Introduction to NoteWorthy Art & PhotoBooks of the 21st Century

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

A BookMarks Special

Across space & time, everything I write in the following 2 pieces began here…Bob Haak’s Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, His Time, published by Abrams in 1969, 348 pages with 612 illustrations including 109 HAND-TIPPED color plates. Click any Photo for full size.

Art books have been a passion of mine since I was a little kid. Early on, my mother belonged to a book club and when there wasn’t anything she wanted, she let me pick a book. I always chose an Art book, some of which I still have and still refer to. A few years later, during a visit to the first real bookstore I was ever in, I saw a large 14 x 11 inch book titled Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, His Time by Bob Haak, above. I was floored. Here was Rembrandt’s entire life and, what seemed to be, with over 600 illustrations including 109 hand-tipped plates (i.e. each plate was attached to the page by hand!), his entire oeuvre. It wasn’t, but it was a great overview. Most of all, it fired my imagination as to what a truly great Art book could achieve. That, and the singular possibility of experiencing most of an Artist’s entire body of work in one book excite me every bit as much right now as they did when I was a kid.

Art books were the first way I could see and discover Art before I could drive, they remain every bit as essential to me now that museums and galleries are within walking distance. In compiling the lists of Art books and PhotoBooks that follow countless hours these past 25 years have gone in to looking at books in innumerable bookstores (including a good number that are, sadly, no longer in business), museums, galleries, libraries and virtually any place else that has them, equalled by how much thought, consideration, and living with these books has gone into this selection. All of that is built on an equal number of years before January 1, 2000 that I spent looking at Art books. All told, a  long time.

As a result, no pieces I’ve written over the past 9 3/4 years on NighthawkNYC have come close to being the amount of work that has cumulatively resulted in the two pieces that follow. They represent a lifetime of looking at Art Books, and 8 years of looking intensely at PhotoBooks, condensed into 6 months of work selecting them and writing the pieces. My hope is that you will find it useful.

The Museum of Modern Art’s endless wall of Art books, as I call it, is at least 30 feet high and twice as wide. I asked to see the Yoko Ono book under the sleeping cat sculpture. They laughed.

Narrowing the focus to books published for the first time in the 21st century didn’t make the job much easier; a number of books I instinctively put on the list wound up having publication dates just before 2000, disqualifying them. Other books I have a strong personal preference for, I didn’t feel were books I’d make a general recommendation for, which is what I try to do with my NoteWorthy Book lists. Many other books are terrific in terms of the Art or Photography they contain, but lacking in other areas as books in my view.

That these lists are surprisingly long is a testament to what I’ve seen in almost half a century of looking at Art books: they’ve gotten better, especially since 2000. While there were, of course, great and important Art writers before 2000, virtually every other aspect of bookmaking has evolved, largely for the better. Acid-free paper highlight an incredibly wider range of today’s papers, better Art Photography with the increased use of color, better materials, better production processes, better distribution, and the wide-spread availability of all of these things has led to a world-wide proliferation of books on Art, and especially Photography, as countless smaller PhotoBook publishers vie with the big companies for exposure & attention.

So, WHAT’S a “NoteWorthy Art or PhotoBook of the 21st Century?”

I’ve said all along that I don’t believe “best” exists in the Arts. I use the term “NoteWorthy” in speaking about books, in this case, that I most highly recommend. I’ve endeavored to narrow these down to books that have it all- great work in a great book. At the same time, I’ve tried to keep in mind that most people don’t want large Art or PhotoBook libraries. They want to know what the most important books are. That is what I have tried to give you: The NoteWorthy Art and PhotoBooks (i.e. those I recommend most highly) released thus far in the 21st century, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, both are partially incomplete; some lack images, there are no ISBN numbers…Given my new realities, I just don’t have the time I did before. I’ve felt it was more important to spend time living with these selections to see if I really feel these should be included. Still, I have no doubt that sooner or later (probably sooner) I’ll realize I left out a book that REALLY should have been on this list. Also, for both lists, I’ve sadly decided to leave out Artist’s books that are/were published in editions so small that few can see them.

Let’s look at some books! There’s nothing like going to a great Bookstore. Where else are you actually going to get to see Artbooks and PhotoBooks-in person?

I dedicate both my Noteworthy Art & PhotoBook of the 21st Century (thus far) pieces to my fellow Art book & PhotoBook lovers everywhere, and especially to all of those who have written to me about books I’ve written about, books I should know about, or written to tell me about books I’ve written about that have impacted their lives. You’ve inspired me to get these done.

Kenn Sava.    

Without further ado-

NoteWorthy Art Books of the 21st Century by Kenn Sava may be seen here.

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of the 21st Century by Kenn Sava is coming soon.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Noteworthy” by Homeboy Sandman from his album Dusty, 2019.

NoteWorthy Art Books of the 21st Century by Kenn Sava

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If you find it worthwhile, PLEASE donate securely via PayPal so I can continue writing. You can also support me by buying Art & books from my collection. Details at the end.
Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava
(*- unless otherwise credited)

A BookMarks Special.

What’s a NoteWorthy Art or PhotoBook? As I’ve explained here, I don’t believe such a thing as “best” exists in the Arts, in comparing Artists, works of Art, or books. Whatever criteria you use is subjective. So, I’m using “NoteWorthy” to denote books I feel are important; books that more people should know about and consider adding to their libraries. Therefore, the following are my most highly recommended Art books among all those I know about published thus far this century.

Welcome to my world. While I see shows as often as I can, I’m in bookstores much more often. Seen in January, 2025, The Strand Bookstore has an excellent selection of new & used Art books. Here, Art monographs are shelved along the wall to the left by Artist’s last name- “A,” left, to “O,” next to the third ladder (about 1/3 of an entire City block down). Your mission, should you decide to accept it- go through these and choose 50, or so, published this century as NoteWorthy- about two books a year. When you get to that third ladder, you’re half done! (In case you’re wondering, PhotoBooks are elsewhere.)

Though the research has been ongoing, unfortunately I no longer have the time to write the kind of pieces I have here for 9 1/2 years, so this piece took longer than it would have. Still, some books lack pictures, and there are no ISBN numbers- sorry. You should be able to locate the listed books by title, publisher and date of publication (i.e. of the first edition) included. The books are listed in no particular order. Note- If anyone else has done such a list, I haven’t seen it.

Further down the wall are Art monographs shelved by Artist’s last name- “P,” left by ladder, to “Z” immediate right. Take a break ’cause you’re not done. PhotoBooks await! My list of NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of the 21st Century follows this piece.

What am I looking for? Great Art, alone, isn’t enough to qualify. Why not? Over time (in my lifetime in particular), Art books have gotten better and better on all counts from the quality of the reproductions, to the paper (the proliferation of acid-free paper and the incredible range of paper now available), the materials used in bookmaking, to the entire process of printing. So, great work in a great book, sums up the books I’ve listed here. A “great book?” Insightful & informative- with, or without, essays. Design that doesn’t get in the way, and hopefully adds to the presentation. Excellent production (design & layout, paper, binding, covers, finish), and of course, high-quality reproductions in a useful size, or larger. Let’s face it, in the end, virtually all Art books are PhotoBooks since they contain Photographs of the Art. Price is a consideration for most (me, too!), but it’s not a consideration for a book making this list. Finally, in spite 25 years of looking this century at and living with Art books, and 6 months of work that has gone into this piece, I have no doubt I missed at least one.

Hard at work. I started this piece in September, early fall. I finished it six months later in early spring. My thanks to a new friend I had a book discussion with only to get home and find this in my inbox. Strand Bookstore, April 15, 2025.  *-Photographer’s name withheld by request.

