Book of the Day Posted Jan 04, 2020

Book of the Day > Sticking it to the Man; Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980

Book of the Day > Sticking it to the Man; Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980. Published by PM Press. "From civil rights and Black Power to the New Left and gay liberation, the 1960s and 1970s saw a host of movements shake the status quo. The impact of feminism, anticolonial struggles, wildcat industrial strikes, and antiwar agitation were all felt globally. With social strictures and political structures challenged at every level, pulp and popular fiction could hardly remain unaffected. Feminist, gay, lesbian, Black and other previously marginalised authors broke into crime, thrillers, erotica, and other paperback genres previously dominated by conservative, straight, white males. For their part, pulp hacks struck back with bizarre takes on the revolutionary times, creating fiction that echoed the Nixonian backlash and the coming conservatism of Thatcherism and Reaganism. Sticking It to the Man tracks the ways in which the changing politics and culture of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s were reflected in pulp and popular fiction in the United States, the UK, and Australia. Featuring more than three hundred full-color covers, the book includes in-depth author interviews, illustrated biographies, articles, and reviews from more than two dozen popular culture critics and scholars. Among the works explored, celebrated, and analysed are books by street-level hustlers turned best-selling black writers Iceberg Slim, Nathan Heard, and Donald Goines; crime heavyweights Chester Himes, Ernest Tidyman and Brian Garfield; Yippies Anita Hoffman and Ed Sanders; best-selling authors such as Alice Walker, Patricia Nell Warren, and Rita Mae Brown; and myriad lesser-known novelists ripe for rediscovery.
Book of the Day Posted Jan 03, 2020

Book of the Day > Josef Koudelka: Gypsies

Book of the Day > Josef Koudelka: Gypsies. Published by Aperture. "This mini paperback edition of Gypsies makes a foundational body of work by master photographer Josef Koudelka newly accessible. This volume includes all 109 photographs from Koudelka’s recent remastering of the Cikáni series (Czech for Gypsies)—photographs of Roma society taken between 1962 and 1971 in then-Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, France, and Spain. Roma scholar and sociologist Will Guy, who wrote for both the 1975 and 2011 editions, updates his analysis of the condition of the Roma today, including the most recent upheavals in France and Europe. Stuart Alexander, photo historian and newly appointed editor in chief of Delpire Éditeur, contributes a brief historiography of the evolution of this body of work in book form." KOUDELKA!
Book of the Day Posted Dec 29, 2019

Book of the Day > Doug Meyer: Heroes: A Tribute

Book of the Day > Doug Meyer: Heroes, A Tribute. Published by Tra Publising. "Heroes: A Tribute pays homage to fifty brilliant, creative figures who were early victims of AIDS and AIDS-related illnesses. Through captivating, three-dimensional portraits that reflect core aspects of each individual, artist Doug Meyer celebrates the lives and accomplishments of pioneers from the worlds of art, design, film, and dance—people such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, Rudolph Nureyev, Freddie Mercury, Rock Hudson, John Duka, Tina Chow, Klaus Nomi, Halston, and Angelo Donghia. In addition to honoring the individuals portrayed, Meyer hopes to highlight their contributions for younger generations. Heroes began as an installation at a DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) event and grew into a traveling exhibition. The portraits vary significantly in form, material, and style, and incorporate drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography. Meyer often blends techniques and media, such as terracotta, églomisé, papier-mâché, and computer-generated collage. The text includes essays by Meyer and contributing writer Beth Dunlop as well as short biographies of each hero. The Trade Edition was produced in response to the popularity of the Art and Collector’s editions and includes additional pages from Meyer’s sketchbooks showing his process, new photography of the portraits, a graphic redesign featuring colorful backgrounds for the portraits, and reorganized editorial content."
Book of the Day Posted Dec 28, 2019

Book of the Day > Bruce Weber: All-American XIX: No Small Thing, Desire

Book of the Day > Bruce Weber: All-American XIX: No Small Thing, Desire. Published by Little Bear Press. "Willa Cather once wrote, “The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing—desire.” Using her insight as a point of departure, Bruce Weber has devoted this nineteenth edition of the “All-American” journal series to individuals whose creativity, fearlessness or endurance in the face of adversity exemplify some shared human impulse for expression, for freedom, for life. Artists light the way in this latest editon. Nova Stanley, a junior at LaGuardia in New York City, illustrates her family with a practiced, youthful swagger. The sculptor Sheila Hicks shares a lifetime’s worth of wisdom picked up while working and weaving in every corner of the globe. Jamie Wyeth, accomplished heir to his family’s painting tradition, welcomes our readers into his Maine studio. And one of the all-time great art world love stories is captured in a photoessay devoted to Rachel Feinstein and John Currin. Bruce Weber shares photography duties in this issue with Consuelo Kanaga, a lesser-known contemporary of Weston, Lange and Stieglitz whose work reflects her deep commitment to social justice—and with John Dugdale, who employs 19th century photography techniques in a practice informed by his experience with and survival of the AIDS crisis. We are also honored to present portraits and a testimonial by Auschwitz survivor Magda Bader. All-American XIX: No Small Thing, Desire features texts by Lucille Clifton, William Carpenter, Rachel Carson and Joni Mitchell."
Book of the Day Posted Dec 27, 2019

Book of the Day > Shirley Baker

Book of the Day > Shirley Baker. Published by MACK. "Shirley Baker developed her first photograph as a young girl ‘from the darkness of the coal shed’ in her hometown of Salford, Northwest England. From this moment, she developed a lifelong interest in documentary photography, amounting to a vast and celebrated archival collection that spans the length of her career, dating from the 1950s until 2000. Edited by Lou Stoppard, this book presents an extensive–and, uniquely, female–depiction of post-war life; an eccentric survey which combines her better-known street photographs of Manchester, Salford and Blackpool with previously unseen photographs that span the UK, all the way to the South of France, Italy and Japan. Instances of humour abound in the collection, casting a spotlight on the idiosyncrasies of British identity: a high street shopper cocks his head echoing the mannequin behind him, an older woman with cigarette-wrinkled lips looks into the lens with an almost comic stoicism, children play, mimicking adults. The changing landscapes, fashions, photographic styles and tones that make up the sequence are woven together by Baker’s singular attentiveness to moments of wit and warmth in daily life."
Book of the Day Posted Dec 08, 2019

Dario's Holiday Gift Picks!

