Book of the Day Posted Jul 13, 2021

Book of the Day > Frank Bowling

● Purchase ● Over a half-century of bright, liberating, Pop-inflected expressionism, from British painter Frank Bowling Over the past decade, Frank Bowling (born 1934) has enjoyed belated attention and celebration, including a major Tate Britain retrospective in 2019. This comprehensive monograph, published in 2011, is now available in an updated and expanded edition. Born in British Guiana, Bowling arrived in England in his late teens, going on to study at the Royal College of Art alongside David Hockney and Derek Boshier. By the early 1960s he was recognized as an original force in the vibrant London art scene, with a style that brilliantly combined figurative, symbolic and abstract elements. Dividing his time between New York and London since the late 1960s, Bowling has developed a unique and virtuosic abstract style that combines aspects of American painterly abstraction with a treatment of light and space that consciously recollects the great English landscape painters Gainsborough, Turner and Constable.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 10, 2021

Book of the day > Russell Etchen: About 3400 People

We are so stoked for our manager Russell Etchen whose exhibition is on view now @billarningexhibitions in Houston! If you can't make it there, we have copies of the 'zine he produced in conjunction with the show in the store. Book of the day > Russell Etchen: About 3400 People. ● Purchase Here ●
"Russell Etchen’s drawings, painting installations, and books originate in ’Zine culture, cartooning, graffito, rock and roll aesthetics, and his philosophical meditations on similarity, difference, repetition and reproduction. The repeated elements of counting, grouping, and sorting objects—whether they are Rocks or People—lend an oddly elegant and subtly humorous charm that belies the miasma commonly associated with monotony and repetition. Based in Los Angeles, Etchen was raised in Houston. This exhibition’s multi-scale mix of wall paintings and drawings marks the artist’s first Houston show since his widely reproduced and much loved public art installation at the Lawndale Art Center in 2016."
 
Congratulations, Russell! Now come back -- we miss you!
Book of the Day Posted Jul 09, 2021

Book of the day > Dries Van Noten Spring Summer 2021 photographed by Viviane Sassen

Dries Van Noten Spring Summer 2021 photographed by Viviane Sassen with projections of Len Lye films. ● Purchase here ●
The late Mr. Lye was a pioneering New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His work helped inspire this collection and its optimistic prints of "psychedelic sun, sunshine and moons, light bars, and palm trees."

 

Book of the Day Posted Jul 08, 2021

Book of the day > Photo No-Nos: Meditations on What Not to Photograph by Jason Fulford

Purchase here!     At turns humorous and absurd, heartfelt and searching, Photo No-Nos is for photographers of all levels wishing to avoid easy metaphors and to sharpen their visual communication skills. Photographers often have unwritten lists of subjects they tell themselves not to shoot—things that are cliché, exploitative, derivative, sometimes even arbitrary.
 
Photo No-Nos features ideas, stories, and anecdotes from many of the world’s most talented photographers and photography professionals, along with an encyclopedic list of more than a thousand taboo subjects compiled from and with pictures by contributors. Not a strict guide, but a series of meditations on “bad” pictures, Photo No-Nos covers a wide range of topics, from sunsets and roses to issues of colonialism, stereotypes, and social responsibility.
 
At a time when societies are reckoning with what and how to communicate through media and who has the right to do so, this book is a timely and thoughtful resource on what photographers consider to be off-limits, and how they have contended with their own self-imposed rules without being paralyzed by them.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 07, 2021

Book of the day > Jams Barnor: The Roadmaker

Published by @ @maisoncf / @ rrbphotobooks.  "The Roadmaker is a new retrospective book of work by photographer James Barnor drawing from across his career, demonstrating his modernism and inherent skill as a colourist. The publication of the book coincides with the exhibition James Barnor: Ghanaian Modernist at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery from 17 May 2021 as part of Bristol Photo Festival, and a major retrospective of Barnor’s work at Serpentine, London from 20 May 2021.
 
James Barnor (b.1929) was Ghana’s first international press photographer. He came from a family of photographers and established his own studio in Accra, Ever Young in 1950. He worked from this studio at the time of Ghana’s independence whilst also selling his pictures to the Daily Graphic and Drum magazines. He came to Britain in 1959, and whilst working in a factory, he took photography evening classes at the London College of Printmaking and lessons with the Colour Processing Laboratory in Kent. He went on to study at Medway College of Arts, where he gained employment as a technician, eventually returning to Accra in 1969, where he established X23, the city’s first colour photography studio. He returned to London in the 1990s.
 
In 2009 the 80 year-old photographer revealed his archive to two London curators. His archive is a remarkable document of post-war modernity spanning photographs from the time of Ghana’s independence, scenes of multi-cultural London, and later images recording a strong postcolonial identity in Ghana. The metaphor of the road in the book’s title, suggests the continuity between the past and the present, tradition and progress, and the links between generations and peoples of different contents present in Barnor’s work.
 
