Book of the Day Posted Feb 08, 2020

Book of the Day > Ron Nagle: Handsome Drifter

Book of the Day > Ron Nagle: Handsome Drifter. Published by University Of California, Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. "One of the most original artists working today, San Francisco–based Ron Nagle (born 1939)—the enfant terrible of abstract expressionist ceramics—has made stunning, colorful, entirely unique small clay sculptures since the 1950s. In his sculpture, Nagle mixes allusions to modernism, middlebrow culture and the special pop sensibility of Northern California, making ceramic vessels no bigger than a few inches that draw on everything from Japanese tea ceremonies to Krazy Kat. Made with an overarching sense of playfulness and linguistic humor, a bodily and architectural sensibility, and Nagle’s keen attention to color, these finely tuned, pitch-perfect sculptures condense sensory pleasure into perfect packages of experience and feeling. Their miniature scale makes these odd, elegant, sensual and sometimes abject little abstract sculptures endlessly charming models for the imagination. Lushly illustrated, Ron Nagle: Handsome Drifter is the most comprehensive and scholarly publication on the artist to date, with essays by curator Apsara DiQuinzio and Berlin-based art critic and theorist Jan Verwoert. A lively conversation about Nagle’s studio practice and unique process with curator and director Dan Byers of Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts rounds out this unmissable book."
Book of the Day Posted Feb 07, 2020

Book of the Day + Book Signing 2/8, 4-6 pm > Russell Hoover: Surf, a Photographer's Journey

Book of the Day + Book Signing tomorrow from 4-6 pm – please join us! > Surf, a Photographer's Journey. Published by Immaginare Press. "Russell Hoover, celebrated international photographer, has an eye for beauty wherever he travels. His passion for surf photography has taken him from Peru, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica to the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Israel, Alaska, and beyond. After working 20 consecutive winters on Oahu's North Shore, Russell's passion and keen eye for conceptualizing images set him apart from other photographers. For many years he was the Senior Staff Photographer for Surfer Magazine. He lived and breathed the magic of photography. His images graced the covers of over 100 publications world-wide, including the cover of inaugural Surfer's Journal Volume 1 Issue 1."
Book of the Day Posted Feb 06, 2020

Book of the day > Supreme

Book of the Day > Supreme. Published by Phaidon. "Over the past 25 years, Supreme has transformed itself from a downtown New York skate shop into an iconic global brand. Supreme-the book-looks back on more than two decades of the creations, stories, and convention-defying attitude that are uniquely Supreme. Featuring more than 800 stunning images, from photographers such as Larry Clark, Ari Marcopoulos, and David Sims, readers will have unparalled access to behind-the-scenes content, including the company's highly limited products-everything from t-shirts to bicycles-and collaborations-Nan Goldin, Comme de Garçons, and Nike, to name a few. The book also features a curated section of lookbooks and an index of T-shirts released since Supreme's Spring/Summer 2010 collections. And, with written contributions by pop-culture critic Carlo McCormick and film director Harmony Korine, readers will get exclusive insight into Supreme's core ethos from two lifelong devotees. Known as much for its irreverent and iconoclastic spirit as it is for its commitment to design and quality, Supreme's products have become as recognizable and coveted as those from the world's top luxury brands-this book is no exception. Beautifully produced, the book is the epitome of Supreme's dedication to quality and design, including a reversible jacket with the signature red Supreme logo."
Book of the Day Posted Feb 05, 2020

Book of the Day > Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades

Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades. Published by Telfair Museumss. Presented on the occasion of the first full-career survey of American artist Suzanne Jackson at Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, Five Decades illuminates a professional career that spans more than fifty years, concentrating on a unique selection of Jackson’s artworks and their relationships to identity, community, the natural world, and the grace and movement of the human body. “To me there isn’t any difference,” Jackson has reflected. “Art, life, and nature are all the same. There shouldn’t be any separation.”
Book of the Day Posted Feb 02, 2020

Book of the Day > Vestoj: On Capital

Book of the Day > Vestoj: On Capital. “Vestoj On Capital looks at all forms of value or assets: financial, human, cultural, social – you name it. We explore how talent is developed and harnessed in fashion, and how this now intersects with branding (and self-branding) which has become so important in all aspects of culture. The issue also examines how value flows between symbolic assets like taste or beauty or cool and economic profit. And how the traditional schism between cultural and financial capital (cool versus money) has been replaced by a much more self-consciously positive – or nuanced and complex – relationship between art and fashion.”

