Book of the Day Posted Jul 30, 2020

Book of the Day > David Benjamin Sherry: American Monuments

● Purchase ● A vivid portrait of the assault on America's parks and forests
 
David Benjamin Sherry: American Monuments is a landscape photography project that captures the spirit and intrinsic value of America’s threatened system of national monuments. In April 2017 an executive order called for the review of the 27 national monuments created since January 1996. In December 2017 the final report called on the president to shrink four national monuments and change the management of six others, recommending that areas in Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans be offered for sale, specifically for oil drilling and coal and uranium mining. American Monuments focuses on the areas under review, with special emphasis on those that have already been decimated. Sherry documents these pristine, sacred and wildly diverse areas using the traditional, historic 8x10" large format. The resulting 31 photographs—all tipped in to the book by hand—not only convey the beauty of these important and ecologically diverse sites, but also shed light upon the plight of the perennially exploited landscape of the American West.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 29, 2020

Book of the Day > Josef Koudelka: Ruins

● Purchase ● A record of Magnum photographer Josef Koudelka’s grand tour around ancient Mediterranean sites
 
Between 1991 and 2015, Josef Koudelka completed an epic journey across twenty countries bordering the Mediterranean, stopping at over 200 Greek and Roman archaeological sites, relentlessly researching the beauty of the ancient world. Before the Magnum photographer, nobody had attempted to make such a comprehensive photographic record of these artefacts with so much persistence and so little assistance. Koudelka’s aim was to use art to re-appropriate a world that is escaping us and that we could lose – a world where the mind alternates between reason and faith, law and liberty.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 28, 2020

Book of the Day > Jordan Casteel: Within Reach

● Purchase ● Published for Jordan Casteel’s major New Museum show, Within Reach surveys her paintings exploring the nuances of Black subjectivity
 
In her large-scale oil paintings, New York-based artist Jordan Casteel (born 1989) takes up questions of Black subjectivity and representation by examining the gestures, spaces and forms of nonverbal communication that underpin portraiture. “There is a certain amount of mindfulness that it requires ... to be present with someone in a moment.” she explains. “I’ve always had an inclination towards seeing people who might be easily be unseen.”
 
Published for Casteel’s first solo museum exhibition in New York, this volume brings together 40 large-scale paintings from throughout her career, including works from the celebrated series Visible Man (2013-14) and Nights in Harlem (2017), along with recent cropped “subway paintings” and portraits of her students at Rutgers University-Newark. Whether depicting former classmates from Yale, nude and in serene repose; street vendors near her home in Harlem; anonymous New Yorkers huddled on the subway; or her own students, posed largely in domestic interiors among their personal belongings, she explores how both public and private spheres can serve as frames for an inner life.
 
This generously illustrated, oversized publication honors the larger-than-life scale of the artist's work. It is the first comprehensive monographic publication on Casteel’s work and includes texts by Dawoud Bey, Amanda Hunt and Lauren Haynes, and conversations conducted with the artist by Massimiliano Gioni and Thelma Golden.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 25, 2020

Book of the Day > Charlotte Perriand: Complete Works. Volume 4: 1968–1999

● Purchase ● Charlotte Perriand is one of the foremost figures in twentieth-century interior design. Together with her contemporaries and collaborators, such as Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier, and Jean Prouvé—she created many pieces of furniture we now consider classics, including the instantly recognizable LC4 chaise. Her pioneering work with metal was particularly instrumental in paving the way for the machine-age aesthetic popular throughout the 1920s and ’30s.
 
The concluding fourth volume of this definitive monograph on Charlotte Perriand covers the last three decades of her long career. At its core is the Les Arcs ski resort in the French Alps, where Perriand played a key role in the project development. A pioneer of bioclimatic architecture, she oversaw the architectural and urban design of Arc 1600 and Arc 1800 and created the interiors and entire outfitting down to cutlery and china for the more than 4,500 apartments. Les Arcs, an extraordinary undertaking both in sheer size and the extent of Perriand’s contribution, marks the culmination of her research on alpine housing in unison with nature. The book also features a number of projects—housing and art spaces—from Paris to Tokyo, in which she aimed once more to push the borders of a specific modern, cultivated way of living. It also offers a comprehensive appraisal of seven decades’ work that manifests the creative force and vision of this extraordinary woman, one of the most eminent protagonists of modern architecture and design. Covering these important moments and many others, Charlotte Perriand completes the four-volume exploration of this key figure, complete with annotations and a bibliography for further research.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 24, 2020

Book of the Day > Made in L.A. 2020: A Version

● Purchase ● Made in L.A. 2020: a version brings together an intergenerational and interdisciplinary mix of artists, each of whom is contributing to L.A.'s vibrant art scene.
 
Since its inception in 2012, the Hammer Museum's Made in L.A. biennial has brought together local artists from a wide range of discipline. Under the direction of co-curators Myriam Ben Salah and Lauren Mackler, the 2020 iteration will be no exception. The Hammer's Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, who has previously served with Performa and The Kitchen in New York, will assist in the organization of the 2020 biennial in the role of assistant curator for performance. Drawing inspiration from historical artist magazines, this book is not documentation of the artists' work, but rather serves as an additional venue for the exhibition. It includes images of the artists' studios, art made specifically for the pages of the book, as well as essays and conversations between artists and curators that weave together the conceptual through-lines of the show. This book is published in two different covers.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 23, 2020

Book of the Day > R. Buckminster Fuller: Synergetic Stew, Explorations in Dymaxion Dining

● Purchase ● A delightful dymaxion cookbook homage to Buckminster Fuller, featuring John Cage’s macrobiotic recipes, Margaret Mead’s cucumber salad and more
 
Buckminster Fuller is globally known as a design scientist, architect, author, poet, engineer and a true visionary. On his 86th birthday he received the cookbook Synergetic Stew as a surprise present from his friends and admirers, who share recipes along with personal anecdotes and humorous recollections of Fuller (for example, a reminiscence about Bucky’s love for tea in all its variations). Scattered throughout the book are enticing texts and poems from Fuller himself, including even a recipe for tomato ice cream.
 
