Charles Darwin, Natural Selection, Variation, Epochs, Competition and that little ole Theory of Evolution.   Many crucial questions for children and quite complex to explain.   I'll leave that to English Scientist Robert Winston.     His amazing children's books are a must have for  "evolved" parents who want to read this stuff to their kids and learn a thing or two.      So much great stuff out there for kids now.    Robert has several books out for children.    All published by Scholastic.

Lolli-pop is the latest conceptual still life project by Italian born photographer Massimo Gammacurta. His lollies are edible icons. The brands are as sweet as candy for the palate and the eye. The brand association has in fact been replaced by a new meaning through the materiality and the abstract action painting dynamic gestures. When Massimo first distributed his lolli-pops on the Internet as an art experiment, interest amongst bloggers and fashionistas exploded. With this book, his lolli-pops of world renowned brands are released into the world once again for consumption, but now in print...

Massimo Gammacurta lives in New York and has worked for publications and brands such as Details, Forbes, Nike, Lexus, Surface Magazine and Esquire UK. He has won many awards and participated in 2009 in the Sweet Fashion Exhibition in Cannes, France, The Master of Hasselblad Exhibition in Hong Kong, Copenhagen, New York and London, and the Instant Book Show in New York.

ISBN: 978-90-6369-247-6
Author: Massimo Gammacurta
Design: Ultra Primo
Format: hardcover
Dimensions: 20 x 20 cm
Price: € 19,00
Pages: 80
 
Flip through this book here:
http://issuu.com/bis_publishers/docs/lolli_pop
 
Massimo Gammacurta's Lollipops solo exhibition runs May 18 to june 7
Visionairs Gallery, Rue des Carmes 14, 75005 Paris - France
http://www.visionairsgallery.com
 

I am totally loving German photographer Frank Breuer right now.    His minimal landscapes of factories and buildings remind me of the Becher's static images, devoid of human figures as portraits concept.  Frank is young, born in the sixties, but his images have that "ruhrgebeit" industrial style of Gursky, the Bechers, Ruff and other Koln-Dusseldorf based photographers. (Ruhrgebeit is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)  

   Formally, Breuer's work relates to these European and American antecedents. He has produced Warehouses and Logos, an ongoing series of color work, whilst traveling in his car across Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and France. His classically composed photographs reflect the impersonal uniformity of the subject matter, and reveal how commercial globalization has altered the European landscape. Pre-fabricated warehouses, with company names on their exterior, appear in transitory spaces on the outskirts of towns close to airports and other transport hubs. The logos are huge sculptural signs designed to be seen from afar along motorways: Marlboro, McDonald's, Mercedes, Mitsubishi; ubiquitous structures that are symbols of corporate internationalization. In his work, Breuer dramatically reduces the forbidding scale to more intimate proportions.    Camilla Jackson courtesy of the Goethe Institute.

Had a little visit with David Strettell at Dashwood books on Bond Street.   I highly recommend going in and browsing at his highly eclectic selection of rare photography and art books. 
David has a wealth of photography information and a unique curatorial voice.   He was the former Magnum photo Cultural Director.       If you are looking for something unusual or out of print- David will find it for you.

Open to the public September 20th 2005 Dashwood Books at 33 Bond Street (between Lafayette and Bowery) is New York City's only independent bookstore devoted entirely to photography. (text courtesy of Dashwood Books website)

The last ten years has seen a radical change in the publishing of books on photography. New publishers have emerged producing an unprecedented number of titles; three major anthologies on the art of the photo book have come out recently; many photographic curators now feature books as a significant part of exhibitions. All this has brought a new appreciation of the medium so that the photographic book is recognized as an art form on a par with the print and a strong collectors' market has developed with prices for rare books tripling over the past decade.

Dashwood Books is owned and operated by David Strettell formerly the Cultural Director of Magnum Photos where for the last twelve years he produced numerous books and exhibitions advised on countless photographic projects and developed extensive relationships in publishing and media, as well as with museums, galleries and with photographers all over the world.

