Peter Saul

Concerning his penchant for difficult or vulgar subject matter, San Francisco-born painter Peter Saul has stated, "Putting crime, war, sex, distortion and low class stuff into the picture is a way to take the decoration out of the picture--literally remove it from the dining room because no one is going to drink orange juice in the same room with it." Saul fuses his MAD Magazine-inspired humor with a Surrealist painting style to create difficult, funny and trenchant works--what Robert Storr, who has penned an essay for this volume, refers to as "sick jokes." Presaging Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley and exerting noticeable influence on artists such as Barry McGee and Ed Templeton, Saul's oeuvre is long overdue for deeper examination and this comprehensive publication provides the first complete overview of his work over the past five decades--from his epic historical canvases to his homage to Thomas Hart Benton, his lampoons of art world sacred cows and works evidencing his particular take on the existential dilemmas of the aging American male. More recent works satirizing current affairs round this volume out.