‘Polaroids: Attila Richard Lukacs’ by Michael Morris 2010
Polaroids: Attila Richard Lukacs and Michael Morris
Title: Polaroids: Attila Richard Lukacs and Michael…
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Publication Date: 2010
Binding: Hardcover. 178 pages.
Condition: Excellent
Edition: 1st Edition
Size & Weight: 2.930 grams. 42,6 x 33,6 cm
Currently on HOLD.
A co-publication between Arsenal Pulp Press, Presentation House Gallery of North Vancouver, and the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, this will be the first book to document the work of this important artist, from an unusual perspective―a collection of some 1,200 full-colour Polaroid images (twelve per page) taken by Lukacs over the past twenty years as core referents for his paintings, assembled and collaged by Vancouver artist and curator Michael Morris.
The book will feature essays by award-winning author Michael Turner (Hard Core Logo, The Pornographer’s Poem); Scott Watson, director of the Morris & Helen Belkin Gallery in Vancouver; and Vince Aletti, the American curator, critic, and journalist. Stunning and bold, Polaroids: Attila Richard Lukacs and Michael Morris is a remarkable visual and written document on Lukacs, one of Canada’s greatest artists working today, and his unique collaboration with Morris, a hugely important artist in his own right.
Description
Attila Richard Lukacs is one of Canada’s most talented and controversial contemporary artists. He is best known for his epic paintings that depict masculine, homoerotic imagery, featuring figures such as gay skinheads and military cadets. His work has been exhibited at documenta in Kassel, Germany, as well as in New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Cologne, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, among others; he has also had numerous shows, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Alberta.
A co-publication between Arsenal Pulp Press,
Presentation House Gallery of North Vancouver, and the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, this will be the first book to document the work of this important artist, from an unusual perspective–a collection of some 1,200 full-colour Polaroid images (twelve per page)
taken by Lukacs over the past twenty years as core referents for his paintings, assembled and collaged by Vancouver artist and curator Michael Morris.
Lukacs regularly uses a Polaroid camera as part of his artistic process, using his friends and acquaintances in Berlin, New York, Vancouver and elsewhere as models; taking advantage of the Polaroid’s unique characteristics, his painterly sensibility is evident in the rich hues and romantic sensuality of these photographs, which are strikingly similar to the paintings that resulted from them.
The book will feature essays by award-winning author Michael Turner (Hard Core Logo, The Pornographer’s Poem); Scott Watson, director of the Morris & Helen Belkin Gallery in Vancouver; and Vince Aletti, the American curator, critic, and journalist.
Stunning and bold, Polaroids: Attila Richard Lukacs and Michael Morris is a remarkable visual and written document on Lukacs, one of Canada’s greatest artists working today, and his unique collaboration with Morris, a hugely important artist in his own right.
Awards
- Runner-up, Alcuin Design Society Awards 2011
Reviews
Hot gay skinheads take the German thug Ubermensch look to a homoerotic extreme in this collection of 1,200 polaroids. The faded colours and heroic poses make each one look like a painting and there’s a religious aura even if they’re wearing a gasmask or face down in a doggy bowl. –Gay Times (UK)
Lukacs fans will swoon over Polaroids … It’s a fascinating look at Lukacs’s source material, complemented by essays by Michael Turner (Hard Core Logo) and Stan Persky and an extended interview with Lukacs. –Montreal Mirror
An impressive, big-format book. And since the Polaroid era is over, nostalgia gives the enterprise tenderness and sweetness, two emotions Lukacs isn’t normally known for. –Uptown magazine
Regardless of their sexual orientation, or state of (un)dress, there is a beauty, a joy in it all, the unbound ecstasy of a young man on his own away from home for the first time, free to be what he wanted, as he wanted. Would that every young man could have as good a mentor and friend as Michael Morris, a boyfriend like Michael Danger, the manager of Oranienbar in Berlin. All of these elements made up Attila Richard Lukacs, and all of Attila Richard Lukacs goes into his art.
–Gay People’s Chronicle
Massive (forget being a “coffee table book” — put four legs on it and it could be a coffee table), beautifully presented, the book is a must-have for anyone who has an interest in the avant-garde gay visual arts scene. –EDGE Publications (Boston, Philadelphia, etc.)
An exploration not only of Lukacs’ work, but also of Canadian painting, artistic archives, and the queer art scene of the era. Polaroids is a must for university libraries with any interest in contemporary Canadian art. -American Library Association GLBT Round Table.
