Book of the day > Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today. Published by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. " In the history of American art, the contributions of African American artists to the development of abstraction have been largely overlooked. Magnetic Fields aims to change this perspective by focusing on nonrepresentational work by women artists of color, presenting a more complete presentation of American abstraction than has previously been offered. Intergenerational in scope, Magnetic Fields includes more than 20 artists born between 1891 and 1981, among them Lilian Thomas Burwell, Mildred Thompson, Candida Alvarez, Betty Blayton, Nanette Carter, Brenna Youngblood and Jennie C. Jones."

Book of the day > How to Slay: Inspiration from the Queens and Kings of Black Style. Published by Rizzoli. "One of the few surveys of Black style and fashion ever published, How to Slay offers a lavishly illustrated overview of African American style through the twentieth century, focusing on the last thirty-five years. Through striking images of some of the most celebrated icons of Black style and taste, from Josephine Baker, Michelle Obama, Maya Angelou, and Miles Davis to Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, Kanye West, and Pharrell Williams, this book explores the cultural underpinnings of Black trends that have become so influential in mainstream popular culture and a bedrock of fashion vernacular today. A preponderance of Black musicians, who for decades have inspired trends and transformed global fashion, are featured and discussed, while a diverse array of topics are touched upon and examined—hats, hair, divas, the importance of attitude, the use of color, ’60s style, the influence of Africa and the Caribbean, and the beauty of black skin."

Book of the day > Fired Up! Ready To Go! Finding Beauty, Demanding Equity: An African American Life in Art. The Collections of Peggy Cooper Cafritz. Published by Rizzoli Electa. “After decades of art collecting, prominent Washington D.C.–based activist, philanthropist, and founder of the august Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Peggy Cooper Cafritz had amassed one of the most important collections of work by artists of color in the country. But in 2009, the more than three hundred works that comprised this extraordinary collection were destroyed in the largest residential fire in Washington, D.C. history. The pioneering collection included art by Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas, Yinka Shonibare, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley, Barkley L. Hendricks, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems, among many others. This beautifully illustrated volume features 200 of the works that were lost, along with works that she has collected since the fire, as well as important contributions by preeminent curators and artists.”

Book of the day > Mark Bradford: Pickett's Charge. Published by Yale University Press. "This beautifully illustrated book documents Pickett’s Charge, an ambitious and timely project by renowned artist Mark Bradford. Eight new paintings extend nearly four hundred feet to form a 360-degree experience encircling an entire floor of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. Bradford’s monumental installation is inspired by the 1883 cyclorama painted by Paul Philippoteaux to commemorate the Battle of Gettysburg, which has been considered the critical turning point of the Civil War and, consequently, of American history. Elements from Philippoteaux’s paintings are among multiple layers of collaged paper that Bradford has scraped through to reveal hidden textures and complexities, and this interplay—between past and present, between the legible and the mysteriously evocative—encourages a reconsideration of history’s conventional linear narratives. The catalogue features an interview with the artist by Stéphane Aquin and an essay by Evelyn Hankins that situates the site-specific project within a broader art historical context. With lavish images of the paintings and their installation, including two gatefolds, this book records a significant new contribution to socially engaged American art."

 Published by Princeton University Press. “The classic book on the art and history of weaving—now expanded and in full color. "Written by one of the twentieth century’s leading textile artists, this splendidly illustrated book is a luminous meditation on the art of weaving, its history, its tools and techniques, and its implications for modern design. First published in 1965, On Weaving bridges the transition between handcraft and the machine-made, highlighting the essential importance of material awareness and the creative leaps that can occur when design problems are tackled by hand.

With her focus on materials and handlooms, Anni Albers discusses how technology and mass production place limits on creativity and problem solving, and makes the case for a renewed embrace of human ingenuity that is particularly important today. Her lucid and engaging prose is illustrated with a wealth of rare and extraordinary images showing the history of the medium, from hand-drawn diagrams and close-ups of pre-Columbian textiles to material studies with corn, paper, and the typewriter, as well as illuminating examples of her own work.

Now available for a new generation of readers, this expanded edition of On Weaving updates the book’s original black-and-white illustrations with full-color photos, and features an afterword by Nicholas Fox Weber and essays by Manuel Cirauqui and T’ai Smith that shed critical light on Albers and her career."Book of the day > Anni Albers: On Weaving. Published by Princeton University Press. “The classic book on the art and history of weaving—now expanded and in full color. "Written by one of the twentieth century’s leading textile artists, this splendidly illustrated book is a luminous meditation on the art of weaving, its history, its tools and techniques, and its implications for modern design. First published in 1965, On Weaving bridges the transition between handcraft and the machine-made, highlighting the essential importance of material awareness and the creative leaps that can occur when design problems are tackled by hand.

With her focus on materials and handlooms, Anni Albers discusses how technology and mass production place limits on creativity and problem solving, and makes the case for a renewed embrace of human ingenuity that is particularly important today. Her lucid and engaging prose is illustrated with a wealth of rare and extraordinary images showing the history of the medium, from hand-drawn diagrams and close-ups of pre-Columbian textiles to material studies with corn, paper, and the typewriter, as well as illuminating examples of her own work.

Now available for a new generation of readers, this expanded edition of On Weaving updates the book’s original black-and-white illustrations with full-color photos, and features an afterword by Nicholas Fox Weber and essays by Manuel Cirauqui and T’ai Smith that shed critical light on Albers and her career."

Book(s) of the day > Dries Van Noten 1-100. Published by Lannoo. "Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten presented his 100th collection in March 2017. Now we see the publication of a full retrospective book of every Dries Van Noten fashion show from his beginnings to date. Mostly never before published pictures as well as accounts of his renowned shows fill the pages of the two volumes covering Shows 1 – 50 and shows 51 to 100.

