Selections for Summer
We have put together a list of great art books to read this summer that we think you will enjoy. In the accompanying podcast episode, Megan provides insights on three recently published exhibition catalogues—wonderful to read even if you could not see the exhibitions.
We are always looking for great new art books to share with our audience that contribute to how we experience art and see the art world.
Listen to Megan’s commentary in our latest episode below.
You can find the books mentioned in the podcast below, as well as a few others to consider adding to your to-read list!
Edited with text by Erica E. Hirshler, Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, James Finch, Pamela A. Parmal. Text by Paul Fisher, Frances Fowle, Dominic Green, Rebecca Hellen, Stephanie L. Herdrich, Elaine Kilmurray, Richard Ormond, Elizabeth Prettejohn, Anna Reynolds, Andrew Stephenson.
Published by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Fashioned by Sargent is a lavish exploration of Sargent’s relationship to fashion, featuring exquisite costumes from the Gilded Age.
“Sargent used the power of costume and fashion to express the personality of his sitters. Their presence, their beauty, their stature, their place in society, in politics, in theater, or the art world.”
– Megan Fox Kelly
Edited by Sarah Kelly Oehler and Annelise K. Madsen. With contributions by Adrienne Brown, Annelise K. Madsen, Sarah Kelly Oehler, Sascha T. Scott, and Lisa Volpe
Published by The Art Institute of Chicago, Georgia O'Keeffe: "My New Yorks" and the accompanying exhibition highlights O'Keeffe's fascination with New York City. You'll see her modernist style so well known from her images of flowers and southwestern landscapes applied to urban architecture and city views, reducing what she observed to their simplest and most abstract forms.
“She called these ‘My New Yorks,’ hence the title of the book, much the way she referred to the Pedernal, the great hill near her home in Abiquiu, New Mexico, saying, ‘It is my private mountain. God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it.’ O'Keeffe's paintings and drawings of objects, buildings, flowers do eventually seem to make the subject her own somehow.”
– Megan Fox Kelly
Foreword by John P. Stern. Text by Adela Goldsmith, Nora Lawrence, Amy S. Weisser. Conversation between Glenn Adamson and Martin Puryear.
Published by Gregory R. Miller & Co and Storm King Art Center, Martin Puryear: Lookout documents the construction and unveiling of American artist Martin Puryear's monumental site-specific installation, Lookout, at Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, New York. In addition to the focus on this site specific installation, the book provides a broader perspective on Puryear's impactful work going back 40 years.
“I particularly like it when exhibition catalogs include an interview with the artist. Art historians and critics provide incomparable context to works, but a first person account of the decisions, history, and building the large sculpture is thrilling. So you'll enjoy that aspect of this book as well.”
– Megan Fox Kelly
By Christopher R. Marshall
Published by Princeton University Press, this book offers a new account of the renowned Baroque painter, revealing how her astute professional decisions shaped her career, style, and legacy.
By Florian Heine
Published by Prestel, The Blue Rider: Masters of Art provides the perfect introduction European modern art’s most important movements. Founded in Munich in 1911, the Blue Rider Group was a revolutionary collective that pioneered German Expressionism and included artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Natalia Goncharova, Gabriele Münter, and Marianne von Werefkin.