PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Fratino’s first major monograph, Louis Fratino documents over fifty of Fratino’s paintings in oversized reproductions. The publication’s generous folio format nods to 1930s avant-garde journals such as Minotaure and Verve. Playing with Fratino’s own reckoning with the very history of painting, the publication toys with longstanding conventions of catalogue design. Creamy laid paper and high-contrast display typography lend texts a certain classicism, upending notions of Fratino’s work as “provocative,” and situating his scenes of queer intimacy within a longer canon of both figurative and still-life painting production. Created expressly for this publication, Fratino’s black brush illustrations complement the essays, acting not as didactic figures but rather as evocative extensions of the text. A Greco-Roman bust, a standing nude figure, and a bundle of spring flowers all share space with Fratino and Carroll Dunham’s conversation about the legacies of modernist painting, the role of figurative work today, and the erotics of the body. Where texts are printed in black and white, Fratino’s paintings explode in color on smooth yet subtly tactile coated paper. Smaller canvases are generously framed in white while larger works almost burst off the pages, pushing towards the outermost margins. Verona-based printer Trifolio’s color system enabled vivid reproductions, moving beyond a standard 4-color CMYK gamut and including spot colors to capture the full range of Fratino’s palette. The volume’s hand-worked binding features flush-cut fabric-wrapped edges, an exposed spine, and stamping mirroring the dust-jacket collage, which Fratino created as an original piece for the publication.

BOOK INFORMATION

Trim Size: 10.5 x 14

Number of Pages: 140 pages

Binding Method: Case bound with fabric-wrapped flush cut edges and exposed spine

Paper: Fedrigoni Tatami 150gsm, Kingdom Laid Oyster 120gsm, Takeo Satagami Indigo 116gsm

Typefaces: GT Alpina

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director:

Art Director:

Book Designer: Katy Nelson

Jacket/Cover Designer: Louis Fratino

Illustrator:

Photographer:

Picture Editor:

Production Director: Katy Nelson

Production Coordinator: Christina Grillo (Trifolio)

Production Artist:

Other Credits:

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