Jess's Holiday Gift Picks!
Ken Price: Drawings. "Though Los Angeles artist Ken Price (1935–2012) is best known as a sculptor in ceramic, drawing was always a central component of his art: “For me drawing is really flexible,” he once stated, “and I use it in different ways. It’s my way of developing ideas.” Ken Price: Drawings brings out this facet of Price’s work fully for the first time. Featuring 78 of Price’s works on paper―all reproduced for the first time, many at actual size―this book is the most comprehensive ever published on the subject. Technical innovations like five-color printing capture Price’s drawings in all their wayward vitality. From preparatory works, like Price’s early 1960s drawings exploring forms and colors for his abstract sculptures, to his 2000s landscapes featuring wild scenes of erupting volcanoes, cyclonic skies and turbulent seas, Ken Price: Drawings offers a long-overdue survey of Price’s work on paper." Published by Matthew Marks. $60.00
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
Ben Hassett: Color. "Printed with ultraviolet ink in a hand-numbered, slipcased edition of 1,000 copies, Color is the first monograph by British photographer Ben Hassett. In keeping with his acute sense of the powerful language of color photography, Hassett invites us into his world of photographic experimentation to experience the possibilities of this chromatic medium. Color draws together Hassett’s iconic fashion and beauty images, studio still lifes, abstract in-camera works and landscape photographs to present his unique lexicon of color photography. Putting aside the conventions of chronological and project-by-project sequencing, the book instead pursues a dynamic reading that surveys the past ten years of Hassett’s standing as an influential image-maker. Color is designed by veteran art and creative director Fabien Baron (known for his innovative art direction of Harper's Bazaar, Interview and Madonna’s infamous 1992 book Sex) and includes an essay about Ben Hassett’s photographic approach and effect by renowned curator and writer Charlotte Cotton. " Published by Damiani. $ 60.00
John Gossage: Should Nature Change. In John Gossage's words, this is a book "with a particular context, of photographs to settle the feeling that I did not understand my home. To do that I set out, starting in 2003, to see what clarity my pictures might bring." And so came into being these photos of scenes, things, minor events and the look in the eyes of the young, all taken in everyday non iconic places throughout his travels across America. "Should Nature Change," taken from the Book of Isaiah, is for Gossage both a declaration and a warning: "I am a humanist, like most of us are, I can't really step back to see the beauty and order of all this; closeness brings chaos and dread in this case. We have done harm to the place we live, I'm told, but it seems to me that we have done the most harm to ourselves and our best-laid plans. The planet has a plan to fix this, if we don't." Published by Steidl. $ 50.00
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John Gossage: Jack Wilson' Waltz. "Jack Wilson’s Waltz is, in the words of its author, a book “with a particular context, of photographs to settle the feeling that I did not understand about my home. To do that I set out, starting in 2003, to see what clarity my pictures might bring.” And so came into being these photos of scenes, things, minor events and the look in the eyes of the young, all taken in everyday non-iconic places throughout John Gossage’s (born 1946) travels across America. Gossage’s ongoing look at his country within these pages is like a dance: rhythmic, redeeming, restorative, intuitive; but tentatively hopeful. “I would like to believe all of it,” he writes, “that we will be saved, but on Connecticut Avenue there is graffiti that says ‘Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when we need him?’ All I can hear is the faint echoing gun shots coming from Wounded Knee.” Published by Steidl. $ 50.00
Charlotte Perriand: Inventing a New World. " Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) was a pioneer of modern design in France during the twentieth century. Her avant-garde vision was expressed in color, organic forms, and streamlined functionality, elements which are still at the heart of contemporary design today. Her furnishings were created from aluminum, rubber, chrome, leather, bamboo, and above all, wood; their appeal is timeless. This lavishly illustrated book, accompanying a major retrospective at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, explores how much in the vanguard she was in her use of materials, in her social and political awareness, and in her collaborations with artists, architects, and other designers. The show presents a global vision of her creativity, talent, and inventiveness, exploring her commitment to women and to a humanist design ethos that took into account the middle and working classes with an emphasis on rationalizing costs and space. This book, with essays by an international roster of art, architecture, and design historians, offers a plurality of perspectives and explores Perriand's creative legacy through the 20th century and beyond." Published by Gallimard. $ 60.00
