Artist Collaborations: rare books, wonderful gifts, at Gagosian Gallery with book specialist, Doug Flamm

ARTIST COLLABORATIONS
Andy Warhol & Jean-Michel Basquiat

 

THE CREATIVE PROCESS: FAMOUS ARTIST COLLABORATIONS

Nadia Bozovic, April 2017

What happens when two or more masterfully talented artists collaborate? Is it even possible for such strong individuals to interact and cooperate? Could they create something new together, something different, something brilliant? Yes, yes, and yes! Art collaborations simply cannot be a bad idea. There are so many examples throughout the art history that show us the wonderful uniqueness of creations that came out from such artistic partnerships. Here, we present you with some of the most famous ones!

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat:
A Crazy Art-World Marriage

From 1980 to 1986, renowned Pop artist Andy Warhol and a graffiti prodigy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, collaborated on a number of exciting pieces that actually led them to the position they now have in the art world.

Olympic Rings, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat

Their working process went on like this: Warhol usually painted first, and then Basquiat entered the scene with his colorful imagery. One of the most popular examples would be the piece titled Olympic Rings, completed in 1985. Warhol actually made several variations of the Olympic five-ring symbol, to which Basquiat responded with the oppositional graffiti style.

How did this “crazy art world marriage”, as Victor Bockris called it in his book, Warhol: The Biography, happen in the first place? It was due to the fame Andy Warhol had already achieved and the fact that Basquiat, a 20-year-old artist at the time, thought this fame was the missing piece which would help him with his big breakthrough in the art world. And he was right! Basquiat’s emotionally-charged paintings and graffiti art were about to become some of the best known Neo-Expressionist artworks in the U.S.

Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg:
When Abstract Expressionists Meet

Speaking of crazy art marriages, the next example we are going to talk about is a collaboration between Abstract Expressionists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. In fact, the two artists, creating incredible art in the middle of the American neo-Dada movement, may actually have been in a romantic relationship in addition to their artistic collaborations.

Bed, Robert Rauschenberg | Source: Artnet

Target with Four Faces, Jasper Johns | Source: Radford

Rumour has it that Jasper Johns was the one who came up with the word combine that’s widely used to describe Rauschenberg’s technique of incorporating everyday objects like fabric, newspaper cut-out, furniture and even animal carcasses into his abstract paintings.

In the 1950s, they extensively influenced each other’s work and the fact that there is a profound likeness in their art from that period doesn’t come as a surprise. The undersheet splashes of red, yellow, and blue colors in Rauschenberg’s Bed, both a piece of furniture and a painting, are clearly recognizable in the reds, blues, and yellows of Target with Four Faces made by his friend, lover, and a fellow artist, Jasper Johns.

Along with artistic giants like William de Kooning and Jackson Polock, these two artists paved way for the Pop Art movement by erasing the differences between the fine art and mass culture.

Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray:
50 Years of Shared Aesthetics

Rrose Sélavy was a Dada pin-up girl, a lucky charm for many artists, and… she was a man! Not just any man, that is, but one of the best-known visual artists in the entire history of art. She was ’the inventor of readymades’, and the revolutionary that completely changed the art world. Yes, you guessed it, she was Marcel Duchamp. Rrose Sélavy was one of Duchamp’s pseudonyms and his female alter-ego.

When you pronounce the name Rrose Sélavy, it actually sounds like Eros, Ce la Vie which, when translated from French, means Love, that’s life. Duchamp loved these kinds of word games as we all know, but he wasn’t playing alone. His long-time companion for optical and rhetorical illusions was a famous painter, photographer, and filmmaker, Man Ray.

Photograph of Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp) by Man Ray 

Ray was there to take a shot of Duchamp every time he showed up as Rrose Sélavy. But those pictures were only a small part of their unique everlasting friendship and artistic collaboration.

IN TODAY’S LRFA BLOG, WE ARE VERY PLEASED TO WELCOME BACK GAGOSIAN GALLERY’S RARE BOOK SPECIALIST, DOUGLAS FLAMM, OFFERING A WONDERFUL SELECTION OF BOOKS WHICH HIGHLIGHT THE GREAT CREATIVE RESULTS OF COLLABORATION. DOUG CAN BE REACHED AT GAGOSIAN SHOP, 976 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, DURING THE HOLIDAYS AND YEAR ROUND. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A SPECIAL ADDITION TO YOUR LIBRARY OR TO THAT OF A DEAR FRIEND, THERE IS NO ONE MORE KNOWLEDGABLE.

https://gagosianshop.com/

rarebooks@gagosian.com

Ed Ruscha & Billy Al Bengston
Business Cards

Ed Ruscha and Billy Al Bengston

Business Cards

1968

Self published artist book

8 3/4 × 5 3/4 inches (22.2 × 14.6 cm)

Business Cards, a collaboration between Ed Ruscha and Billy Al Bengston from 1968, wittily documents a business card exchange, starting with the artists designing the cards and ending with a ceremonial exchange at the Bistro restaurant in Beverly Hills. Limited to one thousand unique copies, the volume features a tipped-on black-and-white photograph on the cover and is bound in faux wood-grain paper with a knotted leather cord. The artists’ business cards are stapled to the final pages of the book. This copy is signed on the cover by both Ruscha and Bengston.

Jenny Saville & Glen Luchford: Close Contact

Jenny Saville & Glen Luchford

Closed Contact

2002

Essay by Katherine Dunn

11 1/4 × 15 1/2 inches (28.6 × 39.4 cm); 48 pages; 15 b/w illustrations; 14 color illustrations

Designed by David James Associates; Printed by Westerham Press

This lavishly illustrated catalogue was published on the occasion of “Jenny Saville & Glen Luchford: Closed Contact” at Gagosian, Beverly Hills in 2002. This poignant photographic series, which was a collaboration between Saville and fashion photographer/filmmaker Luchford, confronts and challenges preconceived notions of feminine beauty. In this body of work, the artists have created a new form of self-portraiture, using Saville as the model. With an essay by acclaimed writer Katherine Dunn, this out-of-print publication has become quite scarce.