Salvatore Vitale: How to Secure a Country From Border Policing via Weather Forecast to Social Engineering: A Visual Study of 21st-Century Statehood. Edited with text by Lars Willumeit. Text by Roland Bleiker, Philip Di Salvo, Jonas Hagmann.An artist's diagrammatic dissection of the national security culture that has swept the West. In this hybrid artist's book, Switzerland-based artist Salvatore Vitale (born 1986) explores Switzerland's national security measures by focusing instructions, protocols and bureaucracies pertaining to security, which he visualizes in photographs, diagrams and graphic illustrations. Switzerland, well known as one of the safest countries on earth and a prime example of efficiency and efficacy, has developed a culture based on protection supported by the presence and production of national security. When in 2014 the Swiss voted in favor of an initiative "against massive immigration," Vitale, a immigrant living in Switzerland, decided to research this phenomenon in order to comprehend the origin for this constant need for security and how it became part of Swiss culture. The result is a case study that can be used to explain the global context for notions of security and the functioning of contemporary societies. Published by Lars Müller Publishers. $ 40.00

 

Margaret Kilgallen: that’s where the beauty is. Foreword by Heidi Zuckerman. Text by Courtenay Finn, Jenelle Porter. Impure Americana, a slightly acidic nostalgia that evoked sideshows, tramp art and old travel posters with infusions of feminist wit. –Roberta Smith, New York Times. Margaret Kilgallen: that’s where the beauty is. is published on the occasion of Kilgallen’s first posthumous museum exhibition, and the largest presentation of her work in more than a decade. Using the artist’s exhibition history as a chronological tool, that’s where the beauty is. examines Kilgallen’s roots in histories of printmaking, American and non-Western folk history and folklore, and feminist strategies of representation, expanding the narrative around her work beyond her association with the Bay Area Mission School and the "Beautiful Losers" artists. Kilgallen’s graphic, schematic style came from a deep engagement with the handmade in wildly divergent forms—from folk art to letterpress printing to freight train graffiti, among many other sources. “I like things that are handmade and I like to see people's hand in the world anywhere in the world,” she said, embracing the idiosyncrasies and imperfections that come from hand craft. “I think that’s where the beauty is.” Kilgallen’s work, in form and content, celebrates the handmade, making heroes and heroines of those who live and work in the margins and challenging traditional gender roles, hierarchies and mainstream culture. This publication offers a comprehensive look at Kilgallen’s work, revisiting the ongoing legacy and idiosyncratic spirit of one of California’s most innovative artists. Published by Aspen Museum of Art. $ 49.95

 
 
Africamericanos. Edited with introduction by Claudi Carreras. Text by Sheila Walker, Abraham Nahón, Germán Rey. "A visual exploration of Afro-Latino identity and the African diaspora in Latin America as seen in the work of 34 contemporary photographers. Surveying photography from all over Latin America, and based on extensive research, The Africamericanos gives special consideration to those from countries with the highest populations of Afro-Latino citizens and whose people have suffered the most systematic erasure of Afrolatino identity. Photographers include: Luján Agustí, Claudia Gordillo y Maria José Alvarez, Liliana Angulo, Hugo Arellanes, Josúe Azor, Christian Belpaire, Maureen Bisilliat, Nicola lo Calzo, Koral Carballo, Pablo Chaco, Angélica Dass, Jonathas de Andrade, Manuel González de la Parra, Jose de Medeiros, Luisa Dorr, Sandra Elet, Nelson Garrido, Maya Goded, Nicolas Janowski, Yael Martínez, Yomer Montejo, Cristina de Middel y Bruno Morais, Carolina Navas, Eustáquio Neves, Jorge Panchoaga, Rosana Paulino, Mara Sánchez Rener, Marton Robinson, Isadora Romero, Lorry Salcedo, Leslie Searles and Karina Skvirsky." Published by RM. $ 50.00 
 
 
Neo Rauch (Contemporary Painters Series). This comprehensive monograph offers a detailed examination of the paintings of the acclaimed German painter Neo Rauch (b. 1960). Rauch’s paintings deftly blend the iconography of Socialist Realism from his upbringing and art-school training in GDR-era Leipzig with the stylistic mannerisms of the Baroque and Romantic past, conjuring heavily populated sites of great commotion and complexity, remarkably without recourse to preliminary drawing. His compositions and their enigmatic figures are rich with reference and allusion, but the stories they tell are indistinct and somehow out of time. They have an ancient modernity—or the freshness of renewed antiquity. Michael Glover discloses Rauch’s working methods, revealing how the artist approaches the making of his work, how his images come into being, and the importance of words and their etymology to the creation or disruption of an artwork. These are works that interrogate the very meaning of the artistic impulse; ruminations in the guise of history painting that in fact question what a painter could and should be creating at this particular historical moment. Published by Lund Humphries. $ 49.95
 
 
 
Bauhaus Ballet. Watch the dancers as they leap, spin and kick their way through this beautiful pop–up book. Inspired by the eccentric and innovative Bauhaus Triadic Ballet, this gorgeous book explores colours, shapes, patterns and movements in a visually stunning and enthralling way. With interactive elements let the reader meet the characters, make them move, and bring their performance to life. With bold artwork rendered in Lesley Barnes' striking style and playful text by Gabby Dawnay, this special pop–up book is a beautiful, unique gift book that will delight children and adults alike. For fans of Bauhaus Ballet by German Modernist painter Oskar Schlemmer and perfect for children! Published by Laurence King. $ 24.99
 
 
 
 

 

Book of the Day Posted Dec 08, 2019

Eliza's Holiday Gift Picks!

Where We Find Ourselves: The Photographs of Hugh Mangum, 1897-1922 by Margaret Sartor & Alex Harris. "Self-taught photographer Hugh Mangum was born in 1877 in Durham, North Carolina, as its burgeoning tobacco economy put the frontier-like boomtown on the map. As an itinerant portraitist working primarily in North Carolina and Virginia during the rise of Jim Crow, Mangum welcomed into his temporary studios a clientele that was both racially and economically diverse. After his death in 1922, his glass plate negatives remained stored in his darkroom, a tobacco barn, for fifty years. Slated for demolition in the 1970s, the barn was saved at the last moment--and with it, this surprising and unparalleled document of life at the turn of the twentieth century, a turbulent time in the history of the American South. Hugh Mangum's multiple-image, glass plate negatives reveal the open-door policy of his studio to show us lives marked both by notable affluence and hard work, all imbued with a strong sense of individuality, self-creation, and often joy. Seen and experienced in the present, the portraits hint at unexpected relationships and histories and also confirm how historical photographs have the power to subvert familiar narratives. Mangum's photographs are not only images; they are objects that have survived a history of their own and exist within the larger political and cultural history of the American South, demonstrating the unpredictable alchemy that often characterizes the best art--its ability over time to evolve with and absorb life and meaning beyond the intentions or expectations of the artist." Published by University of North Carolina Press. $ 45.00
 
