Individual artists, art monographs Books

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Book SynopsisA long-term project by Belgian artist Philippe van Wolputte that spans over a decade, Temporary Penetrable Exhibition Space' comprises a number of site-specific interventions in the public or semi-public space. The majority are temporary actions which are also clandestine or illegal, meaning that they generally go unnoticed by visitors or passers-by. In so doing, Van Wolputte raises questions about where the work begins or ends, what its boundaries are, whether or not the interventions actually took place, and if we are even able to tell the difference. Existing between the lines of fact and fiction, the sites documented in this volume cleverly address the notion of urban memory.

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Book SynopsisThe lasting one, that didn't last, that still lasts is an overview of Hannelore Van Dijcks most recent work. Van Dijck works with charcoal on paper and in situ. With text contributions by Michael Newman, Laura Stamps and Christophe Van Gerrewey. When Van Dijck brings a new skin' to a space, by completely covering the walls with a drawing, or sometimes the floor or ceiling, she confounds expectations by doing the very opposite of what might be expected in a regular-sized drawing. As certain properties of the walls come to the fore, others are automatically hidden. She distorts' space. Time and time again, she will execute a tour de force that allows us to see what she sees, to view what she deems important. When, charcoal in hand, she finds her rhythm, she can draw for days, and long into the night. It is a form of craftsmanship and, with it, she brings the space to life. She is present even when absent. Her hand is, indeed, everywhere. By allowing us to share her unique perception of space, she confronts us with what we think we see. (Laura Stamps)Van Dijck's drawing is not the work of the day, but rather a nocturnal work, whether carried out during the day or not. Its light is not solar but lunar. (Michael Newman)

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Book SynopsisArt, Engagement, Economy: the Working Practice of Caroline Woolard proposes a politics of transparent production in the arts, whereby heated negotiations and mundane budgets are presented alongside documentation of finished gallery installations. Readers follow the behind-the-scenes work that is required to produce interdisciplinary art projects, from a commission at MoMA to a self-organized, international barter network with over 20,000 participants. With contextual analysis of the political economy of the arts, from the financial crisis of 2008 to the COVID pandemic of 2020, this book suggests that artists can bring studio-based sculptural techniques to an approach to art-making that emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue. Foreword by Patricia C. Phillips; introduction by Caroline Woolard; texts by D. Graham Burnett, Alison Burstein, Stamatina Gregory, Larissa Harris, Leigh Claire La Berge, Stephanie Owens, Cybele Maylone, Steven Matijcio, Sheetal Prajapati, Caitlin Rubin, Gabrielle Lavin Suzenski, and Caroline Woolard; interviews by Thyrza Nichols Goodeve and Tina Rivers Ryan.

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Book SynopsisÓscar Monzón undertook, in Madrid, between 2009 and 2013, a large scale project on the sphere of cars, and more precisely on the drivers'' relationship to their automobile. This work results in the book Karma. Never fabricated, these photos, most of which we can imagine were stolen, refer to Luc Boltanski''s concept of body car. Being the only object which both completely absorbs us and that we can manipulate at our own will from the inside, cars cause a sensation of passing elsewhere with a sense of security. They offer a private space among the midst of public sphere and create a familiar realm which permits the most private experiences. Óscar Monzón is interested in this distinctive feature, he violates the enclosed space, catches the scenery with a flash and defies the privacy of the cars drivers. Winner of Aperture Paris Photobook Award 2013.

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Book SynopsisOn the 18th of April 2013, Anouk Kruithof and two assistants went to Wall Street in New York City and built a temporary installation of 14 framed prints of different sizes on the edge of the city's pavement. The prints looked like pixelated monochromes, but were in fact illustrations blown up to a maximum size (3200% in Photoshop) of images found by using Google, searching the word stress. Anouk Kruithof asked pedestrians to look at the installation and then had conversations about the pixelated monochromes, the meaning of this project and the potential interpretations of the work. Kruithof asked the people involved if they would like to buy a print, both engaging a commercial gesture and condemning the scarcity of the city dwellers encounterings. She sold 8 of the 14 prints bought by 7 participants when the day's rain warded off further efforts. Kruithof is not allowed to conduct monetary transactions, so that once a participant told her a price for the print, she actually gave it away for free, thus creating an imaginary sale.

