Menil Bookstore
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Walter Boje: Geburtstag
This limited edition (500 copies) publication examines the career of Walter Boje, an early pioneer of color photography in Germany in the early 20th century. The book was published on the occasion of Boje's 100th birthday, hence the title. Geburtstag is linen-bound, 19x25cm, and 80 pages, and contains over 50 photos in color and black and white. Boje's subjects range from people on the street to family portraits to nearly abstract images of the human body. This book from Edition Dino Simonett is must-have book for collectors of photography. ISBN 3-905562-20-0 Price: $60.00. ¶ 1/21/2006 10:04:00 AM 2 Comments
This limited edition (500 copies) publication examines the career of Walter Boje, an early pioneer of color photography in Germany in the early 20th century. The book was published on the occasion of Boje's 100th birthday, hence the title. Geburtstag is linen-bound, 19x25cm, and 80 pages, and contains over 50 photos in color and black and white. Boje's subjects range from people on the street to family portraits to nearly abstract images of the human body. This book from Edition Dino Simonett is must-have book for collectors of photography. ISBN 3-905562-20-0 Price: $60.00. ¶ 1/21/2006 10:04:00 AM 2 Comments
Friday, January 20, 2006
Recent Arrivals 1/20/2006
There are a few new things here that I should mention. First off, Buchhandlung Walther Koenig has shipped Anish Kapoor: Drawings and David Shrigley: Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve Project) [a collaboration with Tomlab, a German music label]. The Kapoor drawings have a wonderful luminous quality to them, evident in the rich pigment used for the work. From a show at London's Lisson Gallery, this catalog includes essays by Jeremy Lewison and Laurent Busine (Price $65.00 HC). David Shrigley teamed up with Tomlab to produce Worried Noodles, an artist book of sorts, packaged in a record sleeve, but without any record. Instead the reader gets a 48 page songbook with drawings and lyrics for Shrigley-esque songs (Price $28.00). Also just arrived is the catalog for the latest Trenton Doyle Hancock outing at Dunn and Brown Contemporary in Dallas. The show, entitled St. Sesom and the Cult of Color, continues Hancock's cosmology of vegans and mounds, but this time focusing on a beatified vegan St. Sesom (Price $20.00). Hancock is a local artist and a two-time Whitney Biennial exhibitor. Congratulations to Hancock on his show and catalog. ¶ 1/20/2006 08:12:00 AM 0 Comments
There are a few new things here that I should mention. First off, Buchhandlung Walther Koenig has shipped Anish Kapoor: Drawings and David Shrigley: Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve Project) [a collaboration with Tomlab, a German music label]. The Kapoor drawings have a wonderful luminous quality to them, evident in the rich pigment used for the work. From a show at London's Lisson Gallery, this catalog includes essays by Jeremy Lewison and Laurent Busine (Price $65.00 HC). David Shrigley teamed up with Tomlab to produce Worried Noodles, an artist book of sorts, packaged in a record sleeve, but without any record. Instead the reader gets a 48 page songbook with drawings and lyrics for Shrigley-esque songs (Price $28.00). Also just arrived is the catalog for the latest Trenton Doyle Hancock outing at Dunn and Brown Contemporary in Dallas. The show, entitled St. Sesom and the Cult of Color, continues Hancock's cosmology of vegans and mounds, but this time focusing on a beatified vegan St. Sesom (Price $20.00). Hancock is a local artist and a two-time Whitney Biennial exhibitor. Congratulations to Hancock on his show and catalog. ¶ 1/20/2006 08:12:00 AM 0 Comments
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Art Now Vol.2
Just arrived this morning is Art Now Vol.2, edited by Uta Grosenick, published by Taschen. The Art Now series is a great way for someone unitiated with art as it is now to get a snapshot of current modes of cultural production. The entries are short, often 2 or 3 pages only, but they provide a window to new work and further examination. At $39.99, the book is inexpensive for the volume of information provided with one-hundred thirty-six entries bearing multiple images for each artist. This series is similar in nature to the Vitamin series from Phaidon, but the Art Now books have no specific focus on medium. Painters, installation artists, conceptual artists, and videographers all share space in this book. ISBN: 3822839965 ¶ 1/18/2006 09:39:00 AM 0 Comments
Just arrived this morning is Art Now Vol.2, edited by Uta Grosenick, published by Taschen. The Art Now series is a great way for someone unitiated with art as it is now to get a snapshot of current modes of cultural production. The entries are short, often 2 or 3 pages only, but they provide a window to new work and further examination. At $39.99, the book is inexpensive for the volume of information provided with one-hundred thirty-six entries bearing multiple images for each artist. This series is similar in nature to the Vitamin series from Phaidon, but the Art Now books have no specific focus on medium. Painters, installation artists, conceptual artists, and videographers all share space in this book. ISBN: 3822839965 ¶ 1/18/2006 09:39:00 AM 0 Comments