Witness to Her Art: Art and Writings

Witness to Her Art

Art and Writings by Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, Cady Noland, Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker, Daniela Rossell and Eau de Cologne

2006

Edited by Rhea Anastas, Michael Brenson; Foreword by Tom Eccles

10 1/2 × 8 1/2 inches (26.7 ×  21.6 cm); 366 pages; Fully illustrated

Published by Center For Curatorial Studies: Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

THE LRFA BLOG WISHES EVERYONE A PROFOUNDLY WONDERFUL 2021, FILLED WITH GOOD HEALTH, FREEDOM AND SUCCESS. LET’S REMEMBER SOME OF THE BEST TRAITS WE HAVE LEARNED FROM THE YEAR WE ARE ALL SO EAGER TO LEAVE BEHIND: KINDNESS, GRATITUDE AND RESILIENCE,TO NAME A FEW.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas thanks to Gagosian Gallery’s rare book dealer, Doug Flamm

Gagosian Shop
976 Madison Avenue
New York

The beginning of 2020 has seen millions of lives turned upside down due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. Educational institutions across 192 countries have temporarily shut their doors, with closures affecting over 91% of enrolled students, according to UNESCO. As more and more children are being forced to stay home from school, the risk of students becoming disengaged from or deprived entirely of their education is higher than ever. Reading is a past-time that we should be actively supporting during this tumultuous moment in history.

https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/reading-during-a-global-pandemic/

For adults, there is the pleasure of having time to read the books one always meant to or discovering new titles that resonant during these disruptive and disrupted time. Alone together – working from home, staying put, schooling children at home – reading can provide a wonderful escape from the confines of the lockdown. According to studies conducted by the Journal of College Teaching and Learning, 30 minutes of reading can help lower one’s heart rate and blood pressure, as well as reducing psychological distress. Reading affords us the ability to project ourselves into the lives of others and sink into alternative realities. Whether this is the whimsical lands of Roald Dahl’s fiction or a biographical memoir, the act of reading can transport us to new dimensions. This process can help to mitigate feelings of isolation and estrangement which are particularly present during this time of social distancing.

Gagosian Shop
Paris

THE LRFA BLOG LOVES TO CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAY SEASON BY ASKING A GREAT EXPERT AND LONGTIME FRIEND, DOUG FLAMM,  RARE BOOK EXPERT AT GAGOSIAN GALLERY, TO DELVE INTO HIS TREASURE TROVE OF ART-RELATED BOOKS TO RECOMMEND FOR HOLIDAY GIFTING. THIS YEAR IN PARTICULAR, WHEN REMEMBERING LOVED ONES WITH THOUGHTFUL GIFTS AND PAYING ATTENTION TO WELLNESS, BOTH OUR OWN AND OTHERS, ARE SO IMPORTANT, DOUG IS OFFERING A WONDERFUL SELECTION THAT RANGES FROM RARE ART BOOKS, UNIQUE ARTISTS’ BOOKS, EXHIBITION POSTERS AND LIMITED EDITIONS.

THANK YOU DOUG, THIS YEAR AND EVERY YEAR!

https://gagosian.com/locations/gagosian-shop-new-york/

Gagosian Shop
Holiday 2017

Gerhard Richter

Gerd Richter, Bilder des Kapitalistischen Realismus Exhibition Poster

 

 

 

 

 

 

Produced in 1964 on the occasion of exhibition Gerd Richter: Bilder des Kapitalistischen Realismus at Galerie René Block, Berlin

9 1/2 × 22 1/2 inches (24.1 × 57.2 cm)

Printed in Germany

Poster is sold unframed

Price upon request

Please contact rarebooks@gagosian.com to arrange for purchase.

———-

We are pleased to offer this rare piece of ephemera from one of Gerhard Richter’s first exhibitions. Published in 1964 on the occasion of Gerd Richter: Bilder des Kapitalistischen Realismus at Galerie René Block in Berlin, this poster is indicative of the dynamic photo based works found in the exhibition. Without folds and in excellent condition, this poster is quite collectable.

 

Donald Judd

Leo Castelli Gallery Exhibition Poster

Leo Castelli Gallery Exhibition Poster            Donald Judd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published in 1981 on the occasion of Donald Judd’s exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York

25 × 34 inches (63.5 × 86.4 cm)

Poster is sold framed

$1,950

Not available for purchase online, please contact the Shop to arrange for purchase.

© 2020 Judd Foundation/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Francis Bacon

Derriere le Miroir No 162

Francis Bacon
Derriere Le Miroir No. 16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text by Michel Lereis; Interview with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester

15 × 11 3/8 inches (38.1 × 28.9 cm); Hardcover in slipcase; Includes 5 single sheet color lithographs and a three sheet fold-out color lithograph; French

Published by Aimé Maeght

Deluxe edition limited to 150 copies

$3,500

Not available for purchase online, please contact the Shop to arrange for purchase.

