Red Grooms

Red Grooms is one of the most inventive and prolific artists working today. His antic humor, imaginative vision, and often raucous view of an extensive range of subjects are legendary. In this comprehensive collection of his graphic work from 1956 to 1999, his mastery of an array of printmaking techniques is revealed, whether in delicate, soft-ground etchings, spray-painted stencils, or an over six-foot-tall woodblock print. Walter Knestrick, a boyhood classmate of the artist and owner of the definitive Grooms print archive, tells of their lifelong friendship. The 241 illustrations - 171 in splendid color - are a testament to the witty and discerning sensibility of an artist who, as Vincent Katz notes in his essay, "keeps devising ways to refresh techniques, working at breakneck speed, molding and reshaping the world he sees."