Book of the Day Posted Mar 31, 2019

Book of the Day > Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work: Film by Film, Stills, Polaroids & Writings

Book of the Day > Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work: Film by Film, Stills, Polaroids & Writings. Published by Schirmer/Mosel.

"With luscious film stills and superb essays by the director and his admirers, this is the essential Tarkovsky compendium

Between 1962 and 1986, Andrey Tarkovsky (1932–86) directed seven feature-length films, all acclaimed as masterpieces of cinema: Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Mirror, Stalker, Nostalgia and Sacrifice. Evading censorship and mounting pressure by Soviet authorities, Tarkovsky decided not to return to the Soviet Union after completing Nostalgia in Tuscany, three years before his death; his final film, Sacrifice, was shot in Sweden in 1985.

This new smaller-format edition of a 2012 publication was compiled and edited by Tarkovsky's son Andrey Jr., along with film historian and critic Hans-Joachim Schlegel and Lothar Schirmer. Beautifully designed and printed, Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work pays homage to a great visionary who produced poetic and sometimes disturbing images of near biblical intensity through his films. Featuring stills from each of his films, a selection of his influential writings, private photographs from the family album, as well as Polaroids from Russia and Italy, it is buttressed with comments from prominent voices who have commented on Tarkovsky's work and personality, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Ingmar Bergman and Aleksandr Sokurov."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 30, 2019

Book of the Day > The Magic of Handwriting

Book of the Day > The Magic of Handwriting. Published by Taschen. "Pedro Corrêa do Lago has gathered one of the world’s finest autograph collections. From a parchment signed by four popes to Stephen Hawking’s thumbprint signature, this book spans nearly 900 years of handwriting from the likes of van Gogh, Michelangelo, Queen Victoria, Einstein, and many more legendary figures across art, literature, science, music, philosophy, and history."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 29, 2019

Book of the Day > A Colorful Life; Gere Kavanaugh, Designer

Book of the Day > A Colorful Life; Gere Kavanaugh, Designer. Published by Princeton Architectural Press.

"The designer Gere Kavanaugh is an irrepressible force of nature who epitomized the craft and folk vibe of the '60s and '70s California design scene and remains a larger-than-life personality today. Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Kavanaugh became in 1952 only the third woman to earn a degree in Cranbrook Academy of Art's design program. After successful stints as one of GM's so-called Damsels of Design and as director of interiors for Victor Gruen's architecture and planning firm, she opened Gere Kavanaugh/Designs. There, Kavanaugh put her unique stamp on textiles, furniture, toys, graphics, store and restaurant interiors, holiday decor, housewares, and public art---even designing and curating exhibitions. But perhaps her most enduring project has been the joyful, open-ended, ongoing experiment of her own lifestyle and homes, a dream of color and handcraft. Kavanaugh was awarded the AIGA Medal in 2016, recognizing her "prodigious and polymathic approach to design."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 28, 2019

James Beard Nominees

Congratulations to all of the @BeardFoundation nominees including (but not limited to) the creators of these inspiring, enticing, and exquisite books that we love. Best Chef West: @chefjeremyfox, Travis Lett, Jessica Koslow @ prosciuttosnacks; Best Books (various categories): Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta: A Vegetarian Cookbook, Kind Of - @CalPeternell, Wild: Adventure Cookbook - Luisa Brimble; Chicken and Charcoal: Yakitori, Yardbird, Hong Kong - Matt Abergel; Rich Table - Evan Rich and Sarah Rich; Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food - Nik Sharma @abrowntable; SUQAR: Desserts & Sweets from the Modern Middle East - @gregmaloufchef and @lucymaloufwriter; Feast: Food of the Islamic World - @anissahelou; and many more not pictured here as we await re-stock in our ever burgeoning but still nascent culinary section.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 27, 2019

Book of the Day > Jim Shaw: The Wig Museum

Book of the Day > Jim Shaw: The Wig Museum. Published by The Marciano Art Foundation. "The inaugural exhibition of the Marciano Art Foundation, Jim Shaw: The Wig Museum highlights Shaw’s (born 1952) career-long engagement with America’s diverse histories. The Los Angeles local used the enigmatic artifacts found during the transformation of the former Scottish Rite Masonic Temple where the foundation resides—stage sets, robes, costumes and wigs—to construct a metaphor for the wig-wearing masonic and judiciary Anglo-Saxon power that is coming to an end."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 24, 2019

