Larry Poons

Larry Poons (1937-) became famous when he was only in his twenties for his "dot paintings", in which dots or ellipses were meticulously arranged on fields of bright colour, creating a rhythmic, pulsating effect. Subsequently, Poons first relaxed the precision of these paintings, then abandoned them altogether in favour of a mode of organic abstraction based on vertical drips of paint. This was the beginning of an uncompromising five-decade evolution that eventually brought the artist back to a more intimate mode of painting with brushes and his own hands.

This first comprehensive critical monograph on Poons reproduces almost 300 of his most important works, some in the form of spectacular fold-outs. The result of a collaboration between four leading critics and historians, the text traces the development of the American artist's career.