Picturing New York: The Art of Yvonne Jacquette and Rudy Burckhardt - Tapa dura

"Yvonne and Rudy created an impromptu arts salon in their lofts on 29th and 14th Streets from the 1960s through the 90s. Great hosts, they served good booze and healthy meals. After dinner, Rudy would pull down the movie screen and roll out the 16mm projector, entertaining all with his latest films. Yvonne's paintings were on display in her studio, and on the clean white walls were paintings by de Kooning, Arp, and Alex Katz. The guest list was extensive and varied; for a long time Yvonne and Rudy made the connection between the worlds of poetry, dance, films, and painting in New York a gracious and homey experience." "Both of these artists, New Yorkers to the core, bring the city to life with their visual acuity. Very different in style yet related in spirit, Jacquette and Burckhardt, in their different mediums, prove the point that there is a realist imagination. Their New York images vibrate with objective discovery and subjective idiosyncrasy at once: a major achievement." "Yvonne Jacquette's paintings and Rudy Burckhardt's photographs stand in exhilarating contrast to one another: the sky and the ground, the macro and the micro, color and grisaille. Between them is the third element, which they almost seem to have invented: the city of New York, in all its dynamism and alertness and variousness and chaos." Yvonne and Rudy created an impromptu arts salon in their lofts on 29th and 14th Streets from the 1960s through the 90s. Great hosts, they served good booze and healthy meals. After dinner, Rudy would pull down the movie screen and roll out the 16mm projector, entertaining all with his latest films. Yvonne's paintings were on display in her studio, and on the clean white walls were paintings by de Kooning, Arp, and Alex Katz. The guest list was extensive and varied; for a long time Yvonne and Rudy made the connection between the worlds of poetry, dance, films, and painting in New York a gracious and homey experience. -- Red Grooms is a celebrated multi-media artist whose sculpto-pictoramas, happenings, and colorful installations like Ruckus Manhattan have made him one of the best known artists of the last half century Yvonne Jacquette's paintings and Rudy Burckhardt's photo-graphs stand in exhilarating contrast to one another: the sky and the ground, the macro and the micro, color and grisaille. Between them is the third element, which they almost seem to have invented: the city of New York, in all its dynamism and alertness and variousness and chaos. -- Luc Sante is the author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (1991), Walker Evans (2001), and most recently, Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces, 1990-2005 (2007). He teaches at Bard College and is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Bo Both of these artists, New Yorkers to the core, bring the city to life with their visual acuity. Very different in style yet related in spirit, Jacquette and Burckhardt, in their different mediums, prove the point that there is a realist imagination. Their New York images vibrate with objective discovery and subjective idiosyncrasy at once: a major achievement. -- Linda Nochlin, who teaches at the nyu Institute of Fine Arts, is an author and curator. Her most recent book is Courbet (2007)

"Picturing New York" is a lavishly illustrated exploration of the New York paintings and pastels of Yvonne Jacquette, one of America's most distinguished contemporary painters, and the New York photographs of her late husband Rudy Burkhardt, whose unconventional work has spawned a large and highly devoted following.Celebrating the unique duality of New York City - from its small neighbourhoods and intimate streets to its expansive open spaces and cloud-catching skyscrapers, this is a must-have volume for contemporary art lovers everywhere.