If you find this piece worthwhile, I NEED YOUR HELP! There are no ads or affiliate links in this piece! Imagine THAT in 2025! So please donate securely via Paypal so I can continue writing. Oh! And NO ONE has given me any of the books on this list!

NoteWorthy Art Books of the 21st Century-

The “Golden Oof,” named for my Avatar perched in front of Brooklyn Bridge. Note- If you are listed below and would like a Golden Oof Statuette, please contact me via the link at the end for info.

Format= Artist, Title, Publisher, Date published- Kenn’s comment. (NoteWorthy books are also in bold type in the body of the piece to distinguish them from other books I mention.)

Hilma af Klint, Hilma af Klint Catalogue Raisonne, Volume II: Paintings for the Temple
A 100+ years in the making overnight sensation, after 500,000 people joined me in 2018 in seeing the unforgettable Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum Rotunda, the most people ever to attend a show there(!) in what was a brilliant paring of two visionaries. This led to an explosion of Hilma books. Of these, the 7-volume Hilma af Klint Catalogue Raisonne, published by Okförlaget Stolpe in 2023, will remain definitive henceforth, but it’s overkill for most. So, from the set, since they’re all available individually, Volume II: Paintings for the Temple is my choice as a Noteworthy Art Book of the 21st Century (thus far). It contains all 190+ of her Paintings for the Temple series, which she felt were her “most important work.” There are no essays and only a 2-page overview; it’s beautifully produced with large illustrations, and can be had quite reasonably as I write.

Installation view of the unforgettable blockbuster/landmark show, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future,  2018, as seen in the Guggenheim’s catalog of the same name. When I stood on this spot at the show I felt that Wright’s Guggenheim was, perhaps, the perfect extant place to install her work.

While I’m on the subject of Hilma, among books on her work (though not included on this list), the best one-volume overview, in my view, is a toss-up between the Guggenheim’s Paintings for the Future catalog for that 2018 show, which reproduces everything that was in it, save 3 works by my count, and the more expansive Hilma af Klint- Artist, Researcher, Medium catalog published by Hatje Cantz in 2020 with 227 images (versus the Guggenheim’s 165, by my counts). I find the Guggenheim’s Paintings for the Future more concise and it gives those that missed the show, their bast chance to get a sense of it. The Hatje book is more comprehensive, with mostly smaller images, though I prefer its essays. Either one will provide a good introduction and leave a good deal to ponder well into her future.

 

Also Sprach Zarathustra, as heard in 2001, is playing somewhere…*- Estate of Francis Bacon Photo because I don’t own a set, though if someone would like to gift me one…

Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon Catalogue Raisonne, The Estate of Francis Bacon, 2016
Upon publishing this astounding set in 2016, the Bacon Estate said 8 words that sent a chill down my spine. “Once sold out, it will never be reprinted.” In 100 years, or whenever it’s sold out (which will, no doubt, come first) this set will be living in light, climate & humidity controlled cases among the most important Art books ever published. Still available as I write, at 35 pounds, find a VERY strong shelf for it, and TAKE CARE OF IT. (Support the spines and handle it with gloves on. Seriously.) Word. 

Forging a new path for Portraiture in the 21st century.

Frank Auerbach, Frank Auerbach: Revised and Expanded, Rizzoli, 2022
Francis Bacon’s contemporary and fellow Londoner, I shake my head in disbelief over HOW I didn’t see the Art of the late Frank Auerbach, who passed away at 93 in November, sooner than when I first saw this book. What was I doing? Obviously, I just didn’t get out enough as I missed two stunning and important recent Frank Auerbach shows at Lurhing Augustine here. As a result, Frank Auerbach: Revised and Expanded hit me like 432 thunderbolts, one for each of its pages. I just kept muttering “I can’t believe it….” as I went through it the first time until the customers around me at Pret A Manger were ready to call 911. I assured them I was just having one of those “moments of future regret” the infomericals incessantly warned me about. “CLAP ON!” Now, I know that Frank Auerbach was not only one of the major Artists of the 20th century, he’s one of the first major Artists of the 21st! Here you can see more of his work (in a whopping 1,200 images- 300 more than the 2009 original edition!) than you’re ever likely to see anywhere else. A desert island book.

The incredibly rare Jennifer Packer- The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing seen in the Whitney’s Bookstore on the show’s opening day. It’s highly unlikely you’ll ever see this many copies of this book in one place again. With my NoteWorthy Art Book, 2021 designation.

Jennifer Packer, Jennifer Packer- The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing, Serpentine Gallery, 2021
Perhaps THE overnight sensation of the decade thus far (along with her friend, Jordan Casteel), rocked me as much as it did just about everyone else who saw her traveling show of the same name. My piece on the show documented the ever-increasing crowds as the show’s run here went on. I “got it” on a member’s preview and immediately bought the book. It disappeared as quickly as any Art book has this century and currently goes for $500 in Very Good (VG) condition. Beautifully done on all counts, it’s an instant classic. Nothing has been seen of Jennifer since. Will its promise lead to Ms. Packer securing a place as one of the world’s more important living Painters? The world waits, and watches…

Peter Doig, Peter Doig, Rizzoli, 2017
The most comprehensive of the books published on the Scottish Painter who has made his mark working in other places, including Canada, to stunning effect. The first of three books on this list that are either authored by, or include an essay by (as this book does), curator & historian Catherine Lampert, the only non-Artist (as far as I know) who makes three appearances here. The second of six Rizzoli books on this list, this one features a “rule-breaking” design (unsurprisingly, in collaboration with the Artist). Most of the Art is pictured in landscape format to keep them from going over the gutter. This requires the reader to turn the book sideways! The customer reviews I’ve seen have been, surprisingly, uniformly approving of this.

As for the work itself, born of, and steeped in memory (a bit like Mohammed Sami’s work), I agree with Richard Shiff, who writes on page 357, “Doig’s art leaves memory caught between versions of itself: memory in formation, memory fading in and out. We will think that we remember whatever reality his pictures shows, but the picture itself- ‘through the materiality of pant and the activity of painting’- induces the sense of reality remembered, an abstraction of a memory already abstract.”

Eight years old, already, I’d guarantee an updated edition at some point, if I was a guaranteeing man. Still, with 432 pages in this one, there’s more than enough here to keep anyone busy for a while.

Nox, after opening the box it comes in. We should all be so lucky to have an epitaph like this.

Ann Carson, Nox, New Directions, 2010
The most unique book on this list didn’t start out as a book, or “Art book,” per se. Of it, the world-renowned Poet, Ms. Carson, says on the back cover- “When my brother died, I made an epitaph for him in the form of a book. This is a replica of it, as close as we could get.” Ms. Carson’s tribute is an accordion-fold-in-a-box multi-dimensional multimedia tribute that moves quickly beyond Poetry into the realm of Art, in my view. A personal tribute not conceived for the mass market, it’s the most personal and the closest book to a true “Artist’s book” on this list. While, for me, it helps shine a fond light on many aspects of loss, even for the rest of us who never met Nox, his book serves as a repository of memories, and through them, a powerful portrait of the man emerges, leaving him someone who will never die as long as copies of his book survive.

Rembrandt: The Complete Pantings XXL, left and The Complete Drawings and Etchings XXL, right. Fifteen pounts- each! With their NighthawkNYC NoteWorthy Art Books of 2020 designation.