With a carefully curated inventory Dashwood Books will specialize in the latest quality books on contemporary photography from the 1960s to the present produced by fine publishers from Japan, Europe and the United States. Many important titles will be available in New York City for the first time. Independent publishers such as Hysteric Glamour (Tokyo) are producing small editions by Japanese photographers like Masahisa Fukase and Nobuyoshi Araki as well as Terry Richardson and Cindy Sherman which have become instantly collectable. Other featured publishers who are not distributed in the United States include Osiris (Tokyo) whose 2001 title Spider's Strategy is destined to become a collectors' item and Verlag Schaden (Köln) whose publisher Marcus Schaden is producing books by many of Europe's most interesting contemporary photographers. Signed trade titles, limited editions and boxed editions with prints will be available from the likes of Artimo (Amsterdam), Chris Boot (London), Fotohof (Vienna), Journal (Stockholm), Rocket (London), Little More (Tokyo) and North American publishers Nazraeli Press, Roth, Little Bear and Visionaire as well as from more widely distributed publishers like Steidl, Aperture, producing excellent books once again, and Twin Palms of Sante Fe who continues to publish some of the best titles in the United States.

Dashwood Books will also specialize in rare vintage books as well as numerous other out-of-print and quality used titles.

The bookstore on Bond Street will be programming book-signings and events and dashwoodbooks.com will be a convenient way to shop online for new and used titles while keeping up-to-date on the most interesting books being produced on the international market.

Fine books on photography have become highly desirable or to quote Ute Eskildsen the curator of the Folkwang Museum in Essen "... the discrepancies in quality found on the book market between uniquely designed, carefully made objects in small editions, and cheap products geared to the global market, will become even greater in the future. Just as the value of photography on the art market has increased dramatically, so too will the photographic book become a collector's item." From The Open Book: Photographic Publications 1878 to the Present (Hasselblad Center, 2005)

Dashwood Books
33 Bond Street
New York NY 10012
212.387.8520
dashwoodbooks.com
info@dashwoodbooks.com

Thinking about the car bomb in Times Square.   Read Harvard Professor Richard A Clarke's book CYBER WAR to gain a clear perspective.

from his site:

Cyber War is a powerful book about technology, government, and military strategy; about criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. This is the first book about the war of the future -- cyber war -- and a convincing argument that we may already be in peril of losing it.

Cyber War goes behind the "geek talk" of hackers and computer scientists to explain clearly and convincingly what cyber war is, how cyber weapons work, and how vulnerable we are as a nation and as individuals to the vast and looming web of cyber criminals. From the first cyber crisis meeting in the White House a decade ago to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley and the electrical tunnels under Manhattan, Clarke and coauthor Robert K. Knake trace the rise of the cyber age and profile the unlikely characters and places at the epicenter of the battlefield. They recount the foreign cyber spies who hacked into the office of the Secretary of Defense, the control systems for U.S. electric power grids, and the plans to protect America's latest fighter aircraft.

T's are as collectible as ever.   Each one filled with a memory or style Q to the wearer. Here are some of my rock and punk favorites from RIPPED edited by vintage fashion collector Cesar Padilla.   Intro by Lydia Lunch, and thoughts written by Thurston Moore, Betsey Johnson and Judy Nylon.   

Abba...Zappa: Seventies Rock Photography
by Gijsbert Hanekroot

Gijsbert Hanekroot started his career as a photographer of rock musicians in the late sixties. Together with designer Sybren Kuiper, Gijsbert has selected 286 black and white photographs from his work. Sybren has made a unique design for the book, beautifully printed in duo tone. 

The seventies. Hectic, exciting, creative. Constantly reinventing itself, full of self-confidence. Sometimes tiresome, but never for long. I know, because I was there. As a photographer mainly, but also as a restless young man and a music lover.' Gijsbert Hanekroot

(copy taken from www.abbazappa.com

SUPREME opened in 1994 and ushered in the era of rebellious cool in a city that wasn't that cool at the time.   Lee Scratch Perry, Damien Hirst, Larry Clark, Lou Reed- they are all in there in addition to amazing photographs of the crew, including my old friend skater, Harold Hunter.   Miss you! 

The Supreme book just dropped.   Preface by Mr. Aaron Bondaroff/ aka Aron the Don.   Intro by Glenn O'Brien and interview between James Jebbia and Kaws.    They only made 1000.   Beautifully art directed and printed.   Would you expect anything less?   Get em, while they are hot.

