Emerging from the Beat aesthetic of the early 1950s, the Kienholz oeuvre embraces the spontaneity of jazz, the intensity of Abstract Expressionism, and the homemade approach of do-it-yourself modernism. The Kienholzes probed the dark edges of postwar society, confronting war, racism, institutional indifference, sexuality, and cruelty. Published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Kienholz: A Retrospective reproduces in more than four hundred illustrations, a selection of works ranging from intimate collages to life-size tableaux, created between 1954 and 1994. The eight texts in the catalogue - by art and social historians, artists, and friends - offer critical insights into the Kienholz work as well as personal reminiscences. Nancy Reddin Kienholz has also contributed an extended chronology, written especially for this publication. L.A. Louver, 1996 8.4 x 5.8 inches, 300 pp. color illustrations Softcover, ISBN 978-0874270990