Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

You will not find this much classic Ryan Mcginley work in one place--gallery or otherwise. The guy is a cult icon--and his work is completely crystallized in this collection. In fact, the cover work "Highway" may be one of his most iconic creations ever--and is destined to become a classic (IMHO). Anyway--given that most of Ryan's works now sell in the high '000's, this book seems like (and is) a bargain. Warning: one main caveat--there is a ton of nudity in the book (not sexual, just naked, and both genders)--so if you plan on gifting this book--be aware. Cheers.

Few artists have found success in their medium as young as Ryan McGinley, but just share some time with his imagery and it will immediately be understandable why this has happened. First, a bit of history: from Wikipedia, `Ryan McGinley (born October 17, 1977) is an American photographer living in New York City who began making photographs in 1998. In 2003, at the age of 25, McGinley was one of the youngest artists to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He was also named Photographer of the Year in 2003 by American Photo Magazine. In 2007 McGinley was awarded the Young Photographer Infinity Award by the International Center of Photography. Ryan David McGinley, born in Ramsey, New Jersey, is the youngest of eight children. From an early age his peers and mentors were skateboarders, graffiti writers, musicians, and artists that were considered to be on the fringes of society. He moved to the East Village in 1998, and covered the walls of his apartment with Polaroid pictures of everyone who visited him there. McGinley had his first public exhibition in 2000 at 420 West Broadway in Manhattan in a DIY opening. His first book of photos, The Kids Are Alright (2002), was handmade and distributed to people he respected in the art world and sold at the exhibition. One of these books was given to Sylvia Wolf who ushered his work onto the walls of the Whitney Museum of American Art. "The skateboarders, musicians, graffiti artists and gay people in Mr. McGinley's early work 'know what it means to be photographed,' said Sylvia Wolf, the former curator of photography at the Whitney, who organized his show there. "His subjects are performing for the camera and exploring themselves with an acute self-awareness that is decidedly contemporary. They are savvy about visual culture, acutely aware of how identity can be not only communicated but created. They are willing collaborators." "People fall in love with McGinley's work because it tells a story about liberation and hedonism: Where Goldin and Larry Clark were saying something painful and anxiety producing about Kids and what happens when they take drugs and have sex in an ungoverned urban underworld, McGinley started out announcing that "The Kids Are Alright," fantastic, really, and suggested that a gleeful, unfettered subculture was just around the corner--'still'--if only you knew where to look."

McGinley photographs young people, kids if you will, who show the most infectious love of being alive. His pictures show his usually naked friends underwater, celebrating fireworks, jumping off cliffs, running in groups across the highway in the country, and many other scenarios where it seems the impetus is celebration of being alive - something the adult world likely envies as we rush around tending to the chaotic lives we lead. He is also known for his chronicling of the singer Morrissey's sold-out tours around the world.

This very large scaled monograph published Rizzoli is titled `Whistle for the Wind' and brings together McGinley's colorful imagery in a visually compelling design and features a chummy conversation between the venturesome photographer and the equally adventurous filmmaker Gus Van Sant. "Whomever I'm photographing, I sort of fall in love with, or rather my camera falls in love with them," the artist tells Van Sant. "It could be a boy or a girl, because it's all a fantasy. It's fiction." He is an artist to watch carefully! Grady Harp, June 12

This is perfect. Ryan McGinley is a young genius, and with this book he gets to show his best sides. The quality of the photos is as you would hope it to be. I can only recommend this item.