cover image Stones and Other Works

Stones and Other Works

Alan Magee. ABRAMS, $16.95 (63pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-2341-6

Artist Magee renders with extraordinary skill the objects he finds fascinating: his images of stones, braided hair, vegetables and bones captivate the eye, at least momentarily, because of their verisimilitude. Both art critic Wolff and Magee, who contributes an introduction, express antipathy for art-world orthodoxies as well as a charming, almost mystical faith in the intuitive powers of the artist. Magee sees himself as a medium that allows unlikely forces and identities to assert themselves: ""I do not want to draw a pear or stalk of asparagus that we are about to eat, but the one we might perceive to be individual and perhaps learn to know as an equal.'' This is not a book for reading and thinking, but rather seeing and believing. (April)