Margaret Kilgallen (1967-2001) was a San Francisco-based artist from the Mission School who, throughout the 1990s, produced a significant body of work influenced by American and Indian folk art, hand-painted signs and hobo writing. In addition to traditional drawings and painting, she also worked in other mediums that veered all the way from illegal graffiti work to officially commissioned murals to full-blown installations. Although Margaret was honored with one major show during her lifetime at the Hammer Museum in 2000 with her husband and fellow artist Barry McGee, most of the major retrospectives of her work were mounted after her death in 2001, including the Whitney Biennial in 2002 and the REDCAT in 2005.

In the Sweet Bye and Bye is the name of the book that was published in conjunction with the REDCAT show of the same name. It’s an incredibly beautiful, thick, hardcover filled to bursting with endless color panels that display people—many of them inner-city dwellers–going about their daily lives: eating, drinking, smoking, fighting, playing music, shopping, surfing and swimming. A plethora of flotsam in the form of shoes, plants, signs, etc. are cleverly placed throughout. The result is a finely-crafted, handmade visual world that captures a simple, beautiful side of life and lays it out for all to savor.

This highly recommended and nicely designed book comes complete with a generous helping of essays, interviews, a biography and a bibliography. On a side note, I’ve wondered for a long time if Margaret ever heard the music of the former hobo and microtonal composer Harry Partch. If they had both lived at the same time, I’m sure they would have loved each others’ work. Imagine if Margaret did the artwork for Harry’s album covers. What a thought!

Publisher: REDCAT Catalog Number: ISBN 0-9749831-6-0 Format: Book Packaging: Hardcover Pages: 208 Country: United States Released: 2005 More: Amazon, Official, PBS, Stanford, YouTube

Text ©2009 Arcane Candy