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Book SynopsisOIL, CARPET TACKS, ACRYLIC, GESSO, GOUACHE, TWIGS, THE OCCASIONAL SPRAY PAINT, PENCIL, DABS OF WATERCOLOR, FOUND PHOTOGRAPHS, FOUND FRAMES, BANDAGES, A PAPER BAG OR TWO, SCREWS, ALUMINIUM FOIL, SWEET WRAPPERS, SCRAP WOOD. THE MARGINAL MEETS IN THE PAINTINGS OF FERGUS FEEHILY (1968, DUBLIN, IRELAND), PAINTINGS THAT THEMSELVES STAND AT THE PERIPHERY OF CONTEMPORARY PAINTERLY CONVENTIONS WHOSE SUBTLE ACTIVITY, AS MARTIN HERBERT OBSERVES, IS ON ITS WAY SOMEWHERE ELSE, DRIFTING OUT OF VIEW. THIS BOOK IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE MONOGRAPH ON THE ARTIST TO DATE. IT BRINGS INTO VIEW MORE THAN ONE-HUNDRED WORKS MADE OVER MORE THAN 15 YEARS ALONGSIDE CLIPPINGS, NOTES, AND RESEARCH MATERIAL FROM THE ARTIST'S ARCHIVE AS WELL AS EXHIBITIONS STAGED FROM AACHEN TO MEXICO CITY TO TOKYO. ESSAYS BY MARTIN HERBERT, CURATOR CHRIS SHARP, AND ARTIST SARAH BRAMAN CELEBRATE FEEHILY'S REMINDER OF, AS WRITES THE LATTER, THE JOY OF JUST LOOKING.

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Book SynopsisOffers a compendium of the greatest sad songs and artists of the modern era and a collection of essays that attempts to explain what exactly draws us to sad music, and how sad music actually makes us happy.Trade Review"A comprehensive, sharply written journey through the music of sadness, of every stripe and from every genre...Whether read straight through or dipped into at random, in times of despair or not, this is a most helpful musical sourcebook through every kind of blue." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Highly entertaining." -- Publishers Weekly "For the meticulously melancholy music fan in all of us, a celebration of songs with a dark side. This Will End in Tears gathers the downest, doomiest sounds in rock, soul, jazz, the blues, and any music that can put a serious chill in your evening." -- Rob Sheffield, author of Love Is A Mix Tape and Talking To Girls About Duran Duran "Sad sacks of the world: Rejoice! Adam Brent Houghtaling has ingeniously compiled the ultimate guide to this cruel world's maestros of miserabilism. The feel bad book of the year!" -- Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, co-authors of I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution "Breaking up is hard to do, but not when you've got a book like this to help you make the saddest playlist of all time. Now, someone pass me a Kleenex...and that Elliott Smith album." -- Leslie Simon, co-author of Everybody Hurts and author of Wish You Were Here "Sad songs say so much, but Adam Brent Houghtaling has a lot to add to the conversation. This Will End in Tears is a book well worth wallowing in." -- Mark Yarm, author of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge

