by Meghan Edwards
These tempting titles are for the connoisseur and the novice alike, providing lessons in art history that couldn’t be further from academia’s darkened slide room.
Masters in Storytelling
Though it could just have easily been timed to coincide with Woody Allen’s latest film, Midnight in Paris, in which Kathy Bates’s portrayal of this book’s leading lady tickles any art lover’s spirit, Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories is actually the companion book to an exhibition currently on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Renowned for her friendships with early 20th-century vanguard painters like Matisse and Picasso, Stein cultivated a lasting cultural legacy in a range of media. For this volume, curators and professors Wanda M. Corn and Tirza True Latimer focus on less familiar aspects of her life, lavishly illustrating Stein’s varying identities as collector, muse, writer, Jewish-American expatriate, and lifelong partner to Alice Toklas with archived photographs, art, and visual artifacts. $45, available through Amazon.
Tag, You’re It
You might say that street art found its roots in borderline typographical forms, or at least that tagging with letters, often the same ones over and over again, was the earliest form of expression for most old-school graffiti artists. Even before the likes of Banksy and Shepard Fairey became household names, street works have long inspired designers. But only now has German graffiti artist, designer, and writer Claudia Walde compiled alphabets from 154 different artists hailing from 30 countries for Graffiti Alphabets: Street Fonts from Around the World. Well-known contributors include Canada’s 123 Klan, South Africa’s Faith47, and Germany’s Hera, with lesser-known artists rounding out the offerings. Walde asked each one to design all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet within the confines of one page and the results speak for themselves, fusing sketches, sculpture, digital art, and photography. $40, Thames & Hudson, available through Amazon.
To Each Their Own
This first-ever major monograph on minimalist sculptor Carl Andre will knock your socks off, which is exactly what Andre did for the sculpture scene in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Considered radical at the time, his vision transformed industrial wreckage and other raw materials into epic sculptures and environments that often left critics seething. Scotland’s University of St. Andrews art history professor Alistair Rider offers an in-depth look and comprehensive record of the artist’s body of work in Carl Andre: Things in Their Elements. The book is divided into thematic chapters such as “Recognition,” “Cuts,” “Memorials,” and “Fireworks,” all pimped out with 100 color and 150 black-and-white illustrations. Granting the reader unprecedented access to Andre’s personal archive and studio, this volume will bequeath fans a staple and newcomers a feast. Look for it on July 13. $75, Phaidon Press.
