Book of the Day Posted Apr 14, 2022

Book of the Day > Africa: The Fashion Continent

● Purchase ● Gain new perspective on the vibrant and innovative world of contemporary African fashion design, bursting with fresh creativity and free from reductive stereotypes.

From the runway in Lagos and music festivals in Casablanca or Nairobi, to the “image makers” of Marrakech and the influencers of Dakar or Accra, a new generation of African fashion designers, photographers, bloggers, and hair and makeup artists are redefining the aesthetic contours of the continent. Audacious, humorous, disruptive, and innovative are the bywords of these young creatives who, while drawing upon and revalorizing their heritage, offer an ultra-contemporary perspective on fashion today. A creative revolution is spreading in an extension of continental revindication through cultural reappropriation and the invention of a visual language.

Appliqué figures straight from Ghanaian Asafo flags seem to chant modern slogans as they march across silk dresses, traditional textile prints give power back to women, and Xhosa beaded embroidery serves as an inspiration for modern knitwear. Body-artists transform themselves into platforms for activism, and photographers—using clothing and finery—question identity, gender, and environment. Urban neighborhoods are reframed in a new light through the lens of ubiquitous smartphones.

This volume celebrates a creative, effervescent generation, which—by breaking the rules and rewriting the narrative of the African continent—is inventing a new and resolutely African chapter in the history of fashion that is now resonating across the globe.

Book of the Day Posted Apr 12, 2022

Book of the Day > Somaya Critchlow: Paintings

● Purchase ● Critchlow’s portraits of Black women transform Western portraiture and conflate kitsch with tradition

Somaya Critchlow’s canvases and sketchbooks log an ongoing process of world building. The artist fashions these realms by drawing upon her expansive knowledge of picture-making traditions ranging from the Renaissance to the Rococo. In charting the ever-expanding dimensions of this female-dominated universe, Critchlow casually disarms the distinctions that inform concepts of high and low culture by uncovering the ways in which class and racial difference are routinely conflated. The voluptuous, self-possessed women who explore Critchlow’s fantasy landscapes and pensively occupy domestic interiors or otherwise blank pages owe as much to the aesthetics of Love and Hip Hop as they do to Peter Paul Rubens, and thus prompt the viewer to consider the disparate ways in which we esteem these forms of culture—and the women they feature.

Book of the Day Posted Apr 09, 2022

Book of the Day > 10%: Concerning the Image Archive of a Nuclear Research Center

● Purchase ● On the semiotics of a nuclear archive

“Unknown lady in the radiation department”; “dancing couple in costume”; “damage to a waste drum”; “retiree send-off”; “lead shielding”; “burnt-out glovebox”; “scorpion with microchip”; these are just some of the singular captions accompanying the archival photographs from Germany's first major nuclear research facility. In 1956, professional photographers began making an on-site record of procedures at the Nuclear Research Center Karlsruhe (KfK). In 2017, the decision was made to digitize 10% of this visual archive.

Using current concerns about the whereabouts of contaminated nuclear waste as a springboard, this publication brings together over 30 viewpoints from the realms of art, sociology, politics and science, as well as the accounts of people directly involved with the facility.

Book of the Day Posted Apr 08, 2022

Book of the Day > Amani Willett: A Parallel Road (Second Edition Hardcover)

● Purchase ● A romantic concept of ‘The Road’ has been embraced in American popular culture since the mid-20th century. Writers, artists and photographers, many inspired by revelations surrounding the Beat Generation’s legendary road trips, have long portrayed the idea of the road as a metaphorical symbol of freedom, independence and self-discovery.

Strikingly absent from this cumulative portrait is the Black American experience of the road which is often associated with fear, violence and death rather than freedom. This stark contrast is in conflict with the promise of familial fun times that the road trip afforded to white Americans.

In 1936, in response to the grave dangers faced by African American travelers, New York postman Victor Green created the Negro Motorist Green Book, a practical and necessary survival guide listing safe places where Black people could eat, sleep and find services along their journey without a dreadful fear for losing their lives. The guidebook was published annually for thirty years.

Mixing recent portraits and landscapes, digital screenshots and archival material—including pictures from Willett’s own family archive—A Parallel Road pays homage to Victor Green’s book, 84 years after it was first published, and sheds light on an experience of the road that has long been overlooked. It is produced in the same size as the original Green Book.

