Janet Malcolm: Collages, 1999-2003

Janet Malcolm: Collages, 1999-2003
October 14 through November 26, 2003

From October 14 through November 26, Lori Bookstein Fine Art will present Janet Malcolm: Collages, an exhibition of work made between 1999 and 2003. This is the first solo exhibition of Ms. Malcolm’s work, although her collages were shown in Five in Collage, an exhibition held in the winter of 2002 at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, featuring a sampling of work from nearly a century of collage-making.  Five in Collage juxtaposed Malcolm’s work alongside that of Joseph Stella, Varujan Boghosian, Henry Rothman and Ken Kewley.  In his essay for the exhibition catalogue, Lee Siegel wrote:

Malcolm wants to save the material emblems of our days from destruction … Addressed and postmarked envelopes, the page of a New England family bible noting names and dates of birth from the early 1800’s, a receipt, a list of expenses, pages of old books – these are the small  replenishing motions of life that Malcolm gently cuts and rescues  from indifference… She combines her colors and textures so unerringly that the harmony of her collages seems to be a condition that she discovered rather than an illusion that she brought into being. Janet Malcolm is a writer who began making collages twenty years ago, working in both New York City and Massachusetts.  Her family fled from Prague in 1939, settling in New York City.  In the artist’s words, “collage is a form of conversation: for me it’s a commemoration of my parents and of that time.”  However, not all her materials are autobiographical, and the artist cautions against reading her collages as stories, preferring a formalist approach.  Her sources of inspiration include the Modernist period, notably Kurt Schwitters and the Russian Constructivists.

Janet Malcolm: Collages can be seen at Lori Bookstein Fine Art through November 26, 2003.  Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, from 10:30 to 5:30.  For additional information and/or visual materials, please contact: