World Food Books' programme is largely produced on Kulin Nation land. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the first and continuing custodians of this land, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
World Food Books is an arts and special interests bookshop in Naarm / Melbourne. Founded in 2010, World Food Books is devoted to the presentation of a rotating, hand-selection of international art, design, literary and counterculture publications with an emphasis on the anti-traditional, the experimental, the avant-garde, the heretic, the marginal.
Presenting new titles alongside rare and out-of-print books, catalogues and journals spanning the fields of modern and contemporary art, design, photography, illustration, film, literature, poetry, cultural theory, philosophy, sexuality, popular and underground culture in its many radical forms, World Food Books wishes to encourage adventurous, thoughtful and open-minded reading, looking, writing, and exchange of publishing and ideas, both current and historical.
As well as our bookshop, located in Melbourne's historical Nicholas Building, all of our inventory is available internationally via our online mail-order service.
World Food Books semi-regularly co-ordinates "Occasions", a programme of exhibits and events at the bookshop and in partnership with other hosts (such as museums and art galleries) that develop out of the activities, relationships and content of the bookshop itself.
World Food Books
The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Room 5, Level 6
Melbourne 3000
Australia
SHOP HOURS:
THU—FRI 12—6 PM
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
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All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after order date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 2 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected. If you cannot make it in to the bookshop in this time-frame, please choose postage option.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund or exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
1947, French
Softcover, 142 pages, 24 x 20.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Maeght Editeur / Paris
$650.00 - Out of stock
Very scarce copy of the legendary "Le Surréalisme en 1947 : Exposition Internationale de Surréalisme présentée par André Breton et Marcel Duchamp", published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, in conjunction with an important exhibition of Surrealist artists in 1947. Features the cover design by Marcel Duchamp - a photographic reproduction by Rémy Duval of "Prière de toucher (Please touch)", the famous Duchamp rubber breast edition, created with Italian-born painter Enrico Donati, that adorned the first 999 copies of the catalogue. This gorgeous catalogue features the work of artists from 24 countries including Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Jacqueline Lamba, Jacques Hérold, Wilfredo Lam, Joan Miró, Hans Bellmer, Marcel Jean, Maria Martins, Yves Tanguy, Dorothea Tanning, Hans Arp, Frederick Kiesler, Alberto Giacometti, Hector Hyppolite, Serge Brignoni, Alexander Calder, Bruno Capacci, Elizabeth van Damme, Jacques Halpern, Julio de Diego, Enrico Donati, Francis Bouvet, David Hare, Iaroslav Serpan, Jacqueline Lamba, Taro Okamoto, Roberto Matta, Kay Sage, Toyen, Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Leonard Baskin, Jindrich Heisler, Jeanne Reynal, Isabelle Waldberg, Roger Brielle, Jindrich Styrsky, Bruno Capacci, Jean Guerin, Isamu Noguchi, Gerome Kamrowski, Frédéric Delanglade, Eugenio Granell, Francis Picabia, Remedios Varo, Hans Richter, Arshile Gorky, and many more, along with the folding sheet catalogue, and newspaper clipping about the show inserted.
Good copy considering age. Tanned edges and wear to corners, edges and spine. Some spine chipping.
1971, English / German
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 162 pages, 30 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / average
Published by
Verlag Gerd Hatje / Stuttgart
$100.00 - In stock -
Tenth edition of Gerd Hatje's absolutely invaluable and highly collectable modern furniture series, New Furniture / Neue Möbel, published in eleven comprehensive volumes between 1951-1971. This volume particularly special for those lovers of late 1960's European design and radical developments in plastic/modular/space furniture.
