Unbroken Poetry : The Work of Enrique Martinez Celaya [Hardcover]

Anne Trueblood Brodzky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1999

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Whale and Star Press

With rare clarity and restraint, Martínez Celaya explores loss, alienation, foreignness and beauty as well as new ways to think about the art object and the problems it raises. What emerges is a body of work radically concerned with meaning. Loss and its transcendence through consciousness is the pervasive theme in Unbroken Poetry: The Work of Enrique Martínez Celaya. Martínez Celaya's world is revealed through an introspective essay by San Francisco writer and curator, Anne Trueblood Brodzky. Drawing from the artist's sketchbooks, personal interviews with the artist and the works of Martínez Celaya, Brodzky describes his impetus and methods in a conceptual volume of exceptional beauty and voice.

The artist's disciplined joint pursuit of physics and art fuels conversations with New York artist Donald Baechler and Caltech physicist, Amnon Yariv. In Unbroken Poetry, we are invited to stand close to the visions of Enrique Martínez Celaya, not only to observe and empathize with his world but also to acknowledge the images brought forth from our own.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...Martinez Celayas art operates as a focal point of invisible thoughts and intangible feelings, heightening the viewer experience of his or her own mortality -- Eva Forgacs, Art Issues

A sense of human fragility pervades his work,along with a slowness that invites identification with the patient pace of historical time. -- Leah Ollman, Art in AmericaArt in America

Anne Trueblood Brodzky...has compiled an exhaustive lavishly illustrated tome that speaks to Martinez Celaya basic foreingness, an exile in the world observing, not disspassionately, an existence that he is as much emotional cultural chronicler of as he is participant... -- Carl Hayward, Art Papers

About the Author

Anne Trueblood Brodzky was editor-in-chief of artscanada magazine in Toronto from 1967 to 1983. Under her editorship Brodzky positioned and published the national bi-monthly periodical as a thematic art magazine and edited several books bearing the imprint, Society for Art Publications, including An Inquiry into the Aesthetics of Photography; The Canadian Cultural Revolution: the Politics and Economics of Art; and Stones, Bones and Skin: Ritual and Shamanic Art. Returning to her native country, she accepted a residency at the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, California. With colleagues Dore Ashton, Ronald Christ and James Rosen, she founded the non-profit Society for Art Publications of the Americas (SAPA) in 1984 and Meridian Gallery as a program of the Society in 1989. Amnon Yariv is the Martin and Eileen Summerfield Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He is one of the key figures who helped shape the fields of quantum electronics and optical communication. Dr. Yariv has published widely in the laser and optics fields and has written numerous texts on quantum electronics, optics and quantum mechanics. He has received the 1980 Quantum Electronics Award of the IEEE, the 1985 University of Pennsylvania Pender Award, the 1986 Optical Society of America Ives Award, 1992 Harvey Prize (shared with Mikhael Gorbachev) and the 1998 Esther Beller Medal of the Optical Society of America.

Donald Baechler born in Hartford, Connecticut has been for almost two decades one of New Yorks most important and controversial artists. His works are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Centre George Pompidou, Muse National dArt Moderne, Paris, among others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Whale & Star; 1st edition (September 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967360803
• ISBN-13: 978-0967360805
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 9.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,161,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Alternative, January 14, 2001

By 

Robert Steinberg (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unbroken Poetry : The Work of Enrique Martinez Celaya (Hardcover)

I am surprised and disappointed with the reader from Michigan that gave such a bad review to this great book. It is this reader who has the distorting biases not Brodzky. While I did not agree completely with Brodzky's analysis of the work, it is clear that Martínez Celaya is one of most intelligent and serious artists working today. I found the interviews and the comments from the artist revealing and clear. His work is obviously difficult but rewarding to those of us who take the time to think about it. I strongly recommended it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who like art that makes them think and feel..., June 14, 2001

By 

AK (LA, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unbroken Poetry : The Work of Enrique Martinez Celaya (Hardcover)

I find this book, like the majority of the artist's work, to be hauntingly beautiful and profound. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the Los Angeles art world, Martinez Celaya's work, to me, has extraordinary depth and intelligence. He is willing to take risks and isn't into what is hot, trendy or easy but prefers--in his paintings, poems and photographs--to take the viewer or reader to a new place--to a place where there are layers of questions rather than easy answers. Brodzky's book is a fantastic introduction to the work of a phenomenally creative mind and exquisite painter. I highly recommend it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Life as a Whole., February 23, 2011

By 

Rachel Saviano - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unbroken Poetry : The Work of Enrique Martinez Celaya (Hardcover)

"Unbroken Poetry" looks into the relationship of Martinez Celaya's works and his entire life: childhood, school, family. While reading, I mainly focused on Martinez Celaya's words rather than Brodzky's in order to find a feel for the artist. Seeing works in person and in this book, the stories and events that are mentioned elaborate on the inspirations of his work, or rather the questions that he is exploring. The answers are not always in the painting, but in the exploration. Martinez Celaya states that, "[Some memories] do not present themselves easily as answers." The information that Brodzky makes available to us through her interpretations and Martinez Celaya's works and words is greatly helpful in beginning to understanding such a respected artist.