Book of the Day Posted Mar 12, 2022

Book of the Day > Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass

● Purchase ● A visual and literary meditation juxtaposing Isaac Julien’s artworks with archival images of Frederick Douglass and essays that consider his enduring legacy

This sumptuously illustrated artist's book and reader documents Lessons of the Hour (2019), the ten-screen film installation and series of related photographic artworks by the internationally acclaimed artist Isaac Julien CBE RA (born 1960), which honor the public and private life of one the most important figures in US history: Frederick Douglass. The visionary African American orator, philosopher, intellectual and self-liberated freedom fighter was born into slavery in Maryland and went on to develop a remarkable aesthetic theory through his thinking and writing on abolitionism and Black self-representation through the apparatus of photography. Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass takes the reader on a journey through Douglass’ life and thinking, and is a vital consideration of his political and aesthetic legacy.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 10, 2022

Book of the Day > Louis Wain's Cats

● Purchase ● ‘Louis Wain invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world’. Broadcast in 1925 by H.G. Wells, these words characteristically foretold the future of the Wain cat which has, once more, become the century’s most recognizable image in cat art. During their heyday, in the time before the First World War, Louis Wain’s cats, dressed as humans, portrayed that stylish Edwardian world having fun: at restaurants and tea parties, going to the Race and the Seaside, celebrating at Christmas and Birthdays, and disporting themselves with exuberant games of tennis, bowls, cricket and football. This is a titillating world of cats at play, uninhibited and slightly dangerous, with most group activities likely to turn into mishap, mayhem and catastrophe. This is Wain’s world, funny, edgy and animated: a whole cat world.

The first comprehensive exhibition of Wain’s work was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1972 and, since then, Louis Wain has steadily become more fashionable, and collected worldwide. This biography contains 300 plates of richness and variety, all of which are reproduced faithfully from the original artwork.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 09, 2022

Book of the Day > Tom Warren: The 1980s Art Scene in New York

● Purchase ● Insider snapshots of the city's thriving downtown culture, with Quentin Crisp, Keith Haring, Kiki Smith and more

The 1980s in New York were full of contradictions and polarities: on the one hand, the city was marked by high crime and the AIDS crisis; on the other hand, the economy was booming, allowing those who profited to live decadently. Artists and cultural workers were attracted to this city of contrasts, and dealt critically with issues such as politics and gentrification, while also enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle. Photographer Tom Warren (born 1954) was a significant part of the New York art scene, gaining notoriety for his artistic repurposing of vacant spaces in the East Village. This monograph showcases his photographs from this period, with images of Barry Blinderman, Cornelius Conboy, Quentin Crisp, Luis Frangella, Keith Haring, Pat Hearn, Marilyn Minter, Lady Pink, Rene Ricard, Judy Rifka, Sandra Seymour, Kiki Smith, Hannah Wilke, David Wojnarowicz and more.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 08, 2022

Book of the Day > Melanie Nissen: Hard + Fast

● Purchase ● Melanie Nissen was the co-founder and photographer of the legendary Los Angeles magazine, Slash. Between 1977-1980 she photographed the Los Angeles punk scene. Taking photos of the fans, the bands and the scene around her.

Local heroes like Screamers, Bags, Germs, X, Go-Go’s, Black Randy, Weirdos, Dils, Zeros, Alley Cats, Deadbeats, Fear along with local legends Brendan Mullen, Kim Fowley, Claude Bessy, Russ Meyer, Penelope Spheeris, northern neighbors The Nuns, Avengers, Crime, Dead Kennedys, The Offs and visitors including Pere Ubu, Magazine, Devo, Damned, Cramps, Dead Boys, Peter Tosh, Ramones and Sex Pistols all form her body of work from this time.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 04, 2022

Book of the Day > Pieter Hugo: Solus Volume I

● Purchase ● Portraits of uncommon beauty from the author of the acclaimed La Cucaracha

In Solus Volume I, South African photographer Pieter Hugo (born 1976) reflects on the values implied by the fashion industry’s shifting aesthetics through portraits of street-cast models found in diverse locations such as London, Paris, New York and South Africa. Hugo found himself captivated by sitters with unconventional and atypical looks, particularly before they underwent the machinations of wardrobe, makeup and hair. Drawn to this uniqueness and recalling the sense of not-belonging that is part of the intense experience of youth, Hugo’s invitation to the models was: “simply present yourself.” The resulting photographs embrace vulnerability and frailty as much as they do the agency and idealism of their subjects. Hugo’s typological study questions fashion’s commodification of youth and the “outsider,” while embracing the beauty of peculiarity worn with acute awareness and the paradox of craving both difference and conformity.