Profusely illustrated throughout with 468 gorgeous studio product photographs, featuring the work of manufacturers, architects, designers: Archizoom, Sergio Asti, Cini Boeri, Luigi Colani, Alvar Aalto, Eero Aarnio, Franco Albini, Gae Aulenti, Mario Bellini, Hans Bellmann, Harry Bertoia, Marcel Breuer, Achille and Pier Castiglione, Norman Cherner, Joe Colombo, Le Corbusier, Robin Day, Charles Eames, Eileen Gray, Walter Gropius, Josef Hoffmann, Arne Jacobsen, Grete Jalk, Pierre Jeanneret, Henning Jensen, Knud Joos, Finn Juhl, Arne Karlsen, Poul Kjaerholm, Kaare Klint, Florence Knoll, Estelle and Erwine Laverne, Oliver Lundquist, Charles Rennie Macintosh, Vico Magistretti, Bruno Mathsson, Paul McCobb, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi, Verner Panton, Pierre Paulin, Sigurd Persson, Warren Platner, Gio Ponti, Harvey Probber, Robert Probst, Gerrit Rietveld, Jens Risom, Eero Saarinen, Tobia Scarpa, Richard Schultz, Ettore Sottsass, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Hans Wegner, Edward Wormley, Marco Zanuso, Artek, Artemide, B&B Italia, Cassina, Domus, Dunbar Furniture Company, Dux Mobel, Fritz Hansen, Kartell, Knoll International, Van Keppel Green, Laverne, Herman Miller Furniture Company, Olivetti, Pierre Paulin, Harvey Probber, Jens Risom, Steelcase, Thonet, and many more (!)
Contents: introduction; illustrations; chairs; seating arrangements, sofas, beds; tables; office furniture; cabinets and shelves; nursery and school furniture; index: manufacturers, designers, photographers.
Edited by Gerd Hatje and Elke Kaspar.
A fantastic furniture resource.
Text in English and German.
Average—Good ex-libris w. only a few markings but general wear to cloth covers and extremities/corners. Lacks dust jacket.
1983, Japanese / English
Softcover, 48 pages, 23 x 18.5
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Osaka / Japan
$85.00 $65.00 - Out of stock
Wonderful publication printed in Osaka in 1983 and dedicated entirely to Isamu Noguchi's 26 hot dipped galvanised steel sculptures from 1982. These fantastic sculptures were created in an edition with Gemini G.E.L., a print edition company in Los Angeles, upon Noguchi's visits from Japan to his birthplace of California). This publication captures each piece, alongside texts by Isamu Noguchi and Michael McClure in both Japanese and English.
1977, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 308 pages, 24 x 16 cm
1st UK Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Thames and Hudson / London
$70.00 - In stock -
First 1977 hardcover edition of Passages in Modern Sculpture, Rosalind E. Krauss classic study of major works by important sculptors since Rodin in the light of different approaches to general sculptural issues to reveal the logical progressions from nineteenth-century figurative works to the conceptual work of the present.
"...Krauss's book is undoubtedly the best treatment of its subject yet written. As a textbook, it ought to raise the level of discourse in art history classes, for it is the meaning, not the chronology, of sculpture since Rodin that is the book's central concern. Krauss avoids the conventional plodding survey and divides the book into a sequence of 'case studies' that permit sustained attention to specific works and artists. In so doing, she attempts to trace a 'tradition' to stand behind that portion of American sculpture of the past 15 years which she espouses critically."—Art in America
"Distinguished art historian and critic Rosalind Krauss analyzes with exceptional clarity and insight the major works that have led 20th century sculpture from the traditional and figurative to the revolutionary conceptual art of the 1970s—an art which has developed a new 'syntax' that discards 'narrative' for instantaneous impact and boldly breaks new ground. Beginning with a penetrating study of Rodin's modernity in rejecting 'narrative' in his 'The Gates of Hell,' she moves successively through detailed examinations of futurism, constructivism, Duchamps' 'readymades,' Brancusi, David Smith's 'Tanktotem,' sculptural realism, and the introduction of light, motion, and theatrical elements into sculpture by Picabia, Calder, Oldenburg, and others right up to younger sculptors like Carl Andre, Blochner, and others [including Robert Morris, Don Judd, Richard Serra, Sol Le Witt, Robert Smithson, and Michael Heizer]. As critic and theorist, Krauss makes demands that will challenge even the most sophisticated."—Publishers Weekly
Rosalind E. Krauss, editor and cofounder of October magazine, is University Professor at Columbia University. She is the author of The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, The Optical Unconscious, Bachelors, and Perpetual Inventory, all published by the MIT Press.
Very Good in VG dust jacket designed by Krauss with interior architect Alan Buchsbaum!