Gagosian
Cy Twombly Shop
London

MORE TO FOLLOW!  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

Pop Art treasures with Doug Flamm, rare book specialist at Gagosian

Andy Warhol
The Gold Book

IN THE NOVEMBER 2017 ISSUE OF GAGOSIAN MAGAZINE, ANNA HAYWARD DISCUSSED ANDY WARHOL’S GOLD BOOK AND TOUCHES ON THE ARTIST’S EARLY YEARS. “FROM HIS STUDENT DAYS UNTL HIS DEATH, IN 1987, ANDY WARHOL WAS OBSESSED WITH BOOKS. THEIR IMAGE-BEARING CAPACITY, THEIR REPRODUCIBILITY, AND THEIR IMMEDIATE, TACTILE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR READERS WERE ALL EXPLOITED IN THE CHARACTERISTICALLY STYLISH, COMIC, DECORATIVE, IRREVERENT ARTIST’S BOOKS THAT HE DESIGNED AND MADE.”

Warhol_Pages from GG_MagNov2017 Lo-res (1) 2

Andy Warhol
The Gold Book

DOUGLAS FLAMM, GAGOSIAN’S RARE BOOK SPECIALIST, HAS RECENTLY ACQUIRED A SIGNED AND NUMBERED COPY OF A GOLD BOOK. FROM 1957, A HIGHLY SOUGHT-AFTER EDITION OF 100, THE BOOK CONTAINS TWENTY  OFFSET LITHOGRAPHS, FOURTEEN OF THEM PRINTED ON GOLD PAPER, SIX, OF WHICH FOUR IN THIS COPY ARE HAND COLORED IN WATERCOLOR, PRINTED ON WHITE; THIS PARTICULAR EXAMPLE HAS AN ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATION AFFIXED TO ITS COVER. AT LEAST A HANDFUL OF THE COPIES WERE GIFTS, AS WAS WARHOL’S CUSTOM – HE SENT ONE COPY TO RUSSELL LYNES, AN EDITOR AT Harper’s MAGAZINE AND A WELL-KNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER AND WRITER, AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT THAT YEAR.

WHO WILL BE THIS YEAR’S LUCKY RECIPIENT?

ASK FOR DOUG FLAMM AT GAGOSIAN BOOKSTORE, 976 MADISON AVENUE, ACROSS FROM THE CARLYLE HOTEL, TO HAVE A LOOK IN PERSON.

 

Andy Warhol
The Gold Book

ANDY WARHOL

A Gold Book.

New York, Self Published [1957]

Illustrated with 14 plates printed on gold paper including cover illustration and 6 on white paper, of which 4 with hand-coloring. With original colored interleaving tissues. [40] pp., 37 x 29 cm, bound in original gold paper boards with pastedown illustration.

First Edition. Limited to 100 copies signed by Warhol. Each copy with slight variations of coloring on the white paper prints interleaved with colored tissue.

This book encapsulates early Warhol, a world notably distinct from the canny multimedia and sharply Pop aesthetics that make up his primary legacy. The images – some from photographs, others drawn freehand – show Warholian iconography: shoes, flowers, a self-portrait. The hand painting of each copy varies. This copy has four hand colored plates. A Gold Book is both a nod to pure visual indulgence and a handheld fantasy of the artist’s life.

Andy Warhol
The Gold Book

ANOTHER GREAT POP ARTIST, WHOSE WORK IS COMMANDING INCREASING ATTENTION AT AUCTION, IS TOM WESSELMAN. WHAT BETTER GIFT THAN AN EXTENSIVE MONOGRAPH ON WASSERMANN CONTAINING SECTIONS ON DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF HIS WORK: Bedroom Paintings, Nude Series, Landscape Series, Seascapes, Smoke Series and Still Life Series.

Tom Wesselmann
Text by Slim Stealingworth

12 × 13 1/2 inches (31 × 34 cm)

Published by Abbeville Press, New York, 1980

$450

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WESSELMAN
                            Abbeville Press, New York, 1980

 

IN OUR NEXT POST, DOUG HAS MORE WONDERFUL SUGGESTIONS, AND WHEN THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER, PERHAPS EVEN SOMETHING FOR ONESELF.

IN THE MEANTIME, THE LRFA BLOG THANKS YOU ALL AND WISHES EACH AND EVERYONE A VERY SPECIAL HOLIDAY SEASON!

 

Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations tops Gagosian book expert Doug Flamm’s holiday wish list

Ed Ruscha

EARLIER THIS YEAR AT THE DE YOUNG MUSEUM IN SAN FRANCISCO, ED RUSCHA AND THE GREAT AMERICAN WEST FEATURED 99 WORKS BY ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL AND ACCLAIMED ARTISTS. THE EXHIBITION EXPLORED RUSCHA’S LIFELONG FASCINATION WITH THE WEST AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY AND PIONEER CHARACTER. THE GASOLINE STATION, AS AN AMERICAN ICON, HAS LONG BEEN AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT IN RUSCHA’S WORK AND ONE OF RUSCHA’S MOST OUTSTANDING TRIBUTES ON THIS SUBJECT IS THE ARTIST’S BOOK HE CREATED IN 1962.

 

IN THE 1960s AND EARLY 1970s ED RUSCHA PUBLISHED SIXTEEN BOOKS, PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTS THAT EXEMPLIFY THE WEST COAST CONCEPTUAL ART MOVEMENT. THESE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHIC PUBLICATIONS, PRINTED MATTER IN MULTIPLE EDITIONS, BY RUSCHA AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES, SUBVERTED THE TRADITIONAL DEFINITIONS OF ART AS A CREATIVE SKILL AND MEANS OF SELF-EXPRESSION.

Ed Ruscha: Books & Co
Gagosian Gallery
July 2016

RUSCHA HAS BEEN CREDITED WITH REINVENTING THE CONCEPT OF THE ARTIST’S BOOK BY REJECTING THE CRITERIA OF CRAFTSMANSHIP AND THE EXCLUSIVITY OF THE TRADITIONAL livre d’artiste IN FAVOR OF AN UNSIGNED AND INEXPENSIVELY PRINTED EDITION, OPENING THIS GENRE TO THE POTENTIAL OF MASS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION.

