Tom Phillips is a multi-talented artist whose central passion is language and whose genius lies in his ability to generate images that, while concerned with the structure of ideas, also convey a rich coherence of decoration, eloquence, and sensuality. These concerns have led him into opera, ballet, and filmmaking; he is also an accomplished composer and poet, and his achievements in the production of books and prints are renowned worldwide. He inspires strong, almost fanatical enthusiasm among a coterie of devotees. Published to coincide with a touring retrospective exhibition by the Royal Academy, Tom Phillips: Works and Texts is a discriminating survey of over twenty years of the artist's oeuvre, including some of his very latest pieces. Included are pages from his past books: Dante's Inferno (Thames & Hudson, 1985) and A Humument (Thames & Hudson, 1987). Also reproduced are such representative works as Conjectured Images: Mappin Art Gallery, a series of paintings that reconstruct an entire art gallery from an old postcard; Curriculum Vitae I-XXII; Terminal Grey Paintings; and many of his images from A TV Dante. Illustrated in color throughout, this is a tribute to a living artist whose work remains as fresh and challenging as when it was first produced.
Contributors
Tom Phillips
Author
The English painter, writer, and composer Tom Phillips curated the groundbreaking exhibition “Africa: The Art of the Continent” at the Royal Academy in 1992. He is himself a collector of African art, specializing in the arts of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. His other books include The Postcard Century.
