Artbook Image Gallery

Featured image is from Gordon Parks: Muhammad Ali, the extraordinary new monograph from Steidl, the Gordon Parks Foundation and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, featuring iconic and previously unpublished photographs from a 1966 Life magazine photo essay and more. "When Gordon Parks photographed and profiled Muhammad Ali for Life magazine in 1966, and then photographed him again in 1970, in some ways he might just as easily have been making self-portraits and writing about himself," fellow sports and civil rights hero Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes in his Introduction. "Both men were tenacious fighters. Both men bore the scars of lifelong racism. Both men were internationally acclaimed, yet both were more devoted to speaking out for social justice than seeking out personal success. And though both were celebrated for their nonverbal art—Ali's balletic boxing and Gordon's poignant photography—what truly bound them together was their powerful use of words, specifically poetry, to express their optimism for the promise of America—and frustration with the reality. And, more important, to inspire positive change."

The ultimate book on Danish Lights of the last century

Verner Panton's 1970 VP Globe light for Louis Poulsen is reproduced from Strandberg's exquisite new book on Danish Lights: 1920–Now. Clean, buoyant design, substantial texts, lovely paper and printing and a special cover treatment—half-clothbound, half-hardcover—make this a book for any design lover's bookshelf, coffee table or bedside stack. From gas-lit street lights to iconic pendants, desk and floor lamps and chandeliers, this book makes the case for why Danish light design has been so consistently outstanding and influential over the last century. "In Denmark, the light source is so important because we spend so much time indoors," contemporary designer Jonas Edvard is quoted. "Light defines our life. As a result, we might be slightly more persnickety about our light. We are not content with simply having a bright light source placed close to the ceiling in the center of the room; that doesn't work for us."

We honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with Lee Friedlander's 'Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom'

On April 5, 1957, Philip Randolph, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Roy Wilkins announced, "As the Founding Americans prayed for strength and wisdom in the wilderness of a new land, as the slaves and their descendants prayed for emancipation and human dignity, as men of every color and clime in time of crisis have sought Divine guidance, so we now, in these troubled and momentous years, call upon all who love justice and dignity and liberty, who love their country, and who love mankind, to join in a Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington on May 17, 1957, where we shall renew our strength, communicate our unity, and rededicate our efforts, firmly but peaceably, to the attainment of freedom." Photographer Lee Friedlander heeded the call, and his previously unpublished photographs of this historic event are collected in Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, clothbound with tipped-on cover image, from Eakins Press Foundation. Featured image, © Lee Friedlander/Eakins Press Foundation, is of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. at the podium, with Bishop Sherman Lawrence Greene, Bishop William Jacob Walls, Roy Wilkins and A. Philip Randolph in the first row.

IMAGE GALLERY

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