Back To School Reading

Blueprint for Counter Education

Published by Inventory Press.
By Maurice R. Stein, Larry Miller and Marshall Henrichs. Text by Paul Cronin, Adam Michaels, Jeffrey Schnapp.

From the Bauhaus to Black Mountain College, from Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin to Buckminster Fuller and Norman O. Brown—with Herbert Marcuse and Marshall McLuhan serving as points of anchorage.

PUBLISHER
Inventory Press

BOOK FORMAT
Boxed, Paperback, 2 vols, 8 x 10.75 in. / 272 pgs / 3 duotone / 400 bw / 3 posters.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 4/26/2016
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DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2016 p. 23   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781941753095 TRADE
List Price: $55.00 CDN $72.50

AVAILABILITY
In stock

Design Is Storytelling

Published by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
By Ellen Lupton.

Ellen Lupton, award-winning author of Thinking with Type and How Posters Work, demonstrates how storytelling shapes great design

Good design, like good storytelling, brings ideas to life. The latest book from award-winning writer Ellen Lupton is a playbook for creative thinking, showing designers how to use storytelling techniques to create satisfying graphics, products, services and experiences. Whether crafting a digital app or a data-rich publication, designers invite people to enter a scene and explore what’s there. An intriguing logo, page layout or retail space uses line, shape and form to lead users on dynamic journeys.

Design Is Storytelling explores the psychology of visual perception from a narrative point of view. Presenting dozens of tools and concepts in a lively, visual manner, this book will help any designer amplify the narrative power of their work. Use this book to stir emotions, build empathy, articulate values and convey action; to construct narrative arcs and create paths through space; integrate form and language; evaluate a project’s storytelling power; and to write and deliver strong narratives.

Ellen Lupton is the author of numerous books on design, including Graphic Design: The New Basics (2008), Thinking with Type (2004, second edition 2010), Graphic Design Thinking (2011), Beautiful Users: Designing for People (2014) and Type on Screen (2014), How Posters Work (2015) and Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial (2016). She is Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in Baltimore. She received the AIGA Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in 2007.

PUBLISHER
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 6.25 x 8.5 in. / 160 pgs / 250 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 11/21/2017
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DISTRIBUTION
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Catalog: FALL 2017 p. 24   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781942303190 TRADE
List Price: $17.95 CDN $25.50

AVAILABILITY
In stock

Letters to a Young Painter

Published by David Zwirner Books.
By Rainer Maria Rilke.

"As for you, my dear Balthus, you surely know full well the love that connects us. Yours with all my heart, Rilke."

Never before translated into English, Rainer Maria Rilke’s fascinating Letters to a Young Painter, written between 1920 and 1926 toward the end of his life, is a surprising companion to his infamous Letters to a Young Poet, earlier correspondence from 1902 to 1908.

While the latter has become a global phenomenon, with millions of copies sold in many different languages, the present volume has been largely overlooked.

In these eight intimate letters written to a teenage Balthus—who would go on to become one of the leading artists of his generation—Rilke describes the challenges he faced, while opening the door for the young painter to take himself and his work seriously. Rilke’s constant warmth, his ability to sense in advance his correspondent’s difficulties and propose solutions to them, and his sensitivity as a person and an artist come across in these charming and honest letters.

This volume paints a picture of the venerable poet as he faced his mortality and continued to embrace his openness towards other creative individuals. With an introduction by Rachel Corbett, author of You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin, this book is a must-have for Rilke’s admirers, young and old, and all aspiring artists.

PUBLISHER
David Zwirner Books

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 4.25 x 7 in. / 64 pgs.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 11/21/2017
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DISTRIBUTION
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Catalog: FALL 2017 p. 66   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781941701645 TRADE
List Price: $12.95 CDN $18.50

AVAILABILITY
In stock

Lessons for Students in Architecture

Published by nai010 publishers.
By Herman Hertzberger.

Lessons for Students in Architecture, written by Dutch architect and educator Herman Hertzberger (born 1932), was first published in 1991 as an elaborated version of lectures Hertzberger had given since 1973 at Delft University of Technology. Since its first edition, the book has become a classic for students the world over; this immensely successful volume has gone through many reprints and has also been published in Japanese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Taiwanese, Dutch, Greek, Chinese, French, Polish and Persian. This new edition brings the classic book back into print.
Lessons for Students in Architecture features Hertzberger putting the background to his work and the ideas underlying it into his own words, as he presents a broad spectrum of subjects and designs, with his practical experience and his evaluation of the use of these buildings serving as a leitmotif. More than 750 illustrations give a broad insight into Hertzberger’s “library” and a stimulating impression of the influences and sources of inspiration for one of the Netherlands’ major postwar architects. Rather than supplying the reader with design recipes, Hertzberger’s Lessons for Students in Architecture provides an essential source of inspiration to anyone interested in the architectural design process.

