Lucas Samaras: Boxes Edited by Hannah Barton Consulting Editor: Vanessa Wildenstein Lucas Samaras: Boxes is the definitive exploration of the artist’s iconic, mixed media series, a total of 295 artworks begun in the early 1960s. Samaras’s boxes delve into the subject of the self, allowing viewers access into the artist’s mind through personal and found objects or manipulated self-portraits, which are sometimes guarded by pins, razor blades, or broken glass. In addition, many works are distortions of the form of the box itself, with playful multicolored appendages or constructions made entirely of chicken wire. Also included are related room-sized installations, such as the artist’s celebrated Mirrored Room (1966). Lucas Samaras: Boxes contains vivid color photography of artworks, with images of both the open and closed states of boxes, and provides an extensive collection of primary source documents such as the artist’s note cards, notebooks, and drawings, plus archival photography from important exhibitions from the 1960s and 1970s. The catalogue also features an exclusive series of videos displaying the moving components of boxes in the round, which further illustrate the artworks’ complexity and ingenuity. Hannah Barton is Editor of the Lucas Samaras: Boxes Catalogue Raisonné. Currently the Archivist / Senior Permanent Collection Researcher at Santa Barbara Museum of Art, she has previously held positions in the libraries of the Frick Collection, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Barton, who graduated with a dual Master’s in Art History and Library Science from Pratt Institute in 2013, has also edited the Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné. Research for this project was started in 2004 by Vanessa Wildenstein, at the behest of the artist and under the auspices of the Wildenstein Institute. Artifex Press inherited the catalogue in 2015, and it was placed under the direction of Editor Hannah Barton, with Vanessa Wildenstein serving as Consulting Editor.
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