1995, English
Softcover (string-bound), unpaginated, 21.5 x 17.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Pace / New York
$110.00 $55.00 - Out of stock
Beautiful exhibition catalogue, Beginnings and Ends, published in conjunction with Isamu Noguchi at Pace Gallery, New York, December 3 1994—January 21 1995. With unique hand-pulped thick textured "mossy" card cover, this special catalogue is string-bound with offset-printed internal fold-out pages of installation views in colour, "Ends" being photographed by celebrated Japanese photographer Shigeo Anzai, accompanied by excerpts from unpublished statements by Noguchi for the 1986 Venice Biennale. Designed by Tomoko Makiura and Paul Pollard.
Isamu Noguchi (1904—1988) prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. One of the greatest 20th-century sculptors, Noguchi is known for his sculpture and public works, creating innovative parks, plazas, playgrounds, fountains, gardens, and stage sets as well as sculpture of stone, metal, wood, and clay, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold. In 1947, Noguchi began a collaboration with the Herman Miller company, when he joined with George Nelson, Paul László and Charles Eames to produce a catalog containing what is often considered to be the most influential body of modern furniture ever produced, including the iconic Noguchi table which remains in production today.
Near Fine copy.
1992, English / Japanese
Softcover, 182 pages, 23.5 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Asahi Shimbun / Japan
$120.00 - In stock -
Scarce major Japanese monograph on the work of prominent and influential Japanese-American sculptor artist, landscape architect, and furniture/lighting designer Isamu Noguchi, published on the occasion of the major retrospective exhibition "ISAMU NOGUCHI RETROSPECTIVE 1992", March 14 1992 -May 10 1992 / The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and May 26 1992 - July 5 1992 / The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
This book documents a large many works spanning the 1920s-1980s, alongside text by Koji Takahashi, forming an important document and archive of Noguchi's life and work.
Isamu Noguchi (November 17, 1904 – December 30, 1988) prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. One of the greatest 20th-century sculptors, Noguchi is known for his sculpture and public works, creating innovative parks, plazas, playgrounds, fountains, gardens, and stage sets as well as sculpture of stone, metal, wood, and clay, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold.
In 1947, Noguchi began a collaboration with the Herman Miller company, when he joined with George Nelson, Paul László and Charles Eames to produce a catalog containing what is often considered to be the most influential body of modern furniture ever produced, including the iconic Noguchi table which remains in production today.
Very good copy.
2006, English / Japanese
Softcover, 146 pages, 24 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Yokohama Museum of Art / Yokohama
$120.00 - Out of stock
Wonderful Isamu Noguchi monograph published on the occasion of a major Japanese travelling survey exhibition entitled "Connecting the World Through Sculpture" in 2006. This oversized catalogue is profusely illustrated throughout in colour and black and white with Noguchi's sculptures, reliefs, models, furniture and landscape designs for parks and playgrounds. Includes many pages of his beautiful set designs for Martha Graham's School and Dance Company in New York in the 1940s. Introductory texts in Japanese and English, a chronology, bibliography and list of exhibited artworks.
Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was a Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. He was one of the twentieth century’s most important and critically acclaimed sculptors. His varied work was informed by his extensive travels over his lifetime. He worked across many different mediums, including sculptural gardening, set designs and architecture.
Very Good copy with some cover/spine wear.
1981, French
Offset lithographic printed poster
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Galerie Maeght / Paris
$250.00 - In stock -
Rare vintage Isamu Noguchi offset lithographic print poster. Printed in France on the occasion of the exhibition Isamu Noguchi : Granits, Basaltes, Obsidiennes at Galerie Maeght, Paris, 6 mai - 10 juillet 1981.
Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was a Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. He was one of the twentieth century’s most important and critically acclaimed sculptors. His varied work was informed by his extensive travels over his lifetime. He worked across many different mediums, including sculptural gardening, set designs and architecture.
