Out of the ordinary

Charming scenes of an evolving household across 40 years from a virtuoso of the everyday and the personal

For more than 40 years, UK-based artist Anita Klein (born 1960) has produced thousands of paintings, prints and drawings depicting her immediate family―husband, daughters, grandchildren and herself―going about the ordinary activities of daily life.
This book compiles around 500 of the artist’s best-loved prints going back to her student days. It presents a charming chronology of the family’s day-to-day life through the decades, seen from the artist-mother’s perspective, as they grow and change in their roles within the household. One can also follow Klein’s development as a printmaker through that time, from the simple monochrome drypoints in the 1980s, a consequence of the practical and financial demands of being a young parent, through to the more colorful and elaborate prints of more recent years. The book includes short commentaries from the artist about the work and her memories of the occasions depicted.