Book of the Day Posted Mar 31, 2019

Book of the Day > Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work: Film by Film, Stills, Polaroids & Writings

Book of the Day > Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work: Film by Film, Stills, Polaroids & Writings. Published by Schirmer/Mosel.

"With luscious film stills and superb essays by the director and his admirers, this is the essential Tarkovsky compendium

Between 1962 and 1986, Andrey Tarkovsky (1932–86) directed seven feature-length films, all acclaimed as masterpieces of cinema: Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Mirror, Stalker, Nostalgia and Sacrifice. Evading censorship and mounting pressure by Soviet authorities, Tarkovsky decided not to return to the Soviet Union after completing Nostalgia in Tuscany, three years before his death; his final film, Sacrifice, was shot in Sweden in 1985.

This new smaller-format edition of a 2012 publication was compiled and edited by Tarkovsky's son Andrey Jr., along with film historian and critic Hans-Joachim Schlegel and Lothar Schirmer. Beautifully designed and printed, Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work pays homage to a great visionary who produced poetic and sometimes disturbing images of near biblical intensity through his films. Featuring stills from each of his films, a selection of his influential writings, private photographs from the family album, as well as Polaroids from Russia and Italy, it is buttressed with comments from prominent voices who have commented on Tarkovsky's work and personality, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Ingmar Bergman and Aleksandr Sokurov."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 30, 2019

Book of the Day > The Magic of Handwriting

Book of the Day > The Magic of Handwriting. Published by Taschen. "Pedro Corrêa do Lago has gathered one of the world’s finest autograph collections. From a parchment signed by four popes to Stephen Hawking’s thumbprint signature, this book spans nearly 900 years of handwriting from the likes of van Gogh, Michelangelo, Queen Victoria, Einstein, and many more legendary figures across art, literature, science, music, philosophy, and history."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 29, 2019

Book of the Day > A Colorful Life; Gere Kavanaugh, Designer

Book of the Day > A Colorful Life; Gere Kavanaugh, Designer. Published by Princeton Architectural Press.

"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."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 28, 2019

James Beard Nominees

Congratulations to all of the @BeardFoundation nominees including (but not limited to) the creators of these inspiring, enticing, and exquisite books that we love. Best Chef West: @chefjeremyfox, Travis Lett, Jessica Koslow @ prosciuttosnacks; Best Books (various categories): Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta: A Vegetarian Cookbook, Kind Of - @CalPeternell, Wild: Adventure Cookbook - Luisa Brimble; Chicken and Charcoal: Yakitori, Yardbird, Hong Kong - Matt Abergel; Rich Table - Evan Rich and Sarah Rich; Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food - Nik Sharma @abrowntable; SUQAR: Desserts & Sweets from the Modern Middle East - @gregmaloufchef and @lucymaloufwriter; Feast: Food of the Islamic World - @anissahelou; and many more not pictured here as we await re-stock in our ever burgeoning but still nascent culinary section.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 27, 2019

Book of the Day > Jim Shaw: The Wig Museum

Book of the Day > Jim Shaw: The Wig Museum. Published by The Marciano Art Foundation. "The inaugural exhibition of the Marciano Art Foundation, Jim Shaw: The Wig Museum highlights Shaw’s (born 1952) career-long engagement with America’s diverse histories. The Los Angeles local used the enigmatic artifacts found during the transformation of the former Scottish Rite Masonic Temple where the foundation resides—stage sets, robes, costumes and wigs—to construct a metaphor for the wig-wearing masonic and judiciary Anglo-Saxon power that is coming to an end."

None Posted Mar 26, 2019

Book of the Day > Gio Ponti: Archi-Designer

Book of the Day > Gio Ponti: Archi-Designer. Published by SilvanaEditoriale.

"With more than 100 buildings and scores of design objects to his name, Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti revolutionized postwar architecture and opened up prospects for new ways of life.

