Thirty-four original collage-poems by the Chicago-based artist Tony Lewis.
Tony Lewis: Anthology 2014–2016 is the debut volume in a new series of publications by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden––the national museum of modern and contemporary art—that focuses upon significant works in the Museum collection. The book showcases thirty-four trailblazing collage-poems by the artist Tony Lewis. Drawing together the energy and hilarity of comic strips—especially the legendary Calvin and Hobbes—with a profound poetic sensibility, Lewis plays with line and language to create works that teach us about the magic of drawing just as they demonstrate a new way to understand poetry. Accompanying essays and drawings by scholars and artists Theaster Gates, Betsy Johnson, and Karl Haendel reveal how Lewis is creating a unique place for himself within contemporary art.
Published following the eponymous exhibition at Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, in 2018.
Tony Lewis (born 1986 in Los Angeles, lives and works in Chicago) is part of an exciting generation of artists working to collapse the boundaries between different art forms. He has quickly established himself in the contemporary art world by forming a distinct visual vocabulary that integrates poetry and text with the properties of abstraction. His monochromatic drawings pull from various visual and written sources, ranging from the personal to the political. Separating, rearranging, and erasing text, he shifts the way we read to open up new and unexpected meanings.
