Artblog | Book Reviews

October 1, 2018 By Matthew Rose

On the Fabric of Chance, Conversations With Ray Johnson

Matthew Rose reviews Julie J. Thomson’s new book of interviews with late mail artist Ray Johnson. What emerges is an affectionately-rendered composite image of an elusive man whose whimsical patterns of speech and thought closely mirrored his approach to making work.

August 5, 2018 By Roberta

Fired Up! Ready to Go! epitomizes the feisty spirit of the art collector, Peggy Cooper Cafritz

Roberta reports on a book documenting the African and African American art collected by Peggy Cooper Cafritz, who died last February at age 70. The book, with many full-page color plates and an autobiographical section, and short writings by artists in the collection, captures a woman who was as on fire about collecting art as she was about educating museums, curators, other collectors about the excellence of art by contemporary black artists.

July 7, 2018 By Imani Roach

All the things Laurie Anderson lost in the flood

A new book highlighting the career of performer, artist and experimental musician Laurie Anderson is out now from Rizzoli Publishing. “All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code” follows in the footsteps of Anderson’s 2015 experimental film “The Heart of a Dog,” drawing inspiration from the great losses of life.

June 27, 2018 By Andrea Kirsh

Books on powerful art by African American women, part 2

For part 2 of Andrea Kirsh’s new catalog roundup featuring African American women artists, she looks at “Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush,” from the painter’s 10-year retrospective at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of art, as well as at the double-volume publication that resulted from last year’s blockbuster “We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-1985” at the Brooklyn Museum. Kirsh reflects on generational shifts and on all the work yet to be done.

June 10, 2018 By Andrea Kirsh

Books on Powerful Art by African American Women, part 1

The bibliography of politically-committed art by African American women has gotten considerably richer with the publication of several exhibition catalogs, all of which are essential resources on their subjects. Here, in part 1 of a two-part series, Andrea Kirsh reviews the catalogs for “Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and “Joyce J. Scott: Harriet Tubman and Other Truths” at Grounds for Sculpture.

April 2, 2018 By Andrea Kirsh

Three books on Indian modernism

Despite the rapid globalization of the art world, the history of modernism in India remains poorly understood outside of the subcontinent itself. Andrea Kirsh reviews three recent books that highlight South Asian artists active between the early 1930s and the end of the 20th century and explores their aesthetic relationships, both to western art history and to their local pictorial traditions. Anyone interested in what decolonization looks like in rich historical context should read on!

December 6, 2017 By Andrea Kirsh

Books for the Holidays 2017 Part 1

Andrea reports on four books you might consider getting for the bibliophile/art-loving person in your life. Two of the books, one on painter Alice Neel, and one on photographer Richard Avedon, are well-designed and richly illustrated exhibition catalogs of recent exhibitions; one, also a show catalog, well-organized and attractive, with a Barkley Hendricks image on the cover, aggregates scholarship and imagery of art made by African Americans in the Black Power era (1960s-70s); and one is an extremely alluring and seductive design anthology of African design — interior, architecture, household furnishings, fashion — that will have you running to the Internet to make immediate purchases! Read on.

November 19, 2017 By Michael Lieberman

Capturing the hidden soul of Philadelphia, a city of ‘endless wonder and sadness’

“Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City” is a dense and fact-filled rumination on the character of the city of Philadelphia as reticent, wallflowerish, and modest — a hidden city. Written by self-titled urban observers Nathaniel Popkin and Peter Woodall, and including over one hundred stunning photographs by Joseph E.B. Elliott, of iconic architectural spaces and places in the city, the book has many charms (including the photos and the beautiful hardback cover). Michael says it’s a difficult read, however, as the narrative about the city’s character, written in densely-packed paragraphs with history references galore, is at times overwhelming.