Skip to main content
University of California Press

About the Book

Harvey Quaytman’s paintings are distinct for their inventive, whimsical exploration of shape, meticulous attention to surface texture, and experimental application of color. While his works display a rigorous commitment to formalism, they are simultaneously invested with rich undertones of sensuality, decorativeness, and humor—expressed, too, in his playful poetic titles, such as A Street Called Straight and Kufikind. Demonstrating the arc of Quaytman’s oeuvre, from his radically curvilinear canvases of the late 1960s and 1970s, to his exploration of serialized geometric abstraction in the 1980s, and finally to his serene cruciform canvases of the 1990s, this retrospective exhibition and accompanying illustrated catalogue is a timely reconsideration of Quaytman’s influential work, placing him and his work more prominently in the trajectory of American modern art.
 
With contributions by Suzanne Hudson and John Yau, as well reflections by R. H. Quaytman, an artist and the daughter of Harvey Quaytman, on her father’s work and life.
 
Published in association with the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).
 
Exhibition dates:
October 17, 2018–January 27, 2019, Berkeley Museum of Art Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).

About the Author

Apsara DiQuinzio is curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Berkeley Museum of Art Pacific Film Archive. She is the curator and editor of Charles Howard: A Margin of Chaos, Six Lines of Flight: Shifting Geographies in Contemporary Art and The Air We Breathe: Artists and Poets Reflect on Marriage Equality.

Table of Contents

Director’s Foreword

Acknowledgments

Harvey Quaytman’s Arc: Against the Static Apsara DiQuinzio

Plates

HQ of My Mind R. H. Quaytman

The Opposite of Irony Suzanne Hudson

Picture and Sound: Harvey Quaytman’s Titles John Yau

Reflections on an “Art Soldier”: A Conversation between Gregory Amenoff and William Corbett

Ten Thoughts on Color Harvey Quaytman

Dr. Kremer’s Magic Powders: A Color Glossary for Harvey Quaytman Lauren R. O’Connell

Selected Exhibition History and Awards

Bibliography

Works in the Exhibition

Index

BAMPFA Board of Trustees

Contributors

Photography Credits