Paintings is the first monograph on Gus Van Sant’s art A rare and intimate journey through his work and visual universe

Paintings is the first monograph entirely dedicated to the pictorial practice of Gus Van Sant. Published by Blue Moon Press, a new imprint of artist books founded by Leah Gudmundson as an extension of the Paris-based magazine Blue Moon, the release is scheduled for February 28 and is currently available for pre-order.

The publication collects a wide selection of Van Sant’s works, offering an extensive overview of his practice and an intimate look into his visual universe beyond cinema. In this context, the pictorial practice becomes a parallel territory where Van Sant explores vulnerability, memory, and the construction of the icon, oscillating between portraiture, contemplation, and intimacy.

Nothing is left to chance: the edition also stands out for its material and conceptual design. The hardcover is bound “in reverse,” as if it had been torn, flipped, and reattached to a new book block. The exterior consists of two screen print proofs, signed and stamped on the back, a detail that alludes to Van Sant’s pictorial practice as the true flip side of his celebrated cinematic career.

The editorial object itself is a work of art, establishing a direct dialogue with the works in the monograph and, in a sense, extending their themes. The publication is structured according to an associative sequence: the different series converse vis-à-vis, highlighting recurring themes and obsessions that traverse multiple media and the full span of the artist’s production. The result is a constellation of images where cinematic and photographic gazes translate into painting, composing a stratified visual atlas.

The dialogue with the artist is further enriched by two contributions: one by Dennis Congdon, professor at RISD, with the essay Lightness in the Paintings of Gus Van Sant, and one by Leah Gudmundson, who signs an unpublished interview opening a personal window onto the artist’s creative process, his relationship with the image, and painting as a private, meditative practice.

The result is an intimate and layered project capable of providing a more complete and profound vision of Gus Van Sant’s imaginary. With Paintings, Blue Moon Press offers not just an editorial publication, but a conceptual object reflecting the dual nature of Van Sant’s practice: on one side the cinema that made him renowned, on the other painting as a parallel, silent, and deeply personal space.