He chased Liz Taylor and Jackie O all over the globe.  He was a pest (paparazzi comes from Fellini's La Dolci Vita, the Italian word that describes a noisy annoying mosquito) .    When they realized they couldn't get rid of him, accepted him.  There are stories that Liz even hung out and let him  him photograph her.   Dubbed "the Godfather of U.S. paparazzi culture" by Vanity Fair--Galella is now in the MOMA and other premiere photography collections all over the world.   I love the energy of his Disco portraits.   That kind of access just doesn't exist anymore.    His pictures truly capture the fun, free, sexy 70's like no one elses.

Disco Years
Photographs by: Ron Galella
Introduction by: Michael Musto
Foreword by: Anthony Haden-Guest
Published by: Powerhouse books

copy from Powerhouse books powerhousebooks.com

The definitive visual diary of the New York club scene in the seventies, Disco Years presents an astounding collection of photographs from America's premier nightlife photographer, Ron Galella. His candid shots of the era's fabulous fashionistas, indulgent rock idols, outlandish artists, mystical muses, jet-setting socialites, and fantastic freaks reveal the delicious decadence that defined the decade.

Disco Years brings us the high life, literally and figuratively. Featuring unforgettable photographs of Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor, Halston, Steve Rubell, Ian Schrager, Liza Minnelli, Grace Jones, Madonna, Diane von Furstenberg, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Keith Richards, Truman Capote, Gloria Vanderbilt, Dolly Parton, Brooke Shields, Cher, Raquel Welch, David Bowie, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jackson, and John Belushi, among countless others, Disco Years takes us back to a time when skiing was an indoor activity, velvet ropes were high security, and incredible style was the only requirement.

Much has been written of Ron Galella. Widely regarded as the most famous and most controversial celebrity photographer in the world--he's been dubbed "Paparazzo Extraordinaire" by Newsweek and "the Godfather of U.S. paparazzi culture" by Vanity Fair--Galella is clearly willing to take great risks to get the perfect shot. As a result, he has endured two highly publicized court battles with Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, a broken jaw at the hands of Marlon Brando, and a serious beating by Richard Burton's bodyguards before being jailed in Cuernavaca, Mexico. But ultimately, it is his passion for the fine art of photography, coupled with a dedicated do-it-yourself approach to his craft--few artists can claim his level of skill in making their own prints--that sees Ron's body of work exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in both New York and San Francisco, the Tate Modern in London, and the Helmut Newton Foundation Museum of Photography in Berlin. Ron's passion for photojournalism has also given rise to eight highly acclaimed books including Disco Years, which was honored as Best Photography Book of 2006 by The New York Times, and Smash His Camera, a documentary of his life and career by Oscar- winning director, Leon Gast (When We Were Kings, 1996), that will premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and compete for Best U.S. Documentary.

Tantamount to his recognition here at home, the government of Basilicata graciously honored Ron, whose father, Vincenzo Galella, was born in Muro Lucano, by making him an honorary citizen of the Italian region in 2009. Basilicata also opened Ron Galella: Italian Icons, a traveling exhibit of over 70 of Ron's photos, at Palazzo Lanfranchi's Carlo Levi Hall in Matera. In conjunction with the opening, Ron launched his most recent title, Viva l'Italia!--a collection of over 225 images of Italian and Italian-American celebrities from Frank Sinatra to Sophia Loren.

A native New Yorker, Ron served as a United States Air Force photographer during the Korean conflict before attending the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where he earned a degree in Photojournalism.

Ron's body of work is currently made available for editorial use through wireimage.com. Please visit rongalella.com or email rongalella@gmail.com for media inquiries.

Anthony Haden-Guest is a writer, reporter, and cartoonist. He was born in Paris, grew up in London, and now lives mostly in New York. He won a New York Emmy for writing and narrating a program about the coming of Eurotrash to Manhattan. His books include True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World (Grove Atlantic, 1996), The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night (Morrow, 1997), and The Chronicles of Now (Allworth, 2002), a book of cartoons. He publishes in many magazines and writes a weekly column about the art world for the Financial Times.

Michael Musto is the writer of "La Dolce Musto" for The Village Voice. He has written for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Interview, and TV Guide, among others. He was a correspondent on E!'s The Gossip Show and is a commentator on channels like MSNBC, AMC, TV Land, and VH1. Musto is the author of Downtown (Vintage, 1986), a nonfiction guide to Gotham happenings, and Manhattan on the Rocks (Henry Holt & Co., 1989), a docu-novel about New York's levels of social strata.

