10.29.09

Bookish Illusions of Steve Wolfe

"Today’s artists are a bookish lot. Whether or not they actually read a great deal, their reverence for highbrow literature can approach idolatry. But the painter and sculptor Steve Wolfe has taken his bibliophilia to unrivaled extremes. With extraordinary skill and ingenuity, he creates copies of used books that are so true to their subjects that it’s hard to believe that they’re not the real thing.

"Copying book covers may seem like a simple-minded idea, but the experience of Mr. Wolfe’s works is surprisingly rich — visually, conceptually, psychologically and sociologically. Above all, you sense in his art a kind of monkish devotion that turns feats of technique into icons of a deeply personal religion."

Steve Wolfe on Paper is currently on view at the Whitney Museum, NYC, through Nov. 29, 2009.

-- From Ken Johnson's NYT article, 10.19.09; image via Luhring Augustine.