Are you looking for some new art books to add to your summer reading list? If so, we’ve got you covered. While I’m not suggesting toting some of these heavier books to the beach, regardless of where you read them, all of these new releases are sure to be enjoyed and keep you entertained.
Included in this month's list of new book releases related to art are “Painting Beyond Pollock,” “Public Art (Now): Out of Time, Out of Place,” “High Art: Public Art on the High Line,” “Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market,” “The Notebooks” by Basquiat, and “Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art”. Happy reading!
“Painting Beyond Pollock”
"Painting Beyond Pollock" by Morgan Falconer. Publisher: Phaidon Press.
“Painting Beyond Pollock” is an account of the history of European and American painting from the mid-twentieth century onwards. Art historian and critic Morgan Falconer presents an extensively researched book that tackles why painting has surged in popularity since Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists began painting in the late 1940s–early 1950s. Drawing on both original sources and contemporary scholarship, this bold and richly designed book illustrates the most important works made beginning in the Post War era.
In addition to well-known artists such as Willem de Kooning, Agnes Martin, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Marlene Dumas, Gerhard Richter and Brice Marden, Falconer explores works by contemporary stars including Cecily Brown, Mark Grotjahn, Elizabeth Peyton, John Currin, Neo Rauch and Mark Bradford as well as artists such as Blink Palermo and Sigmar Polke.
BASIC FACTS: "Painting Beyond Pollock" is written by Morgan Falconer and published by Phaidon Press. Release Date is April 20, 2015. Hardcover; 384 pages; $79.95.
“Public Art (Now): Out of Time, Out of Place”
"Out of Time, Out of Place: Public Art (Now)" by Claire Doherty. Publisher: Art / Books.
The face of public art is changing. In recent years, a new generation of artists has rejected the monumental scale and mass appeal of conventional public sculpture in favor of unconventional forms that disrupt rather than embellish a particular location. “Public Art (Now)” is the first survey of the most influential forms of the past decade that are redefining the practice of public art today. Some 40 key projects from around the world are highlighted, with detailed descriptions and installation and process shots. Among the featured artists are Mike Kelley, Francis Alÿs, Superflex, Paul Chan, Susan Philipsz and Theaster Gates.
BASIC FACTS: "Out of Time, Out of Place: Public Art (Now)" is written by Claire Doherty and published by Art / Books. Release Date: April 28, 2015. Hardcover; 256 pages; $50.
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“High Art: Public Art on the High Line”
“High Art: Public Art on the High Line” by Cecilia Alemani (Editor), Donald R. Mullen Jr. (Foreword). Publisher: Skira Rizzoli.
“High Art” surveys the first five years of art on the High Line, the unique elevated park in New York City created by repurposing an abandoned railway line. Since 2009, when the High Line was opened to the public, 19 million visitors have been granted access to over 100 public art projects animating the grounds of this unique ‘park in the sky.’ Works include sculpture, installation, billboards, video, performance, and sound works by a range of artists, from established figures such as John Baldessari, El Anatsui, Maurizio Cattelan, Gilbert & George, and Ed Ruscha, to critically acclaimed mid-career artists such as Carol Bove, Sarah Sze, and Mark Grotjahn.
Though public art, The High Line is steadily broadening the audience for contemporary art while pushing the boundaries of traditional public art programs. The illustrated volume features the High Line’s diverse projects thematically, including full-color images and short texts on the various projects, along with an introduction by curator Cecilia Alemani; and an essay on the High Line’s effect on Chelsea and a roundtable discussion about public art today.
BASIC FACTS: "High Art: Public Art on the High Line" is edited by Cecilia Alemani with a forward by Donald R. Mullen Jr. and published by Skira Rizzoli. Release Date: May 5, 2015. Paperback; 208 pages; $45.
“Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market”
“Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market” by Sylvie Patry . Publisher: National Gallery London.