Inspired: How creative people think, work and find inspiration

by Dorte Nielsen & Kiki Hartmann

So cool to see the creative process for other artists and designers.

visit www.inspiredbook.com/

I am reading fine art photographer Robert Adams// Why People Photograph.

A total classic and inspiration to why photographers and artists go out and document, make pictures and create bodies of work.   His essays are eloquent and witty and he writes about teaching, collectors and even dogs.    His critical commentary on fellow artists is honest and charming.   I love this observation on the similarities of artist and collectors alike.   "The most obvious characteristic they share is the nature and extent of their appetite."   Artists admire doers like themselves.    


 Out of print .   Luckily, available at Amazon

Change is always good, look for the bright spots, the glass half full, not empty.  Kind of goes with my philosophy of "don't degrade, elevate."   Not to be too self-helpy but I love thinking about this stuff.    How do you combine the rational and the emotional part of your brain to achieve control and garner success?  Read the Heath Brothers. the Heath Brothers.  These guys are brilliant.    I love their book Switch.       You can also read their insightful articles and cover stories for FASTCOMPANY every month.

(courtesy of the Heath Brothers. )The primary obstacle is a conflict that's built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed bestseller Made to Stick. Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems--the rational mind and the emotional mind--that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort--but if it is overcome, change can come quickly.

In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people--employees and managers, parents and nurses--have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results:

● The lowly medical interns who managed to defeat an entrenched, decades-old medical practice that was endangering patients.

● The home-organizing guru who developed a simple technique for overcoming the dread of housekeeping.

● The manager who transformed a lackadaisical customer-support team into service zealots by removing a standard tool of customer service

In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.

I have been reading Alice in Wonderland with my daughter the last few days.    I really wanted her to know the story and hear Lewis Carroll's magical words before she saw Tim Burton's vision on the big screen.  (which is absolutely mind boggling and amazing)

Reading the original  was an inspirational journey for both of us, as I hadn't read the book since my childhood.    My copy of the book is totally "yee old" but was passed down from my father and since he is passed away, has become a cherished family heirloom.   Grosset & Dunlap published this special edition in 1946 with gorgeous illustrations by John Tenniel.  It was just a fluke that it hadn't been damaged or lost after all the moving, packing and unpacking I did in my childhood and has been patiently sitting in Nova's bookcase waiting to be rediscovered.   After a little research I  found out the original story was published in 1865 and titled Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.   If you know the story it was enormously influential in its narrative structure for fantasy lit, and christened what become the "literary nonsense" genre.   (Jabberwalky means nonsense)  If you ask me there was not only a brilliant imagination behind but quite a lot  of Opium smoking (as you see in the film as well)  as many artists of the time where known to do.  


 Lewis Carroll was really English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson writing under a pseudonym.    He was an incredible photographer shooting influential portraits as well as a mathematician.  (hence all the references to space, mirrors, perception and logic)  If you want to know more about this read Gilles Deleuze's classic, The Logic of Sense.  

Anyway, back to Carroll,  this story continues to inspire artists, filmmakers, actors, and  families alike 145 years later.   I told Nova we will save the book for her children and hopefully Alice's adventures and the magical experience of reading it together will continue as a family tradition.

One of the most important books of the decade.    A must read.

THE NEXT HUNDRED MILLION: America in 2050
By Joel Kotkin Published by The Penguin Press (release courtesy of Joel Kotkin)

In stark contrast to the rest of the world's advanced nations, the United States is growing at a record rate and, according to census projections, will be home to four hundred million Americans by 2050. This projected rise in population is the strongest indicator of our long-term economic strength, Joel Kotkin believes, and will make us more diverse and more competitive than any nation on earth.
When Americans think of our nation's power (or our imminent lack of it) we tend to point to the national debts, GDP or military prowess. Few have focused on what may well be the country's most historically significant and powerful weapon: its emergence as the modern world's first multiracial superpower.

Futurist, columnist and author Joel Kotkin takes a more optimistic view. He envisions America at 2050 as "the most affluent, culturally rich, and successful nation in human history." Set against ethnic conflicts, low birth rates and increasing homogeneity in the rest of the world, American will defy the naysayers and trends toward urbanization to become a more bountiful, multi-racial society, powered by land, localism, green technology and our defiant indigenous spirit.