 
 
 
Stephen Gill - The Pillar. Published by Nobody Books. "A pillar knocked into the ground next to a stream in a flat, open landscape, trees and houses visible in the distance, beneath a vast sky. That is the backdrop to all of Stephen Gill´s photographs in this book. We see the same landscape in spring and summer, in autumn and winter, we see it in sunshine and rain, in snow and wind. Yet there is not the slightest monotony about these pictures, for in almost every one there is a bird, and each of these birds opens up a unique moment in time. We see something that has never happened before and will never happen again. That it takes place in the midst of a landscape characterised by repetition, in which time is cyclical, sets up a keen existential dynamic: on the one hand, everything has happened before, there’s nothing new under the sun; on the other, every moment is unique and carries the hallmark of the miracle: what happens happens only once and never again. But this wasn’t what I thought about the first time I looked at these photographs. In fact, I barely thought at all, for I was shaken, as a person so often is when confronted with an extraordinary work of art. I’d never seen birds in this way before, as if on their own terms, as independent creatures with independent lives. Ancient, forever improvising, endlessly embroiled with the forces of nature, and yet indulging too. And so infinitely alien to us."- Karl Ove Knausgård. $75.00
 
 
History of Information Graphics.  "In the age of big data and digital distribution, when news travel ever further and faster and media outlets compete for a fleeting slice of online attention, information graphics have swept center stage. At once nuanced and neat, they distill abstract ideas, complex statistics, and cutting-edge discoveries into succinct, compelling, and masterful designs. Cartographers, programmers, statisticians, designers, scientists, and journalists have developed a new field of expertise in visualizing knowledge. This XL-sized compendium explores the history of data graphics from the Middle Ages right through to the digital era. Curated by Sandra Rendgen, some 400 milestones span astronomy, cartography, zoology, technology, and beyond. Across medieval manuscripts and parchment rolls, elaborate maps, splendid popular atlasses, and early computer-based information design, we systematically break down each work’s historical context, including such highlights as Martin Waldseemüller’s famous world map, the meticulous nature studies of Ernst Haeckel, and many unknown treasures. Hot on the heels of the best-selling Information Graphics and Understanding the World, this third volume fills the gap as an unprecedented reference book for data freaks, designers, historians, and anyone thirsty for knowledge. An enthralling exploration into the teachings, research, and lives of generations past." Published by Taschen. $70.00
 
 
Salvatore Vitale: How to Secure a Country From Border Policing via Weather Forecast to Social Engineering: A Visual Study of 21st-Century Statehood. Edited with text by Lars Willumeit. Text by Roland Bleiker, Philip Di Salvo, Jonas Hagmann."An artist's diagrammatic dissection of the national security culture that has swept the West. In this hybrid artist's book, Switzerland-based artist Salvatore Vitale (born 1986) explores Switzerland's national security measures by focusing instructions, protocols and bureaucracies pertaining to security, which he visualizes in photographs, diagrams and graphic illustrations. Switzerland, well known as one of the safest countries on earth and a prime example of efficiency and efficacy, has developed a culture based on protection supported by the presence and production of national security. When in 2014 the Swiss voted in favor of an initiative "against massive immigration," Vitale, a immigrant living in Switzerland, decided to research this phenomenon in order to comprehend the origin for this constant need for security and how it became part of Swiss culture. The result is a case study that can be used to explain the global context for notions of security and the functioning of contemporary societies."   Published by Lars Muller.  $ 40.00
 
 
 
Bad Luck Hot Rocks: Conscience Letters and Photographs From the Petrified Forest.  "The Petrified Forest National Park in Northeast Arizona protects one of the largest deposits of petrified wood in the world. Despite stern warnings, visitors remove several tons of petrified wood from the park each year, often returning these rocks by mail (sometimes years later), accompanied by a "conscience letter." These letters often include stories of misfortune attributed directly to their theft: car troubles, cats with cancer, deaths of family members, etc. Some writers hope that by returning these stolen rocks, good fortune will return to their lives, while others simply apologize or ask forgiveness. "They are beautiful," reads one letter, "but I can't enjoy them. They weigh like a ton of bricks on my conscience. Sorry…." Bad Luck, Hot Rocks documents this ongoing phenomenon, combining a series of original photographs of these otherworldly "bad luck rocks" with facsimiles of intimate, oddly entertaining letters from the park's archives." Published by The Ice Plant.$ 32.50
 
 
 
 

Gaechter + Clahsen: Fünf Finger Föhn Frisur.  "A person’s hair may be likened to the top of a mountain. But while mountaintops are often shrouded from our eyes by clouds around them, a person’s top is almost always visible—especially in latitudes that have given up the daily use of bonnets, hats and headscarves. Hence the understandably heavy pressure on people’s heads—to get the hair just right. Over the course of several decades, photographer Peter Gaechter shot a wide array of hairdos for Zürich hairdresser Elsässer Pour Dames, tracking the changes in—and revivals of —hairstyles in late 20th-century Switzerland. The present publication brings together a selection of his photographs from the catalogues on display at these upmarket salons, showing the latest hairstyle trends from the 1970s to the 1990s. These sculpturesque cuts and coiffures, which were to be reproduced à l’identique on the customers’ heads, were also telltale signs of the times. Whether a punk or “Cold War Kids” cut, a “five-finger” blow-dry, feathery “Charlie’s Angels” wings or “Old Hollywood” coiffure—the multifarious hairstyles of local beauties, “It girls” and actresses featured in this book reflect the “why not?” whateverism of liberal consumer culture as well as concrete changes in society, e.g. in the sudden apparition of a clunky cell phone included in the picture frame as a pixie cut accessory. Gaechter’s photographs also hark back to an age in which photography was still infused with a spirit of professionalism. There are no snapshots here, no affectations of an amateur aesthetic, no strategically trashy elements—Gaechter's pictures target a clientele aspiring to distinction, as could once be said of the photographer’s craft as well." Published by  Edition Patrick Frey. $ 60.00

 
 
 
Harold Edgerton: Seeing the Unseen.  Harold Edgerton (1903–90) was an engineer, educator, explorer and entrepreneur, as well as a revolutionary photographer―in the words of his former "student and Life photographer Gjon Mili, "an American original." Edgerton's photos combine exceptional engineering talent with aesthetic sensibility, and this book presents more than 100 of his most exemplary works. Seeing the Unseen contains iconic photos from the beloved milk drops and bullets slicing through fruit and cards, to less well known but equally compelling images of sea creatures and sports figures in action. Paired with excerpts from Edgerton's laboratory notebooks, the book reveals the full range of his technical virtuosity and his enthusiasm for the natural and human-built worlds. Essays by Edgerton students and collaborators J. Kim Vandiver and Gus Kayafas explore his approach to photography, engineering and education, while MIT Museum curators Gary Van Zante and Deborah Douglas examine his significance to the history of photography, technology and modern culture." Published by Steidl/MIT Museum, Cambridge. $ 50.00
 