This nuanced and multi-layered work explores themes of history, racism, violence and Black identity in the United States, reflecting on the nation’s past and present while encouraging inclusivity and dialogue surrounding a complex and integral American story. While 54 years have passed since Green’s book ceased publication, it remains profoundly relevant in a time when the mere act of being on the road still threatens to be lethal for Black Americans.

Book of the Day Posted Apr 07, 2022

Book of the Day > (Nothing but) Flowers

● Purchase ● An opulent, joyful homage to the many ways of painting flowers, from Charles Burchfield to Amy Sillman

“Flowers are always working in the service of the passage of time,” writes Helen Molesworth in the opening pages of (Nothing but) Flowers. “In all of the paintings in this book where flowers are depicted, innocently standing in their vases, the minor gestures of gathering, arranging and display can be seen as a verb list dedicated to world-building.” This clothbound volume gathers paintings of flowers by more than 50 artists from Charles Burchfield to Amy Sillman, Joe Brainard to Lisa Yuskavage, who have explored the perennial appeal of this richest and yet simplest of subjects. (Nothing but) Flowers demonstrates the capacity of the humble botanical motif to capture sorrow, stimulate rehabilitation, and guide us through periods of mourning, celebration and rebirth. Writers Hilton Als, Helen Molesworth and David Rimanelli contribute meditations on the many resonances of flowers in art.

Artists include: Gertrude Abercrombie, Marina Adams, Henni Alftan, Ed Baynard, Nell Blaine, Dike Blair, Vern Blosum, Joe Brainard, Cecily Brown, Charles Burchfield, Matt Connors, Andrew Cranston, Ann Craven, Stephanie Crawford, Somaya Critchlow, Verne Dawson, Lois Dodd, Peter Doig, Nicole Eisenman, Ida Ekblad, Minnie Evans, Marley Freeman, Jane Freilicher, Mark Grotjahn, James Harrison, Lubaina Himid, Samuel Hindolo, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Max Jansons, Ernst Yohji Jaeger, Sanya Kantarovsky, Alex Katz, Karen Kilimnik, Zenzaburo Kojima, Matvey Levenstein, Shannon Cartier Lucy, Calvin Marcus, Helen Marden, Jeanette Mundt, Soumya Netrabile, Woody De Othello, Sanou Oumar, Jennifer Packer, Nicolas Party, Hilary Pecis, Richard Pettibone, Elizabeth Peyton, Amy Sillman, Elaine Sturtevant, Tabboo!, Honor Titus, Uman, Susan Jane Walp, Stanley Whitney, Jonas Wood, Matthew Wong, Albert York, Manoucher Yektai and Lisa Yuskavage.

In the News Posted Apr 06, 2022

Getty Acquires the "Whitney and Lee Kaplan African American Visual Culture Collection"

4/1/22

After months and months of keeping things under wraps, we are very proud - and excited - to be able to announce that the “Whitney and Lee Kaplan African American Visual Culture Collection” of printed materials documenting the visual culture and representation of African Americans and the African Diaspora in the Western Hemisphere has found a fantastic “forever home” at the Getty Research Institute!

I began this journey in 1989 with the purchase of the now incredibly-coveted Charles White Brown Pharmaceutical print portfolio and a self-imposed challenge to amass as many books on African American artists in my book-buying forays as I could. By 2020, this archive had grown to 3500 exhibition catalogues, periodicals, posters, announcements, and bits of ephemera including much material on a vibrant Post-War Los Angeles art scene with the likes of Betye Saar, Samella Lewis, David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, Ed Bereal, Bernie Casey, John Outterbridge, and Kerry James Marshall up through Charles Gaines, Henry Taylor, Mark Bradford, Martine Syms, Devin Troy Strother, Senon Williams, and Devin Reynolds. And so many others.

Now, over thirty years later, we are overjoyed that this archive has been acquired by the Getty and will remain a vital resource in the city we love.

We owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to all of the artists, photographers, booksellers, curators, gallerists, collectors, and individuals that helped make this possible. We are particularly indebted to Simone Fujita and Kathleen Salomon at the Getty Research Institute for making our wish of placing this collection in the best possible hands come true. – Lee Kaplan

Link to full press release here: https://www.getty.edu/news/getty-library-acquires-major-private-collection-of-published-material-on-african-american-art-and-artists/

Book of the Day > Gerry Johansson: Spanish Summer

● Purchase ● Over more than three decades, Gerry Johansson has brought his shrewd and sensitive eye to bear on peripheral landscapes the world over, from Ulan Bator to Antarctica. Spanish Summer sees him return to one of the first places that captured his imagination: the plains of central Spain. The chapel remained etched into Johansson’s memory and, decades later, led him to return and rediscover the country’s architectural heritage, religious significance, and beauty. With these images, a survey is conducted of a landscape into which thousands of years of cultural traces have bedded down. Johansson’s exacting composition and delicate black-and-white tonalities reveal a transient territory in which telephone wires transcend hoary crucifixes, modern plaster meets timeworn stone, and the shadows of industrial megaliths reach blindly across the dust.

Book of the Day Posted Apr 02, 2022

Book of the Day > Rebel Stylist: Caroline Baker - The Woman Who Invented Street Fashion

● Purchase ● Caroline Baker is the antidote to high fashion. As the legendary fashion editor of Nova magazine in the 1960s and '70s, her style was quite literally cutting-edge (she famously chopped up clothes to achieve her desired looks). She is credited with challenging the status quo of the industry and society at large, and introducing street fashion to the mass market. Stylist-of-choice for the most dynamic female designers on the scene – Katharine Hamnett and Vivienne Westwood – Caroline has continued her trajectory as a fashion provocateur. Her work has appeared on the pages of Vogue, Tatler and Cosmopolitan as well as The Face and i-D – and unsurprisingly, a new generation of style-setters is now looking to Baker’s back catalogue for inspiration.

This book offers an in-depth overview of Baker’s work, expertly curated and considered by Iain R. Webb. It is divided into sections that highlight specific recurring themes and tropes – such as Punk Rock, DIY, Utility and Sportswear. These ideas have defined Baker’s evolving sartorial vocabulary over six decades, and set a template for street fashion that endures to this day. Accompanied with personal commentary from Baker herself and specially written contributions by Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett, this is the definitive guide to Caroline Baker and her influence on fashion.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 31, 2022

Book of the Day > i-D: Wink and Smile!: The First Forty Years

● Purchase ● i-D began as a fanzine dedicated to the street style of punk-era London in 1980 and quickly earned its position at the vanguard of fashion and style, abiding by the premise of “originate—don’t imitate.” This anniversary volume is the ultimate tribute to the irreverent and forward-thinking magazine that revolutionized not only the world of fashion publishing but fashion itself.

Over the 40 years since its launch, i-D has grown from a hand-stapled zine to one of the world’s leading international style titles with two million Instagram followers. Founded by Terry Jones in 1980, i-D began as a chronicle of style and attitude as much as a fashion bible, and over the years it has kept to that ethos, in the process becoming a nurturing ground for generations of fashion talents, from David Sims to Juergen Teller, Edward Enninful to Wolfgang Tillmans, Tyler Mitchell to Harley Weir.

This celebratory volume commemorates the 40th anniversary of i-D through the prism of different cultural eras, with each chapter focusing on a decade of the magazine’s history and featuring a mix of original rephotographed spreads from the magazine, reprinted text pieces, archival imagery, covers, and new essays exploring both the history of i-D and the wider cultural contexts of the era it was created in. It’s a magazine that has given Greta Thunberg, Madonna, Naomi Campbell, and Sonic the Hedgehog their first covers; that invented the emoticon; and that, across 40 years and 500 cover winks, has had one defining message: that fashion should be inclusive, fun, diverse, and—always—original.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 30, 2022

Book of the Day > Lucas Foglia: Summer After

● Purchase ● “This is how I remember New York City in 2002. I was 19 years old and had just moved to Manhattan from my family’s small farm on Long Island. It was the first summer after the September 11 attacks. Workers were removing the last of the debris from the collapsed Twin Towers. The city felt both immense and fragile compared to the groundedness of my childhood home.”

“On weekdays, I worked in Arnold Newman’s photography studio. After hours and on weekends, I walked through the city’s five boroughs with my camera. When someone made eye contact with me, I asked if I could make a portrait of them. At first, I assumed people would respond with caution. I was a stranger. The city was recovering from an event that shook its sense of security. Yet, most people said yes and looked straight into my camera lens. I am grateful they chose to trust me.” - Lucas Foglia

Published on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Lucas Foglia’s portraits show the tremendous diversity of New York City. Everyone is portrayed with dignity, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. Today, as the world begins to heal from the coronavirus pandemic, the photographs remind us to approach strangers with compassion, across social distances.