Book of the day > Paradise Is Now: Palm Trees in Art. Published by Hatje Cantz @hatjecantzverlag. "For more than two thousand years palm trees have been extraordinarily popular in both the East and the West. Regardless of continent, religion, or culture, palms tell stories of wealth, peace, and salvation. No other motif conveys this promise of good fortune and happiness as convincingly as the palm tree does. Omnipresent in advertising and social media, it conjures up notions of luxury, the jet set, and eternal sunshine in the secular world, representing a modern Garden of Eden. Nor are visual arts resistant to its visual allure and metaphorical power. Keeping this rich cultural heritage in mind, the companion catalogue to the exhibition Paradise is Now shows the many ways that palm trees are depicted in contemporary art. But what is behind the popularity of this emblem? Which layers of meaning and what kinds of contradictions are revealed in the wake of this artistic exploration? Featuring texts by Bret Easton Ellis, Robert Grunenberg, Leif Randt, and Norman Rosenthal, and art works by John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Rodney Graham, Secundino Hernández, David Hockney, Alicja Kwade, Sigmar Polke, Ed Ruscha, and Rirkrit Tiravanija."

Book of the day > Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness. Published by Aperture. "Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness includes one hundred self-portraits created by one of the most powerful visual activists of our time. In each of the images, Muholi drafts material props from her immediate environment in an effort to reflect her journey, explore her own image and possibilities as a black woman in today’s global society, and—most important—to speak emphatically in response to contemporary and historical racisms. As she states, 'I am producing this photographic document to encourage people to be brave enough to occupy spaces, brave enough to create without fear of being vilified. . . . To teach people about our history, to re-think what history is all about, to re-claim it for ourselves, to encourage people to use artistic tools such as cameras as weapons to fight back.' More than twenty curators, poets, and authors offer written contributions that draw out the layers of meaning and possible readings to accompany select images. Powerfully arresting, this collection is as much a manifesto of resistance as it is an autobiographical, artistic statement."

Book of the day > The Beat Scene: Photographs by Burt Glinn. Published by Reel Art Press. “This magnificent volume features a remarkable collection of largely unseen photographs of the Beat Generation by renowned Magnum photographer Burt Glinn. This amazing, untouched treasure trove of images was discovered when Reel Art Press was working with Burt Glinn’s widow, Elena, on a larger retrospective of Glinn’s work. Archived with the negatives was a short essay by Jack Kerouac entitled "And This Is The Beat Nightlife of New York," which is published here alongside the photographs. The book features black-and-white shots, and also—uniquely, for images of this era—more than 70 in color. An extremely rare find, these photographs capture the raw energy of the Beat Generation in a way that has never been seen before in print.

The photographs were shot between 1957 and 1960 in New York and San Francisco and feature nearly everyone involved in the scene, including writers and artists such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, LeRoi Jones, Jay DeFeo, Wally Hedrick and many more. Glinn was celebrated for his extraordinary talent as a social documentary photographer, and during his time with the Beats his camera captured the spirit of the counterculture—writers, musicians and artists meeting in cafes, bars and parties pursuing a truth and future the mainstream would and could not acknowledge.

This exquisite tome is an intimate and fresh insight into the lives of the legendary and influential bohemians and a celebration of Glinn’s inimitable talent."

Book of the day  > David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake At Night. Published by the Whitney Museum ( @whitneymuseum ). “This engaging and richly illustrated catalogue, accompanying the Whitney's 2018 exhibition comprehensively examines the life and art of David Wojnarowicz, who came to prominence in New York’s East Village art world of the 1980s, actively embracing all media and forging an expansive range of work both fiercely political and highly personal. First displayed in raw storefront galleries, his work achieved national attention at the same moment that the AIDS epidemic was affecting a generation of artists, himself included. 

In a thoughtful overview essay, David Breslin looks at the breadth of the artist’s work as well as Wojnarowicz’s broad range of interests and influences, situating the artist in the art-historical canon and pushing beyond the biographical focus that has characterized much of the scholarship on Wojnarowicz to fully assess his paintings, photographs, installations, performances, and writing. A close examination of groups of works by David Kiehl sheds new light on the artist’s process and the context in which the works were created. Essays by Julie Ault, Gregg Bordowitz, C. Carr, Marvin Taylor, and National Book Award finalist Hanya Yanagihara investigate the relationship between artistic production and cultural activism during the AIDS crisis, as well as provide a necessary accounting and close evaluation of divergent practices that have frequently been subsumed under broad labels like ‘East Village,’ ‘queer,’ ‘postmodern,’ and ‘neo-expressionist.’”

Please join us TOMORROW! Saturday, July 28th, 4:00 - 6:00 for a book signing and conversation with artist SIMONE SHUBUCK

The discussion - about her new book, her project 'Wifey,' and the relationship between art and food - will be moderated by curator Laura Fried and will include Wifey collaborator and James Beard nominated pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz. (And, yes, there will be cake — and Yola Mezcal!)

If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a copy of SIMONE SHUBUCK signed by the artist, please place your order here or call us at 310-458-1499.
 

