Books: Going Against the Grain
December 2007
BOOKS FOR HOLIDAY GIFTS
Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting by Elizabeth Prettejohn. Yale, $65. An illustrated study of how Rossetti, Whistler, Leighton and others searched for ways to define and create art independent of the moral and political concerns of late 19th-century England.
Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Walter Liedtke. Yale, $175. Two volumes presenting the Met’s 229 Dutch works from 1600–1800.
Saul Leiter: Early Black and White, introduction by Martin Harrison. Steidl, $50. Best known for his pioneering color work of the 1950s, Leiter was making urban poetry in monochrome in the ’40s. The book offers 100 remarkable images from that period.
Lisette Model, preface by Berenice Abbott. Aperture, $55. Reissue of a collectible 1979 monograph on the Viennese-born photographer whose work influenced a generation of students including Diane Arbus.
Lucien Freud: The Painter’s Etchings, text by Starr Figura. MoMA, $40. Based
on an exhibition, this book examines the portraitist’s unconventional efforts in printmaking, reproducing some 75 works.
Memories of a Collector by Giuseppe Panza. Abbeville, $50. The story of a great art collection, told by an Italian real estate magnate who bought Abstract Expressionism before it was cool and continued broadening his tastes over the next half-century.
Message from the Darkroom by Carlo Mollino. Adarte, $240. The great Italian furniture designer believed passionately in the artistic power of the camera and created one of the most unusual and sought-after books in the history of photography. This gorgeous facsimile of the 1949 original includes tipped-in hand-pasted color plates, just as Mollino wanted.
Sculpture Today by Judith Collins. Phaidon, $69.95. A massive, profusely illustrated survey of a medium that is being redefined by contemporary art.
The Art Book for Children, Book Two. Phaidon, $19.95. This sequel to an internationally successful book is designed to help open young eyes (ages 7–11) to art and teach young minds to ask questions about it.
—John Dorfman
Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting by Elizabeth Prettejohn. Yale, $65. An illustrated study of how Rossetti, Whistler, Leighton and others searched for ways to define and create art independent of the moral and political concerns of late 19th-century England.
Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Walter Liedtke. Yale, $175. Two volumes presenting the Met’s 229 Dutch works from 1600–1800.
Saul Leiter: Early Black and White, introduction by Martin Harrison. Steidl, $50. Best known for his pioneering color work of the 1950s, Leiter was making urban poetry in monochrome in the ’40s. The book offers 100 remarkable images from that period.
Lisette Model, preface by Berenice Abbott. Aperture, $55. Reissue of a collectible 1979 monograph on the Viennese-born photographer whose work influenced a generation of students including Diane Arbus.
Lucien Freud: The Painter’s Etchings, text by Starr Figura. MoMA, $40. Based
on an exhibition, this book examines the portraitist’s unconventional efforts in printmaking, reproducing some 75 works.
Memories of a Collector by Giuseppe Panza. Abbeville, $50. The story of a great art collection, told by an Italian real estate magnate who bought Abstract Expressionism before it was cool and continued broadening his tastes over the next half-century.
Message from the Darkroom by Carlo Mollino. Adarte, $240. The great Italian furniture designer believed passionately in the artistic power of the camera and created one of the most unusual and sought-after books in the history of photography. This gorgeous facsimile of the 1949 original includes tipped-in hand-pasted color plates, just as Mollino wanted.
Sculpture Today by Judith Collins. Phaidon, $69.95. A massive, profusely illustrated survey of a medium that is being redefined by contemporary art.
The Art Book for Children, Book Two. Phaidon, $19.95. This sequel to an internationally successful book is designed to help open young eyes (ages 7–11) to art and teach young minds to ask questions about it.
—John Dorfman
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