By Douglas King
Alexander Calder, Modern from the Start
Engineer and modern, abstract sculptor Alexander Calder enjoyed a long creative relationship with the Museum of Modern Art New York beginning in 1930. This sleek new volume of Calder’s work celebrates that decades-long relationship. At 144 pages, the book is slight but filled with great examples of his work, including 19 pieces which the artist gifted to the MoMa in 1966. The text details Calder’s long association with the museum with fascinating details about his work process. An essay written by Calder and another by his grandson conclude the text portion of the book before opening to the 100 plates showcasing Calder’s work.
Calder exemplifies the free spirit in modern sculpture. (The Nasher Sculpture Center has three of his works in their collection.) He would come to be known as a pioneer of modern sculpture—inventing the mobile as abstract art—and in so becoming, helped establish MoMA as an American museum of modern art. While this book is by no means a complete retrospective of his work, it does show the earliest wire sculptures that helped launch Calder’s career through his exploration into animated and monumental works.
The Museum of Modern Art New York, Hardback, 144 pages, $45.00
Hilma af Klint Catalogue Raisonné
You wouldn’t be blamed if you’ve never heard of Hilma af Klint but you would be missing out on an interesting portion of art history.
Born in Sweden, af Klint died in 1944 at the age of 81 leaving behind an incredible body of work that remained largely unseen until 2013. Hilma af Klint is a fascinating example of an artist who has been overlooked for decades. Her work predates modernist abstraction and represents spiritual, biomorphic art that includes an elaborate system of symbols and geometry.
The seven-volume set will present the artist’s prolific work in its entirety. Volume I examines the automatic drawings that af Klint and her Spiritualist cohort, The Five, created during meditative times communing with spirits. The more interesting Volume II showcases af Klint’s Paintings for the Temple—pioneering abstractions of the artist’s mediumistic visions. The work featured proves her artistic skill as a draftsperson and painter. The artist recreated her large-scale Paintings for the Temple in travel-size sketchbooks containing small black and white photographs and watercolor studies of the paintings which she could show to others who did not have opportunity to see her work exhibited at full size. The ten sketchbooks are all reproduced in Volume III.
Each volume is filled with the stunning work of af Klint with text limited to a single page of introductory text. While you wouldn’t be blamed for not knowing about Hilma af Klint, now that her entire body is being published in this Catalogue Raisonné, there is no excuse not to avail yourself to these fine tomes and learn about one of the lost pioneers of abstract artistry.
Volume I: Spiritualistic Drawings 1896–1905, 220 pages, $50.00
Volume 2: The Paintings for the Temple 1906–1915, 232 pages, $50.00
Volume 3: The Blue Books, 208 pages, $50.00
Bokförlaget Stolpe
DISC Interiors: Portraits of Home
Some interior designers create spaces that instantly reflect the designer’s hand. Others, like Krista Schrock and David John Dick, the founders of DISC Interiors, located in Los Angeles, create warm modern spaces with a distinctly California aesthetic that at once feel comfortable, lived in, and immediately place one at ease as if at home. The first monograph of their work provides 200 color images of rooms, details, and vignettes to be inspired by and aspire to. DISC creates spaces using natural materials, tonal color palettes, and bespoke work from the finest artisans and craftspeople, that look comfortable and effortless.
The book opens with an in-depth interview of the duo followed by chapters for each of the ten project homes all located in California. The new trend in design books is for minimal text—letting the photos speak their thousand words—and the text in this book is limited to an opening description of each project. Sometimes this is enough. While for some projects the reader may desire more detail. Ultimately, this book provides a great collection of work from two of L.A.’s finest designers that should afford any homeowner plenty of ideas no matter where they live.
Rizzoli, Hardcover, 256 pages, $65.00
Radical Architecture of the Future
This book is radical not only in the content included but also the presentation of the content. Many architecture books are printed on bright white, high gloss paper, but this handsome tome is printed on matte paper with a layout design that mirrors and complements the radical nature of the projects selected. The seventy-nine completed projects are not all traditional buildings, or often even physical constructs for that matter. Yes, buildings by well-known architects like Zaha Hadid and Bjarke Ingels are included but so are far-reaching projects not normally considered architecture. These “ephemeral and nontraditional forms of spatial practices…” as author Beatrice Galilee writes in her introduction include drumline marching bands, organic structures in landscapes, films, and more—the connection to architecture is often more philosophical or spiritual than physical. Galilee years of experience as the curator of Architecture and Design for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York adds to the scholarly content in this book.
If you are looking for a book that will open you up to ideas about the broader discussion of architecture, not defined by a finite structure but rather “…as an interconnective matter that flows between the reality and potential of social spaces…” than look no further than this a pleasing and informative volume.
Phaidon, Hardback, 240 pages, $59.95