PUBLISHER
nai010 publishers

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 8.25 x 10.50 in. / 272 pgs / 763 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 2/28/2017
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DISTRIBUTION
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Catalog: SPRING 2017 p. 44   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9789462083196 TRADE
List Price: $45.00 CDN $60.00

AVAILABILITY
In stock

Art On the Edge...and Over

Published by Art Insights.

In this highly accessible introduction to American art since the 1970s, Linda Weintraub offers art lovers a readable exploration of some of the most important artists and movements of the past three decades. Today artists routinely dissolve the old boundaries of art by creating works that neither hang on walls nor adorn pedestals, and often willfully overturn conventions of aesthetic value, permanence and optical reward. Curator and educator Weintraub has researched and/or interviewed 35 prominent radical artists and here explores their common concerns, creative processes and media. Devoting one essay to each artist, Weintraub offers a primer for museum and gallery goers who may be confronting such works for the first time, discussing Andres Serrano's photo of a crucifix submerged in urine, the half ton of dirty clothes Christian Boltanski piled on a museum floor worn by children of the Holocaust, Janine Antoni's mammoth blocks of chocolate and lard, Chuck Close's computer art and David Hammon's detritus constructions.

PUBLISHER
Art Insights

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 6.75 x 9 in. / 264 pgs / 114 bw / 28 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 1/2/1997
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DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 1996

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780965198813 TRADE
List Price: $24.95 CDN $33.95 GBP £22.00

AVAILABILITY
In stock

Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art

Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
By John Szarkowski.

Originally published in 1973, this marvelous collection of photographs with accompanying texts by the revered late Museum of Modern Art photography curator John Szarkowski has long been recognized as a classic. Reissued in 1999-with new digital duotones-this volume is now available to a new generation of readers.
"This is a picture book, and its first purpose is to provide the material for simple delectation," says Szarkowski in his introduction to this first survey of The Museum of Modern Art's photography collection. A visually splendid album, the book is both a treasury of remarkable photographs and a lively introduction to the aesthetics and the historical development of photography.
Since 1930, when the Museum accessioned its first photograph, it has assembled an extraordinary and wide-ranging collection of pictures for preservation, study and exhibition. Among the outstanding figures represented here are Hill and Adamson, Cameron, O'Sullivan, Atget, Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand, Weston, Kertész, Evans, Cartier-Bresson, Lange, Brassaï, Ansel Adams, Shomei Tomatsu, Frank, Arbus and Friedlander.
Some of these photographs are classics, familiar and well-loved favorites, many are surprising, little-known works by the masters of the art.

PUBLISHER
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 9 x 11 in. / 216 pgs / 100 duotone.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 3/1/2009
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DISTRIBUTION
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Catalog: SPRING 2009 p. 40   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780870705151 TRADE
List Price: $45.00 CDN $60.00

AVAILABILITY
In stock

In the Making

Creative Options for Contemporary Art

Published by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers.
By Linda Weintraub.

From the first page to the last, from Thomas Kinkaid (really!) to Matthew Barney, this book serves as a launching pad. Conclusions are perpetually delayed. Resolutions are continually postponed. The text is written for takeoff, not arrival. It is a first step for readers' explorations of current modes of art making and for their own future artistic achievements. The much-anticipated follow-up to Art on the Edge... and Over, Linda Weintraub's highly accessible introduction to contemporary art since the 1970s, In the Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Art explores essential but sometimes elusive facets of art making today. In her trademark writing style--straightforward and jargon-free--Weintraub sets out to itemize the conceptual and practical concerns that go into making contemporary art in all its endless permutations. In six clearly defined thematic sections--”Scoping an Audience,” “Sourcing Inspiration,” “Crafting an Artistic 'Self',” “Expressing an Artistic Attitude,” “Choosing a Mission,” and “Measuring Success”--Weintraub moves artist by artist, in 40 individual chapters, using each to explain a different aspect of art making. Isaac Julien makes work for a highly specific audience; Michal Rovner communicates through metaphor and symbol; Charles Ray disrupts the viewer's assumptions; Pipilotti Rist is inspired by female emotions; William Kentridge is moved by apartheid and redemption; Vanessa Beecroft epitomizes the biography of a smart, attractive, Caucasian woman; and Matthew Barney achieves success through resistance. Through a compelling combination of renowned and up-and-coming artists, Weintraub creates a complex understanding of how to make and look at contemporary art--but in a simple, easily digestible format and language.
In addition to being a fine read for anyone who simply wants to understand how to look at contemporary art, In the Making is also an exceptional pedagogical tool, one that addresses what is fast becoming a huge gap in art education. Teaching artistic techniques no longer provides young artists with a sufficient education--a full range of conceptual issues needs to be considered in any well-rounded studio practice. Yet these very same conceptual issues are often those that are dealt with textually in art history and criticism classes. Weintraub persuasively offers a series of texts that fit squarely into this gap, addressing issues that concern anyone who is learning how to make art or how to understand it.
In addition, In the Making includes a series of interviews in which many of the artists discuss the practical issues of their life's work. Conducted by Weintraub's students at Oberlin College, the interviews pose questions about the artists' schooling, their studio space, and how they support themselves if their main income doesn't come from their art--the kind of questions every art student has always wanted to ask the artists whose work they see on gallery walls.

