Alfonso Ossorio Congregations by Klaus Kertess

Used but in good condition. Crease on the bottom right corner of the cover.

In 1958, Alfonso Ossorio (1916-1990) began to experiment, incorporating found objects into his oil paintings. He initially introduced these items discreetly, but by 1959, buttons, shards, mirrors, fake gems, ropes and other miscellaneous objects often covered his surfaces. Oil had been replaced by plastic as the primary matrix, and soon after, painting was rejected for gathering. While artists like friend Jean Dubuffet often refer to their low-relief composites as assemblages, Ossorio coined the term congregation, a word with obvious ecclesiastical associations and that resonated with the artists lifelong engagement with Catholicism. While assemblage emphasizes the cohesiveness of a group of elements, congregation conveys the multiplicity of unique entities within the work as a whole. Such a shift in focus complements Ossorios own understanding of religion: Religion must aim to inspire awe, to awe man with the splendor of his existence. By a set of unexpected juxtapositions, it must put you in a state of realization of how splendid things can be, even if they are horrible. In his congregations, Ossorio created the unexpected by synthesizing forms of beauty with those of decay, by contrasting refinement with crudeness. For Ossorio, all objects had life, and bringing together disparate, ordinary elements, he also found a way to fuse art and spirituality. Ossorio continued to create daring congregations until his death in 1990.

This exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated color catalogue with a re-print of 1968 oral history interview with the artist and Mr. Forrest Selvig for the Archives of American Art. This important transcript reveals the artist first recorded usage of the word congregation to describe his now signature mixed media assemblages.

softcover

93 pp., many illustrations 25 in full color. Published on the occasion of the exhibition from August 17-September 28, 1997.

28.5 cm x 23cm x 1cm