Rembrandt, Rembrandt: The Complete Pantings XXL, 2019, and
Rembrandt: The Complete Drawings and Etchings XXL, 2019, and
Rembrandt: The Self-Portraits XL, 2017, or “Mini Brick,” 2023, all Taschen, and
The Rembrandt Book, Gary Schwartz, Abrams, 2006
In the early 1970s, Bob Haak’s classic Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, His Time, with its tipped-in color plates, was the first Art book to show me the possibilities of a truly comprehensive Art book. All these years later, and leaving aside the fact these books “celebrate” the 350th Anniversary of the master’s horribly sad death, I was one of those waiting with bated breath for the release of Taschen’s Rembrandt: The Complete Pantings. And wow, what a book! While each work is beautifully pictured, exactly WHAT deserves to be included in The Complete Pantings (i.e. exactly which Paintings are from Rembrandt’s hand) will be the subject of heated debate until the next edition. Twas ever thus. Published on the heels of the Rembrandt Research Project’s findings into just that (published in their 6-volume Corpus of Rembrandt’s Paintings series in 2015), Taschen’s Art XXLs remain the best way for the passionate Art lover, or the serious researcher, to see the most work by the subject Artist in the largest size. They are as close as we have to the experience of seeing the Art close-up for yourself in person, until more Art becomes available like this. Don’t think so? Well, good luck seeing all of these Rembrandt Paintings this close-up in person! Forget about seeing most of his Drawings & Etchings- they’re too light sensitive to be on display often. In these books, the Photography is uniformly excellent, the binding, paper and attention to detail, first rate. The works are uniformly reproduced at a good size, in some cases, the Drawings & Etchings are larger than actual size. Though The Complete Paintings got the headlines, sleeping on The Complete Drawings and Etchings would be a huge mistake. Or was. It’s already out of print. It’s 755 pages of unspeakably incredible Art- literally cover to cover. Any number of Artists felt and feel Rembrandt was the greatest etcher ever. His Drawings are every bit as engrossing. What he was able to express with 3 or 4 lines, in some cases, is awe inspiring. Though I am parting with my beloved Art book library to fund my writing (details at the end), these two books will be among the very last I part with. ‘Nuff said.

The European edition of The Rembrandt Book by Gary Schwartz, left, and the American edition, right. Choose one. Choose them both. Mine is the American.

With all due respect to the authors of the text in The Complete Paintings, it would be perfect, in my view, if it had a contribution from Gary Schwartz, for my money “THE” Rembrandt historian. Still, the authors can’t be too mad at me. Being named a Book of the Century (thus far) isn’t too shabby, right? To supplement TCP & TCD & E, I highly recommend Mr. Schwartz’s essential overview, The Rembrandt Book, which has been just that, with a capital “THE” for me since it came out (His earlier Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings, from 1986, too early for this list, is every bit as good, and completely different! The Rembrandt Book was reissued in 2016 as  Rembrandt’s Universe in England.)

“If one wishes to discuss Rembrandt’s life and art as a whole, the first thing to do is close the rift between the documents and the works,” Gary Schwartz1.

For some reason, before Gary Schwartz published his prior monograph, Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings, in 1986, no one had done it. Much of the material had been ignored and the resulting avalanche of books on Rembrandt are, primarily, work focused. Gary Schwartz brings Rembrandt to life with an Art historian’s eye in the person of an expert Art writer able to express himself succinctly to both Rembrandt newbies and scholars. Coincidentally, his life-based-in -the-documents is the approach the two other biographies on this list further on (on Shakespeare and Van Gogh), share!

Kent Monkman, mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People): Welcoming the Newcomers, Both 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 11 x 22 feet. One part of a diptych seen in the Great Hall of The Met, January 17, 2020.

Kent Monkman, Revision and Resistance: mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Canada Institute, 2020, and
The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island, Volumes 1 & 2, with Giselle Gordon, both McClelland & Stewart, 2023 (Reissued as boxed set of paperbacks, 2025),
and Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors, DelMonico, 2025

“Subversive, bold, unapologetic, and unforgiving, the work of Kent Monkman (b.1965) has left an unmistakable mark on contemporary Canadian art. Since the early 2000s, Monkman, accompanied by his time-travelling, shape-shifting, gender-fluid alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, has redefined the Canadian cultural landscape. Riffing on techniques of the Old Masters, Monkman first found fame by recreating notable landscape paintings and populating them with Indigenous visions of resistance,” Shirley Madill, Kent Monkman: Life and Work
I came very close to creating a stand-alone category titled NoteWorthy Extraordinary Accomplishment in Art Books in the 21st Century for an Artist I consider to be, perhaps, the most ground-breaking Artist of the century thus far- Interdisciplinary Cree visual Artist, Kent Monkman, a  member of Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory (Manitoba, Canada). Singlehandedly reinventing the History Painting and using them, along with his work in other mediums, to begin to attempt to counter the historical narrative surrounding Indigenous Peoples in Art history, along with other Artists working to rewrite it. Shirley Madill, director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, says (with her caps), “KENT MONKMAN IS A VISUAL STORYTELLER. For more than two decades he has subverted art history’s established canon through the appropriation of works that tell stories of European domination and the obliteration of North American Indigenous cultures. Monkman challenges the accuracy of such representations by repopulating and correcting settler landscapes in a transgressive manner. He reimagines well-known paintings in order to provide a contemporary, critical point of view-and often his agent of disruption and change is one Miss Chief Eagle Testickle (a play on “mischief” and “egotistical”), or Miss Chief for short.” According to the just-released book (the most recent book on this list), Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors, DelMonico, 2025, “Taking inspiration from Western artists such as George Catlin, as well as from the Old Masters, Monkman’s monumental history paintings feature white colonizers in violent conflict with Indigenous people. The depictions range from early colonial encounters to modern and contemporary clashes between Indigenous communities and uniformed police or clergy. In borrowing the visual language of his oppressors, Monkman reclaims the narrative written by Western art history about the brutalization and cultural genocide carried out against Indigenous North American communities,”

The other part of the mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) diptych: Resurgence of the People seen in the Great Hall of The Met, January 17, 2020.

I discovered Mr. Monkman’s work on one of my 1,900 visits to The Metropolitan Museum in January, 2020, my last visit to The Museum before it was closed for months due to covid, when two monumental (11 x 22 feet, each) Paintings of his diptych, mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) were mounted in the Great Hall, making them impossible to miss, and absolutely stunning in impact. They stopped me in my tracks and completely hijacked my visit. One of the few Contemporary works installed there to that time, they proved an ideal introduction to so much that characterizes Kent Monkman’s work, before and since. Aiding him in his mission (as outlined in the previous para) is Kent’s alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle (aka “mischief,” and “egotistical”), “who appears prominently in both paintings (in red), personifying Cree values and embodying the Indigenous Two Spirit tradition, which embraced a third gender and nonbinary sexuality,” per Art Canada Institute, who published the catalog for the show. Though The Met’s Max Hollein, Sheena Wagstaff and Randall Griffey were responsible for the commission, I’m left to wonder WHY The Met didn’t publish it. In any event, that gorgeous catalog, Revision and Resistance: mistikôsiwak (Wooden Boat People) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a lasting testament to the work, now in The Met’s Permanent Collection, in one of the most unforgettable installations I’ve seen this decade, which was, frankly, a two-Painting revolution.