As an influential and an important forward-thinking art dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel (1831–1922) played a crucial role in the rise of French Impressionism. Durand-Ruel first encountered key Impressionist painters in the early 1870s and guided many of their careers for decades. A passionate advocate of the Impressionists, he established personal ties with these artists and developed new markets for them by opening branches of his Paris gallery in London, Brussels, and New York.
Featuring essays by leading scholars, this volume provides a biography of the man and the trajectory of his career. It also examines his relationships with artists and buyers and his groundbreaking business practices, such as embracing the idea of the solo show, publishing art reviews, and paying artists stipends—often at great financial risk and personal cost to himself. Illustrated with archival documents, historic photographs, and paintings by artists such as Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, among others.
BASIC FACTS: "Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market" is written by Sylvie Patry and published by National Gallery London. Release Date: May 12, 2015. Hardcover; 304 pages; $65.
“The Notebooks”
“The Notebooks” by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Larry Warsh (Editor). Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Brooklyn-born Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88) rose to prominence in the 1980s. A key figure in the New York art scene, he inventively explored the interplay between words and images throughout his career. From 1980 to 1987, he filled numerous working notebooks with drawings and handwritten texts. This facsimile edition reproduces the pages of eight of these fascinating and rarely seen notebooks for the first time.
The notebooks are filled with images and words that recur in Basquiat’s paintings and other works. Iconic drawings and pictograms of crowns, teepees, and hatch-marked hearts share space with handwritten texts, including notes, observations, and poems that often touch on culture, race, class, and life in New York. Like his other work, the notebooks vividly demonstrate Basquiat’s deep interests in comic, street, and pop art, hip-hop, politics, and the ephemera of urban life. They also provide an intimate look at the working process of one of the most creative forces in contemporary American art.
BASIC FACTS: "The Notebooks" featuring work by Jean-Michel Basquiat is edited by Larry Warsh and published by Princeton University Press. Release Date: May 26, 2015. Hardcover; 304 pages; $29.95.
“Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art”
“Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art” by Nancy Princenthal. Publisher: Thames & Hudson.
This is the first biography of the visionary artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004), an original and influential painter in the postwar period. Over the course of a career that spanned 50 years, Martin’s austere, serene work anticipated and helped to define Minimalism, even as she battled psychological crises and carved out a solitary existence in the American Southwest. Martin identified with the Abstract Expressionists but her commitment to linear geometry caused her to be associated in turn with Minimalist, feminist, and even outsider artists. She moved through some of the liveliest art communities of her time while maintaining a legendary reserve.
BASIC FACTS: "Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art" is written by Nancy Princenthal and published by Thames & Hudson. Release Date: June 16, 2015. Hardcover, 272 pages, $39.95.
“Elaine de Kooning: Portraits”
“Elaine de Kooning: Portraits” by Brandon Brame Fortune. Publisher: Prestel.
“Elaine de Kooning: Portraits” explores the portraiture of Elaine de Kooning, an enormously talented artist whose widely admired body of work – both abstract and figurative – is overdue for a contemporary reassessment. John F. Kennedy, Frank O'Hara, Allen Ginsberg, Merce Cunningham, and Fairfield Porter were just some of the figures who sat for portraits by Elaine de Kooning. Famous for her marriage to the Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning, Elaine was herself a groundbreaking artist and writer who challenged many conventions during her career. Although she portrayed women, she was most engaged with portraits of men, sometimes painting multiple portraits of her subjects in order to explore and capture their most compelling likeness.
This insightful book explores de Kooning's portraits as well as her artistic process and her position in the rise of Postmodernism. Illustrated throughout with full-color reproductions of paintings, drawings, and archival photos, this book is an important contribution to the literature on Abstract Expressionism, women artists, and feminism during a transformative period.
BASIC FACTS: "Elaine de Kooning: Portraits" is written by Brandon Brame Fortune and published by Prestel. Release Date: April 8, 2015. Hardcover, 160 pages, $49.95.
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