In 1932, Aimé Maeght (1906-1981) opened the first Arte printing press in Cannes. He then met Pierre Bonnard, with whom he formed an unfailing friendship. The artist became his mentor and so strongly encouraged Aimé to devote himself to art printing that the latter decided to develop his activity and then founded his publishing house. In 1943, when the resistant artist Jean Moulin was arrested by the Gestapo, Aimé and Marguerite, his wife, were forced to take refuge in the hinterland in Vence where Henri Matisse lived, who became their friend. The Riviera become the refuge of artists and writers who fled the occupied zone. At the liberation, with the support of Bonnard and Matisse, Aimé left Cannes and created a gallery in Paris. The Galerie Maeght, inaugurated with the Henri Matisse exhibition in December 1945 in Paris, and quickly became the meeting place for artists and poets. From 1946, Bonnard, Braque, Matisse, Marchand, Rouault, Baya exhibited for the first time at the Parisian gallery. In July 1947 André Breton and Marcel Duchamp presented the exhibition Le Surréalisme at the gallery. The gallery grew to represent the work of Chagall, Mirò, Calder, Bram and Geer Van Velde, Ubac, Giacometti, Léger, Kelly, Steinberg, becoming one of the most important modern art galleries in the world.
A stunning collector's item, ready to frame.
Dimensions : 78 x 51.5 cm.
Very Good condition, unmarked, beautifully preserved.
1988, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket and obi), 76 pages, 26.5 x 31 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Libro Port Publishing Co. Ltd. / Tokyo
$190.00 - Out of stock
Wonderful first 1988 Japanese printing of this iconic Irving Penn and Issey Miyake fashion photo book, published by Libro Port Tokyo in 1988. Hardcover version with original illustrated dust-jacket and publisher's obi-strip.
Published to coincide with the exhibition "Issey Miyake A UN," organized by Miyake Design Studio in association with the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris in 1988, this heavily photographic book features stunning full-page colour photos by Irving Penn of Issey Miyake's 1987 line throughout the entire book. Foreword by Isamu Noguchi, and accompanying essay by Jay Cocks. Type design by Kiyoshi Kanai. Project coordinated by Midori Kitamura and June Kanai, who also modeled the clothes. Iconic imagery of Issey Miyake's late 1980's works.
Very Good copy protected by G—VG original dust-jacket under plastic wrap, and average original obi. Light tanning to page edges.
1997, English / Japanese
Hardcover (plastic boards w. printed plastic slipcase), 52 pages (leporello-fold), 22 x 30.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art / Tokyo
$380.00 - Out of stock
The beautiful and extremely rare "Arizona" publication, produced to accompany a collaborative exhibition between sculptor Isamu Noguchi and fashion designer Issey Miyake at Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, in 1997. This elaborate leporello-fold (accordian) publication is lavishly illustrated with the works of both artists, putting Noguchi's sculptures in direct conversation with Miyake's textiles across it's photographic pages. Accompanying texts from architects, fellow artists and critics addressing their work make up the reverse side of the publication, all in English and Japanese, with biographies. Bound between textured, foiled, plastic boards and housed in the original printed plastic slipcase, this unique edition is the perfect celebration of the incredible friendship between Isamu Noguchi and Issey Miyake, whose works fused the ideas and cultures of East and West and continue to inspire generations.
Fine first edition of this rare book.
2022, English
Softcover, 344 pages, 26.8 x 35.5 cm
Published by
Skira / Milan
$110.00 $90.00 - In stock -
Charting the three momentous years in which New York became the global capital of art.
The radical cultural transformations that occurred in New York in the three years between January 1962 and December 1964 ramified across the world. In addition to a whole host of creative innovations across disciplines, the period also saw a shift in the center of artistic gravity from Europe to the United States and the rise of a new leadership in the arts—curators, gallerists and other impresarios.
Modeled on the scale and format of Life magazine (one of the most widely read publications of the era), this lavishly illustrated oversized paperback traces a detailed itinerary of artists and curators, experimental exhibitions and museums, as well as historical and political events that transformed society during this explosive moment. From the New Realists exhibition at Sidney Janis Gallery in 1962 to Robert Rauschenberg's unexpected win of the International Grand Prize in Painting at the 1964 Venice Biennale, every groundbreaking event from this incredible three-year period is documented.
Organized chronologically, the book is teeming with images of artworks and archival photographs, and artist interviews conducted by the late great curator Germano Celant.