The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island, Volumes 1 & 2 in addition to being best-sellersare books that are hard to describe, but of course, the publisher tries to: “For decades, the singular and provocative paintings by Cree artist Kent Monkman have featured a recurring character—an alter ego of sorts, a shape-shifting, time-travelling elemental being named Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. Though we have glimpsed her across the years in films and on countless canvases, it is finally time to hear her story, in her own words. And, in doing so, to hear the whole history of Turtle Island (the traditional name for North America) anew. The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island is a genre-demolishing work of genius, the imagined history of a legendary figure through which profound truths emerge—a deeply Cree and gloriously queer understanding of our shared world, its past, its present, and its possibilities.”  “Genius,” they said. I realize I’m gushing, but I’m not quite ready to go there- yet. The aforementioned Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors, just published to accompany his first major U.S. solo exhibition (up at the Denver Art Museum as I write. The Met having shown only two works), seems to me they realized going in how high the Kent Monkman book bar has been set. Another beautiful, endlessly fascinating book. I have a strong feeling there are yet more Kent Monkman books I’d add here, but most of his other books were published in Canada, with virtually no U.S. distortion, making them harder to see.

In addition to his stunning Art, each of his books is marked by terrific design. Though I find it hard to believe the Artist did not play a hand in them,  the level of his involvement in these books is nowhere stated. Whatever it is, kudos are still due Underline Studios of Toronto, who designed Revision and Resistance, and the excellent and beautiful Kent Monkman: Being Legendary, both published by Art Canada Institute.

Kent Monkman is already marketed as an “Art superstar,” even before his work has received wide exposure in the U.S. An exceptionally prolific Painter, who’s work is already in the Whitney and the Morgan Library, in addition to The Met, here in town, MoCA in Chicago, the Walker, the Denver Museum, and the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. As History is Painted by the Victors is about to open, I fully expect that his work is going to continue to make inroads into the collections of the very institutions who’s narratives the Artist is helping to rewrite. Stay tuned.

While I’m at it, R.I.P to Juane Quick-to-See Smith, who passed away in January. My look at her terrific Whitney Museum Retrospective is here.

My copy of Diego Rivera: The Complete Murals shows the happy couple up front and left of center. Such is my respect for this book that I took it and had a custom Archival book jacket made for it. Alas, I wound up selling it over the holidays to fund my writing.

Diego Rivera, The Complete Murals XXL (Out of Print), 2007, or XL, 2018, Taschen, and Frida Kahlo: The Complete Paintings XXL, 2021, or Brick, 2023, both Taschen
The greatest love story in Modern Art (for better or worse), so, HOW could I name one, and not the other? Hell, HOW could I ever choose one of these books over the other? Diego’s book is one of the finest Art books Taschen has ever published in my opinion- and that’s saying something. First, somehow, they got access to all of his extant Murals and came away with superb images of each of them. Second, the incredible amount of detail in his work is wonderfully rendered in the generous XXL or XL size. The XXL is already out of print, so you may want to act quickly to find it. Taschen says the XL size is still in print. Getting ALL of that detail in to a Brick-sized edition one day might be possible, but you’ll need great eyesight to see it all!

You’re looking at an heirloom. Frida Kahlo, The Complete Paintings XXL sealed in its shipping box. Quick quiz- Who was the first person to buy one of Frida’s Paintings? Answer below.

Excuse the repetition, but the point is that important- you’ll NEVER get the chance to see ALL of Frida’s immortal work as close up as you can see it in the Taschen XXL Complete Paintings– a good many of them are in private hands. Still, the Brick, which I have, is a VERY good option for those without the space for the full-strength XXL edition, or the (currently) $200.00 (versus $30 list for the Brick) asking price. Either or. IF I had the space and the funds, I’d immediately upgrade to the XXL before it goes out of print. Hear here.- To this point, XXL editions HAVE NOT been reprinted!  Quiz answer- the actor Edward G. Robinson bought 4 of her Paintings directly from her, which she credited with “showing her how to be free.”

My look at the Whitney’s Vida Americana, which included work by both Frida & Diego is here.

Sarah Sze Paintings sitting on top of its shipping box, as seen when I named it a NoteWorthy Art Book of 2023.

Sarah Sze- Paintings, Phaidon, 2023
A book that almost seemed to come from nowhere, Sarah Sze was already world-renowned as a Sculptor and Multi-media Installation Artist, who had begun to include Painting in her shows (as I showed in my piece on her stunning 2020 Bonakdar Gallery show, here). I don’t know which shocked me more- that her book of Paintings totaled 400-pages, or that their style was unprecedented. To my mind, they are every bit as memorable as anything else she’s done, and that is no small feat. As a sign of how important this book is to her, she’s signed every copy.
For more, see my piece naming it a NoteWorthy Art Book of 2023, here. My 2 pieces on Ms. Sze’s Guggenheim Museum show are here.

If any book on this list needs a black background, it’s this one. Almost none of his works take place in broad daylight.

Léon  Spilliaert, Léon Spilliaert: From the Depths of the Soul, Ludion, 2019
I know, I’m drawn to Artists who are or were loners. Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Hopper and on and on. Loners, even thought Hopper & Shakespeare were married, Hopper for 50 years. Léon Spilliaert was married, too. I discovered him in 2021, during that universal isolation known as the pandemic, when I was captivated by the cover of the 2020 Royal Academy, London, exhibition catalog for the first U.K. solo show of his work (a virtual tour of it is still on youtube). I would have been sorely tempted to go to London to see it save for the lockdown. However, the aptly titled From the Depths of the Soul is the one-stop book for anyone looking to explore, or further explore, the one-of-a-kind Belgian Artist’s work that I’m putting on this list. There are so many unique, and ground-breaking, aspects to his work (like very few pieces are oil on canvas- most of its on paper, much of it incorporates colored pencils, before light-fastness) and a good deal of his oeuvre seems to presage the work of much more well-known Artists, like Giorgio de Chirico and Magritte. Comparisons abound between Spilliaert, Munch, his countryman James Ensor, and others, but for me, with all due respect to all of them, he stands apart- like so many of his figures do, in a world of his own making. As always, with a book like this that has over 400 illustrations, some will quibble over this or that image size. I hear you. I’m sure any number of them would be larger if they weren’t accompanied by a seemingly all-knowing text by Anne Adriaens-Panner of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels, who was requested by Spilliaert’s family to compile the Spilliaert Catalogue Raisonne. She maintains a virtual running commentary woven into a fascinating whole covering his entire life and career that makes me forgive the occasional image I wish was larger (for them I turn to that 2020 RA catalog). It’s a price I’m more than willing to pay, and speaking of price, From the Depths can still be found quite reasonably for what it is. 

Lucy Jones, Awkward Beauty, Elephant/Flowers Gallery, 2019

“If people with disabilities were a formally recognized minority group, at 19% of the population, they would be the largest minority group in the United States,” (emphasis mine) the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability 2011 report2. UPDATE- In 2024, 70 million, or 1 in 4 people in the U.S., reported having a disability according to the C.D.C. 

Since 1989, Art has become more and more inclusive. Yet, outside of a few big names who are and were disabled (Frida Kahlo- listed above, Chuck Close, Yayoi Kusama- listed below), the disabled remain virtually invisible in the Art world! Why? If there were more books on disabled Artists, there would be more books to consider. But, there aren’t.

Lucy Jones is a British Painter who was born with cerebral palsy, yet she has gone on to create work that is in the collection of The Met (4 works) and the National Portrait Gallery, London. Her Portraits have the disarming directness and freshness of Alice Neel, while her landscapes seem to take David Hockney’s as a jumping off point before exploding with color in ways I’ve never seen (as in the detail of one on the cover, above). Perhaps not surprising for an Artist who lists Rothko, Pollock and Matisse among her influences. Here, in Awkward Beauty, the first monograph devoted to her work, we get to experience the full range of her accomplishment over 25 years, along side excellent essays that reveal the Artist’s remarkable journey in getting to this point.

