If books can be considered bodies of information, then Stanford Kay’s paintings belong on Body Politic. I’ve been following his work for years, wondering why the rest of the world hasn’t. In an essay for his 2005 show at Van Brunt Gallery in Beacon, N.Y., I wrote that his book paintings “nod playfully toward conceptual art, inverting Lawrence Weiner’s insistence on language as art (where words replace the image) by rendering, in palisades of color, stacks of words the viewer can’t see.”

Titled, 2003

First, Kay showed books shelved vertically in neat rows. A few were overrun with rogue illustrations that crept across the spines and onto neighboring volumes:

Life Study, 2005

Sometimes, in satisfying bouts of violence, Kay abstracted the books beyond recognition:

Whaling Stories, 2003

Then he stacked them. The light and color shifted, and a Thiebaud-like touch emerged:

Learning Curve, 2006

Lately, Kay’s had a change of view. The books are laid flat in overlapping planes of color, with new depth. They’ve reclaimed their bodies.

My Back Pages (Gray), 2009

You can see Kay’s acrylic paintings at The Hopper House in Nyack, NY until Dec. 6, with the work of Buzz Spector, another artist in love with books.

Tags: stanford kay

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