Books For The Collector's Library. - Review - book review

Art in America, August, 2001

1 Regular Price $65.00 SALE $59
Dan Graham: Works 1965-2000
Essays by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Thierry
de Duve and others (Richter Vertag/D.A.P.)
Regular Price $29.95 SALE $27
Dan Graham
Essays by Birgit Pelzer, Beatriz Colomina
interview by Mark Francis (Phaidon)
COMBINED SALE $84

These two new books provide a thorough account of the
varied output of American innovator Dan Graham, from
his early Conceptual pieces to his more recent large-scale
pavilions that pose questions about public versus
private space. Also covered are his films, videos and
photographs, as well as his critical writings. Published to
accompany a current retrospective traveling in Europe,
organized by the Museu de Arte Contemporanea de
Serralves, Porto, Dan Graham: Works 1965-2000 provides
extensive chronological documentation of 165
works and a thorough bibliography. The 384-page volume
includes over 300 images, 100 in color. Phaidon's
Dan Graham includes texts by Belgian critic Birgit Pelzer
and architectural theorist Beatriz Colomina an interview
by Mark Francis, as well as the artist's own writings and
texts by Philip K. Dick, selected for inclusion by Graham.
The material is supplemented by 150 images of his work
since  the '60s.

2 Regular Price $40.00
SALE $36
Oyvind Fahlstrom
By Jean-Francois Chevrier, Immanuel
Wallerstein, Octavi Roles and Suely Rolnik
(MACBA)

Brazilian-born artist Oyvind Fahlstrom (1928-1976)
led a peripatetic life that included years in
Sweden, Italy, France and New York. His work,
heavily inspired by comic books and avant-garde
music, includes drawings and three-dimensional
installations using flat cutouts.
Though often classified as Pop--many of his
works presage trends that were later embraced
by Pop artists such as Warhol and Lichtenstein--it
does not belong exclusively to this genre. He
also used elements associated with Conceptualism
and political art. This 368-page generously
illustrated catalogue was published on the occasion
of a major international traveling retrospective,
now on view at MASS MoCA, North Adams.
It contains informative essays on this underrated
artist, a large selection of his writings and a
thorough documentation of Fahlstrom's incredibly
complex output.

3 Regular Price $35.00 SALE $32
Malcolm Morley
by Jean-Claude Lebensztejn (Reaktion)
Regular Price $29.00 SALE $26
Leon Golub
by Jon Bird (Reaktion)
COMBINED SALE $56

Malcolm Morley and Leon Golub are painters, who, in
recent decades, changed the meaning of figurative ad.
An originator of the Photo-Realist movement in the early
1960s, the London-born Morley established his career
with a group of meticulous paintings of ocean liners and
battleships. He eventually adopted a looser painting
style, becoming one of the leaders of the Neo-Expressionist
movement in the 1980s. Written by art
historian Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, Malcolm Morley:
Itineraries is a fully illustrated, 256-page volume, whose
publication coincides with a survey of the artist's work at
the Hayward Gallery in London this summer.

Leon Golub's monumental works propose a unique
merger of Abstract Expressionism and Classical ideals of
history painting. His complex narratives encompass an
exploration of social and political upheavals of our turbulent
era. The thoroughly illustrated volume Leon Golub: Echoes
of the Real coincides with a touring museum retrospective
of the artist's work, and it includes an in-depth text by Jon
Bird covering the broad range of his unique achievement.

4 Regular Price $60,00 SALE $54
Out of the Ordinary:
Robert Venturi, Denise Scott
Brown and Associates
By David Brownlee, David De Long and
Kathryn B. Hiesinger (Yale)
Regular Price $75.00 SALE $69
Frank Gehry, Architect
By Jean-Louis Cohen, Beatriz Colomina, Mildred Friedman,
Will am J. Mitchell and J. Fiona Ragheb (Guggenheim/D.A.P.)
COMBINED SALE $121

Published on the occasion of a traveling exhibition organized
by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Out of the
provides an excellent overview of the building
the husband-and-wife team Robert Venturi
Scott Brown. Their well-known projects
include the Sainsbury Wing at London's National Gallery
and the Seattle Art Museum, as well as furniture and decorative
arts, all of which are included in this 296-page volume
that contains 300 illustrations. Also included is a project
list of the firm's work since 1957, comprising finished
and unfinished projects and hypothetical studies.

With such celebrated buildings as the Guggenheim Bilbao,
Frank O. Gehry has made an indelible mark on late 20th-and
early 21st-century architecture. This impressive 500-page
catalogue accompanies a major retrospective of his
designs at the Guggenheim in New York this summer.

5 Regular Price $50.00 SALE $46
Minimalism: Art and Polemic
of the Sixties
by James Meyer (Yale)
Regular Price $50.00 SALE $46
New Art in the '60s and '70s:
Redefining Reality
by Anne Rorimer (Thames & Hudson)
Regular Price $45.00 SALE $41
Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972
by Frances Morris and Richard Flood (Tate)
COMBINED SALE $130

An in-depth study of the Minimalist movement,
Minimalism: Art and Polemics of the Sixties
explores reductive works in the context of the cultural
milieus from which they evolved. New Art in
the '60s and '70s: Redefining Reality offers an
insightful essay and many illustrations, including
documentary shots of exhibitions by artists such as
Sol LeWitt, Daniel Buren, Mel Bochner and Bruce
Nauman. Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972,
examines the Italian movement that related to and
coincided with the Minimalist and Conceptualist
movements in the U.S. It accompanies the extensive
exhibition of Arte Povera appearing this summer at
the Tate Modern in London.