Mamma Andersson, Mamma Andersson, Steidl, 2005
A GORGEOUS book that’s on the shortlist for the most beautiful Art book of the century thus far. It seemed that Steiidl, and their designers, pulled out all the stops on this one. Innovative in ways that fit the Mama Andersson’s unique Art to a “t” in my view, it uses the Artist’s trademark mystery as a jumping-off point that only enhances it, and the overall effect of her work. I lost count of how many gatefolds are incorporated as a way of minimizing the dreaded “work over the gutter,” one of the biggest complaints I hear about Art books from my fellow Art book lovers. Out of print due to its popularity and now rare, VG copies begin around $175.

Mark Bradford, Mark Bradford, Yale University Press 2010
One of  THE breakthrough Artist of the century thus far, Mark Bradford exploded on the scene and has never looked. back. The exceptional curator, Christopher Bedford, currently Director of SFMoMA, was one of the key figures who brought Mark Bradford to national attention, and he authored the first major monograph on his work. Though a number of books have follwed, I still find it the best book on him, and the best introduction to his work. Currently out of print, reasonably priced copies are still to be had.

I think they found the right cover image.

Kehinde Wiley, Kehinde Wiley, Rizzoli, 2012
Believe the hype. Kehinde Wiley is here to stay, in my view. His monumental work is matched by this oversized beauty. Heck, his Art is beautiful, deftly combining elements of his influences with the here and now, so ALL his books are beautiful! This is the most comprehensive collection to date, but it could use an update. Given Rizzoli has updated & revised their overviews on Frank Auerbach, above, and Helen Frankenthaler (which didn’t qualify for this list), among others, with superb results, I bet a Revised & Expanded edition of Kehinde will be coming one of these days.

Plant the seed.

Yoko Ono, Acorn, Algonquin Books, 2013
My admiration, love and respect for Yoko Ono knows no bounds. Being one of the great PEACE activists of our time, the term ‘avant-garde” is frequently applied to her ground-breaking Art. Good luck with that! Acorn, it seems to me, throws a monkey wrench into those attempts to box this ethereal spirit. 100 incredible “Dot Drawings,” as she calls them, accompanied by texts that continue the “instructions” she gave us in her earlier classic book, Grapefruit (which Acorn is meant to follow, she says in it), and some are “meditations,” often taken from her life. At 5 1/4 by 6 1/4 inches (with 216 pages), Acorn is, also, one of the most effective smaller Art books I’ve ever seen. Hey, publishers- We don’t all live in 1,000+ square feet of space. Remember SMALL(ER) books?
A good number of the instructions in Grapefruit begin with “Imagine…,” which inspired the immortal song by John Lennon3, one of my personal anthems (me, and millions of others…). As a result, Yoko was belatedly given co-writer status. “Imagine” starts a few of these as well.
Acorn remains the book I’ve most given to others. A head’s up! It’s becoming harder to find. If you see it new for its $18.95 list price, grab it. PEACE!

Julie Mehretu, Julie Mehretu, Prestel, 2019
If you blinked, you missed this ground-breaking book. Though far from the first book on her work (though the first full-length monograph), it’s like very few had seen the earlier books on her work given the lightning bolt effect the release of Julie Mehretu  had. Her style is unique and revolutionary. Part Architectural Drawing, part seemingly based in Abstract Expressionism, and part Photo re-envisioning, it’s unprecedented. Ms. Merehtu is now an Art “superstar,” with shows all over the world, but this book remains a great place to get up to speed (through 2018). While her work is already vastly influential, I’m not sure how many will be able to copy her incredibly intricate style. VG copies trade for $250-300, now.

Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama, Phaidon Contemporary, 2017
Phaidon has released a steady stream of books on Contemporary Artists under their Phaidon Contemporary imprint, a most welcome thing. As time has gone on, however, I’ve been disappointed by some of these books, which pains me because in many cases their books are the most comprehensive on their subject Artist. Luckily, Yayoi Kusama is one of the best in the series, in my view, it’s, also, the best overview on her work published to date, no small thing considering the many books that have been published on one of the world’s most popular Artists. It includes a rare interview with Yayoi and a number of essays that look at her life and all she’s had to overcome along on remarkable journey that just the beginning of its  96th years on March 22nd. Highly recommended for those new to her work, or for those looking to delve further into one of the most remarkable, and remarkably long, careers in 20th & now 21st century Art.

*- Capivara Editions Photo

Vik Muniz, Vik Muniz – Everything So Far, Catalogue Raisonne: 1987-2015, Capivara Editions, 2016
Quoting myself, in my piece on his 2022 show, it surprises me that Vik Muniz is not one of the world’s Art “superstars.” It seems to me that his Art has everything required to make him hugely successful with Art lovers worldwide (not that he’s not already quite successful & accomplished, here, and around the world). In the 2-volume set, Everything So Far, you get to see just that, well everything the Artist created over the first 28 years of his incredibly prolific career. TEN YEARS old already, I imagine Mr. Muniz has AT LEAST another volume of work to add to these two already.
Another reason this set is on this list- along with the high quality of the work and the beauty of the set’s production, is that as you look through it, and move from chapter to chapter, you become ever more impressed (if not amazed) that ALL of this creativity, in a seemingly endless range of styles and mediums, a good number of which he invented, comes from one Artist. Topping it off, though it seems to me that though Vik Muniz’s work has that element of mass accessibility, it doesn’t come at the expense of content.

My look at Vik’s 2022 NYC show is here.

Henry Taylor, Untitled, 2020, Acrylic on canvas. The Obamas with a copy of Henry Taylor conspicuously displayed on their table. Artistic license? Or does the Artist know they have a copy. As seen in Henry Taylor: B Side at the Whitney Museum, January 26, 2024.

Henry Taylor, Henry Taylor, Rizzoli, 2018
Henry Taylor? Who? This book was a shock to those, like me, who were unfamiliar with the work of this California-based Artist when it was released, leading to it quickly selling out. Such are the joys of being a 30-years-in-the-making overnight success. Henry Taylor shows he was BUSY during all that time, and the fault is ours for sleeping on him. It’s is  a book that still looks fresh revealing that though his work has a charm to it that belies its depth it also, already, has staying power. His work is full of surprises, but his love of Painting shines through everything he applies his brush to, which is impossible for me to resist. Reprinted, it’s currently available.
My look at Henry Taylor in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, and elsewhere around town, is here. My look at Henry’s 2019 Blum & Poe Gallery show, during which he borrowed my Sharpie and amended works in the show as I watched, mouth agape, is here, and my look at Henry’s stunning mid-career Retrospective, Henry Taylor: B Side at the Whitney is here.

Philip Guston, Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting, by Robert Storr, Laurence King, 2020
One of my NoteWorthy Art Books of 2020, A Life Spent Painting is a MASSIVE tome of 348, 12.6 by 14 inch, pages with more than 850 images, and weighing almost 8 pounds! I don’t know which is longer- How long Philip Guston’s work has been deserving of a book like this, or how long Robert Storr spent working on it (30+ years)! Phitip Guston has proved to be every bit, if not more, influential since his passing in 1980 as he was in his life. Not surprising with a career that broke so much ground, there is much to appreciate. In spite of the controversy around some of his late work, which as I’ve said I believe is misunderstood, it’s good to see that long overlooked period of his Art get the attention it deserves. Also overlooked, in my view, is his 1940s work.
My look at a few NYC Philip Guston shows is here.

Kara Walker, A Black Hole Is Everything a Star Longs to Be, JRP Editions, 2021
This 600-page marvel firmly established Ms. Walker’s Drawings and works on paper as important as her already classic Silhouettes. 4 years old, I wouldn’t wait long to get a copy of A Black Hole, one of the Art books of the decade.