 
 
W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America. "The colorful charts, graphs, and maps presented at the 1900 Paris Exposition by famed sociologist and black rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois offered a view into the lives of black Americans, conveying a literal and figurative representation of "the color line." From advances in education to the lingering effects of slavery, these prophetic infographics--beautiful in design and powerful in content--make visible a wide spectrum of black experience.
W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits collects the complete set of graphics in full color for the first time, making their insights and innovations available to a contemporary imagination. As Maria Popova wrote, these data portraits shaped how "Du Bois himself thought about sociology, informing the ideas with which he set the world ablaze three years later in The Souls of Black Folk." Published by Princeton Architectural Press. $ 29.95
Book of the Day Posted Dec 08, 2019

Lee's Holiday Gift Picks!

Hi-Fi: The History of High-End Audio Design. ” A beyond-cool look at the world of high-end audio design for passionate collectors, obsessive audiophiles, and design fans. At a time when sales of vinyl records have hit a 25-year high, and analog technologies are providing the kind of extraordinary audio experiences that our increasingly digital world has started to remove, Hi-Fi is essential reading. This unique book explores just how, when, and why the world fell in love with the look, feel, and sound of top-of-the-line audio equipment. Hi-Fi traces this fascinating evolution from the 1950s to today (and tomorrow), taking readers right up to the current renaissance of all things analog and the emergence of cutting-edge designs for die-hard audiophiles." Published by Phaidon. $79.95
 
 
 
Michael Jang: Who is Michael Jang. "San Francisco–based photographer Michael Jang spent nearly four decades working as a successful commercial portrait photographer. Unbeknownst to the world, however, he was simultaneously assembling a vast archive of thousands of remarkable images documenting, variously: college days, Hollywood celebrities, would-be weather presenters, San Francisco street scenes, his family, Bay Area punks and adolescent garage bands. Jang revealed nothing of his ever-expanding, eclectic archive for almost 40 years until 2001, when he submitted a number of images for consideration to San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. Jang’s work attracted immediate acclaim, and for the past decade he has continued to unveil his considerable oeuvre in national and international exhibitions and monographs. The photographer’s first major monograph, Who Is Michael Jang? highlights Jang's most important bodies of work. Introduced by his longtime collaborator and SFMOMA curator emerita of photography, Sandra Phillips, this volume offers readers a long-overdue introduction to Jang’s incredible images." Published by Atelier Editions.  $ 65.00
 
Mitch Epstein: Sunshine Hotel "The promise and pathology of America in the photographs of Epstein, more than half of which are previously unpublished America, as a place and an idea, has occupied Mitch Epstein’s art for the past five decades. With the first photographs he made in 1969 at the age of 16, Epstein began confronting the cultural psychology of the United States. Although he started working in an era defined by the Vietnam War, civil rights, rock and roll, and free love, he responded hardily to each radically different era that followed—from Reaganomics to surveillance after 9/11, to the current climate crisis and resurgence of white supremacy. More than a single era or issue, it is the living organism of American culture that engages Epstein; no matter how much the country changes, he describes something mysteriously and persistently American. Conceived of and sequenced by Andrew Roth, Sunshine Hotel assembles 175 photos made between 1969 and 2018—more than half of them previously unpublished. Yet the book is not simply a retrospective. It traces both the evolution of an artist and the development of a country, revealing Epstein’s formal and thematic shifts in tandem with America’s changing zeitgeist and landscape. Sunshine Hotel is a visual immersion that forgoes linearity and a classical layout, as it sets forth Epstein’s evolving understanding of his country’s pathologies and promise. Published by Steidl. $ 75.00
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shtetl in the Sun: Andy Sweet's South Beach 1977–1980. "Forget the jokes about late ‘70s South Beach being the Yiddish-speaking section of “God’s Waiting Room”; yes, upward of 20,000 elderly Jews made up nearly half of its population in those days—all crammed into an area of barely two square miles like a modern-day shtetl. But these New York transplants and Holocaust survivors all still had plenty of living, laughing and loving to do, as strikingly portrayed in Shtetl in the Sun, which features previously unseen photographs documenting South Beach’s once-thriving and now-vanished Jewish community—a project that American photographer Andy Sweet (1953–82) began in 1977 after receiving his MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a driving passion until his tragic death. Sweet’s photos capture this community’s daily rhythms in all their beach-strolling, klezmer-dancing glory. “They were strong, humorous, and beautiful images,” fellow photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who worked closely with Sweet, remarked after his death. The book includes a foreword by award-winning Miami arts journalist Brett Sokol and an introductory essay by National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Lauren Groff." Published by Letter 16 Press. $ 39.95
 
 
 
 
 
Do You Compute? Selling Tech from the Atomic Age to the Y2K Bug, 1950-1999 by Ryan Mungia & Steven Heller. Edited by Ryan Mungia & J.C. Gabel , Designed by Ryan Mungia, Cover design by John Zabawa. “Before Alexa and the iPhone, there was the large and unwieldy mainframe computer. In the postwar 1950s, computers were mostly used for aerospace and accounting purposes. To the public at large, they were on a rung that existed somewhere between engineering and science fiction. Magazine ads and marketing brochures were designed to create a fantasy surrounding these machines for prospective clients: Higher profit margins! Creativity unleashed! Total automation! With the invention of the microchip in the 1970s came the PC and video games, which shifted the target of computer advertising from corporations to the individual. By the end of the millennium, the notion of selling tech burst wide open to include robots, cell phones, blogs, online dating services, and much, much more. Do You Compute? is a broad survey featuring the very best of computer advertising in the 20th century. From the Atomic Age to the Y2K bug, this volume presents a connoisseur’s selection of graphic gems culled from museums, university archives, and private collections to illustrate the evolution of the computer from its early days as a hulking piece of machinery to its current state as a handheld device. Accompanied by two essays—one by cultural anthropologist Ryan Mungia and the other by graphic design historian Steven Heller—and including five different decade-long timelines that highlight some of the most influential moments in computer history, this fun yet meaningful volume is a unique look at the computer and how it has shaped our world." Published by Hat & Beard Press with Boyo Press. $ 50.00
 
 
 