DOUG FLAMM, AN EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF BOOK PUBLISHING AND A PASSIONATE LOVER OF ARTISTS’ BOOKS, RECENTLY JOINED THE GAGOSIAN GALLERY TO EXPAND THE DEPTH AND SCOPE AT THE GAGOSIAN BOOKSHOP OF AN ALREADY EXCEPTIONAL INVENTORY. LOCATED AT 976 MADISON AVENUE ACROSS FROM THE CARLYLE HOTEL AT 76th STREET, IT OFFERS AN EXTENSIVE SELECTION OF SCHOLARLY MONOGRAPHS, UNIQUE CATALOGUES AND ARTISTS’ BOOKS.

 

From Twenty-six Gas Stations

FOR MOST ARTISTS, A BOOK SUPPLEMENTS THE ACTUAL WORKS OF ART, OFTEN ACCOMPANYING AN EXHIBITION OF PAINTING, SCULPTURE OR INSTALLATION. FOR ED RUSCHA, BOUND AND PRINTED PAGES HAVE BEEN AN INTEGRAL PART OF HIS PRACTICE FOR OVER 50 YEARS.

AS RUSCHA COMMENTED IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE TELEGRAPH’S MARTIN GAYFORD IN 2009, “I BEGAN TO SEE BOOKS AND BOOK DESIGN, TYPOGRAPHY, AS A REAL INSPIRATION. SO I GOT A JOB WITH A BOOK PRINTER. HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO SET TYPE, AND THEN I STARTED TO SEE THE BEAUTY OF TYPOGRAPHY AND LETTER-FORMS. SOMEHOW THAT LED ME OFF ON THIS LITTLE PATH, ALMOST LIKE A BUMPER CAR, YOU KNOW.”

Ed Ruscha
Twentysix Gasoline Stations
1963

A PARTICULAR FAVORITE OF DOUG’S, FOR YOUR HOLIDAY SHOPPING OR FOR YOUR ART LIBRARY ANY TIME OF YEAR, IS:

Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963)

One of the most important artist books from the second half of the twentieth century, this copy of Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations includes the original wrappers, with its title printed in red ink on the front and spine. It’s the first edition of Ruscha’s first artist book, which is one of approximately 50 copies, and includes the original black card slipcase. It was published by the artist in 1963, under the imprint National Excelsior Publications.

IN OUR NEXT POST, DOUG WILL RECOMMEND SOME ADDITIONAL TREASURES THAT SHOULD PLEASE EVEN THE TOUGHEST RECIPIENT!

STAY TUNED!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artists’ books by masters of sculpture and photography: Puryear, Judd, and Sugimoto

AN ARTIST’S BOOK IS A MEDIUM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION THAT USES THE FORM OR FUNCTION OF A “BOOK” AS ITS INSPIRATIONAL SPRINGBOARD. THE ARTISTIC INITIATIVE RELIES UPON THE CHOICE OF MATERIALS, THE LAYOUT AND DESIGN, AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS THAT TRANSFORMS A BOOK INTO AN ART OBJECT. TODAY, ARTISTS’ BOOKS EXIST AT THE INTERSECTIONS OF PRINTMAKING, PHOTOGRAPHY, POETRY, THE VISUAL ARTS AND PUBLISHING AND HAVE MADE A PLACE FOR THEMSELVES IN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS, LIBRARIES AND IN THE PRIVATE COLLECTIONS OF BIBLIOPHILES AND ART COLLECTORS. THERE ARE STUDIO PROGRAMS AVAILABLE IN ART SCHOOL CURRICULUMS DEDICATED TO THE “ART OF THE BOOK” THAT USHER IN NEW GENERATIONS OF ARTISTS WHO WILL EXPERIMENT AND CONTRIBUTE TO THIS ART FORM.

IN OUR LAST HOLIDAY LRFA BLOG WITH BOOK EXPERT DOUGLAS FLAMM, OF URSUS BOOKS, 699 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, DOUG WILL INTRODUCE US TO THREE OTHER RARE AND REMARKABLE BOOKS THAT ARE AVAILABLE AT THE BOOKSTORE. http://www.ursusbooks.com

DONALD JUDD.  Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada. Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Objects and Wood-Blocks 1960-1974 [INSCRIBED]. xv, 319 pp. catalogue well illustrated in b&w. Folio, wraps. 1975. (#156203) $5,000.00
This iconic book was produced on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition in Ottawa.

The only catalogue raisonne of Judd’s sculpture, it is complete with provenance, exhibition history and bibliography. Text in English and French. Inscribed by Judd, “For Sidney and Jane, 9 Dec 76, Don”.

Donald Judd
Dedication

Donald Judd revolutionized practices and attitudes surrounding art making and the exhibition of art, primarily advocating for the permanent installation of works by artists in carefully selected environments. Judd’s first solo exhibition was in 1957 at the Panoras Gallery, New York, the same year he began graduate studies in art history at Columbia University. Over the next decade, Judd worked as a critic for ARTnews, Arts Magazine, and Art International; his subsequent theoretical writings on art and exhibition practices would prove to be some of his most important and lasting legacies.

The work of Donald Judd, one of the most significant American artists of the post-war period, has come to define what has been referred to as Minimalist art—a label to which the artist strongly objected on the grounds of its generality. The unaffected, straightforward quality of Judd’s work demonstrates his strong interest in color, form, material, and space. With the intention of creating work that could assume a direct material and physical “presence” without recourse to grand philosophical statements, he eschewed the classical ideals of representational sculpture to create a rigorous visual vocabulary that sought clear and definite objects as its primary mode of articulation.