My piece naming this a NoteWorthy Art Book of 2021 is here. My look at her 2017 show is here.

A First Edition copy of Chris Ware’s landmark Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Right from its amazingly intricate double-sided fold-out poster/cover, you know you’re in for something you’ve never seen before. “A bold experiment in reader tolerance…,” the lower right reads. That echoes what the incredibly self-effacing Artist told me when I bought Art from him in 2001- “It’s easily disposable.” Note- If ANYONE is throwing out Chris Ware Art, please contact me first!

Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Pantheon Books, 2000
The ground-breaking classic that ushered in the current era of the Graphic Novel, and made a good many people sit up and take them seriously, including The Guardian, who gave it their 2001 First Book Award, the first time a Graphic Novel won it. Jimmy is a book born of Chris Ware’s own experience with his estranged father, shrouded in what has become to be known as his signature melancholy style turned into Fine Art in the hands of one of the most innovative and ground-breaking Artist/designers of our time.
My look at the debut show for the work from his now-classic 2nd book, Building Stories, is here.

What is now a rare sealed copy seen when I named it a NoteWorthy Art Book of 2023.

Martin Wong, Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief, 2022, Walther Konig
Little by little Martin Wong’s star has continued to rise this century, though the publication of Malicious Mischief coincided with what looks to have been a superb exhibition that made a number of stops in Europe, I’m calling this a monograph because it goes far beyond an exhibition catalog to be the most comprehensive book on this extremely talented Artist who died in 1999 at just 53. The Met, MoMA and the Whitney, among others in the U.S., own his work. So, WHERE is his American Retrospective? Until it happens, the beautifully designed (though I wish it was a hardcover) Malicious Mischief is THE place to see the most Martin Wong Art, in a nice size, to boot. Out of print, VG copies start around $195.00.
My piece naming it a NoteWorthy Art Book of 2023 is here.

 

Es Devlin, An Atlas of Es Devlin, Thames & Hudson, 2022
Even if her Art wasn’t NoteWorthy (IT IS!) this book would still be on the shelves of countless designers for reinvisioning and expanding the possibilities of the Art book, and of Artists for Ms. Devlin’s seeming endless imagination. For me, it’s wonderful that such a cutting-edge creator still relies on “old-fashioned” pencil on paper, and Drawing! Remember Drawing?
My piece naming it a 2024 Noteworthy Art Book of the Year is here. My look at her Museum of Design show of the same name, which accompanied the publication of this book, is here.

Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings. Perhaps the sleeper book on this entire list, remarkably still in print, 18 years later. That says a lot about it lasting import.

Euan Uglow, Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings, Yale University, 2007

“Nobody has ever looked at you as intensively as I have.” Euan Uglow to one of his models in 19984.

And it shows.
Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings is a Painting book that melds Catalogue Raisonne (a book that shows all known work) with a monograph (something more common of late), and does it so well it’s a model for how the two can work together in one book. Traditionally, Catalogue Raisonnes were aimed at museums, dealers or collectors looking to buy or sell a work by an Artist (where they served as the definitive reference), and so they can be very dry affairs with small images (sometimes in black & white), which disappoint Art lovers looking to see more work by the subject Artist. Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings is a book that will edify specialists, yet one that I think many Art lovers interested in knowing more about Mr. Uglow’s work will be quite happy with.
I was completely unaware of the late Mr. Uglow (1932-2000) until I began researching Art historian Catherine Lampert’s other books besides Frank Auerbach: Speaking and Painting (which is on this list further on), and discovered she authored this one. A somewhat legendary book, particualarly among figurative Painters, I was immediately mesmerized. Some have quibbled about the image size of some reproductions. Well, with 532 works pictured on 244, 10 by 12 inch pages, some compromises had to be made (Note- The publisher lists this book as 244 pages. Well, the Cat Rai totals 244 pages. There are an additional 79 pages of essays by Richard Kendall and Ms. Lamper twith roman numerals! 323 pages total). Catherine Lampert also contributes the Catalogue of all known Uglow works. The wonderful thing about this is that she annotates most of the entries with her special insights born of knowing the Artist for so long (she’s pictured with him in 1978, and she modeled for him, as she did for Frank Auerbach), as well as innumerable obscure quotes from the Artist, which forms a running narrative, something I’ve never seen before in a  Catalogue Raisonne, And so, she goes well beyond the standard info a C.R. usually provides (i.e. title/date/medium/dimensions/ownership history with maybe a published citation included alongside an image that might be a thumbnail or medium-sized). In my opinion, Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings reinvents the Cat Rai.

Here’s one example. Page 35. Click for full size.

Being able to see an Artist’s work from the beginning to the end has enthralled me since I was a kid, when I discovered Bob Haak’s Rembrandt, as I said earlier.. It’s like a “different kind” of “autobiography” in a way. In Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings you get to watch the Artist become just that by building on his early education with William Coldstream, and the influence of Cézanne, to developing something uniquely his. As his work becomes more and more popular and respected (both of which I expect to continue), this book will remain the essential volume on it. Though it lists for $120. new, the price has not stopped people from buying it, witnessed by the fact that, 18 years after its publication, it’s in its 8th printing! I agree with what one Artist reviewer said after saving up for it, “It’s worth every penny.”

My worn copy of Taschen’s Neo Rauch is never far from where I can reach it.

Neo Rauch, Neo Rauch, Taschen, 2013
There are now many books on Neo Rauch, including some very good ones, and though I have, or have seen, almost all of them. I keep going back to this one, as I continue to wrestle with his eternally mysterious work, even though it’s now 12 years outdated. Its generous XL size suits his often huge works wonderfully, and so gives me the best fighting chance of getting there, aided by very insightful commentary. Among my very favorite Contemporary Art books, and long out of print, VG copies can be had for $200. I live in continual hope Taschen will update it and reissue it one day soon. When I asked Mr. Rauch about just that last year, he wistfully shook his head. Well, I can dream, can’t I?

All seven of them. So far. Though handsome, I wonder why they chose these colors for the covers. It’s not like they’re so different as to make telling one from the other easy at a glance. And they each come in the same grey cardboard slipcase with no labelling on it

Ed Ruscha, Ed Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, Seven Volumes (so far), Steidl, Volume One published in 2004
Ed Ruscha’s Paintings are finally getting the Cat Rai treatment they’ve been crying for for most of the past SEVENTY YEARS(!) he’s been making them. By the time it’s completed it will be an unprecedented set for any Contemporary Artist. Beginning in 1958, when the Artist was still in school, Ed Ruscha has continued to fascinate, mystify, and bring a smile to the face of countless viewers ever since. If there’s one major revelation these seven large, handsome, books provide it’s that Mr. Ruscha NEVER sits still! Every subject he’s revisited over his long career he’s done so with a difference, and it takes such a voluminous set that delineates each and every “thing” (often literally- like blood, gunpowder, chocolate, and on and on and on…) he’s used in creating each work to appreciate all of them, and all the innovations that have gone into them. Good thing, too. Otherwise HOW would we know such  and such Standard Gas Station piece was made using a different one of his seemingly endless technical innovations than that other one was?! These discoveries add exponentially to the appreciate of Mr. Ruscha’s accomplishment. Volume One has been out of print for a few years, so expect some of the others to follow. My one caveat is the amount of repeated material in the back of each book. Shouldn’t this have been saved for the end of the final volume when it will be the most current info? Volume Seven, published in 2017, “only” goes up to 2011, so expect a few more as the Artist continues to work full speed ahead as he approaches his 88th birthday. Many more, Ed!
My 3-part series on Ed Ruscha/Now Then at MoMA is here.

