From Library Journal
First emerging as a Neo-Geo practitioner and art critic in the early 1980s, Halley is here presented as a middle-aged, Baudrillard-spouting Warhol wannabe tightly entwined with the avant-garde New York art world. Most recently, he has produced brightly colored canvases of rectangular shapes with vertical bars that he styles cells, leaving the exact meaning of this term to the viewer. In this well-printed and beautifully designed book, we are treated to examples of the full range of his work as well as to a laudatory biography and five essays, three of which will be best appreciated by graduate students. Dozens of thumbnail photos show Halley in the studio, Halley's paintings installed in various galleries, and Halley at parties with various art world figures. All this is intended to present a portrait of the earnest intellectual-writer-critic-painter struggling to depict the alienating modern world of flow charts and prison cells. In the end, however, the real value of this book lies in the full-page illustrations of his big canvases; they are pretty. If we dismiss the simplistic metaphors implied in the titles, the vibrant colors and contrasting textures are sumptuous and enjoyable. Blurring the lines between artist's book and monograph, this is recommended for serious contemporary art collections.
-David McClelland, Philadelphia
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-David McClelland, Philadelphia
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
BOOKFORUM Magazine, Fall 2000
"Maintain Speed" is gorgeous and brilliantly conceived, a conceptual glove as sumptuous and smart as the work it conveys. - Jane Harris
