ALEXIS ROCKMAN
A FABLE FOR TOMORROW
This new volume published by D Giles Limited and the Smithsonian American
Art Museum, Washington, D.C., is the first major survey of the artist’s work.
Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow features 47 artworks from private and
public collections that trace his 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 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
176 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 and Smithsonian American Art Museum
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