Shirley Jaffe

Following in the footsteps of Kandinsky and Matisse, Shirley Jaffe's early paintings are full of gestural energy, with vivid colors and broad brushstrokes. From the 1970's, her work opens a more personal way; she abandons the gesture and the matter for colors circumscribed by a free geometry. The composition becomes more frontal and the idea of chaos becomes a metaphor and a driving force to release solid blocks of color disjointed and planed by an increasingly insinuating white "cement". A hospitable woman, Jaffe has welcomed many young artists into her home, but she has always remained secretive about her personal life and laconic about her feminist convictions.

A rich iconography of Shirley Jaffe's works as well as unpublished archival photographs illustrate this monograph.

This book includes texts by Frédéric Paul, curator of contemporary art at the Musée national d'art moderne, Svetlana Alpers, renowned American art historian, Claudine Grammont, director of the Musée Matisse in Nice, and an interview with the artist conducted by Robert Kushner.