Constructed around 100 achievable recipes, this book is a glimpse into Fuller’s life, as told by his peers. A few of the recipes are a joyful ode to Fuller’s oeuvre, such as Shirley Sharkey’s “GEODESICANDY,” the “Macrobiotic Diet” by John Cage or Amy Edmondson’s “Allspace-Filling Whole Wheat Bread.”
 
In addition to the facsimile, Jamie Snyder reflects upon often-overlooked facets of Bucky’s character, as revealed through anecdotes of his relationship to food.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 22, 2020

Book of the Day > Willi Smith: Street Couture

● Purchase ● African-American fashion designer Willi Smith, pioneer of streetwear and visionary collaborator, finally gets his due in an exuberant celebration of his life and work.
 
Before Off-White, before Hood By Air, before Supreme, there was WilliWear. Willi Smith created inclusive and liberating fashion: "I don't design clothes for the queen, but the people who wave at her as she goes by," he said. A rising star from the time he left Parsons, Smith went on to found WilliWear with Laurie Mallet in 1976 and became one of the most successful designers of his era by his untimely death in 1987. Smith broke boundaries with his streetwear, or "street couture," and trailblazed the collaborations between artists, performers, and designers commonplace today in projects with SITE Architects, Nam June Paik, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Spike Lee, Dan Friedman, Bill T. Jones, and Arnie Zane. Essays by leading figures from the worlds of fashion, art, architecture, and cultural studies paired with never before-seen images and ephemera make Willi Smith essential reading for the history of streetwear culture and the evolution of fashion from the 1970s to today.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 21, 2020

Book of the Day > John Currin: Men

● Purchase ● Edited by Alison M. Gingeras, Text by Jamieson Webster and Naomi Fry
 
A revealing look at the evolution of male iconography in the work of one of the foremost painters of his generation.
 
Since raising the ire of the early-1990s arts establishment with his deliberately provocative portrayals of women, John Currin has been best known for his brazen, militantly incorrect female iconography. Yet Currin has represented a range of masculine identities throughout his career as well.
 
This volume is the first to focus exclusively on this aspect of his work, examining the evolution of his equally provocative depictions of men. It ranges from little-known early works on paper and a series of kitschy paintings of men with beards to signature eccentric figures such as the elderly reader in the painting 2070 (2005) and his more baroque genre scenes featuring male couples. Published to accompany the exhibition John Currin: My Life as a Man at the Dallas Contemporary, it offers a revealing new assessment of Currin's pictorial examinations of sexual politics.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 18, 2020

Book of the Day > Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957

● Purchase ● Gordon Parks’ ethically complex depictions of crime in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, with previously unseen photographs
 
When Life magazine asked Gordon Parks to illustrate a recurring series of articles on crime in the United States in 1957, he had already been a staff photographer for nearly a decade, the first African American to hold this position. Parks embarked on a six-week journey that took him and a reporter to the streets of New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Unlike much of his prior work, the images made were in color. The resulting eight-page photo-essay “The Atmosphere of Crime” was noteworthy not only for its bold aesthetic sophistication, but also for how it challenged stereotypes about criminality then pervasive in the mainstream media. They provided a richly hued, cinematic portrayal of a largely hidden world: that of violence, police work and incarceration, seen with empathy and candor.
 
Parks rejected clichés of delinquency, drug use and corruption, opting for a more nuanced view that reflected the social and economic factors tied to criminal behavior and afforded a rare window into the working lives of those charged with preventing and prosecuting it. Transcending the romanticism of the gangster film, the suspense of the crime caper and the racially biased depictions of criminality then prevalent in American popular culture, Parks coaxed his camera to record reality so vividly and compellingly that it would allow Life’s readers to see the complexity of these chronically oversimplified situations. The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957 includes an expansive selection of never-before-published photographs from Parks’ original reportage.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 17, 2020

Book of the Day > Van Nuys Boulevard 1972

● Purchase ● American car culture at its vibrant best
 
Wednesday night was Cruise Night in the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles. The stretch on Van Nuys Boulevard between Ventura Boulevard on the southern end, and well past Sherman Way to the north, teemed with kids and cars from all over Southern California on Wednesday nights. It was a terrific place to both see and be seen, and to show off your ride as well.
 
Gas was cheap, times were great, and the boulevard hummed with life during the evenings. Even the draft during the Vietnam War did not dampen the street scene. By 1972, the year Rick McCloskey went to Van Nuys to shoot his series of photographs, the culture on the boulevard had become an amalgamation of divergent lifestyles, automobiles – used and new – and some very different looks and styles. There were tribes of van kids – surfers mostly – low-riders, muscle cars, street racers, Volkswagen owners, and many more, and of course, thousands of young people. The idea of retro had arrived as well, with some young people emulating the look and style of the 1950s. Of course, there were individuals who had to be there for work. In making these images, Rick McCloskey set about portraying the young people, their cars, and the iconic background settings.
 
Today, young people no longer have anything similar to the past boulevard gathering places, where so many people can enjoy just being there together. Akin to starlight still trickling in from a long vanished world, these photographic images are what we have left.
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