Billy Al Bengston: Paintings and Watercolors. "This is the first monograph on the Californian pop artist in more than thirty years, with a representative selection of works from 1957 to 2014. Billy Al Bengston is the very personification of the cheerful, carefree attitude towards life in California—in both his work and his personal life. After studying at the California College of Arts and Crafts and the Otis Art Institute, he exhibited at the legendary Ferus Gallery in 1957 and was the central figure among a group of artists that included Frank Gehry, Edward Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, and Ken Price. BAB, as he apostrophizes himself, inserts car and motorcycle parts as motifs into his otherwise abstract paintings. He uses lacquer and spray paint instead of oil and aluminum panels with dented surfaces instead of the traditional canvas. Art and lifestyle combine to create the individual “Bengston iconography” of California Cool." Published by Edition Cantz. $ 65.00
 
 
 
A Colorful Life; Gere Kavanaugh, Designer.  "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. Published by Princeton Architectural Press." $ 40.00
 
 
 
Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains. “Why do bad guys live in good houses? From Atlantis in The Spy Who Loved Me to Nathan Bateman's ultra-modern abode in Ex Machina, big-screen villains often live in architectural splendor. From a design standpoint, the villain’s lair, as popularized in many of our favorite movies, is a stunning, sophisticated, envy-inducing expression of the warped drives and desires of its occupant. Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains, celebrates and considers several iconic villains’ lairs from recent film history. From futuristic fantasies to deathtrap-laden hives, from dwellings in space to those under the sea, pop culture and architecture join forces in these outlandish, primarily modern homes and in Lair, which features buildings from fifteen films.” Published by Tra Publishing. $ 75.00
 
 
 
Corine Vermeulen: Your Town Tomorrow. "Your Town Tomorrow (2007 - 2017) acknowledges a resilient community in the midst of challenging transitions. Although documentary in format, it is also a very personal series as it chronicles my life and work in Detroit, the communities where I have lived, and my friends and neighbors. Detroit has been the site of complicated change since I moved here thirteen years ago. Real estate developers and corporate investors have altered the character of the city. The national media claims Detroit is a “new” city of great economic opportunity, but it hardly recognizes the people who have lived here throughout the changes. A city’s residents define its identity; the people of Detroit are essential to its culture and vitality." Self Published. $ 55.00
                                          
 
 
New York Club Kids by Waltpaper. "The embodiment of Generation X, the Club Kids were the last subculture of the analog world. New York: Club Kids is a high-impact visual diary of New York City in the 1990s, seen through the eyes of Walt Cassidy, known as Waltpaper, a central figure within the Club Kids. The Club Kids—named thus by New York Magazine in 1988—were an artistic, fashion-conscious youth movement that crossed over into the public consciousness through appearances on daytime talk shows, magazine editorials, fashion campaigns and music videos, planting the seeds for popular cultural trends such as reality television, self-branding, “influencers” and the gender revolution. Known for their outrageous looks, legendary parties and sometimes illicit antics, the Club Kids were the embodiment of Generation X and would prove to be the last definitive subculture group of the analog world. The ’90s have come to be known as the last discernible and cohesive decade, cherished by those who experienced it and romanticized by those who missed it. The first comprehensive visual document of ’90s nightlife and street culture, New York: Club Kids grants special access to an underground world, providing exclusive insight into the lifestyle of this celebrated and notorious clique. Featuring rare and previously unseen photographs along with magazine editorials and ephemera, the book culls from the personal archives of various photographers and artists—some celebrated, and many others whose recognition is long overdue. Published by Damiani. $ 55.00         

 

Book of the Day Posted Dec 08, 2019

Kevin's Holiday Gift Picks!

Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses by Dominic Bradbury. “A groundbreaking global survey of the finest mid-20th-century homes - one of the most popular styles of our time. A fascinating collection of more than 400 of the world's most glamorous homes from more than 290 architects, the Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses showcases work by such icons as Marcel Breuer, Richard Neutra, Alvar Aalto, and Oscar Niemeyer alongside extraordinary but virtually unknown houses in Australia, Africa, and Asia. A thoroughly researched, comprehensive appraisal, this book is a must-have for all design aficionados, Mid-Century Modern collectors, and readers looking for inspiration for their own homes.” Published by Phaidon. $ 150.00
 
 
MGM Style: Cedric Gibbons and the Art of the Golden Age of Hollywood. " MGM Style is an overview of the career and achievements of Hollywood’s most famous art director. Cedric Gibbons was the supervisor in charge of the art department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studios from its inception in 1924 until Gibbons chose to retire in 1956. Lavishly illustrated with over 175 pristine duotone photographs, the vast majority of which have never before been published, this is the first volume to trace Gibbons’ trendsetting career. At its height in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Gibbons was regularly acknowledged by his peers as having shaped the craft of art direction in American film; his work was recognized as representing the finest in motion picture sets and settings. Gibbons and his associates constructed the villages, towns, streets, squares and edifices that later appeared in hundreds of films, and whose mixed architecture stood in for army camps and the wild west, Dutch New York and Dickensian London, ancient China and modern Japan. Inspired by the work of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus masters, as well as the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris and Frank Lloyd Wright’s experiments with open planning, Gibbons championed the notion that movie decor should move beyond the commercial framework of the popular cinema" Published by Lyons Press. $ 45.00
 
 
Scala Cinema 1978-1993 by Jane Giles & Stephen Woolley. " The most infamous and influential of all British cinemas, the Scala’s iconic programs tell their own unique story about culture and society between 1978-1993, a post-punk / pre-internet period of significant change. The Scala rose from the ashes of a defunct socialist collective on the site of an ancient concert hall and theatre in London's West End. Pushed out of its premises by the arrival of Channel 4 television in 1981, the Scala moved to the Primatarium, a former picture palace and one-time rock venue within spitting distance of north London's King’s Cross station. An exceptionally atmospheric repertory cinema with its mysteriously rumbling auditorium and resident cats, people traveled to the Scala from all over the country to have their minds blown by its alchemical mix of Hollywood classics and cult movies, horror, Kung Fu, LGBT+, animation, silent comedy, Psychotronic and unclassifiable films, combined with live gigs and music club nights. Over a million people went through the doors of the Scala, and its reputation spread far and wide. A lone operator, the Scala closed down in 1993 following a perfect storm of lease expiry, the ravages of the recession… and a devastating court case. 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the first Scala program and 25 years since the cinema's closure, an ideal time to take stock of a legacy which includes many of today’s most exciting filmmakers, who’ve credited the Scala’s influence on their work. Scala Cinema 1978-1993 features the complete collection of all 178 monthly programs plus photographs and ephemera. It is also an in-depth and often outrageous time-traveling history uncovering its deep roots and taking the reader behind the scenes of the Scala. The book will appeal to anyone interested in film or the story of the 1980s." Published by FAB Press. $ 99.95
                            