Book of the Day Posted Feb 01, 2020

Book of the Day > Postmodern Architecture: Less is a Bore

Book of the Day > Postmodern Architecture: Less is a Bore. Published by Phaidon. "A curated collection of Postmodern architecture in all its glorious array of vivid non-conformity. This unprecedented book takes its subtitle from Postmodernist icon Robert Venturi's spirited response to Mies van der Rohe's dictum that ‘less is more'. One of the 20th century's most controversial styles, Postmodernism began in the 1970s, reached a fever pitch of eclectic non-conformity in the 1980s and 90s, and after nearly 40 years is now enjoying a newfound popularity. Postmodern Architecture showcases examples of the movement in a rainbow of hues and forms from around the globe."
Book of the Day Posted Jan 31, 2020

Book of the Day > Dorothy Ianonne: The Story of Bern

Book of the Day > Dorothy Ianonne: The Story of Bern, [or] Showing Colors. Published by JRP Editions. "A superb facsimile of Dorothy Ianonne’s 1970 comic-book tale of censorship, sexuality and female autonomy. 'As much as Love and Eros have defined my work since its beginnings, so too has censorship, or its shadow, accompanied it,' recalls Dorothy Iannone (born 1933) in her introduction to this facsimile publication of her legendary The Story of Bern, [or] Showing Colors. First published by Iannone and her then companion Dieter Roth in 1970, in an edition of 500, the book documents the censorship of Iannone's work The (Ta)Rot Pack (1968–69) and the subsequent removal of all his works by Roth, from a collective exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern. For his exhibition titled Freunde, Friends, d'Fründe, legendary curator Harald Szeemann invited Karl Gerstner, Roth, Daniel Spoerri and André Thomkins to exhibit artist friends; Roth chose Iannone. The censorship of Iannone, and Roth's protest, eventually led to Harald Szeemann's resignation as the director of the institution. Telling the story of this act of censorship as well as the context of the exhibition in Bern and its iteration in a non-censored version in Düsseldorf, The Story of Bern is emblematic of Iannone's distinctive, explicit and comic-book style, and of her openness about sexuality and the strengthening of female autonomy."

Book of the Day Posted Jan 30, 2020

Book of the day > The Obama Portraits

Book of the Day > The Obama Portraits. Published by Princeton University Press. "From the moment of their unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery in early 2018, the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have become two of the most beloved artworks of our time. Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald’s portrait of the former first lady have inspired unprecedented responses from the public, and attendance at the museum has more than doubled as visitors travel from near and far to view these larger-than-life paintings. After witnessing a woman drop to her knees in prayer before the portrait of Barack Obama, one guard said, “No other painting gets the same kind of reactions. Ever.” The Obama Portraits is the first book about the making, meaning, and significance of these remarkable artworks. Richly illustrated with images of the portraits, exclusive pictures of the Obamas with the artists during their sittings, and photos of the historic unveiling ceremony by former White House photographer Pete Souza, this book offers insight into what these paintings can tell us about the history of portraiture and American culture. The volume also features a transcript of the unveiling ceremony, which includes moving remarks by the Obamas and the artists. A reversible dust jacket allows readers to choose which portrait to display on the front cover. An inspiring history of the creation and impact of the Obama portraits, this fascinating book speaks to the power of art—especially portraiture—to bring people together and promote cultural change. Published in association with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC"
Book of the Day Posted Jan 29, 2020

Book of the Day > Santu Mofokeng: Stories

Book of the Day > Santu Mofokeng: Stories. Published by Steidl. "Heralded for his nuanced portrayals of township life in South Africa, and widely celebrated as "the spiritual painter of South Africa's body politic" (Aperture), Santu Mofokeng (1956-2020) first made his name as a member of the Afrapix collective, then as a documentary photographer and finally as an independent artist. His groundbreaking Stories series is the result of a multi-year collaboration between the photographer, bookmaker Lunetta Bartz, editor/curator Joshua Chuang and Gerhard Steidl. Together they have carefully mined and distilled over 30 years of work into 18 definitive "stories" that are sharply edited, simply presented and richly printed in an oversized format that recalls the golden age of picture magazines. The stories range in subject from the zealous expressiveness found in Train Church and Pedi Dancers to the contested spaces of Robben Island, Trauma, and Landscapes and Billboards. In addition to the volumes previously published by Steidl, many pictures appear here for the first time. Limited edition of 1,000."
Book of the Day Posted Jan 26, 2020

Book of the Day > Agnes Denes: Absolutes & Intermediates

Book of the Day > Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates. Published by The Shed. “Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates accompanies the largest exhibition of the artist’s work in New York to date, held at The Shed in fall 2019 as part of the arts space’s opening season. Presenting more than 130 works, this comprehensive publication, presented in an embossed slipcase, spans the 50-year career of the path-breaking artist dubbed “the queen of land art” by the New York Times, famed for her iconic Wheatfield—A Confrontation (1982), for which she planted a two-acre wheatfield in Lower Manhattan on the Battery Park Landfill, in the shadow of the then recently erected Twin Towers. A major undertaking, this superb catalog includes a comprehensive text by the exhibition’s curator, Emma Enderby, an interview with Denes by Hans Ulrich Obrist, essays by prominent scholars and curators including Caroline A. Jones, Lucy R. Lippard and Timothy Morton that examine Denes’ multifaceted practice in new ways, writings by the artist and reflections by curators who have worked with Denes over the course of her career. New works by Denes commissioned by The Shed for the exhibition are presented in a special insert.“

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