This ink painting by illustrator, author and publisher Leanne Shapton is selected from original pages of her 2012 graphic novel Swimming Studies. The novel gathers fragments of text and imagery that together form a nuanced archive of Shapton’s experience as a competitive swimmer in her adolescence, her voluntary ‘retirement,’ and the transferral of discipline to an art practice.
The Vals series was made during a vacation to the Hotel Therme Vals thermal pools in Switzerland, fulfilling a long-term desire of Shapton’s to swim in their famed granite-lined, cave-like pools. In a chapter titled Bathing she writes, “Between my thrice-daily swims, I paint the view from my window twenty-three times.” These paintings are reproduced in the preceding chapter, and represent her newfound understanding of swimming as a recreational rather than competitive activity.
Leanne Shapton, b. 1973, is a Canadian author, artist, and publisher based in New York City. Shapton’s Swimming Studies won the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography, and was long listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2012. She is the co-founder, with photographer Jason Fulford, of J&L Books, an internationally-distributed not-for-profit imprint specializing in art and photography books. Her works have appeared in various publications such as The New York Times, Granta, and The New Yorker, and she teaches in the creating writing department at Columbia University School of the Arts. Shapton is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Her latest book is Guestbook, a collection of short stories.
Ink on paper
Unique
Custom framing recommended in Natural Maple with artwork floated on archival mat board. Please see here for framing options and make a note of frame preference when checking out in the Order Comments.
