Book Reports

Unseen for decades, many of these photos were buried deep in private and public archives. This book compiles high-quality reproductions of some of the earliest known images of Black people photographed in Britain, filling in a crucial missing piece in history. Published in partnership with legendary London art gallery Autograph, Black Chronicles is a comprehensive collection of nineteenth-century photography depicting the Black subject in the Victorian era.

The history of contemporary art’s first century—but as a graphic novel. A clever take on the historical chronicle, Blow Up! weaves together the stories, context of world events, and chance meetings of iconic artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yayoi Kusama, Andy Warhol, and Marcel Duchamp. This book explains the art of our time in a way that’s enjoyable and easy to understand.

The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, a transformative gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, includes masterworks from more than fifty cultures across North America. This book catalogs a collection that spans the second century to the twentieth, and provides insight that positions Native American art within the broader context of American art history.

A celebration of the oldest dance company in the U.S., 100 Years is a triumph of beautiful photography and stunning compositions. Created by the team behind the NYC Dance Project, this tribute re-creates more than twenty of Graham’s most memorable works. The photographers capture these tableaux with dancers from the Martha Graham Dance Company, who continue to carry the mantle of Graham’s legacy.

“Whether I give a party in New York or London or Hollywood or Washington, I like to have guests who are in the thick of things,” said Perle Mesta. The grande dame of Washington, D.C., was a charming, beautiful, and wealthy widow. Her parties were legendary, mixing celebrities and politicians. She became close to Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon Johnson, and was an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. This delightful biography traces the roots and rise of an American socialite.

Published in conjunction with emerging design biennial Design Doha, Arab Design Now is a comprehensive survey of regional design talent. From architecture to fashion to furniture-making, this small book makes a big statement about the state of art and design across the Levant, the Persian Gulf, and North Africa. “It was important to demonstrate that the Arab world is ... a very diverse landscape of cultures, influences, and craft,” says Rana Beiruti, curator of the 2024 biennial.

Accompanying a major exhibition at M+, a contemporary art museum in Hong Kong, this book juxtaposes Pablo Picasso’s classic works with art by Asian and Asian-diasporic artists. The exhibition aimed to look at Picasso’s works in a new way, revealing more about the effects of migration and the marketplace of ideas on present-day artists.

Organized by Cranbook Art Museum, just outside Detroit, Michigan, this book is a playfully elegant tour through the iconic designs of the 1950s and 1960s. Eventually Everything Connects honors not only the stars of the movement, like Charles and Ray Eames, Harry Bertoia, and Florence Knoll, but also many of the graphic designers, photographers, and architects who made up one of the most important eras in American industrial design.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Helen Chadwick’s career was on an upward trajectory. In 1987, she was the first woman nominated for the esteemed Turner Prize, an annual award for British contemporary artists. After her sudden death in 1996, her influence on British art has been all but forgotten. Life Pleasures is the first biography of this pioneering feminist artist, exploring how her passions for art education, music, and politics informed her art-making.