Philip Core (1951–1989)

A small slim square format book measuring 8" x 8", with 96 pages, following a similar arrangement as its sister GMP publications; opening with a short yet very personal introduction by George Melly which is printed in English, then French and German. The introduction, which provides biographical information and a brief insight on the artist, is followed by the paintings. These comprise the major part of the book and are reproduced almost entirely one to a page, with the facing page blank apart for the picture's title and details; they are arranged interestingly in chronological order covering ten years ending in 1985.

Philip Core was born in 1951 in Dallas, and this fine little book provides an insight to his work: exclusively and very male, predominantly dark and menacing, often sensuous and provocative, with the occasional glimpse of light. The paintings offered here, as they are in chronological order, reveal a gradual progression from a graphic approach to the more painterly. A tantalising publication.… (meer)