Julius Friedman: Images and Ideas
Book Summary
Congratulations! Julius Friedman: Images and Ideas was awarded the Gold Medal in the national Fine Arts category of the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards
By Julius Friedman • Hardcover • 12 x 12 • 256 pages • Full Color
Contemporary American artist, photographer, graphic designer, and gallery owner Julius Friedman presents the output of a lifetime in Julius Friedman: Images and Ideas. Across 256 beautiful, richly-illustrated and full-color pages, readers see not only the composed, witty and lavish posters for which Friedman is renowned, but also the full scope of his wide-ranging explorations — including furniture design, bookmaking, art installations, sculpture, and photography.
Never before has Friedman's complete oeuvre been aggregated and presented, partly because Friedman's catalog — still in progress and now in its most mature, assured form — has defied easy compilation. Herein Friedman himself has tackled the assignment, exploring his life, his processes, and his complete works to date, even designing the pages of the book that sums it all up.
In both the design and the content readers will get a glimpse into the mind and instincts of the artist, suggesting the inspirations and sources of his particular imaginative product.
"Julius Friedman has done what I think are an extraordinary group of posters." —Milton Glaser, Glaser Inc., New York
About the Artist:
Julius Friedman is a graphic designer, photographer, artist, and owner of the design firm Images, specializing in cultural, nonprofit, and corporate design. He co-owns Chapman Friedman Gallery, which represents contemporary regional, national, and international artists.
His artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and the New York Art Directors Show in New York; at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; at the National Museum of Poster Art in Poland; at the Ryder Gallery, the University College Design Association, and the American Center for Design in Chicago; at the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Cincinnati; and more.
His print work has been featured in Communication Art; Print Magazine; Art Direction; STA 100 Show; Graphis; Idea Magazine (Japan); Printers Industry of America; Photo Design; Kodak's International Photography Magazine; Nikon World; American Photography; World Graphic Design; Now, The Language of Visual Art (Holt, Rinehart & Winston); Creative Typography (Phaidon Press); How Magazine; Typography: The Annual of the Type Directors Club; Print's Best Letterheads and Business Cards; Mead Top 60 Show; and B&W Photo magazine, among others.
He lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky.
"Julius Friedman's images celebrate the improbable, even the impossible. The posters he has created are some of the most iconic images in American graphic arts of the last 30 years.
His creative life is devoted to images — some corporate, many purely cultural — that bend the mind and persist long after they are first seen.
Although a consummate professional, as he approaches age 65 Julius has not lost his childlike sense of wonder. Objects as mundane as a twig, a stone, a slice of bread are captured for a graphic statement. He leads us to see the ordinary in a new light, turning the everyday object into something extraordinary.
Through the camera lens, Julius uniquely touches the world. His images continue to surprise, to stimulate, and sometimes to shock and shatter." —Barry Bernson, reporter, anchor
"As the years unfold, the work accumulates that Julius Friedman has created for the world. One thinks of the poster he made for the ballet, with the ballerina's pink slipper balanced on top of an egg. The meaning in this work, as all his work, is multi-layered. The tenuousness of the creative moment, the fragility of our attempt to go beyond our human limits, the beauty of the split-second performance, the leap into space are all contained in that image, as in many others, including his personal photographs.
What Julius has done is show us that our place is universal and that we co-exist with beauty of the highest nature. As an artist, he helps us renew our vision. His book designs, such as the one for Stephen Powell's glass-blown vessels, with glass as transparent as smoke going up in curls, gives the glass blower the credit for his skill and unbelievable alchemy of substance into airy flights.
Julius' most wonderful attribute is his generosity toward his fellow artists. He chooses well, and he remains intensely loyal in support of them. In his gallery, shared with his wife, Cheryl Chapman, he shows, publishes, and sells their work. He is an inspiration to the art world. His decision to remain in Kentucky is a gift to our region, where he is both creating and keeping a history of art." —Nana Lampton, artist, writer, and Chairman and CEO, Hardscuffle
