Necks
Daniel Brush
Photographs Wesley Stringer
2016
Necks is a jeweler's poetry book documenting 116 colliers de chien. The collars were made for the book, which was published in a limited edition.
Daniel Brush
Writings Dr. Oliver Sacks, Brett Littman, David Revere McFadden, Saskia Hamilton, and Paul Keegan
Design and Photographs Takaaki Matsumoto
ISBN: 978-1-890385-24-8
Published by The Museum of Arts and Design, 2012
The work of Daniel Brush (born 1947) does not fit neatly into the categories commonly used to describe contemporary art or craft. While he uses traditional art media such as pen and ink and paper or canvas, he also uses materials such as blocks of billet steel, pure aluminum, pure gold and precious gems; he also makes exquisite jewelry. These mysterious artworks--drawings, paintings, small sculptures, jewelry and other objects hard to classify--reveal, upon close inspection, details that are astonishing in their precision and technical facility. Most of Brush's work is in private collections around the world, and it is rarely seen in public. Containing more than 450 photographs (all of which represent the artworks at their actual size), this book shows much of the artist's work of the last decade and affords a rare opportunity to contemplate these objects.
Red Breathing
Writings Daniel Brush
Design Peter Miles
ISBN: 978-3-86521-746-2
Published by Steidl-Miles, 2009
Red Breathing represents reclusive American artist Daniel Brush's 13-year engagement with the Woman plays of the Noh theater, resulting in 117 large-scale drawings. All drawings are reproduced in sequence.
“In the age of celebrity, anonymity acquires power. In the age of speed, slowness. In the age of the work of art in digital reproduction, the unique object, the hand-made inscription, the line drawn by hand that is responsive to the rhythm of breathing, the pulse of ink flowing from the calligrapher's brush onto paper, or the live tremor of the inscriber's chisel making delicate marks on steel.”
Hugh Haughton
Thirty Years' Work
Writings Saskia Hamilton and Hugh Haughton
Design Peter Miles
ISBN: 978-3-86521-476-8
Published by Steidl-Miles, 2007
Over the course of 30 years working in near seclusion from the mainstream, Daniel Brush has created an unparalleled body of work in painting, sculpture and jewelry. His large-scale canvases and drawings, inspired by the expressive, disciplined gestures of Noh theater and the drama of Modernist painting, integrate Brush's study of Asian philosophy and twentieth-century art. His three-dimensional works, of mesmerizing intricacy, include delicate gold domes, jewel-encrusted objects of fantasy and gold-and-steel sculptures only a few inches high. Brush's rigorous aesthetic is marked by intellectual force, technical mastery and the science of materials. The idiosyncratic, contemplative work gathered in these four volumes records a journey of evolving mastery, and embodies a deeply expressive voice in American art. Brush has had seven solo museum exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Smithsonian and a recent exhibition at the Lannan Foundation.
Gold Without Boundaries
Writings Paul Theroux, Donald Kuspit, and David Bennett and Daniel Brush
Photographs John Taylor
ISBN: 0-8109-4018-3
Published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998
This lavish monograph reveals the extraordinary world of Daniel Brush. Brush's thirty-year career includes early painting exhibitions at the Phillips Collection and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, followed by a period of virtual seclusion, study, and intense productivity. The resulting works, all handwrought by the artist, are presented here in 175 glorious full-color photographs made especially for this volume. Included are delicate and detailed granulated-gold domes in the tradition of the ancient goldsmiths, jewel-encrusted objects of virtue and fantasy, monumental gold and steel sculptures, some only a few inches high-unseen until now by most of the world.
Also reproduced are paintings and drawings, as well as duotone photographs of Brush's studio, which introduce the reader to the artist's very private environment. A series of writings, often incorporating Brush's own words, traces the artist's remarkable journey of visual discovery and enlightenment. Renowned author Paul Theroux renders an insightful protrait of a creative genius removed from the everyday. Respected art critic Donald Kuspit examines the idiosyncratic focus of Brush's work in relation to twentieth-century art traditions. David Bennett, Sotheby's international head of jewels, engages Brush in philosophical conversations that explore the rigorous discipline and contemplation involved in the art making process.
The book also includes an afterword by Elizabeth Broun, director of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, and Jeremy Adamson, senior curator at the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art.
