Claudia DeMonte, Class of 1965, topic of new book

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 (available online as well as in all bookstores) 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.

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.