A maker of stained glass, tapestries, and paintings in a variety of media, Mark Adams is an unusually versatile artist. His masterful use of color, evident in everything he does, is astonishing in its power to communicate. Adams endows his seemingly representational subjects with unexpected qualities, and the works convey his excitement about the world of everyday objects and settings. “The important thing,” he has said, “is to create something in the work that relates to people.”
Lorna Price’s insightful essay gives light to the broad range of Adams’s work, guiding readers through its rich ambiguities and paradoxes. Her observations explore the artist’s idiosyncratic treatment of light, shadow, and reflection, and trace the progression of his movement from watercolor to acrylics to oil. Illustrated with seventy full-color images, Mark Adams: A Way with Color presents an impressive body of Adams work.
Co-published by Chronicle Books, San Francisco and John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco: 1995.