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Book SynopsisNow, award-winning journalist Carl Hoffman reveals startling new evidence that finally tells the full, astonishing story.Retracing Michael's steps, Hoffman traveled to the jungles of New Guinea, immersing himself in a world of former headhunters and cannibals, secret spirits and customs, and getting to know generations of Asmat.Trade Review"[Hoffman's] reporting takes hold, drawing a vivid portrait of the world of the Asmat people, hunter-gatherers who lived in isolation until the mid-20th century. Gripping." -- New York Times Book Review "In an expertly told tale that is begging for a film adaptation, Hoffman crafts a remarkable, balanced examination of this sensational case... [He] deserves much credit for this riveting, multilayered tale." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "With urgency boarding on obsession, Carl Hoffman retraces Rockefeller's perilous footsteps. The result is a hypnotic journey into otherness, a wild detective story amid cannibals and headhunters. A thrilling, one-of-a-kind tale -I couldn't stop reading." -- Andrew McCarthy, The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down "A bare-knuckle, adventure-filled journey in search of the answer to a half-century-old cold case: Whatever happened to Nelson Rockefeller's son, Michael? ... A searching, discomfiting journey yields an elegant, memorable report." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A tremendous accomplishment-easily one of the best books I read this year. Carl Hoffman's acute eye for detail is something to envy. And that closing passage will stick with me for a long, long time." -- Brendan I. Keorner, The Skies Belong To Us: Love and Terror in the Golden age of Hijacking "Not only has Carl Hoffman helped solve one of the great mysteries of the last 50 years, he has also written a page turner. An instant classic." -- Scott Wallace, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribe "A gripping whodunit... a powerful book that succeeds in solving a half-century-old mystery." -- Wall Street Journal "Terrific ... What's surprising about this book is not the revelation of Rockefeller's fate but rather the author's portrayal of a unique cultural encounter." -- Washington Post "Hoffman is an intelligent writer... [the]best kind of non-fiction writing." -- The Globe and Mail "Compelling. Intoxicating. Sensational. Savage Harvest is a great read, as long as you're not eating lunch." -- Newsweek "A gripping read ... he's erected a solid foundation of reporting that goes far beyond what the rest of us did and is likely to make this the definitive account." -- Tim Sohn, Slate "Richly detailed ... nail-biting expose...Savage Harvest fascinates for the mystery it aims to solve as well as its portrait of an isolated but changing way of life." -- Chicago Tribune

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Book SynopsisAn exuberant biography of the life of the iconic photographer and naturalist Peter Beard, whose life and work captured the cultural imagination  Peter Beard lived an astonishing life. The artist, wildlife photographer, and bon vivant enthralled and inspired both because of his work and his legendary lifestyle. A scion of American industry turned explorer of Africa and environmental advocate, Beard embodied the extremes of his time: grand adventurer and sexually voracious partier, friend of everyone from the Rolling Stones to Jackie Onassis to Andy Warhol to Karen Blixen. And Beard had a passion—probably more like an obsession—with the faults of the entire human experiment, with the ways in which our consumption of the world’s resources have come to consume us all. Beard’s outsize life and character—his death-defying documentation of both the endangered wildlife of Africa, and, closer to home, some of the world’s most beautiful women for a range of fashion magazines—animate this lively but authoritative biography. The journalist Christopher Wallace, long fascinated by Beard’s artistic legacy, adventurous spirit, and hard-partying persona, came to know him well later in Beard’s life. Capturing the varied social and cultural scenes that Beard moved through with glamorous ease over five decades, Wallace also makes a powerful case for the lasting impact of his work. In Twentieth-Century Man, Wallace has rendered this towering figure in all of his contradictions and complexities—a deeply romantic and idiosyncratic personality, beloved by so many, whose sensibilities nonetheless remained firmly rooted in an era characterized by racist and colonialist attitudes. Stirring and visceral, Twentieth-Century Man is the definitive portrait of Peter Beard.  

