Book of the Day Posted Aug 05, 2020

Book of the Day > Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas

● Purchase ● An extraordinary retrospective of one of the leading abstract painters of our time, surveying the artist’s career from the early 1970s to the present
 
In a sustained exploration of the possibilities of abstraction, Sean Scully (b. 1945) has created a rich body of work throughout his 50-year career. Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas sets his entire output within a detailed biographical framework, closely examining the relationship between the artist’s paintings and his lesser-known drawings, pastels, watercolors, and prints—areas of Scully’s production that are rarely considered together. At the heart of the book is an investigation of the development and reception of Scully’s work based on historical and contemporary reviews as well as extensive interviews with the artist. Featured contributions include a preface by Marla Price, author of Scully’s multivolume catalogue raisonné, and an essay by the poet and art critic Kelly Grovier on the unique contribution Scully has made to the history of abstraction. Published to coincide with the artist’s touring retrospective exhibition, this publication presents sumptuous illustrations and detailed accounts of his most significant bodies of work, offering new insight into his practice. It is an indispensable resource to understanding Scully’s wide-ranging oeuvre and his influential place in contemporary art history.
Book of the Day Posted Aug 01, 2020

Book of the Day > Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo

● Purchase ● Founded by French writer and poet André Breton in 1924, surrealism was an artistic and literary cultural movement known for its visual art and writings that challenged the power of imagination. But it has been an artistic movement most associated with the famous men who’ve become household names in art, such as Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. Yet, there were many more surrealist women artists than has been recognized—until now. Seeking to present the female perspective of the women artists of surrealism, Fantastic Women highlights this forgotten side of the avant-garde movement.
 
Even though most women of the movement were considered to be the partners or models of Breton’s circle, they actually played a larger role. While male surrealists chose to portray women as goddesses, she-devils, dolls, fetishes, nymphets, or imaginary figures, the female artists emphasized the unexpected influences of established gender roles and social behaviors. Their art questioned the female image and role in society while attempting to establish a new persona for generations to come. In true surrealist form, Fantastic Women highlights their creative engagement with the imagination and the unconscious through their fascination with political topics, literature, and foreign myths. Including 350 color plates, Fantastic Women showcases their paintings, drawings, photography, films, and other artworks that create a powerful case for the recognition and celebration of the surreal and fanciful work of the women artists of the avant-garde.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 31, 2020

Book of the Day > Samuel Fosso: Autoportrait

● Purchase ● Autoportrait is the first comprehensive survey of the multifaceted oeuvre of Nigerian photographer Samuel Fosso (born 1962). Since the mid-1970s, Fosso has focused on self-portraiture and performance, envisioning variations of identity in the postcolonial era. From Fosso’s early black-and-white self-portraits from the 1970s to his recent exercises in self-presentation, highlights include the vibrant series Tati (1997), in which he playfully inhabits African and African American characters and archetypes; and the magisterial portraits of African Spirits (2008), where he poses as icons of the pan-African liberation and Civil Rights movements, such as Angela Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Patrice Lumumba and Nelson Mandela.
 
This landmark monograph demonstrates Fosso’s unique departure from the traditions of West African studio photography, established in the 1950s and ’60s by modern masters Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé. By charting his conceptual practice of self-portraiture, and sustained engagement with notions of sexuality, gender and self-representation, this book reveals an unprecedented photographic project.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 30, 2020

Book of the Day > David Benjamin Sherry: American Monuments

● Purchase ● A vivid portrait of the assault on America's parks and forests
 
David Benjamin Sherry: American Monuments is a landscape photography project that captures the spirit and intrinsic value of America’s threatened system of national monuments. In April 2017 an executive order called for the review of the 27 national monuments created since January 1996. In December 2017 the final report called on the president to shrink four national monuments and change the management of six others, recommending that areas in Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans be offered for sale, specifically for oil drilling and coal and uranium mining. American Monuments focuses on the areas under review, with special emphasis on those that have already been decimated. Sherry documents these pristine, sacred and wildly diverse areas using the traditional, historic 8x10" large format. The resulting 31 photographs—all tipped in to the book by hand—not only convey the beauty of these important and ecologically diverse sites, but also shed light upon the plight of the perennially exploited landscape of the American West.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 29, 2020

Book of the Day > Josef Koudelka: Ruins

● Purchase ● A record of Magnum photographer Josef Koudelka’s grand tour around ancient Mediterranean sites
 
Between 1991 and 2015, Josef Koudelka completed an epic journey across twenty countries bordering the Mediterranean, stopping at over 200 Greek and Roman archaeological sites, relentlessly researching the beauty of the ancient world. Before the Magnum photographer, nobody had attempted to make such a comprehensive photographic record of these artefacts with so much persistence and so little assistance. Koudelka’s aim was to use art to re-appropriate a world that is escaping us and that we could lose – a world where the mind alternates between reason and faith, law and liberty.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 28, 2020

Book of the Day > Jordan Casteel: Within Reach

● Purchase ● Published for Jordan Casteel’s major New Museum show, Within Reach surveys her paintings exploring the nuances of Black subjectivity
 
In her large-scale oil paintings, New York-based artist Jordan Casteel (born 1989) takes up questions of Black subjectivity and representation by examining the gestures, spaces and forms of nonverbal communication that underpin portraiture. “There is a certain amount of mindfulness that it requires ... to be present with someone in a moment.” she explains. “I’ve always had an inclination towards seeing people who might be easily be unseen.”
 