Book of the Day > Lily Stockman: Imaginary Gardens

Book of the Day > Lily Stockman: Imaginary Gardens. Published by Charles Moffett. "Limited Edition of 250, signed and numbered by the artist with an essay by Roger White."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 21, 2019

Book of the Day > Vitamin T: Threads and Textiles in Contemporary Art

Book of the Day > Vitamin T: Threads and Textiles in Contemporary Art. Published by Phaidon. "A global survey of more than 100 artists, chosen by art-world professionals for their work with threads, stitching, and textiles. Celebrating tapestry, embroidery, stitching, textiles, knitting, and knotting as used by visual artists worldwide, Vitamin T is the latest in the celebrated series in which leading curators, critics, and art professionals nominate living artists for inclusion. As boundaries between art and craft have blurred, artists have increasingly embraced these materials and methods, with the resulting works being coveted by collectors and exhibited in museums worldwide. Vitamin T is a vibrant and incredibly timely survey – the first of its kind."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 20, 2019

Book of the Day > Ethan James Green: Young New York

Book of the Day > Ethan James Green: Young New York. Published by Aperture. "Young New York, Ethan James Green’s first monograph, presents a selection of striking portraits of New York’s millennial scene-makers, a gloriously diverse cast of models, artists, nightlife icons, queer youth, and gender binary–flouting muses of the fashion world and beyond. Under the mentorship of the late David Armstrong, Green developed a sensitive and confident style and an intense connection with his subjects; his luminous black-and-white portraits, many taken in Corlears Hook Park on the Lower East Side, bring to mind Diane Arbus’s midcentury studies of gender nonconformists. Although he often shoots on commission for fashion brands and magazines, for Young New York, Green photographed his close friends and community for more than three years, and his humanist approach transcends the trends of the moment. Young New York promises to announce a bright young talent who is redefining beauty and identity for a new generation. In the words of the model and actress Hari Nef, one of Green’s frequent subjects, 'In Ethan’s world, the kids who inspire him ought to be (and are) the subjects of his work. Ethan is an artist among so-called image makers.'”

Book of the Day Posted Mar 14, 2019

Book of the Day > Dorothy Iannone: A Cookbook

Book of the Day > Dorothy Iannone: A Cookbook. Published by JRP Ringier. "Since the 1960s, Dorothy Iannone (born 1933) has aimed at representing ecstatic love, 'the union of gender, feeling and pleasure.' Today her oeuvre, encompassing paintings, drawings, collages, videos, sculptures, objects and artist’s books, is widely recognized as one of the most provocative and fruitful bodies of work in recent decades for its liberalization of female sexuality, and political and feminist issues. Created in 1969, when she was living with Swiss artist Dieter Roth, the Cookbook is a perfect example of how Iannone mixes daily life, creativity and thought, culminating in her vision of cooking as an outlet for both eroticism and introspection. A real book of recipes full of visual delights, the Cookbook contains densely decorated pages with patterned designs, packed text and vibrant colors. Personal sentences are interspersed among the lists of ingredients, revealing the exultations and tribulations of her life between the lines of recipes. Filled with wit, wordplay and idiosyncratic thoughts—'At least one can turn pain to color' accompanies the recipe for gazpacho; “Dorothy’s spirit is like this: green and yellow,” is written next to the ingredients for lentil soup—the Cookbook constitutes a self-portrait of the artist as a cook and a lover. This publication is a facsimile of the 1969 original , now published with a dust jacket specially designed by the artist."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 12, 2019

Book of the Day > Soldier Studies: Cross Dressing in der Wehrmacht

Book of the Day > Soldier Studies: Cross-Dressing in der Wehrmacht. Published by Hatje Cantz. "Why did so many German soldiers dress up as women during World War II? The artist and collector Martin Dammann has studied war photography, the impact of images, and how history is written. During his research, he came across many amateur photographs of soldiers in the German army who dressed as women—scenes that directly contradicted Nazi ideology. Dammann’s discoveries are now being presented for discussion in his critical book, which features pictures that provide surprising insights into the longings and everyday lives of German soldiers in World War II: from playful scenes of young recruits clowning around, to improvised disguises among close friends at the front, to carefully prepared performances in Allied POW camps. Essays by Martin Dammann and the renowned sociologist and author Harald Welzer examine the multiple facets of the pictures."