Gio Ponti: Archi-Designer covers Ponti’s entire career from 1921 to 1978, highlighting the many aspects of his work: from mechanical production to handicraft, from architecture to industrial design, from furniture to lighting, from the creation of magazines to his forays into the fields of glass, ceramics and goldsmithing. His work exemplified a certain tendency identified by his fellow architect Ernesto Rogers in 1952, an interest in designing dal cucchiaio alla città (“from the spoon to the town”)—giving equal attention and applying the same innovative design thinking to small spoon and skyscraper alike.

Featuring more than 500 pieces, this book traces Ponti’s multidisciplinary journeys through architecture, furniture and design in his work for private homes and public buildings, including universities and cathedrals.

Regarded as one of the most influential architects and designers of the 20th century, Giovanni “Gio” Ponti (1891–1979) established his architectural firm in 1921 and was extraordinarily prolific from that point on, working as an architect, industrial designer, artist, furniture designer, teacher and writer. In 1928 he founded the magazine Domus, which he would direct for most of his life, helping to spread his vision of a revitalized modern aesthetics in Italian industrial production, architecture, interior design and the decorative arts."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 24, 2019

Book of the Day > Lily Stockman: Imaginary Gardens

Book of the Day > Lily Stockman: Imaginary Gardens. Published by Charles Moffett. "Limited Edition of 250, signed and numbered by the artist with an essay by Roger White."

None Posted Mar 22, 2019

Book of the Day > Matthew Porter: The Heights

Book of the Day > Matthew Porter: The Heights. Published by Aperture.

"Matthew Porter presents a portfolio of twenty-five images of vintage cars, captured in midair as they careen over city streets and highway intersections. Each photograph is a freeze-frame—a hypothetical film still from a pulp-fiction chase scene. The photographs, known popularly as the “flying car” series, are a hybrid of hyperreality and studied, topographic description, part bittersweet nostalgia and part ironic reinvention of a classic American trope. Rachel Kushner contributes an original piece of writing that riffs on the aesthetic and aspirational nature of the American car."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 21, 2019

Book of the Day > Vitamin T: Threads and Textiles in Contemporary Art

Book of the Day > Vitamin T: Threads and Textiles in Contemporary Art. Published by Phaidon. "A global survey of more than 100 artists, chosen by art-world professionals for their work with threads, stitching, and textiles. Celebrating tapestry, embroidery, stitching, textiles, knitting, and knotting as used by visual artists worldwide, Vitamin T is the latest in the celebrated series in which leading curators, critics, and art professionals nominate living artists for inclusion. As boundaries between art and craft have blurred, artists have increasingly embraced these materials and methods, with the resulting works being coveted by collectors and exhibited in museums worldwide. Vitamin T is a vibrant and incredibly timely survey – the first of its kind."

Book of the Day Posted Mar 20, 2019

Book of the Day > Ethan James Green: Young New York

Book of the Day > Ethan James Green: Young New York. Published by Aperture. "Young New York, Ethan James Green’s first monograph, presents a selection of striking portraits of New York’s millennial scene-makers, a gloriously diverse cast of models, artists, nightlife icons, queer youth, and gender binary–flouting muses of the fashion world and beyond. Under the mentorship of the late David Armstrong, Green developed a sensitive and confident style and an intense connection with his subjects; his luminous black-and-white portraits, many taken in Corlears Hook Park on the Lower East Side, bring to mind Diane Arbus’s midcentury studies of gender nonconformists. Although he often shoots on commission for fashion brands and magazines, for Young New York, Green photographed his close friends and community for more than three years, and his humanist approach transcends the trends of the moment. Young New York promises to announce a bright young talent who is redefining beauty and identity for a new generation. In the words of the model and actress Hari Nef, one of Green’s frequent subjects, 'In Ethan’s world, the kids who inspire him ought to be (and are) the subjects of his work. Ethan is an artist among so-called image makers.'”