Several years back, Taschen Books released a comprehensive monograph of Mark Ryden‘s work, called ‘Pinxit’. Thick, oversized, and beautifully produced, this book quickly sold out. Ever since, it’s been selling for about $1000 USD on the secondary market.
Just this month, Taschen released a reprint of this book.
This book is HUGE! It is 11 x 15 inches, canvas and gold embossed cover, over 350 pages of art, and lots of double-page spreads and gatefolds throughout. Seriously, art books don’t get much nicer than this! Aside from not having a slipcase, it is nearly identical to the original, and a total steal at the new price of $42.
The book is already enormous, but the design makes it feel even bigger than it is. Often times there are small details of a painting blown up into 20 inch wide spreads, with great clarity.
The work inside is basically a complete retrospective, right up to, and including, Ryden’s last show ‘The Gay 90’s’. There are a lot of preliminaries included, and several of the paintings are photographed within their frames (Which if you’ve ever seen a Ryden show in person, you’ll know is integral to the pieces).
I have a feeling this book is going to sell out again rather quickly, so I snagged mine immediately. If you’re a fan of Mark Ryden’s work, I suggest you do the same. Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed.
There are a lot of sellers that carry it on Amazon. I bought mine from Book Rack (BooKnackrh) in South Carolina since it wasn’t available directly from Amazon yet. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thrilled with the packaging, as the book arrived with severely damaged corners. Admittedly, shipping a 10 pound book is difficult. However, it now appears that Amazon stocks it, which I would recommend using instead of a third party supplier.
Haha, did Lady Gaga influence Ryden or vice versa?
Ryden had been here long before the world heard about Lady Gaga.
Very nice book. What's with all these little girls in Ryden's works? Can someone elaborate? I've been trying to figure this out for quite some time.
Yeah, I remember that Gaga dress, and thinking to myself how annoying it was that the she got so much attention for it, and Ryden got zero credit. He painted the image just a year before that or thereabouts, and I've no doubt she was familiar with it.