Artists include: Diane Arbus, Lee Bontecou, Chryssa, Merce Cunningham, Jim Dine, Melvin Edwards, Dan Flavin, Lee Friedlander, Nancy Grossman, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Yayoi Kusama, Norman Lewis, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Claes Oldenburg, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, Faith Ringgold, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, Miriam Schapiro, Carolee Schneemann, George Segal, Jack Smith, Harold Stevenson, Marjorie Strider, Mark di Suvero, Bob Thompson and Andy Warhol.
Conceived by Germano Celant. Edited with text by Sam Sackeroff, Lerman-Neubauer Associate Curator at the Jewish Museum. Preface by Claudia Gould, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director at the Jewish Museum. Introduction by Michael Rock. Interviews by Germano Celant with Christo and Jim Dine. Text by Claudia Gould, Michael Rock, Sam Sackeroff, Emily Bauman, Ninotchka D. Bennahum, Jennifer G. Buonocore-Nedrelow, Olivia Casa, Laura Conconi, J. English Cook, Maria Corti, Michaëla de Lacaze Mohrmann, Joshua B. Guild, Liz Hirsch, Hiroko Ikegami, Susan Murray, Kristina Parsons, Benjamin Serby, Jennifer Sichel, Robert Slifkin.
1987, English / Japanese
Softcover, 177 pages, 19 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
National Museum of Modern Art / Tokyo
$180.00 - Out of stock
Very rare Japanese book published in 1987 to accompany a major exhibition surveying the expression of post-war Japanese craftspeople at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Features forward and three essays in Japanese and also translated English, plus a fantastic selection of important artists profiled in vivid full colour and black and white images throughout. Also features a chronology and list of works, making this an incredible reference for anyone interested in the subject.
Features the work of Kawamoto Goro, Kato Kiyoyuki, Ochi Kenzo, Kumakura Junkichi, Koie Ryoji, Sugie Jumpei, Suzuki Osamu, Suzuki Hyosaku III, Tsuji Shindo, Nakamura Kimpei, Isamu Noguchi, Hattori Shunsho, Hayashi Yasuo, Banura Shogo, Fujihira Shin, Miura Kageo, Mitsuhashi Kunitami, Miyata Rando III, Motono Toichi, Morino Hiroaki, Yagi Kazuo, Yanagihara Mutsuo, Yamada Hikaru, working across primarily ceramic, but also textile, metal and painting.
A wonderful, rare publication of well-known and very rarely seen wonders of post-war Japanese crafts.
Very Good copy.
1988, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 76 pages, 26.5 x 31 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Libro Port Publishing Co. Ltd. / Tokyo
$360.00 - Out of stock
Signed copy (by Issey Miyake) of the wonderful first Japanese printing of this famous Irving Penn photography book, published by Libro Port Publishing Co. Ltd., Tokyo in 1988. It is the hardcover version with original illustrated dust-jacket.
Published to coincide with the exhibition "Issey Miyake A UN," organized by Miyake Design Studio in association with the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris in 1988, this heavily photographic book features stunning full-page photos by Irving Penn of Issey Miyake's 1987 line throughout the entire book. Foreword by Isamu Noguchi, and accompanying essay by Jay Cocks. Type design by Kiyoshi Kanai. Project coordinated by Midori Kitamura and June Kanai, who also modeled the clothes. Wonderful, iconic imagery of Issey Miyake's late 1980's works.
Dedication, signed and dated (1988) by Issey Miyake in bold black marker on title page!
Very Good copy - tight, clean, protected by original dust-jacket under plastic wrap, very light shelf wear / tanning to cover.
2018, English
Softcover, 288 pages, 20.3 x 26.2 cm
Published by
JRP Ringier / Zürich
$95.00 - Out of stock
The new, expanded edition.
Edited with text by Gabriela Burkhalter. Text by Daniel Baumann, Xavier de la Salle, Vincent Romagny, Sreejata Roy.
This expanded edition of the acclaimed publication on playgrounds includes a new chapter dedicated to playgrounds created in Germany, as well as new biographies on KEKS and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander.
The Playground Project explores these exemplary initiatives, pioneering acts and adventures in designing modern childhood. Examples from Europe, the US, Japan and India are discussed in depth and illustrated with numerous images. The book includes works by artists, architects and landscape architects such as Marjory Allen, Joseph Brown, Riccardo Dalisi, Richard Dattner, Aldo van Eyck, M. Paul Friedberg, Group Ludic, Alfred Ledermann and Alfred Trachsel, Palle Nielsen, Egon Møller-Nielsen, Isamu Noguchi, Joseph Schagerl, Mitsuru Senda and Carl Theodor Sørensen.
