This first monograph to focus on painter Paul Waldman tackles a great deal of work--his highly regarded career spans more than four decades. To do the job, the editors have called in some the big guns. Carol Strickland and Carter Ratcliff are among those who discuss the provocative themes that have occupied Waldman from the beginning: art, eros and magic. Readers can follow as Waldman's knowing and mysterious work evolves from the cool, elegant Minimalism of the 1960s and 1970s, in which he combined precise geometric shapes with segmented, often hidden female body parts, to the 1980s, when he introduced both animals and children, often in fantastical guises, and the 1990s, when he again concentrated on the figure. In 1998, when Waldman began the first of many yearly trips to India, his work, always full of sensual forms, lush color and vibrant surfaces, began to embrace elements from Eastern culture. He is now based in New York and his work, which has been exhibited regularly throughout the United States and Europe for years, is included in both public and private collections.