Mark Grotjahn: Butterfly Paintings (BLUM & POE)

Mark Grotjahn: Butterfly Paintings (BLUM & POE)

Mark Grotjahn's (born 1968) ongoing <I>Butterfly</I> series--one of several investigations into the natural world in Grotjahn's oeuvre--focuses on perspectival techniques used since the Renaissance, such as dual and multiple vanishing points, to create the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface. Though at first the <I>Butterfly</I> paintings may appear entirely formal and graphic (alluding to modernist painting from Russian Constructivism to Op art), the raylike "butterfly wings" are often layered over under-paintings, giving them texture and tonal depth. This volume, published to accompany the first exhibition of Grotjahn's butterfly paintings at Blum & Poe in New York, not only collects these arresting compositions, but also delves into the artistic contexts involved, in an essay by Douglas Fogle that discusses the history of the <I>Butterfly</I> works since their conception in the early 2000s.