Book Reports

One hundred years ago, thousands of White people and state authorities attacked the African American Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing 300 people and injuring thousands more. Today, Black Wall Street has been rebuilt and continues to be revived. This book recounts the events with nearly 200 photographs, some never published until now, and oral histories.

Veteran museum director Charles Saumarez Smith (formerly of the United Kingdom's National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery, and Royal Academy) takes a look at the past, present, and future of art institutions around the world and asks the question, “Why do we visit an art museum?” Full of personal anecdotes and smart commentary from the author, this book has a surprisingly broad appeal to art enthusiasts and academics alike.

This book is an extensive play-by-play of every period and era of art. Extremely informative and expansive, the text coupled with illustrations and images creates a highly detailed and educational book while remaining easy to read. A team of art historians, curators, and artists show the reader everything from Seurat's use of color theory to an explanation of Henri Cartier-Bresson's “decisive moment” in photography.

Award-winning graphic designer, game developer, and photographer Liam Wong purchased his first DSLR camera in 2015 and quickly made a name for himself with his stunning photography. Not only is this beautiful book packed with images from Japan that seem otherworldly, Wong brings the reader into his process, sharing valuable tips on scene-setting, composition, and post-production methods.

David Rockwell leads somewhat of a double life. The superstar architect has designed notable buildings such as The Shed in New York, Nobu restaurants worldwide, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, but he is also a production set designer behind hit Broadway musicals like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray, and The Rocky Horror Show. All of it is tied together in this celebratory book.

English writer Diana Souhami weaves the unique story of a group of gay women in prewar Paris, including Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, and Natalie Barney. Forging a community and forming relationships with the movers and shakers would eventually become the groundbreaking modernist movement, when art and literature tore away from the cultural traditions of the early twentieth century.

Leif Podhajsky is best known for his album cover work with bands such as Tame Impala, Kylie Minogue, Lykke Li, and Of Monsters and Men. Podhajsky is an Australian graphic designer, art director, and synesthete (for him, sounds appear as colors). New Psychedelia is a chronicle of his work in the music industry and previously unpublished artwork.

In our rapidly evolving modern world where stationery has gone the way of email and currency is relegated to credit cards and Venmo, we often neglect paper, especially as an art form. Matthew Shlian's marvelous folding (and unfolding) work is a delightful surprise and a peek into an ancient art form sometimes overlooked. Shlian, an artist and paper engineer, has collaborated with design giants such as Apple, SUPREME, and Herman Miller.

Providing the building blocks to create your next great sketch, I Can Draw is a way to flex and stretch your creative muscles by practicing simple drawings. This inspirational and often funny step-by-step instills confidence in novice artists and refines techniques in those more experienced. The workbook is strangely magnetic: the drawings are easy to pick up but challenging enough to take up the better part of your lunch break.

The second book of a seven-volume set, this installment chronicles Hilma af Klint's 193 colorful and cosmic abstract paintings. The Swedish painter requested that her work be shown in a “spiraling architectural structure.” More than 100 years later, in 2018, af Klint's paintings were shown in-the-round at her retrospective in the Guggenheim Museum in New York.