Blanton Book Club
Held as part of the museum’s Third Thursday evenings of free programming, the Blanton Book Club features a new book each month, focusing on current exhibitions or works in the museum’s collection.
Upcoming Selections
Vernon Fisher
Evidence of Houdini's Return, 1994
Mixed media
Purchase through the Michener Acquisitions Fund
with support from Linda Pace
Special Book Club Program with Artist Vernon Fisher
From July through October the Blanton Book Club will gain a deeper understanding of the work of artist Vernon Fisher by reading four books he has selected for their relevance to his practice. The artist will meet with members of the book club in November to discuss his selections and work.
July 15, 7PM: Reality Isn't What It Used to Be by
Walter Truett Anderson
Hailed by the Utne reader for its "refreshing insight, wisdom, and grace," this book explores postmodernism, making sense of everything from deconstruction to punk.
August 19, 7PM: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize, Cloud Atlas weaves together six interconnected stories across time and place. Fellow novelist A.S. Byatt writes that "Cloud Atlas is powerful and elegant because Mitchell's understanding of the way we respond to those fundamental and primitive stories we tell about good and evil, love and destruction, beginnings and ends."
September 16, 7PM: The Elizabethan World Picture by
E.M.W. Tillyard
This book offers an account of Elizabethan ideas of world order and is, in Vernon Fisher's words, "the best short description of an alternative world view I ever read."
October 21, 7PM: The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
A finalist for the 1978 National Book Award in the category of "contemporary thought," Juilan Jaynes' controversial book opened the door to narrative strategies that Fisher continues to use.
Sunday, November 7, 2PM
Artist Vernon Fisher meets with members of the book club to discuss his work and the books he selected.
Co-presented by the Blanton Museum of Art and the Austin Public Library
Funding for Vernon Fisher’s visit is provided by the M.K. Hage Centennial Visiting Professorship in Fine Arts
