Will Cotton Paintings and Works on Paper

The first monograph on the popular New York-based artist Will Cotton, best known for his large-scale portraits of female nudes in candy-coated dreamlike landscapes. Will Cotton is best known for his depictions of “landscapes� composed of sweets: fondant frostings, peppermint sticks, marshmallows, and cotton-candy clouds often inhabited by languidly posed females. Executed with flawless skill and technique, Cotton’s work is an optical delight and is formally resonant with the influences of seventeenth-century rococo paintings, the nudes of Bouguereau and Cabanel, and the classic American pin-ups of George Petty and Alberto Vargas. Cotton’s figures are often inspired by models such as burlesque performers and fellow artists from the art, film, and music worlds. This book-the artist’s first monograph-is a celebration of Cotton’s work in all mediums: prints, drawings, canvases, and public events. In addition to this elegantly designed trade volume, a limited edition of one hundred copies accompanied by a signed and numbered print will be available through Pace Prints.

Will Cotton received his BFA from The Cooper Union in 1987. He is represented by Mary Boone Gallery in New York and Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris. Toby Kamps is curator of modern and contemporary art at The Menil Collection, Houston. Francine Prose is the author of sixteen books of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. A former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Francine Prose lives in New York City.