Following the success of his first book Naked City Arthur Fellig (aka WEEGEE) published his second book  called Weegee's People.  One of my all time favorite photographers.

Leaving the police radio and death scenes behind, Weegee set out to photograph New Yorkers from all walks of life.   Maintaining his in your face flash nocturnal style, he trolls the streets of NYC from high society to park bench habitues.    His subtle eye presents a timeless portrait of the city during the 1940's.  Beaumont Newhall called him a "pictorial satirist of society, both high and low.   When he satirizes it is in the spirit of social criticism. " Incredible images.  Weegee's People was first published in 1946.   This book is now out of print. 

Struggling artist and rock star Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe lived the bohemian life in NYC in the early 70's.   They also changed art and music.     Read the story of their friendship and love affair and see rare photos in JUST KIDS. (Ecco)

Seeking some inspiration from the color master.   William Eggleston's Spirit of Dunkerque.   Remember those great CAT ads Stefan Ruiz shot in the late 90's.   Well Eggleston did it first.

I believe that you should never discuss politics, religion or money with strangers.   Stick to sports, the weather, dogs, gossip, etc.   Lighthearted fare so to speak. 

 However, I do think we need to create more dialogue on the subject of morality in our culture.  As a woman in America today I think this is crucial stuff.   We live in an age where Abortion is still an issue and Gay Marriage is polarizing our nation.    Sam Harris writes about faith and human nature.     One of my favorite authors.   He is so brilliant and quite eloquently discusses our moral dilemma in the scientific technological age.   A must read.  I am including these book reviews.

New York Times Best Seller
Winner of the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction

The End of Faith provides a harrowing glimpse of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when these beliefs inspire the worst of human atrocities. Harris argues that in the presence of weapons of mass destruction, we can no longer expect to survive our religious differences indefinitely. Most controversially, he maintains that "moderation" in religion poses considerable dangers of its own: as the accommodation we have made to religious faith in our society now blinds us to the role that faith plays in perpetuating human conflict.  While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into world politics, Harris draws on insights from neuroscience, philosophy, and Eastern mysticism in an attempt to provide a truly modern foundation for our ethics and our search for spiritual experience.

"The End of Faith articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated, almost personally understood... Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say in contemporary America... This is an important book, on a topic that, for all its inherent difficulty and divisiveness, should not be shielded from the crucible of human reason."
-- Natalie Angier, The New York Times Book Review

Letter to A Christian Nation

In response to The End of Faith, Sam Harris received thousands of letters from Christians excoriating him for not believing in God. Letter to A Christian Nation is his reply. Using rational argument, Harris offers a measured refutation of the beliefs that form the core of fundamentalist Christianity. In the course of his argument, he addresses current topics ranging from intelligent design and stem-cell research to the connections between religion and violence.

You may remember Lipstick contributor  Rip Zinger  from his book "West Americanized Tour" for Stussy.   His new book "New York City" is out now.   Mostly grainy b/w shot on film- the book is classic analog photography with an intro by Thomas Campbell.    Reminiscent of the great Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama, Rip's  view of city life is candid, youthful, timeless  and intimate.    I look forward to seeing more great work from this talented artist.

Stopped by the Step Up Tori Burch event last night and met Marianna Olszewski.  She has an amazing book out called, Live it, Love it, Earn it.  She is truly an inspiration.  Here is her website if you want to know more about it.  http://www.liveitloveitearnit.com/

Dennis Hopper rocks.    Amazing actor, probably one of the most iconic of his generation.   (I totally forgot he was in Rebel without a Cause and his book has some wonderful anecdotes about James Dean).   I had the pleasure of enjoying his Sumo photography book putout by TASCHEN.  You need to be a weightlifter to hold it.  Dennis has been an art lover and serious collector 4- Eva.  He tells a funny story about how he bought one of the Warhol's soup can paintings for next to nothing and then lost it in his first divorce.      His photography is fantastic.   What a talent all around.   His all access to actors  and behind the scenes photography during the 60's is amazing.  Shared a limo ride with him a few years back and he was as funny and charming as I had hoped he would be.    Go Dennis!!

If you ever wonder how the art world works or which mechanisms artists use to garner attention check out Sarah Thornton's book Seven Days in the Art World.   Juicy stuff.