Friday, January 06, 2006
Livraison No.1 Spring/Winter 2005
Livraison (trans. Fr. delivery) is a new magazine from Sweden, somewhat similar in nature to Purple and all its entities. Issue 1 is themed "Private Issue" and textual interviews with varying artists, writers and musicians are presented alongside completely unrelated photo essays. This shift from text to picture creates a third presence in the magazine, whereby the reader tries to figure out how the two relate. The interviews are conducted via email, so the interviewee has more time to think out his or her answers. Issue 1 includes interviews with the likes of the band Adult, Ann-Sofie Back, Rei Kawakubo, Asia Argento, and Bruce LaBruce. Compelling interviews and quirky photography make this a fun read. Especially odd are the photos of people in their skivvies with mutated stuffed toys on their heads as masks. The amusement park meets genetic engineering. Price: $45.50, 168 pgs., no ads. ¶ 1/06/2006 10:49:00 AM 0 Comments
Livraison (trans. Fr. delivery) is a new magazine from Sweden, somewhat similar in nature to Purple and all its entities. Issue 1 is themed "Private Issue" and textual interviews with varying artists, writers and musicians are presented alongside completely unrelated photo essays. This shift from text to picture creates a third presence in the magazine, whereby the reader tries to figure out how the two relate. The interviews are conducted via email, so the interviewee has more time to think out his or her answers. Issue 1 includes interviews with the likes of the band Adult, Ann-Sofie Back, Rei Kawakubo, Asia Argento, and Bruce LaBruce. Compelling interviews and quirky photography make this a fun read. Especially odd are the photos of people in their skivvies with mutated stuffed toys on their heads as masks. The amusement park meets genetic engineering. Price: $45.50, 168 pgs., no ads. ¶ 1/06/2006 10:49:00 AM 0 Comments
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Purple Fashion Number 4 Fall/Winter 2005/06
Newly arrived at the Menil Collection Bookstore is Purple Fashion Number 4. This issue features stories and interviews with the likes of Stephanie Seymour, John Baldessari, Rick Owens, Jun Takahashi, Kristen McMenamy, Rita Ackermann, Stefano Pilati, Miltos Manetas, and Brooke Shields. There are two different covers for this issue, featuring either Stephanie Seymour or a cigar-chomping, botox-and-collagen-sporting, sunglass-wearing Mickey Rourke. As always, Purple Fashion also includes a special extra book and this time they've turned the reins over to designer Hedi Slimane. His contribution for Number 4 is a book entitled Interzone, a reference to the Joy Division song of the same name. This is entirely evident upon opening the book and quickly thumbing through his photo-essay. Slimane is engaged with the moody black and white photography that characterized Joy Division's image in the late 1970's/early 80's. Considering the way that the period is being mined for current popular culture, this is hardly surprising. His subjects are all young men, possibly 19 or 20, and they all espouse that moodiness. Slimane also has paired black and white reproductions of 16th-18th century painted portraits of young men with his own contemporary photos. Purple Fashion is always a great read and the photography is incomparable. Price $20.00.
¶ 1/04/2006 08:38:00 AM 2 Comments
Newly arrived at the Menil Collection Bookstore is Purple Fashion Number 4. This issue features stories and interviews with the likes of Stephanie Seymour, John Baldessari, Rick Owens, Jun Takahashi, Kristen McMenamy, Rita Ackermann, Stefano Pilati, Miltos Manetas, and Brooke Shields. There are two different covers for this issue, featuring either Stephanie Seymour or a cigar-chomping, botox-and-collagen-sporting, sunglass-wearing Mickey Rourke. As always, Purple Fashion also includes a special extra book and this time they've turned the reins over to designer Hedi Slimane. His contribution for Number 4 is a book entitled Interzone, a reference to the Joy Division song of the same name. This is entirely evident upon opening the book and quickly thumbing through his photo-essay. Slimane is engaged with the moody black and white photography that characterized Joy Division's image in the late 1970's/early 80's. Considering the way that the period is being mined for current popular culture, this is hardly surprising. His subjects are all young men, possibly 19 or 20, and they all espouse that moodiness. Slimane also has paired black and white reproductions of 16th-18th century painted portraits of young men with his own contemporary photos. Purple Fashion is always a great read and the photography is incomparable. Price $20.00.
¶ 1/04/2006 08:38:00 AM 2 Comments
