Lehmann Maupin Gallery announces its second solo exhibition of works by Tim Rollins and K.O.S. The exhibition will continue the artists’ extensive practice of challenging notions of art through deep engagement with literary and historical texts.

Tim Rollins and K.O.S. will feature new works that critically investigate Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (after Mark Twain, 1885), The Great Gatsby (after F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925), and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (after Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, 1930). Tim Rollins and K.O.S. mine the literature and historical information surrounding them for visual motifs that transcend the object and reveal a contemporary message. For their paintings related to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. were inspired by the original illustrations Mark Twain commissioned by F.W. Kemble. These works continue a series, which began in 2000, of whitewashed book pages painted over in indigo. In exploration of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, The Great Gatsby, the artists create a study of the color symbolism that permeates the novel. For works based on The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, the artists utilized Kurt Weill’s original operatic score, creating nets of butcher’s twine and gold paint to stretch over the pages, generating a new interpretation of the piece.