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
The Family Acid: California. "For more than 50 years, Roger Steffens has traveled the electric arteries of the counterculture embracing mind-expanding experiences, deep social connection, and unadulterated fun at every turn. And he’s captured it all on film. After serving in Vietnam during the final 26 months of the ‘60s, where he won a Bronze Star for founding a refugee campaign that raised over 100 tons of food and clothing, he spent a year lecturing against the war before settling in Marrakech. Finally returning Stateside in 1972, he immersed himself in the vibrant bohemias of Berkeley, Los Angeles, and beyond, touring his highly-acclaimed one-man show, “Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry.” A psychedelic polymath, Steffens worked as an actor, poet, editor, archivist, lecturer, author, NPR radio DJ and interviewer and, yes, photographer. Driven by his own insatiable curiosity and passion, he was on a perpetual quest for the eccentric, the outlandish, the transcendent. Just as often, it found him, smiling, a camera in one hand and a joint in the other. He met his wife Mary under a lunar eclipse in a pygmy forest in Mendocino, California while on LSD. Soon after, they conjured up a daughter, Kate, and son, Devon. Family vacations took the foursome up and down the West Coast, from the gritty glam of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip to reggae festivals in Humboldt, fiery protests in Berkeley to the ancient redwoods of Big Sur and the wilds of Death Valley. Along the way, they’d rendezvous with likeminded freaks, artists, musicians, and writers, from Bob Marley and Timothy Leary to actor John Ritter and war photographer Tim Page, the inspiration for Dennis Hopper’s character in Apocalypse Now. This book is a collection of snapshots taken between 1968 and 2015 during Roger, Mary, Kate, and Devon’s freewheeling adventures across the visionary state they call home. Think of it as a family album belonging to a very unconventional family." Published by Ozma Records. $75.00
The Castle On Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont by Shawn Levy. “For ninety years, Hollywood's brightest stars have favored the Chateau Marmont as a home away from home. An apartment house-turned-hotel, it has been the backdrop for generations of gossip and folklore: 1930s bombshell Jean Harlow took lovers during her third honeymoon there; director Nicholas Ray slept with his sixteen-year-old Rebel Without a Cause star Natalie Wood; Anthony Perkins and Tab Hunter met poolside and began a secret affair; Jim Morrison swung from the balconies, once falling nearly to his death; John Belushi suffered a fatal overdose in a private bungalow; Lindsay Lohan got the boot after racking up nearly $50,000 in charges in less than two months. Perched above the Sunset Strip like a fairytale castle, the Chateau seems to come from another world entirely. Its singular appearance houses an equally singular history. While a city, an industry, and a culture have changed around it, Chateau Marmont has welcomed the most iconic and iconoclastic personalities in film, music, and media. It appeals to the rich and famous not just for its European ambiance but for its seclusion: Much of what's happened inside the Chateau's walls has eluded the public eye. Until now. With wit and insight, Shawn Levy recounts the wild revelries and scandalous liaisons, the creative breakthroughs and marital breakdowns, the births and deaths that the Chateau has been a party to. Vivid, salacious, and richly informed, Levy's book is a glittering tribute to Hollywood as seen from inside the walls of its most hallowed hotel." Published by Doubleday. $ 28.95
Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Fully Revised 6th Ed.). "Conceived more than fifty years ago by renowned architectural historians Robert Winter and the late, great David Gebhard, this seminal vade mecum of Los Angeles architecture explores every rich potency of the often relentless, but sometimes relenting L.A. cityscape. Beyond an effort of exploration, the guide is an outfit of discovery. And it always has been. When tourists visit, architectural scholars land at LAX, or locals just want to know, they grab the same book: Gebhard and Winter's An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles. First published in 1965 by Los Angeles County Museum of Art as an architectural overview (when few American cities had such a democratic compendium), the Gebhard and Winter guide has evolved to become the veritable "bible" of built Los Angeles. This sixth edition has been extensively revised and edited by Dr. Winter and his trusted collaborator, the award-winning L.A. urban walker Robert Inman." Published by Angel City Press $ 45.00
Stephen Gill - The Pillar. "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. Published by Nobody Books. $75.00