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Book SynopsisThe first biography of Grace Hartigan (1922-2008) traces her rise from self-taught painter to art-world fame in New York, her plunge into obscurity after moving to Baltimore, her constant efforts at artistic reinvention, and her tumultuous personal life, including four troubled marriages and a chilly relationship with her only child.Trade ReviewCurtis's biography capture the mute stubbornness involved in persisting with life, despite its many disappointments. * Jenni Quilter, London Review of Books *This spirited biography is the first to chart the career of Abstract Expressionist Hartigan (1922-2008), a painter with as much swagger as any of her male peers...an accessible portrait of a gutsy AbEx figure. * Publishers Weekly *A fascinating look at the life of Grace Hartigan, a tough Abstract Expressionist woman artist who drank with the best of the men and had a sexual appetite that equaled the alcohol. Ambitious, driven and wrestling inner demons she abandons her only child for what she believed to be necessary for her life as an artist. Cathy Curtis deals with it all in her inclusive and well documented book. * Audrey Flack *Cathy Curtis brings us a driven, determined, and dedicated Grace Hartigan who, as a rebellious young artist, attained a rare degree of success in the 1950s among the male abstract expressionist painters of the New York School. This expertly researched biography gives us a vivid, insightful, and fascinating glimpse into the world of the well-known artists and writers-including Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Frank O'Hara-whom Hartigan knew so well. * Laurie Lisle , author of Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, and Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life *At last, a life of the incomparable Grace! Cathy Curtis's biography is as colorful, tough-minded, and incisive as Hartigan's work at its best. * Patricia Albers, author of Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter: A Life *Table of ContentsContents ; How I Came to Write This Book ; Prologue: The Weekend That Changed Her Life ; PART ONE: Escape Artist (1922-1944) ; Chapter One: Dreaming ; Chapter Two: Searching ; Chapter Three: Learning ; PART TWO: New York Adventure (1945-1949) ; Chapter Four: Risking ; Chapter Five: Connecting ; Chapter Six: Coping ; PART THREE: Rising Star (1950-1955) ; Chapter Seven: Struggling ; Chapter Eight: Launching ; Chapter Nine: Succeeding ; Chapter Ten: Asserting ; color plates ; PART FOUR: Fame (1956-1960) ; Chapter Eleven: Celebrating ; Chapter Twelve: Swerving ; color plates ; PART FIVE: Beginning Again in Baltimore (1961-2008) ; Chapter Thirteen: Drifting ; Chapter Fourteen: Teaching ; Chapter Fifteen: Unraveling ; Chapter Sixteen: Renewing ; Chapter Seventeen: Prevailing ; Acknowledgements ; Notes ; Selected Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisThe first collection of essays on Gerhard Richter, who has been called ?the greatest modern painter.?The contemporary painter Gerhard Richter (born in 1932) has been heralded both as modernity''s last painter and as painting''s modern savior, seen to represent both the end of painting and its resurrection. Richter works in a dizzying variety of styles, from abstraction to a German cool pop that combines painterly technique and appropriation; his work includes photo paintings, large abstract canvases, and stained glass windows. This collection features writing by prominent critics, including Hal Foster, Gertrud Koch, and Thomas Crow; an essay by Rachel Haidu on Richter''s family pictures that is published here for the first time; and an essay and two interviews with the artist by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Richter''s ?longtime sparring partner? (as the curator Robert Storr has called him). These writings examine Richter''s work as a whole, from October 18, 1977, his dreamlike series of paintings depicting the dead Baader-Meinhof gang, to his abstract trio Abstract Paintings; from his unsettling portrait of ?Uncle Rudi? in Nazi garb to his late series of portraits of his wife and young child. This addition to the October Files series will be an essential handbook to one of the most enigmatic figures in contemporary artContents Gerhard Richter and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh Interview (1986) Gertrud Koch The Richter-Scale of Blur (1992) Thomas Crow Hand-Made Photographs and Homeless Representation (1992) Birgit Pelzer The Tragic Desire (1993) Benjamin H. D. Buchloh Divided Memory and Post-Traditional Identity: Gerhard Richter''s Work of Mourning (1996) Peter Osborne Abstract Images: Sign, Image, and Aesthetic in Gerhard Richter''s Painting (1998) Hal Foster Semblance According to Gerhard Richter (2003) Johannes Meinhardt Illusionism in Painting and the Punctum of Photography (2005) Rachel Haidu Arrogant Texts: Gerhard Richter''s Family Pictures (2007) Gerhard Richter and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh Interview (2004)

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Book SynopsisThe first book-length study of this influential artist's work, focusing on the participatory role of the human subject rather than the art object.Michael Asher doesn't make typical installations. Instead, he extracts his art from the institutions in which it is shown, culling it from collections, histories, or museums' own walls. Since the late 1960s, Asher has been creating situations that have not only taught us about the conditions and contexts of contemporary art, but have worked to define it.In Situation Aesthetics, Kirsi Peltomäki examines Asher's practice by analyzing the social situations that the artist constructs in his work for viewers, participants, and institutional representatives (including gallery directors, curators, and other museum staff members). Drawing on art criticism, the reports of viewers and participants in Asher's projects, and the artist's own archives, Peltomäki offers a comprehensive account of Asher's work over the past