1982, English / German
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 308 pages, 30.5 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
The Design Council / London
$80.00 - Out of stock
First edition of "Contemporary Furniture : An International Review 1950 to the Present", edited by Klaus-Juergen Sembach and published in English in 1982. This hardcover volume highlights and reproduces the best in contemporary furniture from the eleven volumes of Gerd Hatje's absolutely invaluable and highly collectable Neue Mobel [New Furniture] series, published between 1951-1971.
Profusely illustrated throughout with 1033 photographs from the original editions, spanning 308 pages, featuring the work of manufacturers, architects, designers: Alvar Aalto, Eero Aarnio, Franco Albini, Gae Aulenti, Mario Bellini, Hans Bellmann, Harry Bertoia, Marcel Breuer, Achille and Pier Castiglione, Norman Cherner, Joe Colombo, Le Corbusier, Robin Day, Charles Eames, Eileen Gray, Walter Gropius, Josef Hoffmann, Arne Jacobsen, Grete Jalk, Pierre Jeanneret, Henning Jensen, Knud Joos, Finn Juhl, Arne Karlsen, Poul Kjaerholm, Kaare Klint, Florence Knoll, Estelle and Erwine Laverne, Oliver Lundquist, Charles Rennie Macintosh, Vico Magistretti, Bruno Mathsson, Paul McCobb, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi, Verner Panton, Pierre Paulin, Sigurd Persson, Warren Platner, Gio Ponti, Harvey Probber, Robert Probst, Gerrit Rietveld, Jens Risom, Eero Saarinen, Tobia Scarpa, Richard Schultz, Ettore Sottsass, Ilmari Tapiovaara, Hans Wegner, Edward Wormley, Marco Zanuso, Artek, Artemide, B&B Italia, Cassina, Domus, Dunbar Furniture Company, Dux Mobel, Fritz Hansen, Kartell, Knoll International, Van Keppel Green, Laverne, Herman Miller Furniture Company, Olivetti, Pierre Paulin, Harvey Probber, Jens Risom, Steelcase, Thonet, and many more (!)
Contents: introduction, illustrations, classical models reproduced, chairs and armchairs, seating arrangements, sofas, beds; tables, office furniture, cabinets and shelves, nursery and school furniture, index: manufacturers, designers, photographers.
An fantastic furniture resource. Text in English and German.
Good hardcover (ex-libris) with dust jacket.
1947, French
Softcover, 142 pages, 24 x 20.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Maeght Editeur / Paris
$480.00 - Out of stock
Very scarce copy of the legendary "Le Surréalisme en 1947 : Exposition Internationale de Surréalisme présentée par André Breton et Marcel Duchamp", published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, in conjunction with an important exhibition of Surrealist artists in 1947. Features the cover design by Marcel Duchamp - a photographic reproduction by Rémy Duval of "Prière de toucher (Please touch)", the famous Duchamp rubber breast edition, created with Italian-born painter Enrico Donati, that adorned the first 999 copies of the catalogue. This gorgeous catalogue features the work of artists from 24 countries including Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Jacqueline Lamba, Jacques Hérold, Wilfredo Lam, Joan Miró, Hans Bellmer, Marcel Jean, Maria Martins, Yves Tanguy, Dorothea Tanning, Hans Arp, Hector Hyppolite, Serge Brignoni, Alexander Calder, Bruno Capacci, Elizabeth van Damme, Jacques Halpern, Julio de Diego, Enrico Donati, Francis Bouvet , David Hare, Iaroslav Serpan, Jacqueline Lamba, Taro Okamoto, Roberto Matta, Kay Sage, Toyen, Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Leonard Baskin, Jindrich Heisler, Jeanne Reynal, Roger Brielle, Jindrich Styrsky, Bruno Capacci, Jean Guerin, Isamu Noguchi, Gerome Kamrowski, Eugenio Granell, Francis Picabia, Remedios Varo, Hans Richter, Arshile Gorky, and many more,, along with the folding sheet catalogue loosely inserted.