A copy of the larger first edition of Keith Haring showing it’s (quite rightly) been handled a fair amount. I imagine that had he lived to design it, Keith may well have created Art for the edges, and who knows what else.

Keith Haring, Keith Haring, Rizzoli, 2008
Jean-Michel Basquiat said he wasn’t a graffiti Artist, though it seems few have paid any attention to that, sadly. Out of everyone else who’s written on walls, buildings, and everything else, it seems to me that, so far, only Keith Haring among “graffiti Artists” has achieved a lasting place in the museums. There may be a lesson in that, but I’m not getting into that now. Meanwhile, this book is a knock-out, a glorious 528-page testament to Mr. Haring’s incessant ability to make a line dance that always surprises the eye, and his tireless dedication to causes that continue to be important. Page through this book, and when you’re done marveling at how much work Keith Haring did, shake your head at the fact that he tragically died of AIDS-related complications at just 31 in 1990. The original 2008 edition, pictured, was a beautiful 12-inch square providing lots of landscape for the Art. It’s been reprinted at smaller sizes since, still very nice, which can still be had quite reasonably.

R.H. Quaytman, Spine, Sternberg Press, 2011
Another Artist’s book on this list is, also, a Catalogue Raisonne of the Artist’s Paintings from 2001 to 2011 according to the Artist’s unique “system.” Ms. Quaytman is, perhaps, not as well known as a longtime admirer and supporter of Hilma after Klint. She curated the very first NYC Hilma af Klint show at MoMA PS1 in 1989!- the only solo Hilma af Klint show in the U.S. until the Guggemheim’s blockbuster and a show of her work occupied the upper floor of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Rotunda during the run of Hilma af Klint: Painting for the Future (see above)! A very fitting pairing- in many ways. Her work has a toe in many realms and mediums, making her impossible to box (Yay!). Spine is a Catalogue Raisonne of R.H. Quaytman’s work since 2001, so a decade of her work is included. Since 2001, she has organized her Paintings into “Chapters,” beginning with “The Sun, Chapter 1,” to “Spine, Chapter 20,” which would seem to be a natural fit for a book. Conceived and written by the Artist, the results are still unique. As is the design. The Artist has continued to work in “Chapters,” and has stated she will until she dies.

Spine struck a chord with many readers when it came out and has gone on to achieve legendary status. Long out of print, VG copies currently begin at $160. 

Frank Gehry, Gehry Draws, MIT Press, 2004
If 100 people who had never heard of Frank Gehry and were shown the Mr. Gehry’s Drawings in this book, I wonder how many of them would guess these were designs for buildings. On their own, they’re Art in my book, and the chance to see how a visionary Architect’s mind works, and how his structures begin is just extraordinary. With all the books published on the finished buildings, this is one of the few that speaks to their genesis, and containing the work of one of the great masters of Architecture of the 20th and now 21st centuries makes it even more important.

Out of print, copies remain reasonably priced. At least for now.

The first printing of the Basquiat XXL came in this pictorial shipping box. Subsequent printings came in a brown box with black type, and new copies I’ve seen in 2025 have NO shipping box at all. My copy shown, which I sold in my ongoing struggle to keep writing.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Basquiat, Taschen XXL, 2018, or Brick, 2020
It surprised me when I realized that I’ve written about Jean-Michel more than any other Artist over the 9 1/2 years of NighthawkNYC. Well, he’s certainly been the world’s most popular Contemporary Artist over that time. As a result, in researching all the pieces I’ve done on him, I acquired a very large Basquiat library. To all those who’ve asked me which one book I’d recommend on him, I say this one. It’s got the most Art, and in the XXL size, in the largest reproductions anywhere. Most of his Art is in private hands. Meaning, your ONLY shot at seeing the most Basquiat for the foreseeable future is in Taschen’s Basquiat! If you want to see it in the largest size anywhere, choose the XXL. If you want to see his work and not spend the $200. list for the XXL, choose the Brick, which lists for $30. It’s almost identical in content, but smaller.
Though not on this list, my choice for the “sleeper” book on Basquiat is a toss-up between Richard Marshall’s excellent work in the catalog for the Whitney Retrospective mounted shortly after the Artist’s death, The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat by Fred Hoffman, and Basquiat’s Notebooks, published to accompany the excellent show of the same name at the Brooklyn Museum.
My extensive coverage of all the Basquait shows in NYC since 2019 begins with the legendary Brant Foundation show here, includes gallery shows, and the popular King Pleasure show, mounted by his family, during the run of which, I met and spoke with both of his sisters.

NoteWorthy Exhibition Catalogs  of the 21st Century-

Charles White, A Retrospective, 2018

Charles White: A Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, 2018
These 25 years have been characterized by Great Black Art finally beginning to get the attention and appreciation it deserves. Unfortunately, it happened too late for Charles White, who’s work was and is so good it should have inspired just that on its own (or, along with his equally worthy contemporaries Horace Pippin, Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, among others.) But, he had to wait until 2018 for the Museum of Modern Art to mount the Retrospective he deserved. Others are still waiting…

My look at the show is here.

A very rare sealed copy.,

Nasreen Mohamedi, Nasreen Mohamedi: Waiting is a Part of Intense Living, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2015
I had never heard of Nasreen Mohamedi, when I walked into The Met Breuer for its opening day in 2015, where this show (titled Nasreem Mohamedi) and Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible shared the building. I quickly fell under the spell of the Indian Artist who passed away in 1990 at about 52, and I wound up writing extensively about the show I saw about a dozen times, here. Waiting is a Part of Intense Living is by far the most comprehensive book on this fascinating Artist who remains under known in the U.S. and was published to accompany the show’s first stop in Spain.

Copies were available, here, during the run of The Met Breuer show, but have steadily dwindled since. It’s now extremely hard  to find, with used copies beginning at $200. in iffy condition, unfortunately. I hope someone will undertake an even more comprehensive look at Nasreen’s career. Her Art is not going away.

Charles Burchfield, Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield, Prestel, 2009
Edward Hopper’s favorite Painter needs more fans! I’ve heard Gregory Halpern is one, and before curating what looks to have been a revelatory traveling show that came to the Whitney in 2010, Artist Robert Gober became another in the process of doing a deep dive into “all things Burchfield,” as he says, before curating this show. What might seem to be an unusual choice for the curator of Heat Waves turns out to have been s stroke of brilliance by whoever chose him. The mystery that has made Mr. Gober a world-wide phenomenon is featured in Mr. Burchfield’s work allowing viewers to get real insights into the work of the Artist’s dual-nature. At once, his work’s feet are firmly planted in the ground (usually near his Buffalo, NY home), before suddenly being transported by marvelous visions seem to carry him to worlds unknown. At times his work (especially his Drawings) seems akin to the mysticism of Hilma af Klint. Added to all of this, Charles Burchfield chose to make Watercolors his medium of choice, and he remains one of the unsung masters of it in American Art. Here’s your chance to experience his brilliance in all its glory.

Salman Toor, Salman Toor: No Ordinary Love, Gregory R. Miller/Baltimore Museum of Art, 2022
A strong case can be made that No Ordinary Love is THE ground-breaking Art book of the 21st century thus far. It qualifies in so many ways, beginning with marking the first time a Contemporary Pakistani/American Painter has achieved U.S. museum recognition, with work in The Met, the Whitney and the Morgan Library collections, as well as the museums in Dallas, Baltimore (which mounted the show), the Walker and MoCA, Chicago in this country. I saw his first museum show at the Whitney in 2021, so it’s utterly remarkable how quickly Salman’s work has gained such wide acceptance. Remarkable. Not surprising. Why not? As the curator says in the introduction, Mr. Toor’s work mines “the complexities of being an immigrant, queer and human.”
It didn’t take long for No Ordinary Love to sell out. VG copies begin at $400.00.
My piece naming it a NoteWorthy Art Book of 2022 is here.