Martin Puryear

PURYEAR, Martin. Cane. By Jean Toomer. 141, [3] pp. With 10 woodcuts by Martin Puryear, and an afterword by Leon LF. Litwack. Oblong folio, bound in original tan cloth. San Francisco: The Arion Press, 2000.
$2500.00

An immaculate copy of this important book, first published in 1923, which has long been considered one of the most important works of the Harlem Renaissance. Martin Puryear contributed a stunning set of illustrations and Andrew Hoyem designed an elegant book which does justice to both the author and the artist. The historian Leon Litwack has contributed an essay placing the book in historical context. One of an edition of 350 copies signed by the artist, and already scarce.

Martin Puryear

Martin Puryear (born 1941) lives and works in upstate New York. Puryear’s abstract organic forms are rich with psychological and intellectual references that explore issues of ethnicity, culture, and history. His new sculptures incorporate a diverse range of materials, from bronze, cast iron, and mirror-polished stainless steel to a variety of woods, including red cedar, tulip poplar, maple, holly, Alaskan yellow cedar, walnut, and ebony. Puryear’s sculptures, typically made by hand with labor-intensive methods, often require months to complete. His techniques, developed over a forty-year career, combine practices adapted from many different traditions, including wood carving, joinery, and boat building, as well as recent digital technology.

Martin Puryear

His first one-person exhibition opened in 1968. Since then he has had one-person exhibitions at numerous museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Fundación “la Caixa” in Madrid, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and he has completed public commissions in Europe, Japan, and the United States. In 1989 he represented the United States at the São Paulo Biennial, receiving the festival’s Grand Prize, and in 1992 his work was included in Documenta 9 in Kassel, Germany. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, organized a retrospective of his work in 2007, which traveled to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation award and a Presidential Medal of the Arts.

Sugimoto
Sea of Buddha

SUGIMOTO, Hiroshi. Sea of Buddha. Edited by Atsuko Koyanagi. [7] pp. Illustrated with 48 original double-spread Sugimoto photographs on heavy stockmatte art paper. 8vo., bound accordion-style in polished aluminum covers, title lettered in black on top cover, preserved in white silk slipcase. New York: Sonnabend Sudell Editions, 1997.
$2,500.00

A clever and elegantly designed book printed by Dai Nippon Printing Co. presents Sugimoto’s complete series of 1000 Kannon Bothisattva statues in Kyoto’s Sanju San-Gen-Do temple, The Hall of Thirty-three Bays. The complete edition represents 1 million Bodhisattvas, as mentioned on the title page. The book can be opened to offer a panorama of nearly 48 feet long. Edition limited to 1000 numbered copies.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto, best known for his technically brilliant photographs of American movie palaces and drive-ins, the sea and its horizon, blurred images of Modernist architecture, and lightning fields, used his long exposures to capture these dark early dawn images of Buddhas. A small nick to the aluminum cover else a fine copy.

“After seven years of red tape, I was finally granted permission to photograph in the temple of Sanjusangendo, “Hall of Thirty-Three Bays.” In special preparation for the shoot, I had all late-medieval and early-modern embellishments removed, as well as having the contemporary fluorescent lighting turned off, recreating the splendor of the thousand bodhisattvas glistening in the light of the morning sun rising over the Higashiyama hills as the Kyoto aristocracy might have seen in the Heian period (794-1185). Will today’s conceptual art survive another eight-hundred years?” 

Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1948, and lives and works in New York and Tokyo. His interest in art began early. His reading of André Breton’s writings led to his discovery of Surrealism and Dada and a lifelong connection to the work and philosophy of Marcel Duchamp. Central to Sugimoto’s work is the idea that photography is a time machine, a method of preserving and picturing memory and time. This theme provides the defining principle of his ongoing series, including “Dioramas” (1976–), “Theaters” (1978–), and “Seascapes” (1980–). Sugimoto sees with the eye of the sculptor, painter, architect, and philosopher. He uses his camera in a myriad of ways to create images that seem to convey his subjects’ essence, whether architectural, sculptural, painterly, or of the natural world. He places extraordinary value on craftsmanship, printing his photographs with meticulous attention and a keen understanding of the nuances of the silver print and its potential for tonal richness—in his seemingly infinite palette of blacks, whites, and grays.

DOUG, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INTRODUCING THESE WONDERFUL OBJECTS TO US ON THE LRFA BLOG.

CONSERVATION IS A RICH AND COMPLEX FIELD, ONE THAT REQUIRES GREAT SENSITIVITY AS WELL AS  TECHNICAL EXPERTISE. IT IS OFTEN A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT BETWEEN THE CONSERVATOR AND THE ART HISTORIAN.  IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG, BRAD SHAR OF JULIUS LOWY FRAMING AND RESTORATION WILL DETAIL THE ART OF  PAINTING CONSERVATION AS WELL AS INTRODUCING US TO LOWY’S  EXCITING NEW HEADQUARTERS AND FRAMING AND CONSERVATION FACILITIES.

UNTIL THEN, WISHING YOU ALL THE HAPPIEST YEAR AHEAD!

 

Cai Quo- Quiang

James Turrell, Andy Warhol, Kara Walker: 3 monumental artists in an intimate format

James Turrell
ECLIPSE

ARTISTS’ BOOKS ARE A VIBRANT AND ENGAGING AREA OF COLLECTING. JUST AS DRAWINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER ARE OFTEN THE FOCUS OF COLLECTING FOR ART CONNOISSEURS WHO DELIGHT IN A DEEPER AND MORE INTIMATE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ARTIST’S CREATIVE PROCESS, THE ARTIST’S BOOK OPENS A DOORWAY TO AN ARTIST’S UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE AND AESTHETIC. AN ARTIST’S BOOK IS OFTEN PRODUCED IN LARGER EDITIONS THAT ALLOW ACCESS TO THE WORK BY A LARGER AUDIENCE AND, THUS, IS A POWERFUL COMMUNICATIVE AESTHETIC VEHICLE. THE SIMPLICITY OF ITS FORM AND SMALLER FORMAT PROVIDE THE READER WITH A CONNECTION TO THE ARTIST THAT IS INDIVIDUAL AND PERSONAL WHILE SERVING TO DISSEMINATE THE ARTIST’S THINKING IN A BROADER AND MORE INCLUSIVE FORM.

