Claudia DeMonte

Claudia DeMonte
by Eleanor Heartney

Claudia DeMonte
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Book Summary Information

Author: Eleanor Heartney
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-09-01
ISBN: 0764950975
Number of pages: 112
Publisher: Pomegranate

Book Reviews of Claudia DeMonte

Book Review: A Personal Journey Into Women's Mysticism and Strength
Summary: 5 Stars

Claudia DeMonte

A truly attractive hard cover book tells the reader of its identity right from the start. On its cover: a wooden shoe form covered tightly with flat hammered and etched pewter cutouts of objects from a woman's life. Mystery, fetish, feminism, and luxury combined into one. The shoe is no longer a foot dressing. You want to touch it as a piece of jewelry and listen to its so many stories. Rarely does an ordinary object convey as many layers in a single application.
The enticement continues inside the book. Page by page portrays Claudia DeMonte's ability to delve into fantasy without loosing her foot in the reality of her life and in the breadth of the world of women. Although the publication of the book coincided with the show DeMonte had in June Kelly Gallery in New York, the scope of the book is a lifetime of work, and the journey is fascinating.
DeMonte is not just an artist exploring her own artistic world. She is a thinker and a world-wide wanderer. And so the book is a mirror of a woman who uses her talent and need to explore various artistic applications in order to give voice to feminine mysticism and reality and bridge far away places and ancient times with today familiar environment.
The book has two encompassing, well-written and interesting to read articles by Agnes Gund, President Emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art, who has been a friend and an admirer, and the writer and art critic Eleanor Heartney of Art in America and ArtPress. Most engaging are the plates. Either two or three dimensional - they are colorful and luxurious, strong and personal. Made of paper, wood, various metals and cast bronze - all are seductive. As the image of Caludia herself: dramatic and imposing in her pony tail moves in and out of the work and gleams at you, you feel that as wonderful as the book is - it is not enough. You have just had a taste. You want more.

Summary of Claudia DeMonte

Claudia DeMonte is an artist, a teacher, a curator, and a collector. She has given each of these simultaneous careers her unfailing attention throughout her adult life. To say she is accomplished in each field is an understatement; in fact, she has excelled in all and has managed to break new ground in each. She's a pioneer, a feminist, an acute observer, and an advocate for the overlooked.

This monograph of her career as an artist begins with her self-image works of the 1970s?photo essays, installations, T-shirts?followed by her painted pulp paper sculptures, works in clay, paintings, her Female Fetish series (pewter Milagros nailed onto wooden objects), fabric pieces and installations, drawings, and bronzes. The array of media she uses is not only eclectic, it's highly unusual. But DeMonte has never hesitated to jump in and use whatever feels right.

In each stage of her career, with each medium, she has combined sobering commentary on the status of women in the world with lighthearted humor. A paper sculpture might seem both hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. An exquisitely beautiful bronze bowl will exude the power of a sacred object, with women poised at its edges not in the form of traditional goddesses but instead as ponytailed ?everywomen.? Her installations examining questions such as ?What is real beauty?? are joyful in their inclusion of images from all over the world, while they force us to confront our own misconceptions of global culture.

This book contains approximately 120 reproductions, with a foreword by Agnes Gund, president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, and an essay by Eleanor Heartney, contributing editor to Art in America. It is the first retrospective of Claudia DeMonte's work, a long overdue review of one of America's most intriguing contemporary artists.

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