Gideon Rubin Look Again

Condition: BRAND NEW ISBN: 9781910221525 Author(s): Gideon Rubin Format: Hardcover Year: 2023 Publisher: Anomie Publishing Pages: 228

Description: Gideon Rubin (b. 1973, Israel) is an artist who lives and works in London. Exploring identity, history and the inheritance of trauma in his enigmatic paintings, Rubinâs subject matter draws on myriad references such as film, popular culture, art history and literature, creating and investigating mythologies from the recent past. Haunting and subtly theatrical, the paintings often feature faceless yet familiar figures. Underlying each work is Rubinâs expressive mark-making, muted palette and understated use of negative space and raw canvas.Look Again is Gideon Rubinâs second major trade monograph and showcases his substantial body of work since 2015, including studies of people in nature and scenes of solitude and intimacy. Author and art critic Jennifer Higgie discusses the evolution of his artistic style and his many influences â Balthus, De Kooning, Guston and Diebenkorn to name a few. Dr Matthew Holmanâs expansive essay touches on Rubinâs cinematic characters, source material, his use of artistic conventions and engagement with sexuality. Holman investigates the meaning of redaction in Rubinâs work, both in his faceless portraits and in Black Book â a work in which Rubin used black paint to erase the contents of a 1938 English translation of Mein Kampf. Exhibited at the Freud Museum in London in 2018, Black Book is an exploration of what is left out of history, as much as what is remembered.Painting is essential to Rubin, as both a creative and therapeutic act; âa log keeping him afloat in the middle of the seaâ, as he puts it. In conversation with fellow artist Varda Caivano, Rubin analyses his motivations, processes and doubts, and explains his surprising route to painting. Despite coming from a lineage of painters on his fatherâs side, it was largely his motherâs academic love of art that galvanised his arti