Get outside and enjoy the fall weather and better yet take one of these great new art reads with you! We have compiled a list of a few new and upcoming art books that we would recommend you add to your fall reading list.
Included in this month’s Art on the Shelf list of new art book releases are: “Seen & Imagined: The World of Clifford Ross,” “JR: Can Art Change the World?” “Inside the Artist’s Studio,” “The Art of Music,” “Photography at MoMA: 1960 to Now” and “Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957.”
“Seen & Imagined: The World of Clifford Ross”
From the highly detailed realism of his large-scale "Mountain" photographs to multimedia pieces that embrace abstract forms drawn from close observation of nature, Clifford Ross's work is unlike any other. In 2002, Ross invented his R1 camera, with which he has produced some of the highest resolution single shot photographs ever realized. Ross's longstanding desire to reconcile realism and abstraction in his art intensified when he took up photography in the mid-1990s.
This book offers the first comprehensive survey of his work, from large-scale, highly detailed landscape photographs to his latest "invisible art" -- an augmented reality app for smartphones that reveals a hidden work within a work. It is the first fine-art book to offer readers an augmented reality 3D "pop up" experience (through a free downloadable app) using their smartphones. Texts by noted writers and critics comment on Ross's work, placing it within the history of art and technology, alongside an interview by Orville Schell with the artist. “Seen & Imagined” accompanies an exhibition currently on view at MASS MoCA through March 30, 2016.
BASIC FACTS: “Seen & Imagined: The World of Clifford Ross” is written by Clifford Ross, Joseph Thompson (Editor) and Jay A. Clarke (Editor). Published by The MIT Press. Co-published with MASS MoCA. Release Date: October 16, 2015. Hardcover; 232 pages; $59.95.
“JR: Can Art Change the World?”
This is the first major and in-depth retrospective monograph on JR, the enigmatic and anonymous Parisian photographer, street artist, and activist behind some of the world's most provocative large-scale public photography projects. Created in close collaboration with JR, this book includes all bodies of his work, his collaborations with other artists and institutions such as the New York Ballet and previously unpublished behind-the-scenes documentation of his studios in Paris and New York, where he and his creative collaborators live and work. JR first garnered international attention at age 27 when he won the TED Prize for his Inside Out Project, which has since drawn nearly 200,000 participants internationally.
Introducing JR 's story is a commissioned graphic novel by comic artist Joseph Remnant, which charts his rise from graffiti roots and his decision to become a full-time artist. “JR: Can Art Change the World?” features a survey essay by Nato Thompson, the Chief Curator of Creative Time in New York.
BASIC FACTS: “JR: Can Art Change the World?” is written by JR, Nato Thompson and Joseph Remnant. Published by Phaidon Press. Release Date: October 12, 2015. Hardcover; 296 pages; $59.95.
“Inside the Artist’s Studio”
What was your first artwork to receive recognition? What materials do you use, and how did they come into your practice? What advice would you give a young artist just starting out?
Joe Fig asked a wide range of celebrated artists these and many other questions during the illuminating studio visits documented in “Inside the Artist's Studio.” This book is the follow-up to his 2009 book, “Inside the Painter's Studio.” In this collection, twenty-four painters, video and mixed-media artists, sculptors, and photographers reveal highly idiosyncratic production tools and techniques, as well as quotidian habits and strategies for getting work done: the music they listen to; the hours they keep; and the relationships with gallerists and curators, friends, family, and fellow artists that sustain them outside the studio.
BASIC FACTS: “Inside the Artist’s Studio” is written by Joe Fig. Published by Princeton Architectural Press. Release Date: October 6, 2015. Paperback; 256 pages; $35.00.
“The Art of Music”
“The Art of Music” is an illustrated and interdisciplinary look at the mutual influence between music and the visual arts across cultures and eras. The book sheds new light on more familiar artists at the intersection of the visual and the musical, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. The book also presents new scholarship on less well-known examples in the arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, from antique pottery to contemporary video and sound art.
Essays consider key works and themes such as synesthesia and other formal and theoretical crossovers, motifs of musicians, and performative and ritual functions of music, musical instruments, and art. With more than 250 color images illustrating works of art in diverse traditions, “The Art of Music” offers enriching reading for scholars and general audiences alike.
BASIC FACTS: “The Art of Music” is written by Patrick Coleman. Published by Yale University Press. Release Date: October 27, 2015. Hardcover; 318 pages; $65.00.
“Photography at MoMA: 1960 to Now”
As one of three volumes dedicated to a new history of photography published by the Museum of Modern Art, this publication comprises a comprehensive catalogue of the collection post-1960s and brings a new perspective to the most prominent artists working with the photographic medium of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. At a moment when photography is undergoing fast-paced changes and artists are seeking to redefine its boundaries in new and exciting ways, “Photography at MoMA” serves as a resource for understanding the expanded field of contemporary photography today.
The book begins with an in-depth introduction followed by eight chapters of full-color plates, each introduced by a short essay. Over 250 artists are featured, including Diane Arbus, John Baldessari, Jan Dibbets, Rineke Dijkstra, William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Louise Lawler, Zoe Leonard, Helen Levitt, Sigmar Polke, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall, Carrie Mae Weems, Hannah Wilke and Garry Winogrand, among many others.
BASIC FACTS: “Photography at MoMA: 1960 to Now” is written by Quentin Bajac, Lucy Gallun, Roxana Maroci and Sarah Hermanson Meister. Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Release Date: October 27, 2015. Hardcover; 368 pages; $75.00.
“Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957”
In 1933, John Rice founded Black Mountain College in North Carolina as an experiment in making artistic experience central to learning. Though it operated for only 24 years, this pioneering school played a significant role in fostering avant-garde art, music, dance, and poetry, and a great number of important artists taught or studied there. Among the instructors were Josef and Anni Albers, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Karen Karnes, M. C. Richards, and Willem de Kooning, and students included Ruth Asawa, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly.
“Leap Before You Look” is an exploration of this school and of the work of the artists who spent time there. Scholars contribute original essays about diverse aspects of the College—spanning everything from its farm program to the influence of Bauhaus principles—and about the people and ideas that gave it such a lasting impact. In addition, catalogue entries highlight selected works, including writings, musical compositions, visual arts, and crafts. The book’s new approach and illustrations convey the atmosphere of creativity and experimentation that was unique to Black Mountain College, and that served as an inspiration to so many.
BASIC FACTS: “Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957” is written by Helen Molesworth. Published by Yale University Press. Release Date: October 13, 2015. Hardcover; 400 pages; $75.00.
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