Book of the day > Non Stop Poetry: The Zines of Mark Mark Gonzales. 2000 copies published by Printed Matter in 2014 and now out-of-print. Editors: Philip Aarons and Emma Reeves with contributions from Kim Gordon, Rita Ackermann, Maurizio Cattelan, Cameron Jamie, Harmony Korine, Aaron Rose, Steven Salardino, Tom Sachs, Jocko Weyland, and others. “Non Stop Poetry: The Zines of Mark Gonzales is a comprehensive presentation of the zines made by Gonzales from the early-’90s to the present day. Gonzales, thought by many to be the greatest skateboarder of all time, is revealed by this significant book to deserve equal recognition as an artist and poet. His extraordinary production of more than 145 zines (the exact number is unknown since Gonzales kept no records of his output), is a remarkable artistic achievement worthy of the careful analysis and documentation provided by this book. Gonzales zines are made spontaneously using an argot all his own and demonstrate a remarkable gift for verse and drawing. Misshapen, hastily scribbled and collaged into brilliantly drawn and colored ephemeral pamphlets, these handmade zines continue a notable tradition of artist-made publications from Ed Ruscha to Raymond Pettibon.

Produced in extremely limited numbers, Gonzales’ zines were almost exclusively distributed outside traditional channels. Most were generously given away or mailed to friends reminiscent of the distribution of Wallace Berman’s Semina. If they did find their way to stores such as Printed Matter in New York or Colette in Paris, they were almost immediately snatched up. Thus, the compilation of these zines was a herculean effort and the book is invaluable as an encyclopedic compendium that will be a critical purchase for anyone interested in contemporary artist publications. Every zine found after years of research by the editors which was created by Gonzales from 1992 until today, including those created in collaboration with Harmony Korine, Cameron Jamie, and others, is presented with all available publishing information and illustrated with cover and interior scans.

Upon critical contemplation of the aesthetic and philosophical contents of the zines, Gonzales’ creative genius becomes evident. From child-like drawings of playful characters scribbled over snapshots Gonzales took on his travels, to emotional poems about the mendacity of life with words scratched out creating complex and outré koans, Gonzales’s zines have a simplicity that showcases his whimsical and poignant mind. But most of all, there’s a freedom in the ephemeral nature of these thin paper volumes: Gonzales isn’t manacled to rules of any sort, and the results that he pours onto the page reflect that unbridled joie de vivre.” First come, first served! - $450.

Book of the day > The Heavens by Barbara Bosworth. Published by @Radius.Books. "Images of the moon, sun and sky. Made over the past several years with an 8×10 camera, the star images are hour-long exposures with the camera mounted on a clock drive. The sun and moon images are made with a telescope attached to her camera. Speaking of her inspiration for these images, Bosworth writes: “Every clear night of the summer my father would go out for a walk to look at the night sky. Many nights I would join him. We knew the North Star, and the Big Bear, but the rest became our own. At times we stood still for an hour or more to watch for shooting stars. We had no agenda. It was all about amazement at a sky full of stars. With this sense of wonder, I began making photographs of the Heavens. In these days of the Hubble Telescope and its spectacular imagery from deep space, I wanted a reminder of the mystery of our own night sky.” The book also includes facsimile editions of three artist’s books that Bosworth has made as a nod to Galileo’s 17th-century publications in which he first observed the skies through a telescope."

Book of the day > Kraftwerk: Dance Forever. Published by Toby Mott @culturaltraffic. Designed by Alex McWhirter @mcwhirterstudio. Catalogue for the Cultural Traffic Detroit exhibition 2018. "A compelling collection of rare items from the German electronic music pioneers and those they influenced, it documents Kraftwerk's aesthetic output from the early 1970’s to the present. On display will be promotional material, sheet music, obsolete recorded media, posters, photos and musical toys charting Kraftwerk's highly influential machine music aesthetic, which inspired dance music and specifically Detroit Techno. The industrial sound of Motor City and Kraftwerk on the autobahn is a spiritual connection bought together at #CulturalTraffic Detroit. To mark the exhibition a catalogue will be available designed by Alex McWhirter containing a flexi disc single; Rusty Egan Presents, 'Thank You’ a tone poem homage to Kraftwerk and other early electronic music pioneers many of whom are featured in Kraftwerk: Dance Forever."

Book of the day > Wim Wenders: Instant Stories. Published by Schirmer/Mosel. "Wim Wenders, the distinguished filmmaker and co-founder of New German Cinema, is also a world-renowned photographer. He has exhibited his large-format, panoramic photographs in Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Bilbao, Sydney, Shanghai, Rome, São Paulo, Moscow, Copenhagen, New York and Düsseldorf. Now, for the first time, this book – published to accompany an exhibition at London’s Photographer’s Gallery – presents his polaroids. Spanning the 1970s to the present day, they feature friends, actors and personal heroes, objects, places, spaces and situations from the everyday life of a travelling filmmaker. Wenders does not order his ‘photographic notes’, as he calls them, by theme, but as stories. They are accompanied by his own texts, short stories and haikus.Wim Wenders: Instant Stories is a photographic road trip through the life of the artist, from his early travels through America’s cinematic landscapes to the German provinces and beyond."

Book of the day > Casa Barragán. Published by Toto. Back in stock after a loooong absence and one of the very few Barrágan books available! “Barragán's houses evoke glamour and simplicity, modernity and nostalgia, respect for tradition and revolutionary turns. The influence of his childhood home, a former Mexican hacienda, is clear and yet contrasted with his bold use of colours. Five of his house designs are lavishly pictured here, both inside and out. Accessible short descriptions are included with each photograph. Accompanied by an extended essay by Yutaka Saito.”