William Leavitt
Subtitle: theater objects
By: organized by Ann Goldstein and Bennett Simpson
Contributors: Goldstein, Ann; Simpson, Bennett; Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Museum of Contemporary Art
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Language: eng
Number of pages: 148
ISBN-13: 9781933751184
Subjects: Conceptual art; Exhibitions
Other titles: Theater objects
Description: "A pioneer of Conceptual art in Los Angeles during the late 1960s and 1970s, the painter, installation artist and theater director William Leavitt (born 1941) is above all an artist of narrative devices. Since 1969, his works in all the above media have employed abrupt fragments of popular and vernacular culture and depictions of modernist architecture to construct elusive narratives of cityscapes and environments. The culture and atmosphere of Los Angeles has played a significant role in Leavitt's handling of these themes; classic southern Californian motifs of ever-present artifice and almost washed-out brightness recur throughout his work. Surveying the artist's 40-year career, this volume includes sculptural tableaux, paintings, works on paper, photographs and performances from the late 1960s to the present. Leavitt has created a remarkable oeuvre that has influenced generations of artists, and this volume is both long overdue and highly anticipated."--Publisher description.
Notes: Publication accompanying an exhibition presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Mar. 13-July 3, 2011.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction / Ann Goldstein; title: Sliding glass doors and elliptical lights : the iconography of William Leavitt / Annette Leddy; title: William Leavitt : colloquial conceptual in L.A. / Bennett Simpson; title: Interview with William Leavitt / Erik Bluhm; title: Every picture tells a story, don't it? / Thomas Lawson; title: Checklist of the exhibition.