The book includes an essay by @damariceamao photography historian and curator, and is translated into English by Mélissa Laveaux
 
The exhibition James Barnor: Ghanaian Modernist at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery is part of the inaugural Bristol Photo Festival and will showcase over 40 photographs. The exhibition will be on display from 17 May 2021 until January 2022."  Additionally, there is a current retrospective exhibition at @serpentineuk . 
 
@james_barnor_archives

 

Book of the Day Posted Jul 06, 2021

Book of the day > Jack Skelley: Dennis Wilson and Charlie Manson

Book of the Day > (signed) Jack Skelley: Dennis Wilson and Charlie Manson. Self-published by Fred & Barney Press. ● Purchase here ●
In story and verse this chapbook explores the tragic links between the Beach Boys drummer and the cult killer. @helterskelley @brianwalsby
Book of the Day Posted Jul 03, 2021

Book of the Day > Vivienne Westwood: Catwalk

● Purchase ● Forty years of catwalk photography featuring seventy groundbreaking collections from the inimitable Vivienne Westwood—over 1,000 looks as they originally appeared in Westwood’s iconic shows “The only reason I’m in fashion is to destroy the word ‘conformity,’” Vivienne Westwood (b. 1941) declared early in her career. With her provocative synthesis of historic British fashion, classic painting aesthetics, and punk culture, the British designer has continuously revolutionized the fashion industry since her first catwalk collection, “Pirate,” debuted in 1981. Opening with a concise history of the house and brief biographical profiles of Westwood and her longtime collaborator Andreas Kronthaler, this spectacular volume—the seventh in the celebrated Catwalk series—documents all of Westwood’s catwalk collections from 1981 to today. Short texts illuminating each collection’s highlights and influences are accompanied by carefully curated catwalk photographs showcasing hundreds of clothing ensembles, accessories, beauty looks, and set designs, along with the top fashion models who walked the runway, including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. With an extensive reference section, this lavishly illustrated volume provides unrivalled insight into one of the most thought-provoking and influential fashion designers in the world.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 02, 2021

Book of the Day > Los Angeles Standards

● Purchase ● Los Angeles Standards is a photographic portrait of Los Angeles which offers a way to view the city through 15 typologies which identify this unique city environment. The 1300 photographs were taken between 2008 and 2012 by French architects Caroline and Cyril Desroche during the years they live in Los Angeles. They are organized in order to compare and contrast the design archetypes that they have identified, including Mini-Malls, Billboards, Freeways, Parking Lots and Stilt Houses. Each picture is accompanied by its address for research and travel. They are organized in order to compare and contrast the design archetypes that they have identified, including Mini-Malls, Billboards, Freeways, Parking Lots and Stilt Houses. Each picture is accompanied by its address for research and travel. This book aims to identify various standard elements which visually define Los Angeles. While the city is in a continual state of flux, becoming denser and re-defining its urban landscape every day, this book is also a record of the influence of its urban history on its present identity.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 01, 2021

Book of the Day > Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction

● Purchase ● A definitive survey on the Dada participant and pioneer of abstraction between art and craft, spanning her textiles, marionettes, stained glass, paintings and more
 
Accompanying the first retrospective of Taeuber-Arp’s work in the United States in 40 years, Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction is a comprehensive survey of this multifaceted abstract artist’s innovative and wide-ranging body of work. Her background in the applied arts and dance, her involvement in the Zurich Dada movement and her projects for architectural spaces were essential to her development of a uniquely versatile and vibrant abstract vocabulary. Through her artistic output and various professional alliances, Taeuber-Arp consistently challenged the historically constructed boundaries separating fine art from craft and design.
 
This richly illustrated catalog explores the artist’s interdisciplinary and cross-pollinating approach to abstraction through some 400 works, including textiles, beadwork, polychrome marionettes, architectural and interior designs, stained glass windows, works on paper, paintings and relief sculptures. It also features 15 essays that examine the full sweep of Taeuber-Arp’s career. Arranged into six chapters that follow the exhibition’s sections, these essays trace the progression of Taeuber-Arp’s creative production both chronologically and thematically. A comprehensive illustrated chronology, the first essay on Taeuber-Arp’s materials and techniques, and an exhibition checklist based on new research and analysis detail the expansive nature of Taeuber-Arp’s production.
Book of the Day Posted Jun 30, 2021

Book of the Day > Mark Edward Harris: The People of the Forest

● Purchase ● In The People of the Forest, award-winning photographer Mark Edward Harris focuses on orangutans, because, while the future for many species is uncertain, orangutans in the wild are hanging on by a particularly thin vine. Their populations have declined significantly due to habitat destruction in their native Sumatra and Borneo where forests give way to palm oil plantations. Long before genetic testing revealed an almost 97 percent DNA overlap between orangutans and humans, the similarities between the two species was noticed. “Orangutan” comes from the Malay word orang (people) and hutan (forest), hence the title for this book.
more