A Journey to the Far Canine Range ..., Roy De Forest, SIGNED w/sketch to Robert Bechtle

Roy De Forest: A Journey to the Far Canine Range and the Unexplored Territory Beyond Terrier Pass

Art Monograph, Signed, Original Drawing

Vincent, Stephen, Ed., Bedford Arts Publishers, San Francisco, 1988

Very Good 12 1/4" x 9 1/2" Dark green cloth over boards featuring a paste-down illustration of a 1987 De Forest image of sage and dog to the cover, gilt stamped lettering to cover and spine.  Visible sun fading to covers and spine, light foxing to top edge, else clean, intact, sharp tips, and tightly bound.  Accordion fold pages unfold to one long 12 1/2" page comprising thirteen two-sided full-color, full-page illustrated panels, unpaginated, plus a Note on the Work by Jock McDonald.  Includes SIGNED and INSCRIBED ORIGINAL DRAWING by the artist on the colophon in pencil, reading, "Roy De Forest For Bob a neat stylish man".  Image appears to depict a series of dogs resting on cliffs.  Acquired from the private library of De Forest's contemporary and friend, noted realist painter Robert Bechtle, to whom the drawing is inscribed.  This book is the first in a series proposed by Stephen Vincent, who "wanted to make a trade book with original art by artists in a format that would simultaneously function as an art object".

Roy De Forest (1930-2007) was an American painter, sculptor, and teacher.  He was involved in both the Funk art and Nut art movements in the Bay Area of California, though he ultimately rejected those terms.  De Forest's art is known for its off-beat and comical brightly colored fantasyscapes filled most commonly with dogs.  His paintings often depicted recurring elements of an "everyman", a sage named Leonardo DaVinci, and sasquatch.  This collection is no different, weaving a wordless narrative of mythical figures traversing an imaginary landscape formed by De Forest's humor, esoteric view, and structural freedom.  Also includes ephemera from Roy De Forest's memorial services, including a one-page exceprt from his 1974 retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Art wherein he recounts a conversation between an obscene hyena, a terrier poet, a domesticated dingo, and a horse of a different color.

From the library of Robert Bechtle (1932-2020), an American Photorealist painter, printmaker, and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area.  His insistence on realism at a time when abstract-informed figuration was en vogue brought wide criticism in the U.S. though he was widely celebrated in Europe.  Gradually, his attention to objective reporting in everyday American domestic life brought him into the mainstream.  He is considered to be among the most accomplished realist artists of his time.