Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Vivid: The Paul Hartigan Story - perhaps he most spectacular book published in New Zealand this year

Vivid: The Paul Hartigan Story

This must rank as the most spectacular book published in New Zealand this year. From its French folded dust jacket to its spectacular colour illustrations, its design and binding - not to mention the story it tells - everything about this book is hugely impressive and I salute the publisher for a superb job.

Vivid is a rare, career-spanning survey of New Zealand artist Paul Hartigan.
Hartigan is the painter of the original Phantom, an icon in New Zealand art. He is also the creative mind behind some of New Zealand’s best-known and loved public sculptures: the neon works Colony (Auckland), Whipping the Wind (Wellington) and Nebula Orion (Christchurch).
Hartigan was often in the right place at the right time: as a schoolboy he was the protégé of the progressive team that set up New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 1970; in the late '70s he was half of the creative duo at Snake Studios; and in the mid-1980s he was the artistic talent behind the company Gone On Neon, which transformed Auckland’s nightscape.
The book is a unique mix of biography and art history, generously illustrated throughout, and will appeal to buyers of art books as well as those interested in New Zealand’s visual and popular culture.
$65.00
ISBN: 978-0-473-33711-7
Hard cover, 336p, full colour throughout

190 x 240mm portrait

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