Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Roy Lichtenstein in His Studio.



Roy Lichtenstein in His Studio. By Laurie Lambrecht, with a foreword by Dorothy Lichtenstein and an essay by Edward Robinson. Monacelli Press, 2011. 128 pp., illustrated thoughout, 9,8x9,8". Images from here.

I appreciate and value Lichtenstein's contribution to art, but I must say I'm not personally that intrigued. I am however absolutely entranced by his studio and process, which I've previously been fortunate to see in various documentaries, and this book gives us further insight into.


Book description:

" 'Roy Lichtenstein in His Studio' is a portfolio of vivid and engaging photographs by Laurie Lambrecht, who was an administrative assistant to Lichtenstein for three years. She and the artist worked together daily, and the bond between them is evident in the photographs.

Lichtenstein is shown working on two major series, 'Reflections' and 'The Interiors'. He is completely absorbed, oblivious to the camera, as he mounts ladders, assembles colors, composes, and steps back to consider the effect.

During this period Lambrecht assisted in gathering material for a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. As a result, the photographs include scrapbooks and sketchbooks and other archival material that document Lichtenstein’s entire career.

There are stencils of Ben-Day dots, clippings from newspapers and comic books, Polaroid snapshots, rolls of tape, and boxes of colored pencils.

Lichtenstein encouraged Lambrecht to make photographs and was often pleased and amused by the results. These images offer fascinating insight into Lichtenstein’s working processes and source materials, as well as being vibrant works of art in their own right.

In her essay Dorothy Lichtenstein, wife of the artist, recalls the collegial atmosphere of the studios in New York and Southampton in the early 1990s, a time of extraordinary productivity. Edward Robinson, an associate curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, describes Lambrecht’s process and approach."

Monday, November 26, 2012

Du: Part Two.



Du: Part Two. By Robert Frank. Scalo Verlag, 2003. 100 pp., illustrated throughout, 9x13".

Book description:

"Forty years after it first published an issue on legendary photographer Robert Frank, the Swiss magazine du is publishing Part Two.

For years, the editors of 'du' have talked about collaborating once again with the most important living Swiss photographer (Frank was born in Zurich in 1924).

Though the photographer has long since finished with photo journalism, dedicating himself, since 1962, to filmmaking, he has made here a magical exception. Together with 'du', Frank has developed an idea for an issue that stretches the concept of photography to its limits.

An all-encompassing self-examination, sometimes looking back with melancholia, sometimes moving ahead with a visionary impetus, this publication assembles classic images, new Polaroid works, traces of thoughts, rediscoveries of never-before-shown photographs, and visual diary notes, together with Frank's selections of favorite texts by Kerouac, Burroughs, and Elio Vittorini."

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).



You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). By Lewis Chaplin. Lewis Chaplin, 2010. 64 pp., illustrated throughout, 21x29,7cm. Edition of 150 (numbered) copies.

Book description:

"I think it was the first time I realized that I can change the world,
Or at least change the way you and my sister hit the clock on every tick just to see what happened. The time has really flown by I guess and it's hard to think of the way it might've been or remember very specifically the words and all the rest of it.
I was down, more than i wanted to be probably.
That is what we do with it all together,
Like the orange trees in the backyard and it's Easter and it just won't end.
Fucking Phil, he's off with his boys somewhere and I'm just sitting here getting more and more lost with everything.
And that was the thing about it, it's not as if a cousin promised something and taken it away.
It was like nobody could share my so-called dreams, which really meant none of it was happening.
And that reach around midnight left her with just about that, nothing.
There's not anything particular about it either and I think the whole thing gets vaguer every second,
But I am too and there's nothing wrong with that.
It's even funny when you stop to realize i'm just nineteen,
And how serious can anything be anyway? Not very.


'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' is a book of new work from 2010. It's a selection of photos coupled with found words and objects - putting the sourced and decontextualised alongside original works."

Monday, November 19, 2012

Performing/Guzzling.



Performing/Guzzling. By Kim Gordon. Nieves and Rizzoli, 2010. 144pp., illustrated throughout, 22x30cm. First edition, with a signed print by the artist.

Book description:

"Renowned for her work with the band Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon is also an accomplished painter and artist.

The watercolors in this artist book are inspired by on-stage performances where the faces in the audience become a dreamy and ethereal blur of color.

In all her work there is an energy and vibrancy - newspaper paintings, word paintings, and photographs become canvases for stains and slashes of color.

Collaborating with publisher Rizzoli, Nieves is proud to present Kim Gordon's 'Performing/Guzzling'. With hands-on treatment from the artist herself from layout to design, this monograph contains a series of her watercolors, mixed-media collages and personal lyrics. Reflections about Gordon and her work from artist Jutta Koether and writer Hilton Als add to the personal tone of the book.

The first printing of 'Performing/Guzzling' contains each a signed print by Kim Gordon ensuring that this volume will be coveted by art lovers, artist book collectors and fans of her music alike.

'Performing/Guzzling' is the first in a series of books by Nieves and Rizzoli that consists of books by artists, photographers, and designers who have substantially contributed to the texture of artistic culture. Each project will be an extension of the artist’s portfolio."