DOUG FLAMM, OF URSUS BOOKS,  WAS CAPTIVATED BY THIS ART FORM WHEN HE FIRST ENCOUNTERED IT AND IT BECAME THE INITIAL AREA OF SPECIALIZATION IN HIS PROFESSIONAL CAREER AS A BOOK DEALER.  HIS KNOWLEDGE AND ENTHUSIASM RESONATES WITH ME AND IT IS MY PLEASURE TO SHARE IT WITH YOU IN TODAY’S LRFA BLOG.

HERE ARE A FEW MORE OUTSTANDING ARTISTS’ BOOKS DOUG HAS SELECTED FROM THE SHELVES OF URSUS BOOKS, LOCATED ON MADISON AVENUE BETWEEN 62nd AND 63rd STREETS,  IN NEW YORK CITY.

http://www.ursusbooks.com/

 

James Turrell

TURRELL, James. Eclipse. Illustrated with two prints by James Turrell, two prints by Thomas Joshua Cooper, a CD of music by Paul Schuetze, and text by Richard Bright. 4to. Linen and wrappers in a linen folding box with paper label as issued. London: Michael Hue-Williams Fine Art, 1999.
$3500.00

A very handsome publication created in response to the total solar eclipse of August 11th, 1999, for which James Turrell created an etching and an aquatint and Thomas Joshua Cooper made two photogravures. This is a scarce book which seems to never appear on the market, and is here in immaculate condition. One of an edition of 100 copies, with the colophon signed by Turrell, who also signed his aquatint. Joshua Cooper signed both photogravures.

 

James Turrell

James Turrell was born in Los Angeles in 1943. His undergraduate studies at Pomona College focused on psychology and mathematics; only later, in graduate school, did he pursue art, receiving an MFA from the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California. Turrell’s work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body, and mind with the force of a spiritual awakening. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says the artist, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.”

Informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusions, Turrell’s work allows us to see ourselves “seeing.” Whether harnessing the light at sunset or transforming the glow of a television set into a fluctuating portal, Turrell’s art places viewers in a realm of pure experience. Situated near the Grand Canyon and Arizona’s Painted Desert is Roden Crater, an extinct volcano the artist has been transforming into a celestial observatory for the past thirty years. Working with cosmological phenomena that have interested man since the dawn of civilization and have prompted responses such as Stonehenge and the Mayan calendar, Turrell’s crater brings the heavens down to earth, linking the actions of people with the movements of planets and distant galaxies. His fascination with the phenomena of light is ultimately connected to a very personal, inward search for mankind’s place in the universe. Influenced by his Quaker faith, which he characterizes as having a “straightforward, strict presentation of the sublime,” Turrell’s art prompts greater self-awareness through a similar discipline of silent contemplation, patience, and meditation. His ethereal installations enlist the common properties of light to communicate feelings of transcendence and the divine. The recipient of several prestigious awards, such as Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships, Turrell lives in Arizona.

Kara Walker
five poems

WALKER, Kara. Five Poems. By Toni Morrison. Illustrated with 5 silhouettes by Kara Walker. Folio, bound in publisher’s linen-backed decorated boards and matching slipcase. Las Vegas: Rainmaker Editions, 2002.
$1250.00

Kara Walker

A superb contemporary livre de peintre marrying poems by of one of the foremost African-American women writers, the Nobel prize winning Toni Morrison, with illustrations by of one of the leading African-American women artists, Kara Walker, who is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes that examine America’s racial and gender tensions. A superb piece of contemporary bookmaking by the San Francisco printer and book-designer Peter Koch.

One of an edition of 399 copies, with the colophon signed by Kara Walker, Toni Morrison and Peter Koch. As new.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker was born in Stockton, California, in 1969. She received a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991, and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. The artist is best known for exploring the raw intersection of race, gender, and sexuality through her iconic, silhouetted figures. Walker unleashes the traditionally proper Victorian medium of the silhouette directly onto the walls of the gallery, creating a theatrical space in which her unruly cut-paper characters fornicate and inflict violence on one another. In works like “Darkytown Rebellion” (2000), the artist uses overhead projectors to throw colored light onto the ceiling, walls, and floor of the exhibition space; the lights cast a shadow of the viewer’s body onto the walls, where it mingles with Walker’s black-paper figures and landscapes.

Kara Walker

With one foot in the historical realism of slavery and the other in the fantastical space of the romance novel, Walker’s nightmarish fictions simultaneously seduce and implicate the audience. Walker’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. A 1997 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Walker was the United States representative to the 2002 Bienal de São Paulo. Walker currently lives in New York, where she is on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University.

ANDY WARHOL

WARHOL, Andy. Andy Warhol. [Exhibition catalogue]. [17] pp. including title-page and numerous quotations by the Artist, followed by hundreds of full-page black and white photographic illustrations. Large 4to., 268 x 210 mm, bound in original wrappers featuring neon-coloured flowers by Warhol, with original printed cardboard box. Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1968. $1,500.00

Andy Warhol
Stockholm: Moderna Museet

First Edition of the catalogue for Warhol’s first solo show at a European museum, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, in February-March 1968, curated by Pontus Hultén and Olle Granath. A near fine copy.

