TRUCKS: Recent Works by John Himmelfarb

The Trucks book cover features a detail of the sculpture titled Penelope Awaiting Her Chamberlain. Layers of rusted orange metal overlap and scratches, dents, and peeling paint are visible.
Artist John Himmelfarb, seen from the shoulders up and wearing a pair of clear goggles, faces away from the camera and works on one of his metal sculptures.
A 1948 green REO Speedwagon truck sits in a grassy field with many large, rusted metal containers welded to its roof rack and bed.
An acrylic painting made with gestural brush marks shows a red truck seen head-on against a navy blue background.
A very rusted cast iron sculpture of a truck has many abstract forms jutting out of its bed and hood.
A wooden sculpture of a truck has a long, low wooden bed built of unpainted pine. Many abstract forms made of wood sit on the bed of the truck.
A red 1949 International Harvester KB-1 truck sits outside among snow. Many large metal containers and objects, painted the same color red as the truck body, are stacked in the truck’s bed.
A bronze sculpture of a truck is painted a blue-green hue. A long crane sits in the bed of the truck, the right rear tire has large treads, and a wing-shaped form protrudes from the front grille
An acrylic painting shows a truck that sits on a red ground in front of a predominantly pink background. It holds many overlapping, unidentifiable forms in its bed.
An etching in black ink on yellow paper uses wavering lines to create the form of a truck, which sprawls across the page and is laden with many unidentifiable objects and pieces of machinery.
A lithograph shows a small truck with a long bed sitting along the bottom edge of the paper. Piled in the truck bed and towering like a giant wave above the truck’s cab are geometric shapes
A red 1949 International Harvester truck sits outside among green trees. Large containers and objects, all painted the same color red as the truck body, are stacked in the truck’s bed and on its hood.
The Trucks book cover features a detail of the sculpture titled Penelope Awaiting Her Chamberlain. Layers of rusted orange metal overlap and scratches, dents, and peeling paint are visible.
Artist John Himmelfarb, seen from the shoulders up and wearing a pair of clear goggles, faces away from the camera and works on one of his metal sculptures.
A 1948 green REO Speedwagon truck sits in a grassy field with many large, rusted metal containers welded to its roof rack and bed.
An acrylic painting made with gestural brush marks shows a red truck seen head-on against a navy blue background.
A very rusted cast iron sculpture of a truck has many abstract forms jutting out of its bed and hood.
A wooden sculpture of a truck has a long, low wooden bed built of unpainted pine. Many abstract forms made of wood sit on the bed of the truck.
A red 1949 International Harvester KB-1 truck sits outside among snow. Many large metal containers and objects, painted the same color red as the truck body, are stacked in the truck’s bed.
A bronze sculpture of a truck is painted a blue-green hue. A long crane sits in the bed of the truck, the right rear tire has large treads, and a wing-shaped form protrudes from the front grille
An acrylic painting shows a truck that sits on a red ground in front of a predominantly pink background. It holds many overlapping, unidentifiable forms in its bed.
An etching in black ink on yellow paper uses wavering lines to create the form of a truck, which sprawls across the page and is laden with many unidentifiable objects and pieces of machinery.
A lithograph shows a small truck with a long bed sitting along the bottom edge of the paper. Piled in the truck bed and towering like a giant wave above the truck’s cab are geometric shapes
A red 1949 International Harvester truck sits outside among green trees. Large containers and objects, all painted the same color red as the truck body, are stacked in the truck’s bed and on its hood.

TRUCKS: Recent Works by John Himmelfarb

$60.00

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

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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.