Now that we are in the thick of winter, nothing beats curling up with a new book on a cold day. In case you are veering close to the end of your reading list, we’ve got you covered with this selection of new and upcoming art book releases.
Included in this month’s Art on the Shelf book list are: “Sarah Oppenheimer,” “Andreas Gursky: Landscapes,” “Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture,” “Urs Fischer: Yes,” “Through Women’s Eyes: From Diane Arbus to Letizia Battaglia. Passion and Courage,” “The Newsstand: Independently Published Zines, Magazines and Artist Books” and “The Age of Collage Vol. 2.”
“Sarah Oppenheimer”
The work of New York-based artist Sarah Oppenheimer spans the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, exploring how space is animated and experienced in order to provide a deeper understanding of architecture as a constructed social environment. Her investigations are particularly relevant within museums, where architecture frames and guides how visitors see and interact with both space and the people and objects in that space.
This publication examines the research and development that is intrinsic to Oppenheimer's built installations, through previously unseen archival materials such as drawings, prototypes, physical models, light studies and customized computer code. It focuses on two related projects: “D-33,” at PPOW, New York (2012), and “33-D,” at Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland (2014). This work highlights the physical and conceptual specificity of Oppenheimer's practice and reflects the complexity of her methods for manipulating the built environment.
BASIC FACTS: “Sarah Oppenheimer” is written by Julian Rose, Stephanie Weber, Stephanie Hanor and Sarah Oppenheimer. Published by Mills College Art Museum. Release Date: January 26, 2016. Paperback; 184 pages; $35.00.
“Andreas Gursky: Landscapes”
Published on the occasion of the 2015 exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum, this new catalogue features Andreas Gursky’s landscapes, including some of his most astounding works to date. Just as painters of previous centuries found their subjects in the realities of everyday life, Gursky finds inspiration in his own spontaneous visual experience and in reports of global phenomena in the daily media. The resulting pictures, depicted here in full-color spreads, have a formal congruence deriving from a bold dialogue between photography and painting, empirical observation and artfulness, conceptual rigor and spontaneity, representation and abstraction.
Parrish Art Museum director Terrie Sultan provides an introduction to the twenty-plus works that span three decades of the artist’s career. Sultan highlights how Gursky’s worldview fuses the flux of life and nature with the stillness of metaphysical reflection, while at the same time situating his work within the world of landscape painting more generally.
BASIC FACTS: “Andreas Gursky: Landscapes” is written by Terrie Sultan. Published by Gagosian / Rizzoli. Release Date: February 2, 2016. Hardcover; 68 pages; $60.00.
“Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture”
Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is one of modernism’s most captivating and influential figures. First trained as a mechanical engineer, Calder relocated from New York to Paris in the mid-twenties where his acceptance into the city’s burgeoning avant-garde circles coincided with the development of his characteristic form of kinetic sculpture. His early work “Cirque Calder,” which was presented throughout Paris to great acclaim, prefigures the performance and theatrical aspects that dominate Calder’s pioneering artistic works and are situated as a primary subject of intrigue in this publication.
Rather than simply refashion sculpture’s traditional forms, Calder envisioned entirely new possibilities for the medium and transformed its static nature into something dynamic and responsive. “Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture” provides detailed insight into that pioneering process through reproductions of personal drawings and notes. Also featured is new research from a wide range of scholars, furthering our understanding of the depth of Calder’s mobile sculptures.
BASIC FACTS: “Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture” is written by Achim Borchardt-Hume (Editor). Published by Yale University Press. Release Date: February 2, 2016. Hardcover; 240 pages; $50.00.
“Urs Fischer: Yes”
Bound in a tête-bêche format as a reversible book with two front covers, “Urs Fischer: Yes” documents two iterations of the ongoing collaborative project of the same name orchestrated by Urs Fischer (born 1973), which has brought together thousands of collaborators from all walks of life-schoolchildren and adults, artists and amateurs-to make objects out of clay.
So far, “Yes” has populated two very different landscapes with clay figures: the warehouse-like space of the Geffen Contemporary at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the sun-washed terrain surrounding the Deste Foundation's project space in a former slaughterhouse on the Greek island of Hydra. In this volume, installation photographs from both locations capture what entropy adds to the project: the unfired clay sculptures disintegrate over time, creating continuously changing landscapes of fragmented, crumbling forms.
BASIC FACTS: “Urs Fischer: Yes” is written by Priya Bhatnager (Editor), Abby Haywood (Editor) and Urs Fischer. Published by DESTE Foundation, Kiito-San LLC. Release Date: February 23, 2016. Hardcover; 198 pages; $49.95.
“Through Women’s Eyes: From Diane Arbus to Letizia Battaglia. Passion and Courage”
This thorough and accessible introduction to the greatest women photographers from the 20th century to today features the most important works of 25 artists. Women have played an important role in the development of photography, often pushing boundaries and defying social convention. “Through Women’s Eyes” showcases the most influential women photographers of the modern and contemporary eras: from Diane Arbus and Nan Goldin to Yoko Ono and Roni Horn, along with many others.
The artists featured in this book offer us their own interpretations of the world, filtered through the camera, and show us what is worth looking at among the barrage of images that bombard us. Their strength is the ability to combine languages– not only photography, but elements of cinema and painting as well, resulting in a collection of views that encompass the human experience.
BASIC FACTS: “Through Women’s Eyes: From Diane Arbus to Letizia Battaglia. Passion and Courage” is written by Francesca Alfano Miglietti. Published by Marsilio. Release Date: February 23, 2016. Hardcover; 288 pages; $45.00.
“The Newsstand: Independently Published Zines, Magazines and Artist Books”
The Newsstand was a pop-up conceptual retail store that transformed an ordinary subway hub into a mecca for independently published magazines, books, comics, and zines. Located within Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Avenue L/G stop in 2013, the temporary space hosted events and art exhibitions in which the artists, acting as guest clerks, were given carte blanche to transform the space.
In November 2015, The Newsstand was re-created and built to scale at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and included the zines and books sold in its original location. The Newsstand catalogue features images of the zines, books, and ephemera sold; documentation of the events and exhibitions; images of the guest clerks and artists; essays by leading cultural figures; and interviews with the publishers, artists, commuters, MTA workers, and police officers influenced by The Newsstand. Designed in the style of a zine, this book documents not only a prolific time within independent publishing, but also the thriving community that supports it.
BASIC FACTS: “The Newsstand: Independently Published Zines, Magazines and Artist Books” is written by Lele Saveri and Ken Miller. Published by Skira Rizzoli. Release Date: February 23, 2016. Paperback; 352 pages; $45.00.
“The Age of Collage Vol. 2”
Collage is as topical as ever. “The Age of Collage Vol. 2” is a collection of work that ranges from subversive to museum-worthy. While some examples make explicit statements, others are along the lines of collage’s original roots in surrealism and Dada. Bringing disparate images and items together, collage transcends the boundaries between artistic disciplines. Having effortlessly evolved to embrace digital tools and the combinatory freedom that they offer, collage is now making a promising comeback.
“The Age of Collage Vol. 2” presents the work of more than 80 collage artists– from established names including John Baldessari and Richard Prince to up-and-coming talents such as Lola Dupré. A follow-up to “The Age of Collage” (published in 2013), this book is a comprehensive showcase of the surprising diversity of this genre today.
BASIC FACTS: “The Age of Collage Vol. 2” is written by Dennis Busch (Editor) and Robert Klanten (Editor). Published by Gestalten. Release Date: February 25, 2016. Hardcover; 320 pages; $60.00.
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