Andy Warhol
Flowers

More than twenty years after his death, Andy Warhol remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture. Warhol’s life and work inspires creative thinkers worldwide thanks to his enduring imagery, his artfully cultivated celebrity, and the ongoing research of dedicated scholars. His impact as an artist is far deeper and greater than his one prescient observation that “everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” His omnivorous curiosity resulted in an enormous body of work that spanned every available medium and most importantly contributed to the collapse of boundaries between high and low culture.

The turbulent 1960s ignited an impressive and wildly prolific time in Warhol’s life.  It is this period, extending into the early 1970s, which saw the production of many of Warhol’s most iconic works. Building on the emerging movement of Pop Art, wherein artists used everyday consumer objects as subjects, Warhol started painting readily found, mass-produced objects, drawing on his extensive advertising background.  When asked about the impulse to paint Campbell’s soup cans, Warhol replied, “I wanted to paint nothing. I was looking for something that was the essence of nothing, and that was it”. The humble soup cans would soon take their place among the Marilyn Monroes, Dollar Signs,Disasters, and Coca Cola Bottles as essential, exemplary works of contemporary art.

THE  NEXT  LRFA BLOG WILL FEATURE ARTISTS’ BOOKS BY THE EXTRAORDINARY SCULPTORS, MARTIN PURYEAR AND DONALD JUDD, AND THE INTERNATIONALLY CELEBRATED PHOTOGRAPHER, HIROSHI SUGIMOTO.

TIS THE SEASON TO BE THANKFUL- ALL YEAR LONG, REALLY- FOR THE READERS OF MY BLOG, FOR THE EXPERTS THAT CONTRIBUTE AND INFORM ME IN SO MANY WAYS, FOR ALL THOSE NEAR OR FAR WHO ENRICH MY LIFE.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

 

Tis the season! very special gifts culled from Ursus Books by Doug Flamm

ARTISTS’ BOOKS ARE MADE AND CONCEIVED BY ARTISTS AND COME IN MANY DIFFERENT SHAPES AND SIZES. DOUG FLAMM, OF URSUS BOOKS, A NEW YORK BASED BOOKSTORE SPECIALIZING IN ART BOOKS AND ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, HAS A DEEP KNOWLEDGE OF AND PASSION FOR THIS UNIQUE AREA OF PUBLISHING. PRIOR TO JOINING URSUS,  DOUG WAS AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLER, DEALING IN THESE EXTRAORDINARY BOOKS THAT RESONATE WITH ART AND BOOK CONNOISSEURS ALIKE.

URSUS BOOKS PROVIDES AN INTERNATIONAL CLIENTELE WITH A COMPREHENSIVE SELECTION OF ARTISTS’ BOOKS, REFERENCE BOOKS, EXCEPTIONAL COPIES OF RARE BOOKS IN ALL FIELDS AND FINE ANTIQUE DECORATIVE PRINTS.  LOCATED ON THE THIRD FLOOR OF 699 MADISON AVENUE AT 63rd STREET, URSUS IS AN INVITING AND WELL-STOCKED NICHE WITH A WELCOMING AND INFORMED STAFF. http://www.ursusbooks.com/

IN HIS ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE LRFA BLOG, DOUG EXPLAINED THE REVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCE THAT ARTIST ED RUSCHA HAD ON ARTISTS’ BOOKS (FORMERLY IN THE FORMAT OF LIMITED EDITIONS BY 20th CENTURY MASTERS SUCH AS PICASSO AND MATISSE, OFTEN CONTAINING AN ORIGINAL ETCHING OR LITHOGRAPHY BY THE ARTIST.)

Ed Ruscha turned this category on its head. He changed the definition of what an artist’s book is. He conceived of ideas and projects using the commonplace technology of off-set printing. He selected very banal subjects (as he does in his paintings and works on paper) – parking lots, gas stations, swimming pools, and produced these images in a rudimentary way that parallels his artistic genre. In so doing, he created extraordinary objects that don’t fall within the traditions of livres d’artiste but have a value and vitality very much their own and liberated this form of artistic invention.

 

Douglas Flamm
URSUS BOOKS

 

 

I WAS DELIGHTED WHEN DOUG AGREED TO GATHER TOGETHER A WONDERFUL SELECTION OF ARTISTS’ BOOKS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT URSUS – A MEMORABLE GIFT FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON OR A GREAT ADDITION TO ONE’S OWN LIBRARY YEAR ROUND.

 

Olafur Eliasson

ELIASSON, Olafur. Your House.

908 pp. Illustrated by Olafur Eliasson using computer-aided laser die-cuts. Oblong folio, 285 x 440 mm, bound in original cloth. New York: Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art, 2006. (#157176) $18,500.00

Conceived by Olafur Eliasson as part of the Contemporary Editions series at The Museum of Modern Art, this book is one of the more exciting new achievements in book making in the 21st Century. The subject of the book is Eliasson’s house in Denmark that is rendered in a vertical cross-section through an elaborate laser die-cut process of each page. The format of the book allows Eliasson the space to fully realize his idea on a scale of 85:1, so that each leaf corresponds to 2.2 centimeters of the actual house.

Eliasson summarizes the experience of viewing this book, “Reading a book is both a physical and a mental activity. It is like walking through a house, following the layout of the rooms with your body and mind: the movement from one room to another, or from one part of the book to another, constitutes an experiential narrative that is physical and conscious at the same time.”

Signed by Eliasson on the colophon. One of an edition of 225 copies. Condition is as new.

Born in 1967, Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist whose sculptural and installation works are deeply informed by culture, ecology, and the nature of human perception. His works are inspired by his investigation of the relationship between subjective perception and natural phenomena. Perception, according to Eliasson, is as much an immediate sensory experience as it is rooted within the cultural framework of our memory.

