Tensions of creation and destruction in the latest paintings from Rita Ackermann, shifting between representation and abstraction

Rita Ackermann's vibrant, large-scale Mama paintings layer drawings with applications and scrapings of impasto and oil stick, expressing complex histories and emotions. The immersive nature of the Mama suite is fully illustrated and expressed in this book, with a critical essay by Gianni Jetzer that explores and contextualizes Rita's evolution as an artist and the significance of the Mama works, complementing filmmaker Harmony Korine's fake interview with Ackermann and a tribute to the artist by Scott Griffin. The importance of Ackermann's drawings in her painting practice is elucidated in a poem by the artist and seen in the book's robust plate section, which features all of the Mama paintings made to date.