Michel Majerus

Before his untimely death at the age of 35, Michel Majerus (1967–2002) helped reset the terms for painting in the 1990s and early 2000s. This fully illustrated catalogue includes a conversation between Daniel Birnbaum and John Kelsey that sheds light on the artist’s dizzying fusion of commercial imagery, painterly gesture and stylistic quotation. As Kelsey explains, Majerus’ work anticipates many of the issues now confronting image makers more than a decade after his death: “His attention to speed and screens--as well as to branding, the viral spread of youth subcultures, screen space, etc.--seems to acknowledge a certain erosion and dispersion already picking up speed.” In Birnbaum’s words, Majerus “concentrated on the things that surrounded him and made possible new ways of organizing visual elements--on the canvas and beyond.” This catalogue, the first US publication on Majerus, also includes an illustrated exhibition history and a detailed bibliography.