Rarely has an artist been so closely associated with a single work as is Jay DeFeo with her painting "The Rose". In this major study of "The Rose" in particular and of Jay DeFeo in general, 11 art and cultural historians and writers unfold the story of the creation and rescue of her masterpiece.

A remarkable portrait of a web of artistic connections, traced outward from Jay DeFeo's uniquely generative work of art Through deep archival research and nuanced analysis, Elizabeth Ferrell examines the creative exchange that developed with and around The Rose, a monumental painting on which the San Francisco artist Jay DeFeo (1929-1989) worked almost exclusively from 1958 to 1966. From its early state to its dramatic removal from DeFeo's studio, the painting was a locus of activity among Fillmore District artists. Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, Wally Hedrick, and Michael McClure each took up The Rose in their photographs, films, paintings, and poetry, which DeFeo then built upon in turn. The resulting works established a dialogue between artists rather than seamless cooperation. Illustrated with archival photographs and personal correspondence, in addition to the artworks, Ferrell's book traces how The Rose became a stage for experimentation with authorship and community, defying traditional definitions of collaboration and creating alternatives to Cold War America's political and artistic binaries.

In the California winter of 1965, Jay DeFeo was evicted from the San Francisco apartment that had become a temple for her 2000-pound colossus of a painting, The Rose. The morning after it was safely carried out the front window, DeFeo was forced to destroy the only other artwork she'd started in six years, an enormous painting on paper stapled directly to her hallway wall. The unfinished Estocada-a kind of shadow Rose-was ripped down in unruly chunks, carried to her new home, and reanimated years later through photography, photocopy, collage, and relief. Drawing from largely unpublished archival material, Rip Tales traces Estocada's life and multiple afterlives, offering insight into DeFeo's evolution as an artist and her instinct for self-cataloguing. It's a study of process and processing, and of the contradictions that galvanized the artist's practice: fragment versus whole, subject versus object, and margin versus center.Rip Tales further includes the stories and voices of Bay Area artists whose practices similarly evoke themes of transformation and contingency, including April Dawn Alison, Ruth Asawa, Lutz Bacher, Dewey Crumpler, Vincent Fecteau.. Through essay, interview, eulogy, and recipe, author Jordan Stein interrogates and celebrates a Bay Area ethos that could be defined by its discomfort with definitions. Trading on the literal and metaphorical gravity of DeFeo's last-minute rip, this idiosyncratic book foregrounds the unpredictable edges of artworks, archives, and ideas.

A long overdue, comprehensive look at Jay DeFeo's career as an avant-garde artist

The Rat Bastard ProtectiveÊAssociation was an inflammatory, close-knit community of artists who livedÊand worked in aÊbuilding they dubbed Painterland in the Fillmore neighborhood of midcentury San Francisco. The artists who counted themselves among the RatÊBastardsÑwhich included Joan Brown, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo,ÊWallyÊHedrick, Michael McClure, and Manuel NeriÑexhibited a unique fusion of radicalism,Êprovocation, and community. Geographically isolated from a viable art market and refusingÊto conform to institutional expectations, theyÊanimated broader social andÊartistic discussions through their work and became aÊtransformative part of American culture over time. Anastasia Aukeman presents new and little-known archival material in this authorized account of these artists and their circle, a colorful cultural milieu that intersected with the broader Beat scene.

Taking cues from works by Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, and Matisse, pastry chef Caitlin Freeman, of Miette bakery and Blue Bottle Coffee fame, creates a collection of uniquely delicious dessert recipes (with step-by-step assembly guides) that give readers all they need to make their own edible masterpieces. From a fudge pop based on an Ellsworth Kelly sculpture to a pristinely segmented cake fashioned after Mondrian’s well-known composition, this collection of uniquely delicious recipes for cookies, parfait, gelées, ice pops, ice cream, cakes, and inventive drinks has everything you need to astound friends, family, and guests with your own edible masterpieces. Taking cues from modern art’s most revered artists, these twenty-seven showstopping desserts exhibit the charm and sophistication of works by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Henri Matisse, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Avedon, Wayne Thiebaud, and more. Featuring an image of the original artwork alongside a museum curator’s perspective on the original piece and detailed, easy-to-follow directions (with step-by-step assembly guides adapted for home bakers), Modern Art Desserts will inspire a kitchen gallery of stunning treats.