Book of the day > Merce Cunningham: Common Time. Published by Walker Art Center @walkerartcenter. "Renowned as both choreographer and dancer, Merce Cunningham also revolutionized dance through his partnerships with the many artists who created costumes, lighting, films and videos, and décor and sound for his choreographic works. Cunningham, together with partner John Cage, invited those artists to help him rethink what dance could mean, both on the stage and in site-responsive contexts. His notion that movement, sound, and visual art could share a “common time” remains one of the most radical aesthetic models of the 20th century and yielded extraordinary works by dozens of artists and composers, including Charles Atlas, John Cage, Morris Graves, Jasper Johns, Rei Kawakubo, Robert Morris, Gordon Mumma, Bruce Nauman, Ernesto Neto, Pauline Oliveros, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, David Tudor, Stan Vanderbeek, Andy Warhol, and La Monte Young, among many others. These collaborations bring to the fore Cunningham’s direct impact upon postwar artistic practice.

This 456-page volume, published in conjunction with the Walker Art Center and MCA Chicago’s exhibition Merce Cunningham: Common, reconsiders the choreographer and his collaborators as an extraordinarily generative interdisciplinary network that preceded and predicted dramatic shifts in performance, including the development of site-specific dance, the use of technology as a choreographic tool, and the radical separation of sound and movement in dance. It features ten new essays by curators and historians, as well as interviews with contemporary choreographers—Beth Gill, Maria Hassabi, Rashaun Mitchell, and Silas Riener—who address Cunningham’s continued influence. These are supplemented by rarely published archival photographs, reprints of texts by Cunningham, Cage, and other key dancers, artists and scholars, several appendices, and an extensive illustrated chronology placing Cunningham’s activities and those of his collaborators in the context of the 20th century, particularly the expanded arts scene of the 1960s and 1970s."

Book of the day > Cy Twombly. Published by Sieveking Verlag @ sievekingverlag "The American artist Cy Twombly was one of the seminal artists of the second half of the twentieth century, with a complex oeuvre extending over six decades. His work brilliantly fused the legacy of American Abstract Expressionism with the intellectual rigor of classical European and Mediterranean culture, reflecting his extensive reading in history, classical literature, and mythology. This catalogue, edited by curator Jonas Storsve, accompanies a sweeping retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, one of the largest exhibitions on his work to date.

Twombly's artistic development is traced through more than 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs which span his entire career, including three major history painting cycles - Nine Discourses on Commodus (1963), Fifty Days at Iliam (1978), and Coronation of Sesostris (2000). From his early works at the beginning of the 1950s which were characterized by the interweaving of text with his signature scrawled lines, to his final, vibrantly colored, paintings, this survey underscores Twombly's career as a series of cycles in which he invented painting anew.

Polyphonic in conception, Cy Twombly presents a range of views with essays that shed light on the various aspects and phases of his body of work. It includes reflections by contemporary artists (Sally Mann, Edmund de Waal, and Katharina Grosse, among others) as well as recollections by his former assistant, archivist, companion and the president of the Cy Twombly Foundation, Nicola Del Roscio. Together these multiple voices bring Cy Twombly to life, illuminating his creative process and the humanity that underlies his work."

Book of the day > Anthony Hernandez: Beach Pictures, 1969-70. Published by Silas Finch. Signed by the Photographer. " The first photographic project undertaken by Hernandez, this series includes 22 photographs taken at various beaches in Southern California and New York between 1969 and 1970. Printed in tritone on Mohawk Superfine uncoated paper, the book features cloth end sheets and printed chipboard front and back covers." 

Book of the day > Cristina de Middel: Muchismo. Published by La Fábrica. "Invited to mount an exhibition at the Teatro Fernán Gómez in Madrid, Spanish photographer Cristina de Middel dug around her studios and chose to display all her images in exactly the way she has them stored—in colossal, gorgeous chaos. The result is Cristina de Middel: Muchismo, a unique display of the photographer’s entire oeuvre, constrained by neither a curator nor any apparent organizing order.

Varied and entertaining, at times playful and bizarre, Muchismo gives de Middel a chance to interrupt the normal operating rules of the art market, presenting her photographs not as collectible objects but as constituent parts of the larger story she has been telling with her work. With Muchismo, de Middel’s latest hotly anticipated publication, the award-winning photographer continues her exploration of the forms and limits of the medium."

Only 8 weeks to go until Season 3!!! Books of the day > Angelo Badalamenti's Soundtrack from Twin Peaks 33 1/3 #120 (published by Bloomsbury Academic) & Damn Fine Cherry Pie: And Other Recipes from Twin Peaks (published by Harper Design). " When Twin Peaks debuted on the ABC network on the night of April 8, 1990, thirty-five million viewers tuned in to some of the most unusual television of their lives. Centered on an eccentric, coffee-loving FBI agent's investigation into the murder of a small town teen queen, Twin Peaks brought the aesthetic of arthouse cinema to a prime time television audience and became a cult sensation in the process. Part of Twin Peaks' charm was its unforgettable soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti, a frequent and reoccurring collaborator of film director and Twin Peaks co-creator David Lynch. Badalamenti's evocative music, with its haunting themes and jazzy moodscapes, served as a constant in a narrative that was often unhinged and went on to become one of the most popular and influential television soundtracks of all time." And, of course, recipes from RR Diner, the Great Northern , and cocktails from One Eyed Jack's (including "Audrey Horne's Cherry Twist").

