In this handsome book, five decades of paintings by the contemporary
\t\t American abstract artist Emily Mason are presented in 86 full-color
\t\t illustrations that capture the extraordinarily vibrant quality of her work. In
\t\t his short text, Ebony, associate managing editor of Art
\t\t in America, succinctly characterizes Mason's visionary style and
\t\t traces her career, showing how she became involved in New York City's Abstract
\t\t Expressionist art scene in the 1950s and '60s, and went on to develop her own
\t\t innovative artistic vocabulary. Mason's abstractions, often inspired by nature
\t\t and poetry, have underlying geometric structures, but her emphasis has always
\t\t been on color. Overlapping and layered shapes in glowing yellows, brilliant
\t\t reds, vivid oranges, rich blues, jewellike greens and deep purples shift and
\t\t flow into each other and have an otherworldly luminosity that evokes for Ebony
\t\t the Aristotelian fifth element—ether. The book concludes with a selection of
\t\t prints made by applying ink and a paste of silicon and carbon to glass plates;
\t\t in these works Mason's ethereal colors reach new heights of intensity. The
\t\t beautifully produced volume, the first comprehensive account of Mason's work,
\t\t is a splendid tribute to an artist whose paintings deserve to be better known.
\t\t (Feb.)