Events Posted Mar 04, 2022

Richard Misrach: Notations Book Signing 3/19, 4:00-6:00 PM

PLEASE JOIN US SATURDAY, MARCH 19th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM FOR A BOOK SIGNING

RICHARD MISRACH: NOTATIONS

If you cannot attend, you may order signed copy of the book to be picked up at the store or shipped to you after the event: please place your order here. Since 2006, coinciding with his shift away from analog film to working exclusively with a digital camera, Richard Misrach has been exploring the aesthetic possibilities of the negative image. His latest body of work, debuted in this deluxe, oversize (16.75 by 13 inches), landscape-format volume, comprises dazzling, sublime photographs of landscapes and natural scenes—in negative, but using color with great dexterity and nuance.

Inspired by Ansel Adams’ comparison of the photographic negative to a musical score, and John Cage’s 1969 book, Notations, which compiles music scores as art, Misrach here envisages the photographic image as a score-like negative, teetering on abstraction, that invites a diversity of interpretations. The result is a series of immense beauty unlike any previous Misrach publication. Published by Radius Books; text by Darius Himes.

Richard Misrach is one of the most influential photographers working today. For the past five decades, he has used visually stunning, large-scale color vistas to address human intervention in the natural world. He lives and works in Berkeley, California.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 03, 2022

Book of the Day > Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines

● Purchase ● An exploration of the personal and artistic connections between two icons of twentieth-century art

Keith Haring (1958–1990) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) changed the art world of the 1980s through their idiosyncratic imagery, radical ideas, and complex sociopolitical commentary. Each artist invented a distinct visual language, employing signs, symbols, and words to convey strong messages in unconventional ways, and each left an indelible legacy that remains a force in contemporary visual and popular culture. Offering fascinating new insights into the artists’ work, Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat reveals the many intersections among Haring and Basquiat’s lives, ideas, and practices.

This lavishly illustrated volume brings together more than two hundred images—works created in public spaces, paintings, sculptures, objects, works on paper, photographs, and more. These rich visuals are accompanied by essays and interviews from renowned scholars, artists, and art critics, exploring the reach and range of Haring and Basquiat’s influence.

Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat provides a valuable look at two artistic peers and boundary breakers whose tragically short but prolific careers left their marks on the art world and beyond.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 02, 2022

Book of the Day > Mary Weatherford: Canyon—Daisy—Eden

● Purchase ● This career-spanning volume documents the first museum retrospective devoted to the work of Mary Weatherford, a daring practitioner of American abstraction and a leading painter of her generation.

Over the last three decades, Mary Weatherford has developed a rich and diverse painting practice, from her early 1990s target paintings based on operatic heroines, to the expansive, gestural canvases overlaid with neon glass-tubing that brought attention to her practice in the 2010s. Mary Weatherford: Canyon—Daisy—Eden presents a survey of Weatherford’s career, drawing from several distinct bodies of work made between 1989 and 2017. As constant experiments with color, scale, and materials, these works as a whole reveal the continuity of Weatherford’s interest in human experience, both personal and historical.

Featuring 120 full-color plates and expansive installation views, this volume—published by Gagosian in association with the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College—documents an exhibition presented at the Tang and at SITE Santa Fe.

Book of the Day Posted Mar 01, 2022

Book of the Day > Elliott Landy: Photographs of Janis Joplin On The Road & On Stage

● Purchase ● Celebrated photographer Elliott Landy presents an intimate look at the legendary female singer-songwriter, Janis Joplin.

Landy's iconic images of Janis, both on the road and in concert, capture and preserve her pure essence as well as her onstage magnificence. Photographs of Janis Joplin: On the Road & On Stage features beautifully reproduced large format images, many never before published.

Janis's own words, taken from recorded interviews by David Dalton, are used as extended captions and paired with photographs to provide insight into the woman behind the legend.

Book of the Day Posted Feb 25, 2022

Book of the Day > Pep Bonet: Hellbangers

● Purchase ● The Hellbangers are the “enfants terribles” of a sleepy, diamonds rich country.

Photographer Pep Bonet (°1974, Mallorca) has been following Overthrust, a heavy metal band from Botswana, Africa, and shows us a growing, exciting and thoroughly organic heavy metal community. Ten years ago, one group existed. Today there are more than ten – and their fans are growing every year.

The inhabitants of Botswana portrayed in this book are tattooed, wear loudly and proudly leather jackets, leather trousers and play heavy death metal music. Imagine the DIY ingenuity of their ‘costume creation’ involving harvested animal skulls and other natural elements.

With names like Demon and Gunsmoke, it would be easy though to think they are thugs, but “We try to be examples. Rock is a wild thing, but also something for the heart”, says Gunsmoke, the heavy metal head. Here too, the lyrics of the songs are very critical towards societies, just like their western peers. Metal in Botswana is rebellious movement against authorities. This is the story of what looks at first to be an unlikely union, yet one which powerfully illustrates how music, how heavy metal music, has become a positively unifying force in an unlikely part of the world.