Book of the day > Nathalie Du Pasquier: Big Objects Not Always Silent. Published by Sternberg Press. "Nathalie Du Pasquier was one of the founding members of Memphis, the groundbreaking Milanese design and architecture collective. During her time with the group she designed patterns for textiles and carpets as well as objects and furniture. Since 1987, however, her main focus and passion has been painting. The title of this publication describes the main focus of her work: the still life. Her distinct influences are visible here: travels to Africa, the ornamentation of the Wiener Werkstätte, the art of Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant, and Novecento painting by Giorgio de Chirico and Giorgio Morandi. This publication consists of an artist’s book by Du Pasquier with drawings, photographs, and reproductions of her paintings, and a book with photographs by Delfino Sisto Legnani of works from the past decades (2 books in one!). Texts by writers and artists and an interview with Du Pasquier provide an informative and subjective view of her artistic practice."
 

Book of the day > Hybrid Modernism: Movie Theatres in South India  by Haubitz + Zoche. Published by Spector Books. "In the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, a large number of cinemas were built in both the urban and rural areas of South India. Their architecture is an unusual mix of Western influences and local building styles. The brightly coloured façades resemble stage sets and provide a foretaste of the film experience in the auditorium, where the extravagant forms and embellishments are continued, getting the audience in the mood for the cinematic world before the opening credits roll. One might call this architectural language a kind of hybrid modernism. Many of these cinemas have been maintained in their original state. However, in the big cities, the process of converting them into multiplexes has already begun. Haubitz+Zoche’s photographs from the period 2010 – 2013 document a piece of cinema culture that has already for the most part disappeared in Europe and the USA and is being increasingly displaced in India by commercial interests." @spectorbooks

Book of the day > Pieces of a Man: Photography of Jamel Shabazz: 1980-2015. Published by Artvoices Art Books. "Like his photographic influences―James Van Der Zee, Gordon Parks, and Leonard Freed, among others―Shabazz shares the ability to extend his perception of historical time across registers: from the moment he captures his images to their sequencing in monographs through the process of sorting and presenting work out of his archive to make an argument that pushes the status quo. His practice of naming his influences and riffing on their iconic images is a sincere form of intellectual and artistic respect. Shabazz carries the mantle of his received tradition even as he adapts to shift with changes in the art form. In turn, the uses of his photographs are far reaching as well―from album covers to fashion campaigns and, most powerfully, as they take their place in museum collections such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. With extensive global audiences and interlocutors for his work, he also regularly connects with his admirers on social media and on trips abroad, sometimes reconnecting with the subjects of his photography from earlier decades. In these ways Shabazz’s work, while deeply concerned with the passage and organization of time, has crossed multiple borders and thus achieved a rare form of timelessness. Shabazz’s career continues to evolve as a long arc. His immense archive gains new layers of meaning through each project as he continues to document the mechanisms and movements of history. He continually produces new possibilities for historical reflection, awareness, and action. The pieces of his lifelong artistic practice cohere across time through long-established modes of connection, from encounter to encounter, image to image, and project to project. In short, through his use of photography, Shabazz shapes history.” -Excerpt from Reflecting Forward by Paul M. Farber

Book of the day > The Travellers by Birte Kaufmann; essay by Chris Killip. Published by Verlag Kettler. "In Ireland, around 25,000 people still live in temporary settlements in the style of itinerant workers, far removed from the amenities of Western civilization. Moving from place to place in mobile homes without electricity or running water, the largest Catholic minority of the country are faced with many prejudices. Strangely out of step with 21st-century lifestyle, they stick to their seemingly outdated traditions while also trying to find a new identity that fits in with modern society. Even in the present day, this ambiguity continues to define life for the traveller community, whose livelihood depends on horse breeding and hunting and who keep their own language alive as part of their insular culture. In 2011, the photographer Birte Kaufmann cautiously began to make contact with the travelling community, earning their trust and on some occasions living with them. For her portrayal of this unknown world, she needed to be in close contact with the families in order to capture their particular character and to avoid the usual stereotypes. Without a doubt, Birte Kaufmann's combination of reportage and documentary photography hits the right note and offers impressive insights into the Irish travellers' extraordinary world." @birtekaufmann 

Book of the day > Ed Ruscha: Metro Mattresses. Published by Sprüth Magers. "Ed Ruscha has been casting his eye across the landscapes of the American West for over 50 years, taking in everything from gas stations to swimming pools to sublime mountain ranges. With their clarity and deadpan wit, his photographs, drawings and paintings impart a mood of playful awe on everyday monuments. The motifs for his new series Metro Mattresses were found, like so many of the subjects of his work, on the streets of Los Angeles. In each of the 12 works in the series we encounter a mattress, or mattresses, isolated and in various states of neglect, all depicted against a neutral backdrop. The serial nature of the Metro Mattresses works brings to mind some of Ruscha’s earliest work, such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963) or Every Building on Sunset Strip (1966). This handsome volume collects the series, with the images beautifully reproduced on board pages."