Art books all always a good idea: they inspire your mind and it is great to see what other artists are up to. This is our favourite selection at the moment.
ITEMS: IS FASHION MODERN?
By Paola Antonelli and Michelle Millar Fisher (The Museum of Modern Art, New York).
The book to accompany the MoMA’s second-ever fashion exhibition proposes a global selection of 111 emblematic, widely used items including saris, pearls, hijabs and yoga pants. The catalog is a compact selection of information, rather like a handbook, arranged from A to Z with in-depth entries and a pleasing combination of matte and glossy pages. A great range if you are fascinated by fashion and love the curated shows of the MoMA but don’t live in New York.
DESIGNING DREAMS: A CELEBRATION OF LÉON BAKST
Edited by Célia Bernasconi, John E. Bowlt and Nick Mauss (Nouveau Musée National de Monaco and Mousse Publishing).
Celebration is right. While famous for his sets and costumes for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Bakst was also an inspired textile designer and fashion-forward thinker. This book of the exhibition presents the totality, including Bakst’s madly beautiful gouache textile studies. Its fabulous softbound catalog records the show’s own superb design, by the artist Nick Mauss, who also made all the unique stenciled-cloth covers. With its matte paper and vintage photographs, the catalog feels sweetly interwar yet ahead of its time.
Perfect if you love textile design and interiors.
BILLY NAME – THE SILVER AGE
By Billy Name (Reel Art Press)
There are few others that got a better, or closer, look into the mysterious goings-on of Warhol’s Factory. Lucky for us, Andy gave Billy a Pentax Honeywell 35mm camera, with which he documented all that he saw during his time living in a tiny closet in the studio. He was also responsible for the legendary ‘silverizing’ of the space, in which the Factory was adorned with aluminum. Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground, Edie Sedgwick and Bob Dylan can be spotted throughout his book. A perfect present for someone who is in love with American pop culture.
BROAD STROKES: 15 WOMEN WHO MADE ART AND MADE HISTORY (IN THAT ORDER)
by Bridget Quinn and illustrated by Lisa Congdon (Abrams & Chronicle Books)
An outstanding and personal introduction to some of the most important female artists of all time. Enjoy the entertaining narrative about each artist accompanied by reproductions of their most famous works and original portraits by Lisa Congdon. For all those who believe in female power and not necessary only feminism.
PAINTINGS OF PAUL CÉZANNE
By John Rewald (Thames & Hudson)
Why not get something really special to add to your art history library? The books come in the original pictorial slipcase, with original blue cloth, titles and spine gilt with orange endpapers. A real beauty for Cézanne fans, this rare book contains 58 full-page colour reproductions and over 900 black and white reproductions. If you cannot own a Cézanne you need at least the book.
ART KANE
By Jonathan Kane und Holly Anderson (Reel Art Press)
Art Kane’s career is perfectly illustrated in that book which offers the first comprehensive collection of his photography. It is packed with work spanning all genres of his eclectic oeuvre, from fashion to travel and of course, his nudes. Don’t miss his star-studded portraits of the Rolling Stones, The Who, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, among countless others.
ROTHKO: THE COLOUR FIELD PAINTINGS
By Dore Ashton and Janet Bishop (Abrams & Chronicle Books)
It’s pure meditation looking at Rothko’s collection of profound abstract expressionism which presents fifty large-scale artworks from the American master’s colour field period (1949–1970). You will also find essays by Rothko’s son, Christopher Rothko, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator of painting and sculpture Janet Bishop. The perfect present for a life-long fan or someone ready to discover Rothko’s art.
Jasmin wears a silk two piece suit by Prada Resort Collection 2018 , vintage chair covered with material by Neisha Crossland