The extraordinary life of a captivating American artist, beautifully illustrated with his dreamlike drawings Much of Joseph Elmer Yoakum's story comes from the artist himself-and is almost too fantastic to believe. At a young age, Yoakum (1891-1972) traveled the globe with numerous circuses; he later served in a segregated noncombat regiment during World War I before settling in Chicago. There, inspired by a dream, he began his artistic career at age seventy-one, producing some two thousand drawings over a decade. How did Yoakum gain representation in major museum collections in Chicago and New York? What fueled his process, which he described as a "spiritual unfoldment"? This volume delves into the friendships Yoakum forged with the Chicago Imagists that secured his place in art history, explores the religious outlook that may have helped him cope with a racially fractured city, and examines his complicated relationship to African American and Native American identities. With hundreds of beautiful color reproductions of his dreamlike drawings, it offers the most comprehensive study of the artist's work, illuminating his vivid and imaginative creativity and giving definition and dimension to his remarkable biography. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Schedule: The Art Institute of Chicago (June 12-October 18, 2021) Museum of Modern Art, New York (November 28, 2021-March 18, 2022) Menil Collection, Houston (April 22-August 7, 2022)

A fascinating glimpse into the creative process of a major contemporary sculptor, featuring many previously unseen works on paper American sculptor Martin Puryear (b. 1941) creates work that combines the clean elegance of minimalism and the simplicity of traditional materials. His stunning sculptures explore themes of identity, ethnicity, and history, and are rich with social and cultural commentary. Puryear, who is known for abstract, large-scale pieces in wood, stone, and bronze, has captured the attention of the art world for the past 30 years. Despite the apparent simplicity of his works, however, he engages in an extensive iterative process that has, until now, been unknown. Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions explores that process, featuring numerous drawings, prints, and small-scale sculptures that have never before been published. This catalogue is the first to examine Puryear's work across media, providing invaluable insight into his visual thinking, from sketches to working drawings and constructions for sculpture. Handsomely illustrated with nearly 120 color plates that demonstrate the evolution of Puryear's ideas between drawings, prints, and sculptures, this beautiful volume draws back the curtain on the methodology of this important and enigmatic artist. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Schedule: Morgan Library and Museum (10/09/15-01/10/16) The Art Institute of Chicago (02/07/16-05/01/16) Smithsonian American Art Museum (05/27/16-09/06/16)

Marking the artist's first major publication in his 30-year-plus career, Mel Kendrick: Woodblocks presents a collection of the American artist's wood block prints and water drawings. Produced over a period from the early 1990s to the present day, Kendrick's prints explore bold yet complex arrangements, all the while introducing the subtle grain of the wood, signifying the organic quality of the artist's creative process. These large-scale prints, typically measuring 3 x 2 metres in size, are largely informed by the artist's ongoing sculptural practice, in both spatial engagement and process. Kendrick's work is discussed within the book through texts that investigate the relationship that the works hold with both architectural and artistic influencers, as well as with his well established sculptural practice, through which he has a storied history of using wood, bronze, rubber, paper and cast concrete.

An engaging investigation of contemporary Brazilian artist Lygia Pape's early body of woodblock prints, which profoundly influenced the trajectory of her oeuvre One of Brazil's best-known contemporary artists, Lygia Pape (1927-2004) was a founding member of the Neo-Concrete movement in the late 1950s along with artists such as Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica. Pape explored new visual languages in painting, performance, printmaking, and sculpture, and her work-much of it based in geometry- invited viewers to participate in the existential, sensorial, and psychological experience of her art. Presenting the first in-depth treatment of the experimental woodblock prints Pape made between 1952 and 1960, this volume examines the foundational role these works played in the rest of Pape's career, foreshadowing her philosophy of "magnetized space." Composed of overlapping geometric and linear elements that at times suggest atomic particles or slides of microscopic specimens, Pape's prints display an extraordinary depth accentuated by her use of incredibly thin, translucent Japanese papers. The artist applied the title Tecelares to these works decades after their creation. Loosely translated as "weavings," the term captures Pape's uniquely handmade approach to printmaking as well as her interest in indigenous Brazilian culture. Lavishly illustrated, this study is filled with revealing insights into how the artist's printmaking aesthetic, materials, and process embody her core ideas about art. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Schedule: Art Institute of Chicago (February 11-June 5, 2023)