Good copy considering age. Very tanned edges and wear to corners, edges and spine.
1973, English / Japanese
Softcover (french-flaps), 100 pages, 25 x 25 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Bijutsu Shuppan Design Center / Japan
$120.00 - Out of stock
Very scarce catalogue published on the occasion of an important solo exhibition of Isamu Noguchi, "Sculptures by Isamu Noguchi", May 14-June 9, 1973, at Minami Gallery, introducing his sculptural works since 1945 to Japan. Profusely illustrated throughout with lush, saturated colour and black and white photography of Noguchi's sculptures, gardens, playgrounds, environments, reliefs, installations, exhibitions, and works for theatre. Includes the essay "My Sculpture" by Isamu Noguchi, as well as texts by Yoshiro Taniguchi, and Toru Takemitsu, plus list of works, chronology, exhibition history, and illustrated plans for Noguchi's then in-production fountain and plaza project in Detroit. All texts are in both English and Japanese.
Isamu Noguchi (November 17, 1904 – December 30, 1988) prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. One of the greatest 20th-century sculptors, Noguchi is known for his sculpture and public works, creating innovative parks, plazas, playgrounds, fountains, gardens, and stage sets as well as sculpture of stone, metal, wood, and clay, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold. In 1947, Noguchi began a collaboration with the Herman Miller company, when he joined with George Nelson, Paul László and Charles Eames to produce a catalog containing what is often considered to be the most influential body of modern furniture ever produced, including the iconic Noguchi table which remains in production today.
First and only edition in french-fold black-on-black illustrated cover. Good copy with some wear to spine and general light wear/rubbing to covers, light tanning to page edges from age. Back cover has small tears to centre. Otherwise clean and tight throughout.
2002, English / Japanese
Hardcover (w. hard illustrated box), 360 pages, 15.5 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / As New,
Published by
The Shikoku Shimbun / Kagawa
$90.00 - Out of stock
Beautiful first edition, in rare illustrated hard slipcase, of this handsome hardcover volume of essays on Isamu Noguchi. This series of essays, personal reflections and accounts by 54 friends and colleagues of Noguchi's, including Yoshi Taniguchi (architect), Issey Miyake (fashion designer), Arata Isozaki (architect), Tadao Ando (architect), Ikko Tanaka (graphic designer), Thomas Messer (director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation), Kenzo Tange (architect), and many others, was published to commemorate the opening of the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in Japan. First half of the book sees all essays in English, followed by a pictorial section of colour photographs of Noguchi at work, his sculptures and the Noguchi Garden, taken by famed Japanese photographers Shigeo Anzai, Yukio Futagawa, Kishin Shinoyama and others. The book closes with all essays repeated in Japanese. Also includes a map of Isamu Noguchi works across Japan, a biography, chronology, and blurbs on all contributing essayists, all in English and also Japanese.
A precise and very personal publication, and in this scarce hard-case edition, art directed by friend and celebrated Japanese graphic designer Ikko Tanaka, as one of his last ever design projects.
A must for any enthusiast of Noguchi's work.
Isamu Noguchi (November 17, 1904 – December 30, 1988) prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. One of the greatest 20th-century sculptors, Noguchi is known for his sculpture and public works, creating innovative parks, plazas, playgrounds, fountains, gardens, and stage sets as well as sculpture of stone, metal, wood, and clay, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold.
In 1947, Noguchi began a collaboration with the Herman Miller company, when he joined with George Nelson, Paul László and Charles Eames to produce a catalog containing what is often considered to be the most influential body of modern furniture ever produced, including the iconic Noguchi table which remains in production today.
1968, English / French
Softcover, 64 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$55.00 - Out of stock
Art International, Vol. VII/8 October 20, 1968
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Advisory Editors: Umbro Apollonio, R. C. Kenedy, Lucy R. Lippard, James Mellow.