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Book SynopsisThe first biography of the enigmatic dadaist known as the Baroness—Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927) is considered by many to be the first American dadaist as well as the mother of dada. An innovator in poetic form and an early creator of junk sculpture, the Baroness was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances. Some thought her merely crazed, others thought her a genius. The editor Margaret Anderson called her perhaps the only figure of our generation who deserves the epithet extraordinary. Yet despite her great notoriety and influence, until recently her story and work have been little known outside the circle of modernist scholars.In Baroness Elsa, Irene Gammel traces the extraordinary life and work of this daring woman, viewing her in the context of female dada and the historical battles fought by women in the early twentieth century. Striding through the streets of Berlin, Munich, New Yo

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Book SynopsisA biography of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, 18th-century German philosopher and aesthetician. Analyzing Winckelmann's magnum opus, "History of the Art of Antiquity", it explains the fundamental importance to art history of this account of the aesthetic and imaginative Greek ideal in art.

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Book SynopsisNo biographer could ask for a more colourful or difficult subject than the painter and revolutionary Gustave Courbet. One of the fathers of Realism, a style he created with his huge canvases of his birthplace in Ornans ( After Dinner at Ornans, 1949 Funeral at Ornans, 1850, and The Stonebreakers, 1850), Courbet chose his subjects from ordinary life and portrayed them with the same monumental dignity as the great men of history. A man with big appetites for life, women, and politics, he frequently found himself at odds with French authorities, especially during the period of the Commune when he and his friends pulled down the Vendome Column. Impressionism and Modernism would be unthinkable without his fierce opposition to the academies of art. This biography by one of the most reliable students of French art paints a large and fascinating canvas, which Courbet dominates but never overwhelms.

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Book SynopsisAlthough his popularity is eclipsed by Rembrandt today, Peter Paul Rubens was revered by his contemporaries as the greatest painter of his era, if not of all history.  His undeniable artistic genius, bolstered by a modest disposition and a reputation as a man of tact and discretion, made him a favorite among monarchs and political leaders across Europe—and gave him the perfect cover for the clandestine activities that shaped the landscape of seventeenth-century politics.  In Master of Shadows, Mark Lamster brilliantly recreates the culture, religious conflicts, and political intrigues of Rubens’s time, following the painter from Antwerp to London, Madrid, Paris, and Rome and providing an insightful exploration of Rubens’s art as well as the private passions that influenced it.

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Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The definitive biography for decades to come.”—Leo Jansen, curator, the Van Gogh Museum, and co-editor of Vincent van Gogh: The Complete LettersSteven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, who galvanized readers with their Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Jackson Pollock, have written another tour de force—an exquisitely detailed, compellingly readable portrait of Vincent van Gogh. Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Naifeh and Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials to bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist: his early struggles to find his place in the world; his intense relationship with his brother Theo; and his move to Provence, where he painted some of the best-loved works in Western art. The authors also shed new light on many unexplored aspects of Van Go

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Book SynopsisTold with consummate skill by the writer of the bestselling, award-winning A Civil Action, The Lost Painting is a remarkable synthesis of history and detective story.  An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, a decaying palazzo facing the sea, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, lit by a single bulb, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries. The artist was Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. He rose from obscurity

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Book Synopsis“As richly textured as a novel, and as full of idiosyncrasy, pleasure, and pathos as real life. The author has done a wonderful job of conjuring, and Dora Carrington’s story is vivid and moving.” —Meg Wolitzer

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Book SynopsisHans Luijten, Leo Jansen and Nienke Bakker are the original team of editors who produced the acclaimed six-volume edition in 2009 at the Van Gogh Museum in partnership with the Huygens ING, Amsterdam.

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Book SynopsisAs children, learning to read, we look first at the illustrations but how do these tell their stories differently to the words? Words & Pictures explores this question through three encounters between writers and artists. It looks at how artists have responded to two great, contrasting works, Paradise Lost and Pilgrim's Progress; at Hogarth and Fielding, great innovators, sharing common aims; and at Wordsworth and Bewick, a poet and engraver, both working separately, but both imbued with the spirit of their age. A brief coda turns to a fourth relationship: writers and artists who collaborate from the start, like Dickens and Phiz, and Lewis Carroll and Tenniel. Sometimes amusing, sometimes moving, this is a book to pore over and enjoy. The visions it considers link daily life to the universal, the passionate and the sublime.

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