6 Regular Price $75.00 SALE $69
Mies in America
By Phyllis Lambert, Peter Eisenman,
Rein Koolhaas and others (Whitney/Abrams)
Regular Price $70.00 SALE $64
Mies in Berlin
Edited by Terence Riley and Barry Bergdoll (MOMA/Abrams)
COMBINED SALE $131

Considered one of the greatest architects of the 20th century,
Bauhaus pioneer Mies van der Rohe changed the
course of architecture with his International Style buildings
of the '20s, In the U.S. he is best known for his
Seagram's building in Manhattan, completed in 1958.
Two major traveling exhibitions, currently at New York's
Whitney Museum and Museum of Modern Art, focus on
different periods of his career, with the MOMA show surveying
his years in Germany, and the Whitney show
focusing on his work after he immigrated to the U.S. and
set up an office in Chicago in 1938. The publications that
accompany these exhibitions provide a rare opportunity
to consider the breadth of Mies's career and the development
of his style. Both catalogues are beautifully illustrated
with hundreds of images and contain important, illuminating
essays by contemporary architects and architectural
historians and thorough documentation of Mies's
projects. They will be indispensable reference tools for
architecture scholars and aficionados alike.

7 Regular Price $80.00 SALE $72
The Venice Biennale
(2-volume set) Essays by Harald Szeemann
and others. (Electa)
Regular Price $25.00 SALE $23
Robert Gober
(2-volume set) by James Rondeau and
Olga Viso (Art Institute of Chicago/Hirshhorn Museum)
COMBINED SALE $93

Every two years, the art world focuses its attention on
the sprawling exhibition of contemporary works known
as la Biennale di Venezia, or the Venice Biennale,
Curated by Harald Szeemann, the 2001 installation of
the fair, the 49th Biennale, showcases entries in a broad
range of mediums by artists from nearly 60 nations.
This fully illustrated two-volume set covers all aspects of
the sprawling exhibition. The first volume focuses on the
exhibitions that occupy the national pavilions of Venice's
picturesque public gardens, the Giardini; the second volume
centers on the sprawling group show organized by
Szeemann for the former naval facility, the Arsenale.

The U.S. is represented in Venice this year by sculptor
and installation artist Robert Gober, known for
provocative works that address notions of identity, the
body and sexuality. This set accompanying the exhibition
includes a detailed study of the works on view,
and 1978-2000, an artist's book prepared on the occasion
of the Biennale.

8 Regular Price $69.95 SALE $64
Art and Feminism
Edited by Helena Reckitt. survey by
Peggy Phelan (Phaidon)
Regular Price $26,00 SALE $23
Rachel Whiteread
Essays by Lisa G. Corrin, Patrick Elliott and Andrea
Schlieker (Nat'l Galleries of Scotland/Serpentine Gallery)
Regular Price $39.50 SALE $36
Jenny Holzer: Xenon
Essays by Peter Schjeldahl, Beatrix Ruf and Joan Simon
(InkTree)
COMBINED SALE $120

Art and Feminism provides a valuable overview of a political
movement that has greatly shaped the visual and performing
arts. Among the artists examined are O'Keeffe,
Bourgeois, Kruger, Sherman, Rist and Whiteread. The volume
contains over 250 illustrations as well as documents
and critical texts by such writers as Simone de Beauvoir,
Lucy R. Lippard and Craig Owens. Jenny Holzer: Xenon
brings together the artist's provocative and poetic text
works projected in public spaces since the mid-'60s, The
monograph contains 150 pages, over 100 images and a
trio of informative essays. Rachel Whiteread's summer
exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery is the occasion
for this 72-page catalogue with a generous selection of
color illustrations. Included are works since 1988 along
with two new pieces by this influential British sculptor.

9 Regular Price $80.00 SALE $72
Pop Art: The John and Kimiko
Powers Collection
Essays by Bob Monk, Dave Hickey,
David Shapiro, Germano Celant and others.
(Gagosian)

New York- and Colorado-based collectors Kimiko
and John Powers assembled one of the finest and
most comprehensive private collections of Pop art
in the world. Beginning in the early 1960s, the late
publishing magnate and his wife acquired key
pieces by major artists such as Jasper Johns,
Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Roy
Lichtenstein, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, James
Rosenquist, Larry Rivers, Mel Ramos and Tom
Wesselmann, many of whom they befriended,
This beautifully illustrated hardcover volume
accompanies an exhibition of works from the
Powers Collection, on view this past spring at
New York's Gagosian Gallery. Both are a tribute to
John Powers, who died in 1999 at age 83.

The book contains a number of insightful essays
by writers who were intimates of the artists and
their works, Rounding out the volume is an illuminating
interview with Kimiko by Bob Monk of
Gagosian Gallery.