{"product_id":"joelpeter-witkin-vanitas-arbor-vitae-9788087164723","title":"Joel-Peter Witkin: Vanitas (ARBOR VITAE)","description":"\u003cp\u003eJoel-Peter Witkin: Vanitas offers a concise survey of one of the most controversial photographers alive. Since the late 1970s  Witkins black-and-white portraits and still-lifes of hermaphrodites  body parts  severed heads  mutilations and similar themes have inevitably provided shock fodder to the religious right  while seeming to evoke an easy relationship to ideas of decadence and morbidity. For Witkin  the goal is simple: I wanted my photographs to be as powerful as the last thing a person sees or remembers before death. Witkins photographs offer up examples of lifes extremities as unblinking confrontations with mortality  whose power derives not merely from their content but from the keen compositional instincts governing that content. Witkins gift for still life and his use of religious motifs such as crucifixion and sainthood have been nourished by his appreciation of the likes of Francisco Goya  Odilon Redon and Hieronymus Bosch  whose examples he has translated for the concerns of the present. Witkins photographs have made a colossal impact upon contemporary culture  influencing artists such as the Chapman Brothers and Erwin Olaf  musicians such as Diamanda Gals and Trent Reznor  and the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen  among many others. Vanitas provides a cross-section of the artists work from the 1970s to the present. In addition to photographs  it includes many lesser-known drawings and paintings  as well as Witkins most recent  previously unpublished photographs. A bilingual (English\/Czech) text by the art historian Otto M. Urban summarizes the development of Witkins life and work. Joel-Peter Witkin was born in Brooklyn  New York  in 1939  and lives in Albuquerque  New Mexico.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67924174405685,"sku":"ByrdShop_8087164725","price":348.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9788087164723.jpg?v=1794130027","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/joelpeter-witkin-vanitas-arbor-vitae-9788087164723","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}