Published for Casteel’s first solo museum exhibition in New York, this volume brings together 40 large-scale paintings from throughout her career, including works from the celebrated series Visible Man (2013-14) and Nights in Harlem (2017), along with recent cropped “subway paintings” and portraits of her students at Rutgers University-Newark. Whether depicting former classmates from Yale, nude and in serene repose; street vendors near her home in Harlem; anonymous New Yorkers huddled on the subway; or her own students, posed largely in domestic interiors among their personal belongings, she explores how both public and private spheres can serve as frames for an inner life.
 
This generously illustrated, oversized publication honors the larger-than-life scale of the artist's work. It is the first comprehensive monographic publication on Casteel’s work and includes texts by Dawoud Bey, Amanda Hunt and Lauren Haynes, and conversations conducted with the artist by Massimiliano Gioni and Thelma Golden.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 25, 2020

Book of the Day > Charlotte Perriand: Complete Works. Volume 4: 1968–1999

● Purchase ● Charlotte Perriand is one of the foremost figures in twentieth-century interior design. Together with her contemporaries and collaborators, such as Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier, and Jean Prouvé—she created many pieces of furniture we now consider classics, including the instantly recognizable LC4 chaise. Her pioneering work with metal was particularly instrumental in paving the way for the machine-age aesthetic popular throughout the 1920s and ’30s.
 
The concluding fourth volume of this definitive monograph on Charlotte Perriand covers the last three decades of her long career. At its core is the Les Arcs ski resort in the French Alps, where Perriand played a key role in the project development. A pioneer of bioclimatic architecture, she oversaw the architectural and urban design of Arc 1600 and Arc 1800 and created the interiors and entire outfitting down to cutlery and china for the more than 4,500 apartments. Les Arcs, an extraordinary undertaking both in sheer size and the extent of Perriand’s contribution, marks the culmination of her research on alpine housing in unison with nature. The book also features a number of projects—housing and art spaces—from Paris to Tokyo, in which she aimed once more to push the borders of a specific modern, cultivated way of living. It also offers a comprehensive appraisal of seven decades’ work that manifests the creative force and vision of this extraordinary woman, one of the most eminent protagonists of modern architecture and design. Covering these important moments and many others, Charlotte Perriand completes the four-volume exploration of this key figure, complete with annotations and a bibliography for further research.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 24, 2020

Book of the Day > Made in L.A. 2020: A Version

● Purchase ● Made in L.A. 2020: a version brings together an intergenerational and interdisciplinary mix of artists, each of whom is contributing to L.A.'s vibrant art scene.
 
Since its inception in 2012, the Hammer Museum's Made in L.A. biennial has brought together local artists from a wide range of discipline. Under the direction of co-curators Myriam Ben Salah and Lauren Mackler, the 2020 iteration will be no exception. The Hammer's Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, who has previously served with Performa and The Kitchen in New York, will assist in the organization of the 2020 biennial in the role of assistant curator for performance. Drawing inspiration from historical artist magazines, this book is not documentation of the artists' work, but rather serves as an additional venue for the exhibition. It includes images of the artists' studios, art made specifically for the pages of the book, as well as essays and conversations between artists and curators that weave together the conceptual through-lines of the show. This book is published in two different covers.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 23, 2020

Book of the Day > R. Buckminster Fuller: Synergetic Stew, Explorations in Dymaxion Dining

● Purchase ● A delightful dymaxion cookbook homage to Buckminster Fuller, featuring John Cage’s macrobiotic recipes, Margaret Mead’s cucumber salad and more
 
Buckminster Fuller is globally known as a design scientist, architect, author, poet, engineer and a true visionary. On his 86th birthday he received the cookbook Synergetic Stew as a surprise present from his friends and admirers, who share recipes along with personal anecdotes and humorous recollections of Fuller (for example, a reminiscence about Bucky’s love for tea in all its variations). Scattered throughout the book are enticing texts and poems from Fuller himself, including even a recipe for tomato ice cream.
 
Constructed around 100 achievable recipes, this book is a glimpse into Fuller’s life, as told by his peers. A few of the recipes are a joyful ode to Fuller’s oeuvre, such as Shirley Sharkey’s “GEODESICANDY,” the “Macrobiotic Diet” by John Cage or Amy Edmondson’s “Allspace-Filling Whole Wheat Bread.”
 
In addition to the facsimile, Jamie Snyder reflects upon often-overlooked facets of Bucky’s character, as revealed through anecdotes of his relationship to food.
Book of the Day Posted Jul 22, 2020

Book of the Day > Willi Smith: Street Couture

● Purchase ● African-American fashion designer Willi Smith, pioneer of streetwear and visionary collaborator, finally gets his due in an exuberant celebration of his life and work.
 
Before Off-White, before Hood By Air, before Supreme, there was WilliWear. Willi Smith created inclusive and liberating fashion: "I don't design clothes for the queen, but the people who wave at her as she goes by," he said. A rising star from the time he left Parsons, Smith went on to found WilliWear with Laurie Mallet in 1976 and became one of the most successful designers of his era by his untimely death in 1987. Smith broke boundaries with his streetwear, or "street couture," and trailblazed the collaborations between artists, performers, and designers commonplace today in projects with SITE Architects, Nam June Paik, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Spike Lee, Dan Friedman, Bill T. Jones, and Arnie Zane. Essays by leading figures from the worlds of fashion, art, architecture, and cultural studies paired with never before-seen images and ephemera make Willi Smith essential reading for the history of streetwear culture and the evolution of fashion from the 1970s to today.
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