Dries Van Noten is renowned for his mastery of exquisite fabrics and his eye for and innovation of prints, embroideries and colour. His singular creative process draws inspiration from many varied creative fields, from art to cinema, music to the performing arts.

These two books delve into the fashion designer's work and aesthetic vocabulary, documenting and capturing the spirit of each collection with more than 2000 pictures detailing everything from the runway to the backstage, from the invitations to the scenography and uncommon choice of locations. Each show is depicted in texts written by renowned journalists Susannah Frankel (the collections for women) and Tim Blanks (the men's collections). They recount the inspirations, creative references and context of each collection." 

Book of the day is an ALBUM of the day > William Eggleston: Musik. Secretly Canadian. . “Music of wild joy with freedom and bright, vivid colors."– David Lynch. "It was during Eggleston’s Sumner, Mississippi childhood, where he discovered the piano in the parlor that ignited in him a lifelong passion for music. It was a passion he carried forth his entire life, playing quite adeptly when a piano was handy: improvised turns on Bach, Handel, gospel, country, and popular selections from the Great American Songbook for friends and family. Though his travels found him rubbing elbows with Andy Warhol‘s Factory superstars in New York, where he lived for several years with Viva at the Chelsea Hotel, and observing a music scene in Memphis that included Big Star’s Alex Chilton, and his old friend and owner of Ardent Studios, engineer Jon Fry, his own music went largely unheard by the general public.

In the 1980’s, Eggleston, who disdained digital cameras and modernity in general, became surprisingly fascinated with a synthesizer, the Korg OW/1 FD Pro, which had 88 piano-like keys, and in addition to being able to emulate the sound of any instrument, also contained a four-track sequencer that allowed him to expand the palette of his music, letting him create improvised symphonic pieces, stored on 49 floppy discs, encompassing some 60 hours of music from which this 13 track recording was assembled.

Eggleston lives today in a small apartment off Memphis’ Overton Park that he shares with a 9-foot Bosendorfer grand piano and an arsenal of ultra-high fidelity audio equipment, some of which was designed by his son, William Eggleston III. The synthesizer, alas, is broken and stubbornly refuses to be repaired, so for the purpose of this project another was purchased in order to be able to play back the floppy discs, which, along with a handful of DATs and other digital media, though frail, were digitized and mastered for this and future releases.

Mr. Eggleston often says that he feels that music is his first calling, as much a part of him, at least, as his photography. We take special pride in allowing the world to hear this side of a great artist who may now be rightly called a great musician."

Book of the day and Book Signing/Exhibition tomorrow (Saturday 4-6 - with the Culver City Arts District Art Walk!)> Senon Williams: Hunted & Gathered.

Published by The Hamilton Press. Los Angeles native Senon Williams is a lifelong artist and musician. A founding member of the always-engaging Dengue Fever, Williams’ visual work finds space in the natural, exposing outstanding and devastating stages of human evolution. “To provoke thought, a question works better than answers. I enjoy to start a story I resolve in different ways depending on my mood". With imagery ranging from stark silhouettes to lush landscapes and human forms staged in undetermined acts of hope, his pairing of words and imagery form a poignant visualization of the inherent human struggle both ancient and contemporary.  Williams' first book, "Hunted & Gathered" was painstakingly produced by Hamilton Press. The press was established in 1990 by master printmaker Ed Hamilton and artist Ed Ruscha to encourage artists to produce art in a peaceful, unhurried atmosphere. Designed by Lorraine Wild and Marina Mills Kitchen of Green Dragon Office with color separations by Echelon Color, Santa Monica and printed by Dr.Cantz’sche Druckerei Median GmbH in Ostfildern, Germany, the first edition consists of seven hundred hardbound copies along with a deluxe edition of limited to fifty copies containing an original work on paper by the artist. Both editions will be available at the event and can be ordered on our website now!

Book of the day > Fiorucci. Published by Rizzoli. Edited by David Owen, Foreword by Sofia Coppola. "Fifty years after its founding by Elio Fiorucci in 1967, the iconic Milanese fashion label is entering a new phase of ingenuity. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the label and the glittering unveiling of its new collection and retail stores, this book is a tribute to the history of a pioneering brand and a celebration of its colorful future.

Bright, colorful, sexy, and irreverent, Fiorucci came to define more than any other brand the fashion of the 1980s. Famous for scouring the world to bring vibrant elements of global underground culture into their designs, Fiorucci is responsible for defining the extravagant palette of the post-punk era, with neon and fluorescent tones, iridescent spandex and stretch denim, bringing the influences of pop art and pop culture to bear on fashion for the first time.

Now relaunched under the direction of impresarios Janie and Stephen Schaffer, Fiorucci continues to surprise, shock, and impress. In the spirit of Fiorucci itself, this delightful book is a bright and intoxicating tour through everything from the first leopard-print patterns to the new designs defining the future of this iconic brand." AND IT'S GOT STICKERS!!! @rizzolibooks # idea.ltd
 

Book of the day > Hilma af Klint: Seeing is Believing. Published by Koenig Books. “Thanks to the efforts of various international curators and artists, Swedish painter Hilma af Klint is now widely regarded as a pioneer of abstract art.This volume reproduces the last abstract images series made by af Klint in the 1920s, which have never before been published in their entirety. These images are complemented by essays based on lectures delivered during the exhibition Hilma af Klint: Painting the Unseen, at London’s Serpentine Galleries in 2016. Briony Fer, David Lomas, Branden Joseph, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Daniel Birnbaum shed new light on af Klint and her importance for artists today, also addressing the need for a broader conception of art history that her work proposes.”