Attila Richard Lukacs
Biography
Internationally recognized Canadian Painter, Attila Richard Lukacs was born in Alberta in 1962. In 1985, Lukacs graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. While still a student at Emily Carr, Lukacs and 7 other painters were selected for a show at the Vancouver Art Gallery titled The Young Romantics. The exhibition, curated at Scott Watson, focused on new young painters whose work was seen as the return of painting.
Lukacs moved to Berlin in 1986, working at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin and in 1996, he relocated to New York City in order to be closer to the center of American art. In 2001, he left New York for Maui, Hawaii and finally returned to Canada in 2003. The artist now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where he maintains a full-time studio on the east side.
Lukacs became famous for his large, ambitious paintings depicting exaggerated masculine figures in the classical tradition. His paintings illustrate the artist’s intimate knowledge of the historical compositions and themes of David, Rembrandt, Giotto and Caravaggio as well as the compositional devices of the miniature painters and illustrators of India and the Middle East. Not just as figure painter, his range as an artist is evident in his stunning abstract paintings and collages as well as a collection of paintings of flowers and trees and numerous etchings.
Lukacs has shown extensively internationally and has work in collections such as Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary, Edmonton Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, National Gallery of Canada, Canada Council Art Bank, Canadian Embassy, Saudi Arabia, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent, Belgium ,Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Froahlich Collection, Germany, Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Germany, Phyllis Kind, New York, John Stewart Collection, New York, Salah Bachir, Toronto and Dietmar Werle, Cologne, Germany.
1962 – Born in Alberta, Canada
1985 – Graduated (Honours) Emily Carr College of Art and Design Vancouver, British Columbia
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2017 HOBBS: Attila Richard Lukacs, Macaulay & Co Fine Art, Vancouver, British Columbia
2016 Attila Richard Lukacs, Samuel Jeffery, Darri Lorenzen, MAVRA Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2016 Becoming Animal/ Becoming Landscape, Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Drama Queer: Seducing Social Change, Roundhouse Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
2015 Attila Richard Lukacs & Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Vancouver, British Columbia
Gordon Smith’s Personal Collection, West Vancouver Museum, West Vancouver, British Columbia
2014 Over the Rainbow, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Ontario
Attila Richard Lukacs, Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
2013 Full Frontal, Belkin Satellite, Vancouver, British Columbia
Attila Richard Lukacs, Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
2011 Shore, Forest and Beyond Art from the Audain Collection, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
UNREAL, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia. Curated by Daina Augaitis.
Toronto International Art Fair, Toronto, Ontario, Winsor Gallery
Attila Richard Lukacs from the Collection of Salah J. Bachir, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario (solo) from the collection: Unreal, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Attila Richard Lukacs, Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
Attila Richard Lukacs: Polaroids, Johnen Galerie, Berlin (solo)
2010 ART FORUM Berlin, Berlin, Johnen Galerie
Book Launch – Polaroids: Attila Richard Lukacs and Michael Morris, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, ACAD, Calgary, Alberta
MALE, Maureen Paley Gallery. Curated by Vince Aletti
Cinema Verite Redux, Gallery Sumukha , Bengaluru and Chennai, India. Curated by Shaheen Merali
2009 Polaroid Studies for Paintings, The Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Conceptualized and Curated by Michael Morris
2008 Polaroid Studies for Paintings, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Conceptualized and Curated by Michael Morris
Inside Darkness, Musée d’Art Contemporain des Laurentides, Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, (solo)
Still Lifes, Walter Philips Gallery, Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta (solo)
2006 PAINT, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Das achte Feld, Museum Ludwig, Koln, Germany
Antisocial Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
Le Corps Gay, Ecomusee du fier monde, Montreal, Quebec
Vancouver School, Leo Marshall Center, North Vancouver, British Columbia
2005 Beyond Redemption, Belkin Satellite, Vancouver, British Columbia
2004 Basement Show, Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
Works from the permanent collection, National Gallery Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (solo)
2003 Basement Show, Vancouver, British Columbia
New Works, Belkin Satellite, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
Of Monkeys and Men, Dianne Faris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
2002 Le Corps Gay, Centre d’exposition du Vieux-Palais a Saint-Jerome, Saint-Jerome, Quebec
Jake, Dadabase, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
2000 paperworx, Galerie Schedler, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
1999 Arbor Vitae, Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
Fresh Flowers, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Washington
Heads, Galerie Schedler, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
Myths about my Garden, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, New York (solo)
1998 Galerie OZ, Paris, France (solo)
Galerie Schedler, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
Detention, Toronto, Ontario (solo)
Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (solo)
Telling Tales, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1997 Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, New York (solo)
E-werk, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick (solo)
Odd Bodies, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Galerie Schedler, Zurich, Switzerland
1996 E-werk, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (solo)
London Regional Art and Historical Museums, E-werk, London, Ontario (solo)
E-werk, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
Naked Truths, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Honolulu, Hawaii
1995 E-werk, The Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta (solo)
E-werk, The Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta (solo)
Portraits, Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, New York (solo)
The Reconstructed Figure, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York
Ark, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art and Design, Edmonton, Alberta (Solo)
1994 E-werk, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec (solo)
E-werk, Institute of Theoretical Painting Kunstwerk, Berlin, Germany (Solo)
Kunsthaus Mürzzuschlag, Mürzzuschlag am Semmering, Jahresmuseum, Austria
E-werk, Chromapark, Berlin, Germany (solo)
Informing Visions, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta
‘64 – ‘94 Contemporary Decades, Emily Carr Institute of Arts & Design, Vancouver, British Columbia
1993 Different Strokes, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, California
The Anxious Salon, MIT List Visual Art Centre, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Aids Project, NGBK, Berlin, Germany
1992 Varieties of Love, Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
Die Schonen Sohne der Wuste, Moderne Kunst Dietmar Werle, Cologne, Germany (solo)
Boudoir, Berlin, Germany (solo)
Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany
Schwules Museum, Berlin, Germany
1991 Das Goldene Zeitalter, Württembergischer Kunsteverein, Stuttgart, Germany
Sixty Years Sixty Artists, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Interferenzin-Kunst aus West Berlin 1960-90, Riga, Latvia, St. Petersberg, USSR
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul International Art Festival, Seoul, Korea
Myth and Magic in America: The Eighties, Museo de Contemporeno de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
Vollbild, Tableaux du Sida, Kutturzentrum, Bern, Switzerland
Vollbild, Tableaux du Sida, La Fondation Deutsch, Belmont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland
Outrageous Desire, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
1990 Bilder, Moderne Kunst Dietmar Werle, Cologne, Germany (solo)
Teck Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta (solo)
London Regional Art and Historical Museums, London, Ontario (solo)
Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo)
1989 The Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario (toured to Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Alberta (solo)
49th Parallel, New York, New York (solo)
1988 Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (solo)
Plug-In Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba (solo)
Galerie Dietmar Werle, Cologne, Germany (solo)
Vollbild, NGBK, Berlin, Germany
Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (Solo)
1987 Morality Tales: History Painting in the 1980s, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York (toured)
Toyama Now ‘87: New Art Around the Pacific, The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan
London Life Young Contemporaries, London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario
West Coast Painting: New Directions, Canada House, London, England
1986 Mercer Union, Attila Richard Lukacs / Charles Rea, Toronto, Ontario
Centre Canadien Culturel, 4 Vancouver Young Romantic Painters, Paris, France
Convertible Showroom, 25 Young Canadian Artists, Vancouver, British Columbia
1985 Young Romantics, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Five Young Artists, Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Contemporary Canadian Painting, Thomas Barry Fine Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Futura Bold Installation, Convertible Showroom, Vancouver, British Columbia
Futura Bold, Pitt International Galleries, Vancouver, British Columbia
1984 Warehouse Show, Vancouver, British Columbia
Four Painters, Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
1983 Unit Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (solo) 2011 Polaroids, Johnen Galerie, Berlin, Germany
PERFORMANCE / LECTURES
1997 Harvard Graduate School of Architecture, Lecture Series
2002 Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, Alberta (performance)
2000 Berlin, Ich hole meinen Koffer ab’ Club Spyder Galaxy, Zurich, Switzerland (performance)
National Ballet of Canada, ‘Glen Gould’ – 3 short works, Costumes and design
GRANTS AND AWARDS
1995/97/98/03/05/09 Canada Council, Arts Grant “A”
1986/87/89/91 Canada Council, Arts Grant “B”
RESIDENCIES
2004 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
2002 Alberta College of Art and Design, Visiting artists program & lecture series
1989 Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta
86-88 Studio Residency Program, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Victoria Art Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia
Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Ontario
Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary, Alberta
Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa
Canadian Embassy, Saudi Arabia
London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent, Belgium
Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Quebec
Froahlich Collection, Germany
Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Germany
Phyllis Kind, New York
John Stewart Collection, New York
Salah Bachir, Toronto
Dietmar Werle, Cologne, Germany