PUBLISHER
D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 8 x 10 in. / 415 pgs / 120 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 7/2/2003
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DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2003 p. 57   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781891024597 TRADE
List Price: $35.00 CDN $47.50

AVAILABILITY
In stock

The Trade of the Teacher

Visual Thinking with Mieke Bal

Published by Valiz/vis-à-vis.
By Mieke Bal. Edited with text by Jeroen Lutters.

Over a number of meetings, the theorist, critic, video artist and occasional curator Mieke Bal (born 1946) engaged in a conversation on the art of teaching with the cultural analyst Jeroen Lutters. Looking for a dialogue that would also touch on the role of visual art, Lutters brought in paintings by Banksy, Rembrandt, Marlene Dumas and George Deem as "teaching objects"—one for each conversation. Lutters asked Bal what these paintings might have to say about teaching.

The result is this publication: a personal, meandering and precise account of Bal's pedagogy. She reveals her way of thinking through visual art and literature and her ways of exchanging ideas. How do objects speak, and how can we use them? How do they teach us to find answers to important questions, just by looking, listening and reading within the relationship between student, teacher and teaching object?

PUBLISHER
Valiz/vis-à-vis

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 6.5 x 9 in. / 160 pgs / 30 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 6/26/2018
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2018 p. 101   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9789492095565 TRADE
List Price: $24.95 CDN $33.95

AVAILABILITY
In stock

Plan and Play, Play and Plan

Defining Your Art Practice

Published by Valiz.
Edited by Janwillem Schrofer. Text by Carlos Amorales, David Bade, Marlene Dumas, Claudia Fontes, Alica Framis, Meschac Gaba, Ryan Gander, Antony Gormley, et al.

"Visual artist" is a term with manifold variations and meanings. But how, as an artist (or designer, photographer or other "independent creator"), do you become who you are and who you would like to be? How can you guide your artistic practice? Plan and Play, Play and Plan invites the artist to explore their own questions about their work, using analytical models to help them determine where they stand and what they stand for.

The author Janwillem Schrofer was director of Amsterdam's Rijksakademie from 1982 to 2010, and thus knows from practical experience the complexity of the artist's dilemmas and how important self-reflection is for artistic practice. Looking back over his pedagogical experience and assembling notes and pointers gathered from interviews with a wide variety of artists, Schrofer has developed an appealing guidebook intended for artists and those who wish to become artists.

PUBLISHER
Valiz

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 288 pgs / 32 color / 15 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 6/26/2018
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2018 p. 101   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9789492095404 TRADE
List Price: $27.95 CDN $38.50

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

We Learn at Home

Published by Dung Beetle Ltd.
By Miriam Elia.

In We Learn at Home, Miriam Elia’s follow-up to last year’s hit We Go to the Gallery, Mummy takes John and Susan out of their local school to be reeducated at home—though not before tagging the walls of St. James’ Primary with the words “Fascist Scum.” In order to introduce their young minds to a new, alternative worldview, Mummy will ground all learning in a feelings-based outlook, free of any actual facts or skills, and reevaluate core subjects such as mathematics, religion, philosophy and art. John and Susan burn the Union Jack, debate and learn to paint their inner children. Key vocabulary for young readers includes terms such as “Marx” and “Buddha.”
Pocket-sized, printed in bold colors and written in clear, simple English, the Dung Beetle Learning series pays tribute to and skewers the much-loved British Ladybird early learning children’s books of the 1960s, with our child protagonists learning about contemporary art and politics rather than helping their parents around the house. In We Go to the Gallery, Susan found that the decay of Western civilization smells like rubbish, John learned that some toys are only for venture capitalists and the siblings discovered that God is dead. What new lessons will Mummy teach?

PUBLISHER
Dung Beetle Ltd

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 4.75 x 7 in. / 48 pgs / 20 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 2/28/2017
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2017 p. 48   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780992834999 TRADE
List Price: $14.95 CDN $19.95

AVAILABILITY
In stock