 
East German Modern. " This visually arresting tour through the former East Germany shows the best examples of modernist architecture still standing there today. The buildings constructed in East Germany after the Second World War are often dismissed as drab, Soviet-style, prefabricated blocks of cement. But the architecture of the German Democratic Republic was created with an eye toward modernity and efficiency, and heralded the birth of a new country and a new economic and social system. Hans Engels has traveled throughout East Germany to photograph iconic modernist buildings that survived demolition. From movie theaters, high-rises, and restaurants to museums, convention centers, and transit stations, these buildings have all stood the test of time. While the philosophy that drove their design may be outdated, their retro appeal is stronger than ever." Published by Prestel. $ 50.00
 
 
Stories on Rye: A Collection of Memories Shared at Canter's Deli Since 1931. "Stories on Rye collects more than 100 stories from the famed LA deli’s patrons and employees, capturing their experiences and memories at Canter’s since it first opened in 1931. Gina Canter’s beautiful illustrations celebrate both the place and its patrons, as voices from the past join the present, to demonstrate that nostalgia can be very much alive. Like the Canter’s booths that have welcomed movie stars and presidents alongside countless everyday people, the book contains a vast range of memories. Most significant, perhaps, is its connection to the Jewish heritage, such as the holocaust survivor who reunites with her family at Canter’s after being separated for over 40 years. Hilarious, touching and perhaps a little magical, Stories on Rye are a testament to the human spirit, and to a restaurant that shares its legacy with each of its patrons.Published by Pomelo & Co. $ 30.00
 
 
Holiday: The Best Travel Magazine that Ever Was. "The first book on magazine sensation Holiday, which between 1946 and 1977 was one of the most exciting publications in the world. Renowned for its bold layouts, literary credibility, and ambitious choice of photographers and artists, Holiday portrayed the romance of travel like no other periodical. At Holiday magazine's peak, urbane editor, Ted Patrick, and visionary art director, Frank Zachary, invited postwar America to see and read about the world. On the journey, readers joined the magazine's renowned roster of talent. Some of the most celebrated writing by Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Joan Didion, Truman Capote, Colette, and E. B. White (his piece "Here Is New York" was commissioned for Holiday in 1949) first appeared in its pages. Henri Cartier-Bresson documented a breathtaking Paris and other cities; Slim Aarons captured the glamour of travel around the world; and Al Hirschfeld and Ludwig Bemelmans contributed showstopping illustrations of places and personages.Pamela Fiori writes about the magazine's history, giving it context during the era of the jet age, world turbulence, and the rise of Madison Avenue advertising. Holiday was a vibrant original, inspiring travel magazines that followed and leaving glorious photography and art as well as thought-provoking journalism in its wake. Published by Rizzoli. $ 85.00
 
 
NFL 100: Century of Football. "Timed to coincide with the National Football League’s 100th anniversary, NFL 100 celebrates the history of America’s most popular and highly watched sport. From its humble beginnings in Canton, Ohio, to its emergence as a sport cherished by millions, all the key moments and famous athletes are honored within the pages of this handsomely produced book. In addition to the lively text, and action and portrait photography, the story of the game and the context in which it grew are animated by original lists, charts, creative statistics, and infographics, along with beautiful photos of the evolving equipment and artifacts essential to the story of the sport. A perfect gift, NFL 100 will be cherished by every football fan, new or old." Published by Abrams. $ 50.00
 
 
Stephen Wilkes. Day to Night. " If you were to stand in one spot at an iconic location for 30 hours and simply observe, never closing your eyes, you still wouldn’t be able to take in all the detail and emotion found in a Stephen Wilkes panoramic photograph. Not only does Wilkes shoot over 1,500 exposures from a fixed angle, he also distills this visual information afterward in his studio, painstakingly composing selected frames into a single image.Day to Night presents 60 epic panoramas created between 2009 and 2018, shot everywhere from Africa’s Serengeti to the Champs-Élysées in Paris, from the Grand Canyon to Coney Island, from Trafalgar Square to Red Square. Each composition is a labor of love as well as patience. Wilkes waited more than two years to gain permission to photograph Pope Francis celebrating Easter mass in the Vatican, ultimately producing a vivid tableau in which the pontiff appears 10 times. The book also features extraordinary details―works of art in their own right that highlight the stories contained within each image. A bride makes her way through Central Park; in Tanzania, zebras gather around a near-invisible watering hole during a drought; in Rio de Janeiro, surfers come and go while a man holds a sign reading “No more than two questions per customer.” “It is exactly these small stories, these details, that draw people into the photographs,” says Wilkes. Once discovered, these mini narratives lend each composition a personal, candid feel." Published by Taschen. $ 150.00
                            
Michael Jang: Who is Michael Jang. "San Francisco–based photographer Michael Jang spent nearly four decades working as a successful commercial portrait photographer. Unbeknownst to the world, however, he was simultaneously assembling a vast archive of thousands of remarkable images documenting, variously: college days, Hollywood celebrities, would-be weather presenters, San Francisco street scenes, his family, Bay Area punks and adolescent garage bands. Jang revealed nothing of his ever-expanding, eclectic archive for almost 40 years until 2001, when he submitted a number of images for consideration to San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. Jang’s work attracted immediate acclaim, and for the past decade he has continued to unveil his considerable oeuvre in national and international exhibitions and monographs. The photographer’s first major monograph, Who Is Michael Jang? highlights Jang's most important bodies of work. Introduced by his longtime collaborator and SFMOMA curator emerita of photography, Sandra Phillips, this volume offers readers a long-overdue introduction to Jang’s incredible images." Published by Atelier Editions.  $ 65.00
 
 
French New Wave: A Revolution In Design. “The French New Wave is one of the most important movements in the history of film. Its fresh energy and vision changed the cinematic landscape and it has had a seminal impact on pop culture. The poster artists tasked with selling these Nouvelle Vague films to the masses were at the forefront of a revolution in art, graphic design and photography. This volume is a visual celebration of their explosive and groundbreaking poster art. Featuring posters from several countries, the diverse imagery for films like Breathless, Fahrenheit 451 and Le Mepris is accompanied by biographies on over 100 artists, photographers and designers – the first time many of those responsible for promoting and portraying this movement have been properly recognized.” Published by Reel Art Press. $ 59.95
 
 
 
Jacques Tati: Complete Works. " Oscar-winning French filmmaker/performer Jacques Tati, one of the most important figures in the history of cinema, is the subject of this comprehensive and long-overdue tribute to a singular artistic genius. Made with the support of Tati’s rights holders Les Films de Mon Oncle, who allowed unprecedented access to his archives, and designed by M/M (Paris), this stunning five-volume publication gathers original essays, interviews, and screenplays, plus hundreds of photographs, stills, letters, sketches, notes, and production materials." Published by Taschen. $ 225.00
 
