Christmas Wish List (of Art Books) – part I

I have been browsing Amazon in search of the new art books releases and thought of sharing with you my picks. I started by going to Phaidon and Taschen websites but I wonder if anybody still buys from them when you can get the same products for, some times, half the price.

Let’s start with a basic. Marcel Duchamp is so fundamental for anybody interested  in contemporary art (and for the contemporary art itself) that I can’t stay any longer without a book about his work. The first original installation of Étant Donnés is celebrating 40 years and this book was published to accompany the first major exhibition on the artwork and its studies.

This makes for a romantic gift. Georgia O’Keeffe Abstraction includes unpublished letters between the painter and Alfred Stieglitz whom she married in 1924. Starting with abstraction as early as 1915 she was one of America’s first abstractionists.

 

Still being offered only in pre-order, Anish Kapoor (hardcover) by David Anfam is the most comprehensive monograph on the artist with over 500 photographs and a chronology covering the sculptor’s life in detail. And here a link to Kapoor’s one-work-exhibition at New York’s Guggenheim.

Chiharu Shiota – Flowing Water

Chiharu Shiota, Flowing Water,  2009

Isn’t this a stunning work of art? I find it difficult to get emotion from installations, but Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota got the right mix of brains and heart. It is water falling on the beds and it has the extra effect of ambient sound of cascading water. Browse Shiota’s website for more moments of clever beauty.
Seen on designboom.

Artnet’s Faces & Figures Photographs Sale

Bert Stern – Marilyn Monroe: from The Last Sitting (“I beg of you”)

Artnet will be featuring a special sale of 375 photographs until November 19th. It may be your chance to fetch a Cecil Beaton or a Doisneau for $500. The auction includes portraits of some of the most unforgettable faces of the 20th-21st century by legendary photographers. Bert Stern figures with Marilyn Monroe luminous portraits from the “Last Sitting”.

Yousuf Karsh – Georgia O’Keefe – circa 1956

John Baldessari

Hands and/or Feet (Part One): Snake / Hanging Person, 2009

John Baldessari’s Hands and/or Feet (Part One) series can be seen until November 28th at Marian Goodman Gallery. If Paris is not on your plans for this month, Tate Channel has a great interview with the artist.

Hands and/or Feet (Part One): Piglet / Hands (One Green), 2009

Marc Chagall: Life and Love

After being postponed because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pera Museum in Istanbul opened this week the exhibition Marc Chagall, Life and Love with 160 works by the Russian master. The show includes a selection of pieces that celebrates his great love for his wife, Bella, his favourite model. The theme is explored in images of the couple in each other’s arms, kissing and floating blissfully on an colourful landscape. Bella wrote two memoir books that are also on display: First Encounter and Burning Lights.

Fred Lebain – Superimposed New York

This is totally my thing! Fred Lebain superimposes large printed photos he took of New York on the exact same spots, creating a tromp l’oeil image that he then re-photographs.
Found on designboom