on shipping charges... Thanks for Looking.