Among the recurring themes in Eliasson’s works are light, ephemerality, and the environment. Such projects like The Weather Project (2003) in which an ecological model is placed into an institutional model frame of the Tate Modern, are fundamental rejections of object-based art. In creating environments and situations that engage our most basic sensory responses, Eliasson’s works democratize the experience of art. Participation and the act of viewing brings Eliasson’s works to life as he once explained, “I like to think that my work can return criticality to the viewer as a tool for negotiating and reevaluating the environment—and that this can pave the way for a more causal relationship with our surroundings.”

LEWITT, Sol. Complex Forms.

Comprised of four (4) large double-folded colour screenprints, 355 x 1420 mm (14 x 56 inches). Square folio, 360 x 360 mm, bound in thick paper over board, lettered spine and both covers with original colour screenprints by Lewitt. Preserved in black cloth folding box. Zurich: Annemarie Verna & New York: Brooke Alexander, 1990. (#156784) $30,000.00

Sol LeWitt

Edition limited to 15 copies signed and numbered by Lewitt. These four original coloured screenprints printed by Watanabe Studio in New York capture on paper the amazing Lewitt series of wall paintings that the artist conceived in 1987-88. Complex Forms represents Lewitt’s experiments with fracturing the cube into component parts. The application of four colours juxtaposed in variations of hue and saturation further expands the visual experimentation.

 

A key factor to emphasize is that Lewitt’s wall paintings were executed directly on the wall for a limited duration, usually a month or two. When a given exhibition was over, many of his creations were not sold and carried away like a painting or sculpture. They were simply painted over and permanently lost except for the original drawings and/or colour gouaches.

Sol Lewitt

“The essence of Lewitt’s work is the original idea as formulated in the artist’s mind. Because it emphasizes conceiving rather than implementing, this kind of art has often been referred to as conceptual art” (Andrea Miller-Keller, Sol Lewitt: Twenty-Five Years of Wall Paintings 1968-1993 in the exhibition catalogue of Addison Gallery, University of Washington Press, 1993, p.37). Condition is “as new.”

Sol LeWitt, whose deceptively simple geometric sculptures and drawings and ecstatically colored and jazzy wall paintings established him as a lodestar of modern American art. Sol LeWitt was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1928. As a child, he attended art classes at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. LeWitt completed a BFA at Syracuse University in 1949 and then served in the United States Army in Korea and Japan during the Korean War. In 1953 he moved to New York, where he took classes at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and did production work for Seventeen magazine. LeWitt subsequently worked in graphic design in the office of architect I. M. Pei from 1955 to 1956. During the first half of the 1960s, LeWitt supported himself by working as a night receptionist at the Museum of Modern Art, where he met future critic Lucy Lippard and fellow artists Dan Flavin, Robert Mangold, and Robert Ryman.\

LeWitt is regarded as a founder of both Minimal and Conceptual art. Inspired by Eadweard Muybridge’s sequential photographs of animals and people in motion, LeWitt incorporated seriality in his work to imply the passage of time or narrative. Two important essays by LeWitt, in particular, defined the new movement: “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” (1967) and “Sentences on Conceptual Art” (1969). The earlier text proclaimed: “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” He began making wall drawings in 1968. The earliest consisted of pencil lines—in systematized arrangements of verticals, horizontals, and diagonals on a 45-degree angle—drawn directly on the walls. Later wall drawings included circles and arcs and colored pencil. LeWitt would eventually use teams of assistants to create such works.

In the early 1960s, LeWitt made paintings and reliefs before concentrating on three-dimensional works based on the cube in the mid-1960s. For these, he used precise, measured formats such as grids and modules, and systematically developed variations. His methods were mathematically based, defined by language, or created through random processes. He took up similar approaches in works on paper.

RUSCHA, EDWARD. Every Building on the Sunset Strip.

Every Building on the Sunset Strip
Edward Ruscha

Accordian fold artist’s book illustrated in b&w. 8vo, wraps preserved in a new cloth box. 1966. (#105867) $7,500.00
First Edition, first printing. Photomontage showing contiguously every building on both sides of the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

Sunset Strip
Ed Ruscha

Approximately 22 feet long when folded out to its full length. Ruscha identifies street numbers and the names of cross streets. The folded accordion paper of Ruscha’s “Sunset Strip” has an extra 2″ flap of paper folded over behind the last page, therefore making this a true first edition. The final Jaguar building is pictured alone on this last half page. All other editions are cut evenly on the final page, including later printings that say “first edition” in front. Apparently the printer made an error in estimating the proper folding length of the printed paper the first time, but this was corrected in subsequent editions. Chip to silver mylar of slipcase and slight crease to spine of book, else a very good copy.

Sunset Strip
Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha’s photography, drawing, painting, and artist books record the shifting emblems of American life in the last half century. His deadpan representations of Hollywood logos, stylized gas stations, and archetypal landscapes distill the imagery of popular culture into a language of cinematic and typographical codes.  The ironic choice of words and phrases that are a dominant feature in his work draw upon the moments of incidental ambiguity implicit in the interplay between the word and image. Although his images are undeniably rooted in the language of a piercing observation of  American life, his elegantly conceived art addresses complex and widespread issues regarding the appearance and function of the world  at large and our transient place within it.

Ruscha’s artist books have proved to be deeply influential. They have widely influential other artists who have adopted their disaffected look. Their influence also extends to architects: Denise Scott Brown, Robert Venturi and Frank Gehry, who has known Ruscha since the 1960s. Inspired by the unassuming books that he found on street stalls during a trip to Europe, in 1962 Ruscha published his first artist book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations under his own imprint, National Excelsior Press. 

MORE SPECIAL ADDITIONS TO YOUR HOLIDAY GIFT LIST IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG.