Book of the Day Posted Nov 18, 2020

Book of the Day > Gas and Glamour: Roadside Architecture in Los Angeles

● Purchase ● “I love cars and I love Los Angeles for being a city of cars. Over the last decade or so, I have been intrigued by L. A.’s love affair with the automobile, tracing back to a time when cars themselves were objects of beauty. Those cars are no longer on the streets today but the buildings from that era remain. As an architectural photographer, I wanted to capture L. A.’s car-culture-induced optimism and ambition reflected in polychromatic, starspangled coffee shops, gas stations, and car washes, that once lured the gaze of passing motorists.” – Ashok Sinha
 
Ashok Sinha is an architectural and fine art photographer whose large-scale photographs capture a sense of place tied to both natural landscapes and built environments. His photographs have been published by editorial outlets such as The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Interior Design, and exhibited at The Museum of the City of New York, the International Center of Photography, and The Royal Photographic Society.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 13, 2020

Book of the Day > Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks

● Purchase ● An illustrated mid-career monograph exploring the 30-year creative journey of the 8-time Academy Award–nominated writer and director
 
Paul Thomas Anderson has been described as "one of American film's modern masters" and "the foremost filmmaking talent of his generation." Anderson's films have received 25 Academy Award nominations, and he has worked closely with many of the most accomplished actors of our time, including Lesley Ann Manville, Julianne Moore, Daniel Day-Lewis, Joaquin Phoenix, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. In Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks, Anderson’s entire career—from Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012), Inherent Vice (2014), and Phantom Thread (2017) to his music videos for Radiohead to his early short films—is examined in illustrated detail for the first time.
 
Anderson’s influences, his style, and the recurring themes of alienation, reinvention, ambition, and destiny that course through his movies are analyzed and supplemented by firsthand interviews with Anderson’s closest collaborators—including producer JoAnne Sellar, actor Vicky Krieps, and composer Jonny Greenwood—and illuminated by film stills, archival photos, original illustrations, and an appropriately psychedelic design aesthetic. Masterworks is a tribute to the dreamers, drifters, and evil dentists who populate his world.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 12, 2020

Book of the Day > Futura: The Artist's Monograph

● Purchase ● The most in-depth and comprehensive survey of the life and career of one of the pioneering artists of the original graffiti generation.
 
Having forged his graphic style painting subways in New York in the late 1970s, Futura was among the first graffiti artists to be shown in contemporary galleries in the early 1980s, where his paintings shared space with works by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf. As the commercialization of street culture in the 1990s inspired collaborations with fashion and lifestyle brands, Futura's work moved toward a more refined expression of his abstract graffiti style. Commissions from era-defining brands such as A Bathing Ape, Stüssy, Supreme, and Mo' Wax saw his artwork canonized as an elemental component of the street aesthetic.
 
Collected here, among never-before-published reproductions of earlier paintings and drawings, is an archive of personal photography and ephemera that reveals how integral Futura has been to the evolution of street art and culture. Guided through more than forty years of work, and with interviews with key players in Futura's career, this is at once a definitive monograph of a legend of contemporary art and an indispensable chapter in the history of graffiti.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 11, 2020

Book of the Day > Masterpieces of Fantasy Art

● Purchase ● Fantasy art, that colorful blend of myth, muscle and sexy maidens, took off in 1923 with the launch of Weird Tales magazine, was reinvigorated in the 1960s with The Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian paperbacks with Frank Frazetta covers, and the late ’60s emergence of fantasy psychedelia. It went big in the ’70s with the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, the brilliant French magazine Métal Hurlant, and the first Star Wars film. The number of active artists peaked in that decade, but a new generation of fans discovered the genre through fantasy trading card games in the ’90s, leading to a massive interest in the art form today. Frank Frazetta’s oil paintings—when they infrequently come to market—have sold for more than $ 5 million in recent years. Fans line up at Comic-Cons to meet Boris Vallejo, Rodney Matthews, Greg Hildebrandt, Michael Whelan, and Philippe Druillet, and memorialize dead icons HR Giger, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, and Frazetta. Imagine how eagerly they’ll welcome TASCHEN’s History of Fantasy Art, including all the artists listed above and more.
 
This monster-sized tome features original paintings, contextualized by preparatory sketches, sculptures, calendars, magazines, and paperback books for an immersive dive into this dynamic, fanciful genre. Insightful bios go beyond Wikipedia to give a more accurate and eye-opening look into the life of each artist. Complete with tipped-in chapter openers, this collection will reign as the most exquisite and informative guide to this popular subject for years to come.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 06, 2020

Book of the Day > Design Commune

● Purchase ● A journey through the acclaimed design studio’s effortless California aesthetic, ethos, and lifestyle
 
Design Commune reveals the evolution story of an acclaimed design studio rooted firmly in the California aesthetic, ethos, and lifestyle. Truly multidisciplinary in practice, Commune has, since its inception in 2004, tackled all areas of design. The work featured in this second book highlights all disciplines that Commune engages in, including interior design projects for private and commercial spaces, artist collaborations, product designs, packaging, and graphics. Its projects share many common threads, such as the influence of handcrafted materials, but each remains deeply personal and unique.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 04, 2020

Book of the Day > Textures: The History And Art Of Black Hair

● Purchase ● Textures synthesizes research in history, fashion, art, and visual culture to reassess the “hair story” of peoples of African descent. Long a fraught topic for African Americans and others in the diaspora, Black hair is here addressed by artists, barbers, and activists in both its historical perceptions and its ramifications for self and society today. Combs, products, and implements from the collection of hair pioneer Willie Morrow are paired here with masterworks from artists like Sonya Clark, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, and Alison Saar. Exploring topics such as the preferential treatment of straight hair, the social hierarchies of skin, and the power and politics of display, Textures is a landmark exploration of Black hair and its important, complicated place in the history of African American life and culture.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 03, 2020

Book of the Day > Hollywood Arensberg: Avant-Garde Collecting in Midcentury L.A.

● Purchase ● This comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of Louise and Walter Arensberg’s groundbreaking collection of modern and pre-Columbian art takes readers room by room, wall by wall, object by object through the couple’s Los Angeles home in which their collection was displayed.
 
Following the Armory Show of 1913, Louise and Walter Arensberg began assembling one of the most important private collections of art in the United States, as well as the world’s largest private library of works by and about the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon. By the time Louise and Walter died—in 1953 and 1954, respectively—they had acquired some four thousand rare books and manuscripts and nearly one thousand works of art, including world-class specimens of Cubism, Surrealism, and Primitivism, the bulk of Marcel Duchamp’s oeuvre, and hundreds of pre-Columbian objects. These exceptional works filled nearly all available space in every room of their house—including the bathrooms.
 
The Arensbergs have long had a central role in the histories of Modernism and collecting, but images of their collection in situ have never been assembled or examined comprehensively until now. Presenting new research on how the Arensbergs acquired pre-Columbian art and featuring never-before-seen images, Hollywood Arensberg demonstrates the value of seeing the Arensbergs’ collection as part of a single vision, framed by a unique domestic space at the heart of Hollywood’s burgeoning artistic scene.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 31, 2020

Book of the Day > Queen: The Neal Preston Photographs

● Purchase ● The official book on Queen, one of the greatest ever rock bands, photographed by one of the greatest ever rock photographers―with text by Brian May and Roger Taylor and intimate accounts from Neal Preston revealing the stories behind the pictures
 
Neal Preston is one of the most prolific and highly regarded rock photographers of all time. He began working with Queen in the mid 1970s as their tour photographer. He was present on the legendary South America tour in 1981, Live Aid in 1985, and the band’s last tour with Freddie Mercury in 1986, among others. Brian May has commented, “Neal just has the knack, the skill, to always be in the right place at the right time.”
 
This official book, produced in collaboration with the band, features over 200 images and is an exhilarating ride through their years on the road together. It is the first time Preston and Queen have collated this work in one volume: glimpses of life backstage, live performances, post-performance highs and lows, and outtakes―many of which have never been seen before―are accompanied by memories and anecdotes from Preston with forewords by Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. The pages vibrate with a palpable energy.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 29, 2020

Book of the Day > Dieter Rams: The Complete Works

● Purchase ● The ultimate reference on one of the most influential product designers of all time
 
For more than sixty years Dieter Rams has defined the look, feel, and function of some of the world's best-loved consumer items. Using his 'ten principles for good design' as a philosophy and practice for improving the industry in a more holistic, responsible way, Rams has built a reputation with global resonance. Here, for the first time, is a catalogue raisonné of every product that he has designed in his lifetime — a true celebration of his seminal contribution to the field of industrial and product design.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 28, 2020

Book of the Day > In the Limelight: The Visual Ecstasy Of NYC Nightlife In The 90s

● Purchase ● Dive into the 1990s New York club scene with never-before-seen photos by its most prolific photographer, Steve Eichner.
 
Eichner was a fixture of 1990s New York City nightlife and served as both its official and unofficial photographer in an era before cellphones and selfies. In this book, readers go beyond the velvet ropes and into the spaces that witnessed some of the decade’s most incredible and sought-after parties. Previously unpublished, these intoxicating full-color photographs capture the over-thetop costumes, non-stop dancing, glitter, confetti, sex, drugs, and music that made 90s New York unlike any other place. Celebrities abound, from Leonardo DiCaprio, Dennis Hopper, and Tupac to Joan Rivers, Michael Musto, and Donald Trump. Eichner takes you to many of the city’s hot spots, including the Limelight, the Tunnel, Webster Hall, Club Expo, and Club USA. Texts by famous club owner Peter Gatien and BuzzFeed photo essay editor Gabriel H. Sanchez offer a historic and cultural perspective on an era when New York City was more affordable and every night saw artists, bankers, drag queens, musicians, and poets reveling together.
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