Features:
Phillip King, Paul Frazier, "Science-Fiction" (Robert Smithson, Donald Judd, Larry Bell, Lila Batzen, etc.), "Sculpture as Visual Instrument" (Charles Ross, Michael Kirby), "The Vancouver Explosion" (Iain Baxter, Roy Kiyooka, Jim Willer, Reg Holmes, Audrey Chapel Dorey, Michael Morris, etc.), Paul Wunderlich, Milton Avery, Ludwig Sander, John Barryman, Claude Villiat, Lucio Fontana, Matta, Henri Matisse, Saul Steinberg, Rene Magritte, Isamu Noguchi, Les Levine, Martial Raysse, Andy Warhol, Christo, James Dine, Carl Andre, an much more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
2005, English
Hardcover, 294 pages, 21 x 23.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
The MIT Press / Massachusetts
$59.00 $25.00 - Out of stock
In Nothing Less than Literal, Mark Linder shows how minimalist art of the 1960s was infiltrated by architecture, resulting in a reconfiguration of the disciplines of both art and architecture. Linder traces the exchange of concepts and techniques between architecture and art through a reading of the work of critics Clement Greenberg, Colin Rowe, Michael Fried, and the artist-writer Robert Smithson, and then locates a recuperation of "the architecture of minimalism" in the contemporary work of John Hejduk and Frank Gehry.
"Literal" was not only a term used by Fried to attack minimalism; it was a key term for Greenberg as well, and in both cases their use of that term coincides with discussions of the architectural qualities of art. Linder gives us the first thorough examination of the role that architectural concepts, techniques of representation, and practices played in the emergence of minimalism. Beginning with a comparison of the "postcubist" writings of Clement Greenberg and Colin Rowe, he reveals surprising affinities in their critical formulations of pictorialism -- including the use by both of an analogy between cubist collage and architectural space. This is followed by an account of the sharp differences between Michael Fried and Robert Smithson; Linder contrasts the sublimation of space and refusal of architecture in Fried's concept of the "radically abstract" with Smithson's explicit embrace of architectural thinking and his complex concepts of space. Finally, Linder looks at particular instances in the work of two architects who, through collaboration with artists, engaged the legacy of literalism -- John Hejduk's Wall House and Frank Gehry's decade-long fascination with the figure of the fish. Linder shows how the "productive impropriety" of transdisciplinary borrowing in the discourses surrounding minimalism serves as a counterexample to the prevalent perception of "disciplines" as conservative and institutionalizing.
Out of print hardcover first edition. This copy was part of a run that had the page block glued into the covers backwards.
1997, Japanese
Softcover, 280 pages, 19 x 26 cm
1st Edition, out of print title / Used*,
Published by
Tama Art University / Japan
$50.00 - Out of stock
Scarce 1st edition of this heavy book published on the occasion of the exhibition "1953 : Shedding Light on Art" at Meguro Museum of Art Tokyo, June 8 - July 21, 1996, an exhibition that looked deeply into the important transitional years of the early 1950s post-war Japanese and the climate of new modern design, architecture and the society that surrounded it. Giving birth to a new avant-garde in Japan, including Mono-ha, Gutai, Jikken Kobo (Experimental Workshop) and other avant-garde movements, this books covers the vast array of artistic activity taking place in Japan in this period, across painting, sculpture, performance, design, architecture, photography, crafts, and more. Illustrated throughout in colour and black and white. All texts in Japanese.
Includes inserted exhibition stub.
1996, English / Japanese
Softcover, 330 pages, 19 cm x 26 cm
1st edition, Out of print title / used*,
Published by
Sezon Museum of Art / Tokyo
$130.00 - Out of stock
Rare Japanese exhibition book on the work of both prominent Japanese-American sculptor, artist, landscape architect, and designer Isamu Noguchi and his mentor, the extremely talented Japanese calligrapher, ceramicist, engraver, painter, lacquer artist and restaurateur, Rosanjin Kitaoji.
Published by Sezon Museum of Art and the Isamu Noguchi Foundation on the occasion of the 1996 traveling dual exhibition "ISAMU NOGUCHI・Rosanjin Kitaoji",
March 7-April 14, 1996 at the Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo, and subsequently in 3 other Japanese cities (Kochi, Kamakura, Fukuyama).
Densely illustrated with countless works by both artists, this 330-page book, with texts in both English and Japanese, presents sculptural objects, ceramics, furniture, lighting, sculptural installations, engravings, paintings, and many other incredible and rarely seen works by both artists.
Book is divided into two sections; one for each featured artist.
Text by Koji Kakehashi.