Kiki Smith: Prints, Books and Things

by Wendy Weitman, Kiki Smith (Artist)

Well-known as a sculptor, Kiki Smith has also worked extensively as a printmaker--in fact her printed works and other editioned art, including books and multiples, are arguably as important as her sculpture. Smith emerged in the early 1980s as one of a generation of artists who returned to figurative imagery after a period in which American art had leaned to the abstract and conceptual. In Smith's case the interest in the figure was She is fascinated by the anatomy of the human body, which is an immediate and emotionally powerful presence in much of her work. She is equally concerned with the natural world, and animals have become increasingly important in her recent imagery. The heart of printmaking is the ability to create more than one example of an artwork, and this appeals to Smith's interest in the public dissemination of imagery and information. Her work is politically sensitized but she is also fascinated by craft and is constantly exploring and experimenting with her materials. Her prolific body of printed art incorporates techniques extending from elaborate etchings to crude rubber stamps and images ranging from wall-sized lithographs and deluxe artist's books to screen-printed giveaway posters and removable tattoos. Kiki Prints, Books and Other Things accompanies an exhibition devoted to this underacknowledged but crucial dimension of her art.

Genres: Art, Feminism

150 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Elisefur · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The works seem to be images of violence, but their titles -Rapture, In a Field-belie any sense of attack and suggest sexual interpretations and a sense of the woman's complicity. The contrasts and ambivalences underlying Smith's complex works based on fairy tales blend a remarkable sense of wonder and innocence with a telling knowledge, as if childhood were being not witnessed but remembered and seen through the prism of experience.”

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love her work so anything by her about her is interesting to me. what i learned...she lives eats and sleeps art. she is passionate about what she does. she is experimental and professional. the best.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Birth and regeneration. Gender and race. MOMA has several of her prints and I want to see them. Bad.

Oh, Kiki. You had me at * feminist artist. *

[Pamela Boswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful reproductions of even more beautiful print work.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

continual source of inspiration...