Book of the Day Posted Feb 17, 2019

Book of the Day > Henry Taylor

Book of the Day > Henry Taylor. Published by Rizzoli. "This definitive survey of over 200 of the painter's portraits and street scenes forms a personal and political portrait of society today. For three decades the iconic artist has worked his way through New York, Los Angeles, Europe, and Africa, documenting what he sees. In his circle are artists, musicians, writers, performers, as well as friends from his ten years as a psychiatric technician. It is the artist's empathetic eye that allows him to imagine his figures with authenticity and grace--not better than they are, or more glamorous--but part of a big, complicated world. Flat, brushy flows of color cast figures that often float in surreal landscapes abstracted from the barbeque in the park, or neighboring street. Suites of Taylor's paintings are reproduced alongside handwritten accounts of the sittings, offering an in-depth understanding of the artist's world. Contributions by Charles Gaines, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Sarah Lewis, and Zadie Smith touch on the nature of truth, racial terror; memory and belonging in America. This definitive monograph celebrates Taylor's direct and revealing portraits, offering a tonic to a divisive cultural moment."

In the News Posted Feb 15, 2019

Whitewaller, Frieze 2019

None Posted Feb 15, 2019

Book of the Day > Ebony G. Patterson: ...while the dew is still on the roses...

Book of the Day > Ebony G. Patterson: ...while the dew is still on the roses... Published by Prestel.

"In her celebrated drawings, tapestries, and sculptures, Ebony G. Patterson incorporates glitter, appliqués, pins, embellishments, fabric, tassels, brooches, pearls and beads to tell haunting stories of violence, masculinity, and black youth culture. Bringing together highlights from the artist's work from the past five years, this book features exquisite reproductions that illuminate the works' vibrantly intricate detail. The book reveals the artist's poetic depictions of gardens as environments of beautiful sorrow. Two accompanying essays offer an examination of Patterson's work and a discussion of gardens as a theme in art and literature over the centuries."

Book of the Day Posted Feb 14, 2019

Book of the Day > Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy, and the Avant-Garde

Book of the Day > Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy, and the Avant-Garde. Published by Prestel. "This fascinating, interdisciplinary, and generously illustrated book presents creative pairings that defy the idea of the modern artist as a solitary genius. In the art world, pairs of individuals often inspire each other’s works. These intimate relationships are explored in all their various forms—obsessional, conventional, mythic, fleeting, life-long—in this book that illuminates the works of painters, sculptors, photographers, designers, poets, writers, musicians, dancers, and performers of the modern era. In addition to introductory essays, each couple is profiled in brief chapters that feature candid portraiture, a rich array of illustrated works that illuminate the impact each had on the other, and an introductory text that pinpoints the significance of the relationship, written by leading authorities. Two additional subsections explore the importance of collaboration, friendship, anti-establishment notions, and radicalism both within Surrealist couples and the Temple de l’Amitié in Paris. Reflecting a contemporary view of sexuality and relationships, this book also offers a counterpoint to the notion of the female as muse, presenting a more balanced portrayal of male and female creative output. This volume also reveals how creative individuals came together to overcome the constraints of their time, reshape art, redefine gender stereotypes, and forge new ways of living."

Book of the Day Posted Feb 13, 2019

Book of the Day > African Twilight: The Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies of the African Continent

Book of the Day > African Twilight: The Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies of the African Continent. Published by Rizzoli. "African Twilight is the two-volume, slipcased magnum opus of the two pioneering documentary photographers of African tribal cultures and ceremonies-- a world that is quickly vanishing before our very eyes. Now, nearly two decades after these photographer's landmark African Ceremonies and with a greater sense of urgency, this book completes the journey, covering disappearing rituals and ceremonies from some of the most inaccessible corners of the African continent, to create the definitive statement on this subject. This new landmark volume will set the standard for capturing a visual testament to the vanishing traditions of African peoples.No other book like this exists or can ever be created again, as more than 40 percent of what has been documented here has already vanished. For the last 15 years of their four decades of African fieldwork, world-renowned photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have continued their journey across Africa, seeking out remote communities to record the sacred ceremonies, powerful art forms, and boundless creativity of the people living there today. This ground-breaking book is a testament to these vanishing moments and peoples. African Twilight is a celebration of the powerful artistry and boundless creativity of Africa's cultural heritage for audiences worldwide, transporting viewers into a world of connections between individual and community, body and soul, land and people. All of the photography is previously unpublished."

Book of the Day Posted Feb 10, 2019

Book of the Day > Maya Angelou and Jean-Michel Basquiat: Life Doesn't Frighten Me

Book of the Day > Maya Angelou and Jean-Michel Basquiat: Life Doesn't Frighten Me. Published by Abrams Books. "Maya Angelou's brave, defiant poem celebrates the courage within each of us, young and old. From the scary thought of panthers in the park to the unsettling scene of a new classroom, fearsome images are summoned and dispelled by the power of faith in ourselves. Angelou's strong words are matched by the daring vision of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose childlike style reveals the powerful emotions and fanciful imaginings of childhood. Together, Angelou's words and Basquiat's paintings create a place where every child, indeed every person, may experience his or her own fearlessness. Celebrating its successful 25 years in print, this brilliant introduction to poetry and contemporary art features brief, updated biographies of Angelou and Basquiat, an afterword from the editor, and a fresh new look. A selected bibliography of Angelou's books and a selected museum listing of Basquiat's works open the door to further inspiration through the fine arts."

