TRUCKS: Recent Works by John Himmelfarb
TRUCKS: Recent Works by John Himmelfarb
ESSAYS BY: SCOTT GRIFFIN, STEPHEN LUECKING, AND JANET L. FARBER
Hardcover
10½ x 11½ inches, 138 pages + 2 six-page gatefolds
110 color plates
ISBN: 978-0-9888557-3-1
$60 | £45 | €54
With sculpture, paintings, prints, and drawings, award-winning artist John Himmelfarb explores the iconic American truck. An in-depth consideration of the vehicles that are intrinsically and culturally significant to the American landscape, TRUCKS: Recent Works by John Himmelfarb showcases the artist’s diverse and lighthearted approach, adeptly shifting between mediums, style, and message during his decade-long contemplation of trucks and their specific functions. Under his skillful hands, the utilitarian vehicles of commerce and construction become unique and provocative art forms.
In 2005 and 2006, the truck as narrative becomes center stage for Himmelfarb’s work. With his seamless, animated traverse of multiple mediums, viewers cannot help but smile as they appreciate the common truck through unique perspectives. In 2007, another tectonic change occurs in Himmelfarb’s pursuit of his theme: as a result of a three-month residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s Arts/Industry program, he begins his first meaningful foray into three-dimensional works.
Himmelfarb’s artworks can be found in distinguished international collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Baltimore Art Museum; the British Museum, London; the Boston Public Library Print Collection; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the University of Michigan Art Museum, Ann Arbor.
Scott Griffin, a novelist and former Peterbilt driver who lives and works in Chicago and New Orleans, is the service director for the Early Childhood Campus, University of Chicago. Stephen Luecking is a professor in the Department of Art and Art History at DePaul University in Chicago. He writes in the fields of mathematics, philosophy, and art in addition to his work as a sculptor. Janet L. Farber, the director of the Phillip Schrager Collection of Contemporary Art in Omaha, is an experienced curator, supervising the modern and contemporary art collections at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, and writing and consulting on behalf of numerous museums, galleries, and publications.