Book Reports

Stunning and comprehensive, this is the definitive survey of contemporary Portuguese artist Paula Rego. Her drawings and paintings tell intricate stories with threads of fairy tales, feminism, religion, and an exploration of the male gaze. Rego’s work is further examined within the context of authors such as Charlotte Brontë and Franz Kafka and artists like Cindy Sherman and Louise Bourgeois.

The legendary fashion photographer (and Ansel’s dad!) follows up his 1994 fashion bible, Arthur Elgort’s Models Manual, with an homage to the countless women he’s photographed throughout his storied career. Including shots of ballerinas to fashion editors, to the supermodels of the last few decades, I Love... is a brilliant overview of beautiful fashion and portrait photography

This collection of private letters from the greatest artists to have ever lived includes musings on friendship, career advice, and the artists’ process. A high light is a 1965 letter from the painter Sol LeWitt to sculptor Eva Hesse who at the time was suffering from a bout of self-doubt. Within the five–page letter he says, “Try to do some BAD work—the worst you can think of…you are not responsible for the world—you are only responsible for your work—so DO IT.”

To celebrate the 300th anniversary of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe—the hit novel that pioneered the genre of realistic fiction—nearly seventy illustrators create their own imaginary islands and ecosystems in the same vein as Defoe’s game-changing tale.

A life-long fascination with the moon has culminated in a beautiful body of work by Luca Missoni—the artistic director for the archives of the Missoni fashion empire. The artist is known for rendering his photographs of Earth’s only natural satellite in bright playful colors—he is inspired by conversations with astronauts who all give a different answer to the question: “What color is the moon?”

Actor, writer, painter, photographer, and art collector Dennis Hopper used his camera every day. The more than 100 images comprising this gorgeous book are from a vault left  untouched since 1969. The images evoke both a view from an impartial observer and scenes from a 1960s fever dream.

It would be a mistake to brand Tim Walker as simply a fashion photographer. His fantastical setups run the gamut of otherworldly beauty to visceral reenactments of the darkest fairy tales. In this book, there’s a focus on the latter— putting contemporary luminaries such as Kate Moss, RuPaul, and Cate Blanchett in precarious situations with stunning results.

A 2019 study by the Public Library of Science found that in major museum collections, 85 percent of artists are white and 87 percent are men. By covering more than 400 artists, this is a valiant attempt to leave no talent behind while major institutions struggle to catch up. The strike-through of the word WOMEN on the cover suggests that gender should not be tied to talent.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is one of the most important artists of the last two centuries. At ninety years old, she still creates art and her Infinity Mirror Rooms and retrospectives sell out major museums and galleries across the globe. This small but dense book is a comprehensive survey tied to the monumental exhibition at the Matsumoto City Museum of Art in her hometown.

Published by the University of Oklahoma Press, this is a collection of essays on con temporary culture through the lens of the American West. Author and curator Josh Garrett-Davis name checks Joan Didion, the Simpsons, and the Dead Kennedys in one entry and expounds upon the mythology of the West in post-war Japan.