Beverly McIver paints her life. Her "preparatory sketches" are either family photos she has snapped or costumed self-portraits that she sets up. McIver transforms these photographic images into works of painterly bravura and expressionist force. As Irving Sandler writes in his essay, "McIver's portraiture bridges specific 'realism' and emotional 'expressionism.' Her brush... penetrates the photograph's surface, opening the image to new depth and dimension." In McIver's work, autobiographical portraiture becomes a means to explore "otherness" and its many manifestations, from family roles to racial identities. The writer, Irving Sandler has been a prominent writer on American art since the 1950s, when he began reviewing for Art News and Art International. His first book, The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism, was published in 1970 and quickly became a standard text of the period. In 1972 he co-founded Artists Space, one of the earliest alternative spaces in New York. His academic career has included teaching positions at New York University, SUNY Purchase, and Hunter College. Irving Sandler lives in New York, where he continues to write and teach. Hardcover, 7 x 6 in. 56 pages, 23 color plates ISBN: 1-878607-96-0 $14.95 order from amazon.com