Here is the press release info: Set in New York, Los Angeles, London, Basel, Venice, and Tokyo, the book is populated by colorful characters who espouse conflicting definitions of art. Some see it as a luxury good or entertainment, others view it as an intellectual calling, a job description, or a kind of alternative religion. In a series of day-in-the-life narratives, Thornton investigates the minute dramas of a Christie's evening sale, life in a notorious CalArts seminar, the elite trade of the Basel Art Fair, the competition behind the Tate's Turner Prize, the peculiarities ofArtforum and its critics, the high jinks of Takashi Murakami's studios, and the curatorial wonderland that is the Venice Biennale. Thornton's entertaining book explores the dynamics of creativity, taste, judgment, status, money, and the search for beauty in life.

Tis the season... Nova and I are reading holiday books right now.     When you have a kid the  holidays are always a big deal.   I love it actually.    What does Mrs. Claus Do, published by Tricycle Press is so funny and great.   Written by Kate Wharton and Illustrated by Christian Slade. It is the wonderful story about a Macgyver like woman that teams up with her husband,  Santa to help run Claus Enterprises.    It's about time there was a story like this.  Mrs. Claus is a cool corporate President that runs a company, she hosts and organizes the Christmas ball, she's a Ninja that trails and protects her husband, she does charity work and designs new products and toys.   She is an architect, environmentalist, a mystery novelist, a nature photographer and a polar geographer.  Yes, Mrs. Claus does it all, and so do kids today.   This is a total gem. Check out other cool contemporary titles by Tricycle Press.

As my personal work is moving more into the abstract, I've gotten into abstraction in photography and art.      I think it may be in response to having to shoot people and working in the figurative for 20 years.     I found this amazing book which inspired me to take it even further.      Work by Richard Caldicott, James Welling, Nicki Stager, Shirine Gill, Wolfgang Tillmans, Roger Newton.   Gorgeous pictures.

Michael Roberts is the master of funky fashion illustration.  No wonder he is such an icon.  Check out my other post on the Snowman in Paradise inspired Gucci collection.    Love!!!

Around this time of year I read my daughter Michael Robert's classic, Snowman in Paradise.   I love this book and have brought it to the school to read to her class.    It is witty, charming, poetic, whimsical and has the gorgeous illustrations Michael Roberts is famous for.   (among his many other talents of writer, editor, photographer and stylist)

I was thrilled that his book became the inspiration behind Gucci's fifth annual UNICEF collection.    Clutches, key rings and change purses with funky fabrics help raise money for a good cause and add to the holiday fashion flavor.   The book is available at Chronicle books. Makes a great Christmas gift for kids and adults who like adventure.

"I like the art world.   It's full of gay people, attractive women in low- cut dresses and the hors d'oeuves are better than what you get anywhere else. "    Imagine Dave, standing there saying this with a cigarette in one hand and cocktail tattooed on his other.   The legendary, eccentric- intellectual and linguist, aka renegade writer Dave Hickey is one of the artworld's most brilliant critics.  A contemporary of Hunter S. Thompson, Lester Bangs, John Morthland and James Walcott,  Dave started as a writer for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice.   He ran a mythical contemporary art gallery in Austin, Texas that spawned about 100 more.     All the while carrying on like a rock star and living to tell about it.      He later worked for the cult fav. ArtIssues, which also published his book. What I love about his writing is he comes accross as just a regular guy with the gift of gab.   He's a hard partying, badly dressed 70 year old professor of Modern Letters in Las Vegas....and he's awesome.     Read Air Guitar , it's
one of my favorites.  (photo of Dave Hickey by O'Gara Bissel)
.

Thank Your Lucky Stars is a wonderful book filled with behind the scenes imagery by photographer John Hamilton.   Published and curated by Bruce Weber this book has some of the most amazing portraits.    John was a fixture on many of Billy Wilder and John Ford's film sets.   He has some incredibly charming shots of Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Sal Mineo and Shirley MacLaine.    So beautiful and timeless.    I can see why Bruce is so enamored of his work.    Introduction written by Director Peter Boganovich and Published by Little Bear Press.  It was a gift from my husband years ago, and I just revisited it again.  Unfortunately, you just don't see pictures this intimate anymore.

