Anita Klein: Out of the Ordinary

Anita Klein: Out of the Ordinary showcases the work of an artist renowned for her intimate representation of the everyday and the personal. For more than forty years, Anita Klein has crafted thousands of paintings, prints, and drawings that capture her immediate family—husband, daughters, grandchildren, and herself—engaging in the ordinary activities of daily life. These scenes, which include watching television, cooking, reading, driving to school, and sharing tender moments, are rendered with humour, sensitivity, and beauty, creating an intimate visual journal relatable to many.

Influenced by Italian Renaissance fresco painting, Klein's direct style transforms forms into strong and simple shapes. The resulting images become contemporary secular icons that delight in the common 'dailiness of life'. Her artwork, which is witty, charismatic, warm, and poignant, portrays a specific family, yet tells a universal story through its diaristic archive of life’s small and familiar moments.

This book contains a selection of five hundred and fifty of Klein's most cherished prints. It offers a charming chronological record of family life through the decades, observed from the perspective of an artist-mother. Readers can witness the growth and change of family roles within the household while also following Klein’s evolution as a printmaker, from the simple monochrome drypoints of the 1980s to the more colourful and elaborate prints of recent years.

The volume opens with a personal appreciation of Klein’s work by acclaimed poet Hollie McNish. Contributions from Rebecca and Vincent Eames, long-time collaborators with the artist, and critic Mel Gooding provide an introduction to her practice. Adding to the richness of this publication, Klein herself offers short commentaries on the images and the occasions they depict, while poems contributed by Dame Carol Ann Duffy, Hollie McNish, and Wendy Cope complete this delightful compilation.