The latest issue of Esopus will open with a remarkable essay by architect Michael Arad, the designer of the 9/11 memorial. There has been no shortage of press coverage of the difficult, nearly decade-long process of building the acclaimed memorial after Arad’s “Twin Voids” submission won the competition in 2004; in this piece, Arad offers for the first time his account of the conception and development of his original design. The article is accompanied by reproductions of Arad’s earliest sketches as well as stunning renderings of the underground galleries that were essential to his initial concept of the memorial (and which were ultimately excised). Also included is a full-scale replica, in the form of a removable poster, of Arad’s original submission board for the competition.

In addition, the issue features artists’ projects by Thomas Nozkowski (15 new mixed-media works), Penny McCarthy (pencil drawings, including a removable poster), Stephen Eichhorn (collages), and Leslie Wayne (watercolors inspired by the Hindu Lingam motif). Esopus 21 includes three poems by the French poet Chantal Bizzini (translated by J. Bradford Anderson) and, from the collection of the Getty Research Institute, pages from a sketchbook by late Austrian artist Otto Mühl featuring the Viennese Actionism cofounder's exquisite—and surprisingly tender—drawings based on Cézanne paintings. For the first installment of "Early Works," a new series presenting childhood creative efforts by well-known artists and writers, Esopus 21 reproduces pages from the sci-fi novels written and illustrated by renowned playwright and filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan in the 5th and 6th grade. 

Unearthed manuscripts by Erik Satie, Robert Motherwell, Piet Mondrian, and others—originally destined to appear in a never-published second issue of the influential postwar art journal Possibilities (edited by Motherwell and Harold Rosenberg)—comprise this issue's installment of “Modern Artifacts,” the acclaimed series Esopus copresents with the Museum of Modern Art Archives. Another regular series, "Analog Recovery" (featuring work from the legendary Magnum Photos Archive), is represented by the late photographer Dennis Stock’s stunning photographs of the 1954 world premiere of the classic George Cukor film A Star is Born. 

Esopus 21 closes with several fascinating perspectives on the African photographers’ collective Invisible Borders: an essay by Emmanuel Iduma accompanied by a photographic portfolio of works created by participants of the group's annual “road trips,” and an audio compilation curated by the organization’s founder, Emeka Okereke, which provides a vibrant sampling of the songs and sounds of the collective’s trans-African excursions.



About Esopus


Published the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Esopus Foundation Ltd., twice-yearly Esopus features contributions from a cross-section of creative disciplines presented in a striking visual format with minimal editorial framing and no advertising. Esopus 21 will be on newsstands the first week of May. The 176-page issue is $20, and one-year subscriptions to Esopus are $30. 



About the Esopus Foundation Ltd.


The Esopus Foundation Ltd. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization incorporated in New York State in 2003. It was formed to provide an unmediated forum through which artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people can make a direct connection with the general public. Past and present supporters include the Greenwall Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Foundation for Contemporary Art, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Coby Foundation, the Dedalus Foundation, the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, the Fifth Floor Foundation, and a number of other institutional and private donors.



For more information, contact:


Tod Lippy, Editor

Esopus

T: +1-212-473-0919

E: info@esopusmag.com