 
Rick Baker: Metamorphosis. " This deluxe two-volume set explores seven-time Academy Award-winner Rick Baker's 40-plus-year journey as a special makeup effects artist. Features a foreword by John Landis, a preface by Peter Jackson, and an introduction by Rick Baker. Rick Baker: Metamorphosis chronicles the career of the legendary special effects and makeup artist, best known for his creature effects and designs. This deluxe, two-volume set, replete with more than 1,600 four-color images and original sketches, covers the makeup artist's forty-plus-year journey, from his early days as a young "monster maker," creating body parts in his parents' kitchen, to his more than seventy film and television credits, which resulted in seven Academy Awards, one Emmy, and three BAFTAs, among numerous others. From the gory zombies of Michael Jackson's Thriller and the staggeringly lifelike Bigfoot in Harry and the Hendersons to the creative builds in Men in Black and the groundbreaking effects in An American Werewolf in London, Rick Baker's special effects, makeup, and prosthetics count among some of Hollywood's most enduring legacies. Published by Cameron Books. $ 250.00
 
 
 
Decline of Mall Civilization by Michael Galinsky. "In 1989, I was a sophomore at NYU when I took my first photo class, “Color Printing”.  My teacher was awesome and our first assignment was to watch the film “River’s Edge“.  At the time, I was dating a girl who went to Stony Brook and I’d take the Long Island Railroad out to see her every other weekend.  One weekend, shortly after I had started the class and had to find a subject for my class project, I happened to go to the Smith Haven Mall with her and immediately knew I’d found a place to shoot. I was a Religious Studies major who took a lot of anthropology and sociology courses, which helped me to think of the the mall in complex ways. I was especially interested in considering the mall as something of a privatized public square. While I focused on the people, I thought about the way that they interacted with each other and the space. The teacher loved the work and encouraged me to continue it that summer. So my friend Sebastian and I packed ourselves in his Corolla station wagon and we hit the road without any real plan at all. Our first stop was Columbus Ohio. We stayed with my aunt but we didn’t find a mall. We then hightailed it to Detroit where we hit the jackpot with the Woodfield Mall.  It’s a beauty and there are probably a dozen in the book from that one. Next stop was Chicago- then South Dakota, and on and on. All in all, we hit about 15 malls. We got some great images but it wasn’t really their time. By 1989, the “Pictures Generation” – with its focus on more constructed and deconstructed images – had pushed street photography out of the galleries. They were doubling down on big ideas and conceptual work. I went on to take a couple other photo classes, but turned my attention to making music and making films. I shot a lot of images, but my main outlets for them were fanzines and album covers. I moved on to making films.  In 2010, I re-discovered these slides and the rest is history." Published by Rumur. $ 52.00
 

 

Book of the Day Posted Dec 08, 2019

Isabelle's Holiday Gift Picks!

Doug Meyer: Heroes: A Tribute, Pink Art Edition." Heroes: A Tribute celebrates the lives and contributions of 49 brilliant, creative figures who were early victims of HIV/AIDS—unique portraits by artist Doug Meyer reflect the core of each individual and are paired with insightful obituaries. In Heroes: A Tribute artist Doug Meyer celebrates the lives and accomplishments of creative pioneers who were victims of HIV/AIDS in the early years of the epidemic. Brilliant figures from the worlds of art, design, film, and dance are honored here—people such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, Rudolph Nureyev, Freddie Mercury, Rock Hudson, John Duka, Tina Chow, Klaus Nomi, Halston, and Angelo Donghia. The Art Editions of Heroes are stamped, signed, and numbered by Doug Meyer and include a print of the 49th hero. The Pink Art Edition includes a pink version of the print in the back of each copy.  Heroes began as an installation at a Design Industry Foundation to Fight AIDS event and grew into a traveling exhibition. The portraits vary in form, material, and style, and incorporate drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography. In his multi-dimensional artwork, Meyer blends techniques and media, such as terracotta, églomisé, papier-mâché, and computer-generated collage. The text includes essays by Meyer and writer Beth Dunlop as well as brief biographies of each hero that highlight the contributions these figures made to the worlds of art, design, and culture. This beautifully designed book features sophisticated graphic design and includes pages from Doug Meyer’s sketchbooks showing his artistic process. A true celebration, Heroes: A Tribute both pays homage to these visionary creatives who died too soon, and it teaches younger generations about these important figures. This book will appeal to all who have an interest in art, design, fashion, creativity, gay and LGBTQ issues and history, and more." Published by  Tra Publishing, $95.00

 

 

The New Woman's Survival Catalog. "Originally published in 1973, The New Woman’s Survival Catalog is a seminal survey of the second-wave feminist effort across the US. Edited by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie in just five months, The New Woman’s Survival Catalog makes a nod to Stewart Brand’s influential Whole Earth Catalog, mapping a vast network of feminist alternative cultural activity in the 1970s. Grimstad and Rennie set out on a two-month road trip in the summer of 1973, meeting and interviewing a range of organizations and individuals, and gathering vital information on everything from arts groups to bookstores and independent presses, health, parenting and rape crisis centers and educational, legal and financial resources. 'These projects express a rejection of the values of existing institutional structures,” Grimstad and Rennie wrote, “and, unlike the hip male counterculture, represent an active attempt to reshape culture through changing values and consciousness.' Arranged in themed sections on art, communications, work and money, child care, self-help, self-defense and activism, The New Woman’s Survival Catalog provides crucial insight into feminist initiatives and activism nationwide during the Women’s Movement. It includes a “Making the Book” section that details the publication’s production." Published by Primary Information. $30.00

 

 

Becoming Invisible. "Both an artist's book and a would-be practical guide, this beautiful little book offers occult instructions for becoming invisible by meditating on the color spectrum. It draws on the literature of Rosicrucianism, theosophy and esoteric yoga to demonstrate how, through breathing exercises and visualization, the reader can learn to split light into its constituent parts, then recombine the seven colours of the spectrum to form a glowing white cloud that envelops its creator, rendering him or her invisible. Its author, London-based artist Ian Whittlesea—well known for his book works based on spiritual-physical exercises, such as Yves Klein: The Foundations of Judo and Mazdaznan Health & Breath Culture—notes in the preface: "These exercises are intended to allow you to become invisible. This does not, however, mean that you will physically disappear or dematerialize. Instead you will be hidden from view, concealed within a cloud of your own creation."Gorgeous colour abstractions by Whittlesea illustrate the book throughout." Published by The Everyday Press. $25.00