I'm excited to buy LIz Taylor's new biography by William Mann.     Here was a talent who had the perfect combo of innocence and sophistication.    Liz is so in touch (she's on Twitter) and cultivated her own image all those years.    Some of my favorite Taylor performances are Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of VIrginia Wolf.   Hello- TALENTED!    To have a career for 50 years.   WOW.   Nowadays that's so rare in any business.   As William Mann say's, she knew what she had, and she knew how to use it.     Liz has reinvented herself more times than Madonna.   The fashion and celluloid icon is reverred by everyone from gay men to blue collar workers.     She's amazing.    

Grunge memories.  Author and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore wrote a brilliant essay to preface Michael's new book Grunge.   His intimate portraits of street and youth culture from the early nineties are captured with intimacy and authenticity.    Featuring some of the most iconic bands of the Sub Pop era.  If you love music and photography.   Smells like Teen Spirit all over again.   (All photographs from Grunge by Michael Lavine)  abramsbooks site

Jeff Koons: Popeye Series

Walther König, Köln
Texts by Frederic Tuten, Arthur C. Danto, Dorothea von Hantelmann. Conversation with Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans Ulrich Obrist.

In this publication Jeff Koons presents paintings and sculptures from his Popeye series, which he began in 2002, and which incorporate some of the artist's signature themes and motifs: the surrealistic combinations of everyday objects, cartoon imagery, outsized scale, art-historical references and children's toys. The sculptures reproduced here continue Koons' fondness for casting inflatable toys in aluminum--carefully painted to resemble supple plastic--which he juxtaposes here with unaltered everyday objects, such as chairs or garbage cans. The Popeye paintings are complex and layered compositions that combine disparate images both found and created by Koons (including images of the sculptures in the series). The instantly recognizable figures of Popeye and Olive Oyl are central, and recur across several key works within the book. Frederic Tuten, Arthur C. Danto and Dorothea von Hantelmann provide commentary on this fun body of work, which Koons discusses in a conversation with Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

The Americans is one of the most influential books in contemporary photography.  This book was a huge inspiration to me and many artists including painter Francis Bacon and the photographer Ryan McGinley. His photographs of American institutions and analysis of cultural themes groundbreaking.   A must read for art and photography enthusiasts.

There was difficulty in securing an American publisher so the book was originally published in France in 1958 as Les Americains by Robert Delpire ( the man was a visionary).   The Americans  was then published a year later in the US by Grove Press.   Can we discuss that no one wanted to publish a book that included writings by Simone de Beauvoir, William Faulkner and Henry Miller?  In hindsight I guess that happens with greatness all the time.  Now available through fine art publisher, Steidl with a forward by Beat writer Jack Kerouac.   If you love art and collect you should own this book.    TImeless and monumental.

Robert Frank virtually founded the contemporary photobook with his 1958 classic The Americans. Born in Switzerland in 1924, he migrated to the U.S. in 1947, quickly securing employment as a photographer for Harper's Bazaar and participating in the seminal Museum of Modern Art show 51 American Photographers in 1950. By the time The Americans was published (to an initially skeptical reception), Frank had moved on to film, producing the classic of Beat cinema Pull My Daisy (1959), narrated by Jack Kerouac, as well as Conversations in Vermont (1969) and Cocksucker Blues (1972), a commissioned documentary of a Rolling Stones tour that the band later deemed too explicit to screen. That same year he published his second photobook, The Lines of My Hand, a visual autobiography of sorts, which heralded his embrace of a collaged narrative that incorporated multiple image frames and text. All of Frank's books are meticulously conceived and crafted, and he can truly be said to be a photographer who "thinks in book form."

Juergen Teller's pictures are always fun and sexy.    Check out his new book Election Day. 

 An integral element of Vivienne Westwood's Spring/ Summer 2009 advertising campaign, Juergen Teller's Election Day features an unlikely collaboration between the doyenne of British street style, Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and Westwood's former assistant/current husband Andreas Kronthaler. Employing Teller's signature theatrical mis-en-scene, these images--shot on location in Los Angeles--include Vivienne and Andreas' friends, members of the band Queens of the Stone Age. Escaping all efforts at narrative or categorization, the volume features shots of the protagonists in a golf buggy, Anderson reading Plato's Republic with a nipple visible through sheer fabric, Westwood and Anderson frolicking in clothes baskets at a launderette and the two beaming in front of a television announcing Barack Obama's imminent victory.steidl

Nova and I read this Lawrence Weiner book all the time.   Beautiful and charming.   A great way to introduce children to conceptual art.

