Motherself: an Artist's Memoir

In the late 1960s, while the Western art world seemed to have almost entirely rejected the figure, Alan Feltus began to develop an imagery that was at once classical and strikingly modern, firmly establishing himself as one of the foremost figurative painters of his generation. In Motherself: an Artist's Memoir, Feltus reflects back on his life, his childhood in Manhattan during the 1940s and '50s, his earliest experiences with art, from the museums in which he sought refuge as a young boy, to the studios of his mothers' artist friends, in which he found a sense of peace and purpose. He writes with a mix of bitterness and tenderness about the complex relationship he shared with his mother, and about his search to fill the void left by an absent father. He recalls how, aged twenty-eight, in Rome, a single work of art revealed to him a simple notion that would help define his artistic identity and change his work forever. Feltus' memoir is an intimate and compelling account of the life of one of America's great figurative painters.
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