 

 

Art-Rite. "The New York proto-punk zine that defined postconceptualism, now in a facsimile edition. Edited by Walter Robinson, Edit DeAk and Joshua Cohn, Art-Rite was published in New York City between 1973 and 1978. The periodical has long been celebrated for its underground/overground position and its cutting, humorous, on-the-streets coverage and critique of the art world. Art-Rite moved easily through the expansive community it mapped out, paying homage to an emergent generation of artists, including many who were—or would soon become—the defining voices of the era. Through hundreds of interviews, reviews, statements and projects for the page—as well as artist-focused and thematic issues on video, painting, performance and artists' books—Art-Rite's sharp editorial vision and commitment to holding up the work of artists stands as a meaningful and lasting contribution to the art history of New York and beyond. All issues of Art-Rite are collected in this volume. Artists include: Vito Acconci, Kathy Acker, Bas Jan Ader, Laurie Anderson, John Baldessari, Gregory Battcock, Lynda Benglis, Mel Bochner, Marcel Broodthaers, Trisha Brown, Chris Burden, Scott Burton, Ulises Carrión, Judy Chicago, Lucinda Childs, Christo, Diego Cortez, Hanne Darboven, Agnes Denes, Ralston Farina, Richard Foreman, Peggy Gale, Gilbert & George, John Giorno, Philip Glass, Leon Golub, Peter Grass, Julia Heyward, Nancy Holt, Ray Johnson, Joan Jonas, Richard Kern, Lee Krasner, Shigeko Kubota, Les Levine, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Babette Mangolte, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Gordon Matta-Clark, Rosemary Mayer, Annette Messager, Elizabeth Murray, Alice Neel, Brian O'Doherty, Genesis P-Orridge, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, Judy Pfaff, Lil Picard, Yvonne Rainer, Dorothea Rockburne, Ed Ruscha, Robert Ryman, David Salle, Carolee Schneemann, Richard Serra, Jack Smith, Patti Smith, Robert Smithson, Holly Solomon, Naomi Spector, Nancy Spero, Pat Steir, Frank Stella, Alan Suicide (Vega), David Tremlett, Richard Tuttle, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, Lawrence Weiner, Hannah Wilke, Robert Wilson, Yuri and Irene von Zahn." Published by Primary Information. $40.00

 

 

Le Corbuffet: Edible Art and Design Classics. "Esther Choi: Le Corbuffet. "Home-cooking meets highbrow art in this one-of-a-kind cookbook that uses food to create edible interpretations of modern and contemporary sculptures, paintings, architecture, and design. It started as a series of dinner parties that Esther Choi—artist, architectural historian, and self-taught cook—hosted for friends after she stumbled across an elaborate menu crafted for Walter Gropius in 1937. Combining a curiosity about art and design with a deeply felt love of cooking, Choi has assembled a playful collection of recipes that are sure to spark conversation over the dinner table. Featuring Choi’s own spectacular photography, these sixty recipes riff off famous artists or architects and the works they are known for. Try Quiche Haring with the Frida Kale-o Salad, or the Robert Rauschenburger followed by Flan Flavin. This cookbook is strikingly beautiful and provocative as it blurs the boundaries between art and everyday life and celebrates food in an engaging and imaginative way." Published by Prestel. $40.00

 

Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924-Today. "One of the most influential art movements of the 20th century, surrealism expanded our artistic and quotidian reality by drawing upon myths, dreams and the subconscious as sources of artistic inspiration. The movement began in literature and art, but by the 1930s it was beginning to have an impact on design—an influence that continues to this day. The fascination was often mutual: surrealism opened design up to the realm of dreams, and design could introduce surrealism to the wider world. “I try to create fantastic things, magical things, things like in a dream,” Salvador Dalí said of his work. “The world needs more fantasy.” Designers in fashion, furniture design, advertising, theater, film and architecture took up the call. Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design is the first book to document this fascinating conversation. The publication includes numerous essays and a comprehensive selection of images which trace the reciprocal exchanges between surrealism and design by juxtaposing exemplary artworks and design objects. Among the artists and designers featured in this volume are Gae Aulenti, Louise Bourgeois, Umberto and Fernando Campana, Achille Castiglioni, Giorgio de Chirico, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Frederick Kiesler, René Magritte, Carlo Mollino, Meret Oppenheim, Jerszy Seymour, and many others. Historical texts and short commentaries by contemporary designers round out the publication, putting the extravagant objects in context. In-depth yet appropriately fantastical, Objects of Desire makes one thing abundantly clear: form does not always follow function in design—it can also follow our obsessions, fantasies and hidden desires." Published by Vitra Design Museum. $90.00

 

 

Peter Berlin: Icon, Artist, Photosexual. "Peter Berlin was a self-created icon. With his trademark pageboy haircut and his skin-tight costumes that put every detail of his anatomy on display (designed and tailored by Berlin himself to accentuate his already naturally defined physique), he became a gay sex symbol and a walking work of art. Cruising was his career, and with a background in photography, Berlin began taking thousands of erotic self-portraits in the parks, train stations and streets of Berlin, Rome, Paris, New York and San Francisco, where he settled in the early 1970s. As Berlin put it, 'One day I looked at a camera and said, ‘I have found my dream lover.’ Berlin’s ’70s and ’80s self-portrait photography graced the covers of gay magazines, defining a look and a reimagined masculinity in a changing gay male culture. Spotlighting Berlin’s significant body of work, Peter Berlin: Icon, Artist, Photosexual pays tribute to the man who revolutionized the landscape of gay male eroticism and became an international sensation. The book is designed by Omar Sosa, Creative Director of Apartamento magazine, and is edited by Michael Bullock, writer and publisher of BUTT, Pin-Up, Fantastic Man and Gentlewoman magazines. In addition to essays by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jonathan David Katz, Ted Stansfield and Evan Moffitt, the book includes original quotes about Berlin by Jeremy O Harris, Kembra Pfahler, Andre Leon Talley, Armistead Maupin, John Waters, Arca, Silvia Prada, AA Bronson, Jack Pierson, Simon Foxton, Chris Moukarbel, Telfar Clemens, Paul Sepuya, Tim Blanks, Mariah Garnett and Rick Castro. Artist, model and filmmaker Peter Berlin, nee Armin Hagen Freiherr von Hoyningen Huene (born 1942), created some of the most legendary erotic imagery of his day. What began as studies in self-portraiture and fashion design in the name of cruising, by the early 1970s had turned into a robust artistic practice that included the creation of two films―Nights in Black Leather (1973) and That Boy (1974)―and innumerable photographs, paintings and illustrations." Published by Damiani. $ 50.00

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