Monday, November 12, 2012

Library beauty



(source: tumblr, flickr and google - photographers unknown). 

Friday, November 09, 2012

From Above and Below.



From Above and Below. By Sharon Harper, text by Jimena Canales and Phillip Prodger. Radius Books, 2012. 120 pp., illustrated throughout, 14x11". Images from here.

Book description:

" 'From Above and Below' features ten years of Sharon Harper’s conceptual photographs and video stills exploring perception, technology and the night sky.

Her experimental images of the moon, stars and sun draw on scientific and artistic uses of photography to illuminate the medium’s contradictory ability to both verify empirical evidence and to create poetic connections between our environment and ourselves.

The book features essays by Jimena Canales and Phillip Prodger and work from seven distinct series: Moonfall (As Imagined by the Off-Duty Ferryman in flight over the River Styx), 2001, Moon Studies and Star Scratches, 2003-2008, One Month, Weather Permitting, 2009, and Twelve Hours from Winter and Spring, 2009, Sun/Moon (Trying to See through a Telescope), 2010-Ongoing, and stills from the video piece Landshift, 2012."

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Liquid Light 1983-2003.



Liquid Light 1983-2003. By Fabien Baron. Steidl, 2008. 192 pp., illustrated throughout, 33,7x27,5cm.

Book description:

" 'Liquid Light 1983–2003' is a single-volume monograph assembled from the personal work of Fabien Baron. Spanning twenty years and two continents, the collection draws from over 2,000 photographs taken on the coasts of Eastern America, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean.

As the title suggests, the book chronicles Baron’s transformation of concrete, geographical sites into abstract tableaux.

Utilizing long exposure for each image, Baron reveals the most essential aspect of his subject matter: light.

Returning year after year to each location, Baron achieves a meditative rhythm that is readily apparent when the work is viewed sequentially. While each image varies infinitely in detail - weather, hour, and light change, as do lenses and film stock - they all maintain a fundamental composition: water and sky bisected by horizon. The horizon line, a crucial element in the photograph, defines color planes free of a visual hierarchy.

The viewer is released from conventional, figurative ways of seeing. Subtle gradations in color and tone offset the repetition of form, creating abstract vistas where sea and sky are one and the same.

The images are deceptively still: chromatic abstractions gleaned from a sea and a sky that are never stationary and never entirely empty. Above all, the photographs reflect the state in which they were produced - one of internal calm and meditation - and the book’s structure echoes this."

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Today (in America)

Young Obama, modified image original from here.

President Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term (on this year's US election day, Nov 6th). Link, link, link, link.

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

M 2: Repetitions.



M 2: Repetitions. By numerous artist, introduction by Diane Dufor and Nicolas Guirand. Magnum Steidl, 2005. 144 pp., illustrated throughout, 20x29cm. Images from here.

Book description:

" 'The whole paradox of repetition is that we can only talk about it with respect to the difference or the change that it causes in the observer’s mind.' - Gilles Deleuze

This second issue of M features 17 works by Magnum photographers which explore the concept of repetition.

The notion of repetition is in contrast to that of the 'decisive moment' and involves another relationship to time. The photographer's point of view imposes itself, beyond the singularity of each image.

Repetition is multiple, revealing an obsession, Raymond Depardon 's 'lost moments' in Errance, a critical statement such as the political theatre in One Vote by Alex Majoli, a narrative like America in mourning in Paul Fusco's Funeral Train.

From one work to another, repetition has to do with concept as well as intuition, with conscious choice as well as a subverted constraint: it is the expression of the fundamental doubt which structures the creative process.

M2 features: Abbas's 'Vanishing Saddam', Antoine d’Agata’s 'Promised land', Raymond Depardon’s 'Errance', Thomas Dworzak’s 'Rear Window', Paul Fusco’s 'Funeral Train', Harry Gruyaert’s 'TV shots', Jim Goldberg’s 'Rich and Poor', Philippe Halsman’s 'Jumpology', Richard Kalvar’s 'Politics', Peter Marlow’s 'Spotters', Alex Majoli’s 'One Vote', Martin Parr’s 'Auto-portraits', Miguel Rio Branco’s 'Blue Tango', Lise Sarfati’s 'Closer', Dennis Stock’s 'Playing with death', Larry Towell’s 'Palestine', and Donovan Wylie’s 'The Maze'."

Monday, November 05, 2012

Amc2 Journal Issue 3.



Amc2 Journal Issue 3. Edited by Archive of Modern Conflict, photographs by Cecil Beaton, Horace Nicholls & others. Archive of Modern Conflict, 2012. 40 pp., illustrated throughout, 15x23,5cm.

Description:

"Printed in burgundy, blue and dark green versions, Issue 3 of Amc2 is a commemorative visitor’s guide to London 2012.

The 40-page booklet offers many useful culinary and cultural tips to help ensure that those who venture to the city for the Olympic festivities feel completely at home during their stay and leave with memories that might last a lifetime."


I've previously posted on Issue 1 here.

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Alla helgons dag

Image, by Håkan Sjunnesson, from here.

Family is very important to me, and this is an important day.

"In Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries.
[...]
Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways."

In many European countries, including Sweden, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives.

Read more here or here for example.

Quote from here.