Lawrence Weiner: Something To Put Something On

Little Steidl


Neither storybook nor autobiography, Something to Put Something On is rather a "questioning book" for children, at once moving and intriguing in its candor:

I WAS A CHILD & AS MOST CHILDREN I DID MAKE THINGS
I TRIED TO FIND A PLACE TO PUT THE THINGS I HAD MADE
AGAIN & AGAIN I FOUND THAT THE SUPPORT OR PLINTH OR TABLE
ALL RESTED UPON THE EARTH & I REALIZED THAT ALL PEOPLE OF
ALL AGES
WHO HAD MADE SOMETHING HAD TO FIND A PLACE TO PUT
WHAT THEY HAD MADE
THOSE PEOPLE WHO ASK THE QUESTION & THOSE PEOPLE WHO TRY
TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ARE FUNCTIONING AS ARTISTS.
I WAS A CHILD & DECIDED TO BE AN ARTIST.  http://www.artbook.com/3865214916.html 


Something to Put Something On poses direct questions about art-making to and for young readers. Generously endowed with its maker's legendary wit, it is also, appropriately, the first title in the Little Steidl program.

Fashion Magazine by Lise Sarfati

Magnum Photos

Contributions by Azzedine Alaïa, Rick Owens, Carla Sozzani, Quentin Bajac.

This edition of Fashion Magazine is devoted solely to the work of French photographer Lise Sarfati. In her portraiture, Sarfati dramatizes the intensities of fashionably clad adolescence in the insolently sensual creatures she encounters on the roads of America. Couching their lightly worn street elegance in moody sobriety, Sarfati presses pause on the activities in which her subjects are engaged and extracts their quintessential sensuality, to produce a type of photography that partakes of both fashion and portraiture idioms without quite belonging to either. Redolent in this respect of Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad, in which the camera deliberately and continually "overgrooms" the emotional drama, Sarfati's work is likewise utterly seductive and compelling.
Lise Sarfati obtained a master's degree in Russian studies from the Sorbonne in Paris, where she was the official photographer of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. She moved to Russia in 1989 and photographed there for 10 years. She has received the Prix Niépce in Paris and the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in New York for her work and is a member of Magnum Photos. In recent years she has been living and working in the United States. Sarfati is represented by Yossi Milo Gallery in New York, Rose Gallery in Los Angeles and Magnum Gallery in Paris.

Chess is a thoughtful game and requires a high intensity level on part of the players. However, designer Thomas Larsen Roed, in collaboration with Maria Edvardsen and Armand Bentzen, has come up with a unique chess set that seems to lower the factor of seriousness, making it more attractive for common users. Hailed as "Okai Plai," the chess set allows the user to let his or her imagination run free and find a favorite among the different characters. Decorated with simple means and clear colors, the characters are weighted according to their.   by Naresh Chauhan//the designblog.org

Indochine will always have a special place in my heart since I had my first official date with my husband there.    I lived next door and had many fun nights there.  It was always fabulous and always understated, oh and the food was pretty good.     Celebrating it's 25th anniversary, Rizzoli put out a book with text by Salman Rushdie.   The NY institution much like the Odeon or Studio 54 is still on Lafayette in the Village if you get a chance to try it.  If you want to see pictures of Calvin Klein, Keith Haring, Kate Moss and Claus von Bulow check out this book.  So fun.

Robert Greene's book, the 48 Laws of Power is a great little read.    The new edition is available at Amazon.com   I recommend reading this book for everyone.  If you want to master the art of seduction, a must read.

The brilliant Robert Greene  also has a blog which is fantastic.    Power Seduction and War   This cultural critic has inspired many, including, would you believe 50 cent, and Paris Hilton.     (Yes, she reads)

I love the German born photographer and artist Florian Maier-Aichen.
He is shown at Blumandpoe

His work is so timeless and outside the frame.   surreal.

The quality of art and creative books for children is amazing now.    Every museum has incredible children's books and specialty museums even publish books about artists for kids to understand.    I love this.   Here are a few of my favorites.    Sparkle and spin is an oldie but goodie.   It is ageless and I love flipping through it as much as Nova does.



 If you want to browse, go to Amazon or MOMA online.     Most museums have books available to purchase online as well.

This Dali book just blows me away with its touching story and bold illustrations.    It lets little ones digest complicated ideas like DADA, and surrealism, and learn what a creative genius    
Dali was.