None Posted Feb 08, 2019

Book of the day + book signing tomorrow (Saturday, 2/9, 4-6) > Cole Sternberg: The Nature of Breathing in Salt

Book of the day and book launch tomorrow (!) (Saturday, 2/9, 4-6) > COLE STERNBERG:

THE NATURE OF BREATHING IN SALT. Published by @hatandbeardpress .

"In Western Japan, a bottle of champagne is smashed against the hull of a massive bulk cargo vessel, its path charted along the arch of the northern hemisphere: We follow its gentle glide through the lilac calm of the Japanese outer islands; a waive at the lights of Busan, the South Korean city along its charted path; the frigidity of the Aleutian Islands; a circular motion to avoid a mid-ocean monster; and lastly a cruise into Portland past the forests and factories on the Columbia River. On this maiden voyage across the Pacific, the vessel’s holds sit empty. One is in ballast to strengthen against heavy storms. A crew of twenty, plus four creative wanderers—including artist @colesternberg who wrangled the quartet especially for this journey—anxiously steady themselves for weeks under swaying ground. It is within the context of this floating island that the work comprised of “The Nature of Breathing in Salt” emerges.

We find rainbows confronted by fluorescent hallways, black clouds fighting the setting sun, Sternberg’s paintings dragged in the sea, the glory of the unknown and unwelcoming greeting of the land. The imagery shifts in a bell curve of pleasant anxiety, mirrored by a narrative of Melville, Sternberg’s poetry and the dialogue of the crew. It is an experience that leaves one yearning for and sick of the sea. It is an art object more than just a book. “ Pleased join us to celebrate this beautiful new book. If you can’t make it in, call or write and we’ll hook you up with a signed copy or a signed copy of the deluxe limited edition with an exquisite print.

Book of the Day Posted Feb 07, 2019

Book of the Day > Stick to the Skin

Book of the Day > Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965-2015. Published by University of California Press. "The first comparative history of African American and Black British artists, artworks, and art movements, Stick to the Skin traces the lives and works of over fifty painters, photographers, sculptors, and mixed-media, assemblage, installation, video, and performance artists working in the United States and Britain from 1965 to 2015. The artists featured in this book cut to the heart of hidden histories, untold narratives, and missing memories to tell stories that "stick to the skin" and arrive at a new 'Black lexicon of liberation.' Informed by extensive research and invaluable oral testimonies, Celeste-Marie Bernier’s remarkable text forcibly asserts the originality and importance of Black artists’ work and emphasizes the need to understand Black art as a distinctive category of cultural production. She launches an important intervention into European histories of modern and contemporary art and visual culture as well as into debates within African American studies, African diasporic studies, and Black British studies. Among the artists included are Benny Andrews, Bessie Harvey, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Noah Purifoy, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Joyce J. Scott, Maud Sulter, and Barbara Walker."

Book of the Day Posted Feb 06, 2019

Book of the Day > Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal

Book of the Day > Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal. "Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal presents a survey of the artist’s prolific and extraordinary interdisciplinary career, with a particular focus on the work’s relationship to the photographic image and to issues of representation and perception. At the core of Hank Willis Thomas’s practice, is his ability to parse and critically dissect the flow of images that comprise American culture, with particular attention to race, gender, and cultural identity. Other powerful themes include the commodification of identity through popular media, sports, and advertising. In the ten years since his first publication, Pitch Blackness, Thomas has established himself as a significant voice in contemporary art, equally at home with collaborative, trans-media projects such as Question Bridge, Philly Block, and For Freedoms as he is with high-profile, international solo exhibitions. This extensive presentation of his work contextualizes the material with incisive essays from Portland Art Museum curators Julia Dolan and Sara Krajewski and art historian Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, and an in-depth interview between art historian Kellie Jones and the artist that elaborates on Thomas’s influences and inspirations."

None Posted Feb 05, 2019

Book of the Day > GUCCI Dapper Dan's Harlem by Ari Marcopoulos

Book of the Day > GUCCI Dapper Dan's Harlem by Ari Marcopoulos. Published by IDEA UK.

"The most amazing Gucci book yet. Dapper Dan's Harlem by Ari Marcopoulos is a leather bound, gold text embossed bible of Harlem, where Dapper Dan introduced high fashion to hip hop. Black and white landscape photographs are printed on super think bible paper with tipped in colour photographic prints throughout. The colour sections explore Dan's atelier and profile the man himself.

A local boy made good through his pivotal role in the development of golden-age Hip Hop style and as a pioneer of luxury streetwear, Dap rose to prominence on these streets as Harlem's tailor of choice in the 1980's. His coveted one-off creations were the choice of hustlers, gangsters, rappers such as LL Cool J, Rakim, and Salt-N-Pepa, and boxers such as Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather Jr., who were the only ones with enough cash and clout to gain access to the boutique where Dap received his customers 24 hours a day. He talked about 'Africanising' the European fashion brands, taking that love of luxury but making it relevant to the streets. But when those same luxury brands decided in the early 90s they weren't happy being used in this way, he was forced to take his work underground, only recently re-emerging with a new appointment-only atelier in a huge brownstone on Lenox Avenue (also named Malcom X Boulevard), a unique partnership with Gucci."