Denzil Forrester, Denzil Forrester: Duppy Conqueror/We Culture, Kemper Art Museum/Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, 2024
One of the newest books on this list (chronologically), it took almost 40 years for Mr. Forrester to get the book his work deserves. His work is a riot of color (in the best possible way), emblematic of the passion and joy Music has brought out of him to an extent greater than that of any other Artist I’ve seen this side of the great Romare Bearden. Like Mr. Bearden, however, there’s much more to be seen and experienced in Denzil Forrester’s work. Life. No less than Peter Doig (listed earlier) and Sheena Wagstaff (who curated a recent NYC show of his) have championed Mr. Forrester’s work, and it seems that after years of toiling with a lack of attention the wheel has finally turned. Duppy Conqueror presents 45 years of his work.

Much more than an exhibition catalog, Duppy Conqueror (a 1973 song by Bob Marley), is a retrospective of 45 years of Denzil Forrester’s work, accompanied by fascinating essays that relate the history of post-war racism in Britain and how Mr. Forrester, along with Musicians and Poets worked to bring the injustices to wide attention in powerful fashion. At the height of the racism, Music and dance halls were one of the few escapes left. References to them continue in his work like a musical refrain. Duppy Conqueror strikes me as being everything a book on this list should be. It packs an incredible amount into a 408-page volume, and like the Jennifer Packer book, earlier, uses multiple papers to wonderful effect, beginning with its opening “blackout” pages (which perhaps mimic the Drawings the Artist did in those near-dark dance halls early on) which set the stage, to the wonderful design by Scott Vander Zee, to the essays, and Poems by the legendary dub Poet, Reggae Musician and activist, Linton Kwesi Johnson (one of those Musicians & Poets I mentioned who joined Mr. Forrester in the struggle), to the work, which a bit like Kent Monkman’s, serves to call attention to decades of pain, suffering and survival. Born in Grenada in 1956, Denzel moved to London at 10 or 11, and proceeded to receive a BA and MA in Fine Art. He was awarded an MBE in 2020. It took the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, and the Kemper Art Museum in Kansas City, in collaboration with the Mr. Forrester, to give this very important Artist his first U.S. Retrospective in 2024, and this, the most comprehensive book yet published on his Art.

The catalog for The Met’s once-in-a-lifetime Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, features a detail of his Drawing known as “The Archers.”

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, Carmen Bambach, Metropolitan Museum, 2017, and
Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered, published by Yale University, 2019
Meanwhile, 30 blocks north, and not to be outdone…As if mounting and curating one of the greatest Art shows I’ve seen in 45 years of museum going wasn’t enough, Met Museum treasure Carmen Bambach has authored one of the finest books on Michelangelo I’ve seen to accompany it. Saying it’s a book every bit as worthy as her once-in-a-lifetime show I went to 10 times is the best compliment I can give it. It also singlehandedly led to my purging my Michelangelo book collection, as it rendered so many other books unnecessary or outdated.
Ms. Bambach is also responsible for the extraordinary Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman, and Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible Met Museum and Met Breuer shows respectively this century and their catalogs. As if ALL of that isn’t enough- Carmen Bambach has authored what looks to be an extraordinary book I haven’t seen-Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered,published by Yale University, 2019. With 2,200 pages with 1,500 images over 3-volumes weighing 28 pounds, it’s rumored to include “numerous discoveries.” Such is my admiration and respect for the lady that is one of those who makes The Met one of the world’s greatest museums, I’m including it on this list, sight unseen!
My extensive look at Ms. Bambach’s unforgettable Michelangelo show, that 700,000 saw, is here. My look at her Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible at the lost and lamented Met Breuer is here

Jack Whitten, Five Decades of Painting, MOCA, SD, 2015 and
 Jack Whitten: Odyssey: Sculpture 1963-2017, Gregory R. Miller, 2018
With the opening of his Retrospective at MoMA late last month, featuring six decades of his work, it’s very fair to wonder- What took so long? Since he passed in 2018, at 78, t’s terrible Mr. Witten didn’t live to see it. What a body of work he gave to the world! In my view, his status as a great Painter is still underappreciated. Though there have been a recent spate of publications on Mr. Whitten’s work, Five Decades of Paintings, published to accompany the 2015 show of the same name at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, remains the best overview I’ve seen. Out of print, and getting harder to find all the time.

Very few people knew the great Painter Jack Whitten was also a great Sculptor during his lifetime, until the posthumous show, Jack Whitten: Odyssey opened at the Baltimore Museum before moving to NYC. I got a hint of it when I saw one Sculpture included in the last show of his work (in 2017)  before he passed, which I showed here. It failed to prepare me for the utter shock I experienced when I walked into Jack Whitten: Odyssey at The Met Breur in 2018 that this gorgeous book accompanied. A lifelong expert woodworker, it’s still a bit of a mystery to me why Mr. Whitten didn’t show this amazing and amazingly accomplished work earlier. Even Picasso didn’t envious a good deal of what is to be found in its pages, and that’s saying a lot. For me, it’s just one reason I fully expect Jack Whitten’s star to keep rising in the estimation of Art historians indefinitely. Odyssey is currently available reasonably.

Kerry James Marshall, Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, Skira Rizzoli, 2016
Another 35-years in the making overnight sensation, Charles White’s student, Kerry James Marshall’s blockbuster, Mastry, at The Met Breuer was the most important Painting show I saw in the 2010s, and wrote about here (under what one reader told me what the best title I’ve come up with in almost 10 years). This book sold out immediately and has been reprinted a number of times since. A book worthy of Mr. Marshall’s great Art. Mastry remains THE place to start exploring his work, or to continue to. Approaching 10 years old, I’d grab it while it’s still in print. Copies in VG condition traded for $150. when it went out of print the first time. 

Nick Cave, Nick Cave: Forothermore, Del Monico Books, 2022
A number of Artists have done extremely elaborate, Artful outfits, yet it seems to me that Nick Cave’s Soundsuits are unprecedented. “Protection” from the outside world that didn’t accept the young Black Artist he was, they’ve now received acceptance virtually everywhere in the Art world, and even in the NYC Subway, as I showed here. Incredibly detailed, the amount of work that goes into one of these pieces boggles the mind, as does the variety of the designs. All of Nick Cave’s books are beautiful and beautifully done. Therefore, choosing one is very hard. I picked Forothermore for being the most recent, and published to accompany his stunning traveling mid-career Retrospective, the most comprehensive.
My look at Forothermore at the Guggenheim Museum is here.

There are a number of exceedingly well-done books on Sarah Sze’s work and a number of fine exhibition catalogs. Infinite Line stands apart.

Sarah Sze, Sarah Sze: Infinite Line, Asia Society, 2011
A stunning overview of the Installation/Sculpture/Multi-media work of the Artist through 2010 remains my choice to see this aspect of her oeuvre even over more recent books. Published to accompany her show of the same name at the Aisa Society, NYC, it’s hard to find, but worth looking for. Sarah Sze joins Rembrandt and Kent Monkman as the three Artists, and Bob Dylan, among Musicians, with multiple books on this list.

NoteWorthy Art Autobiography & Biography of the 21st Century-

Autobiography-


Ai Wei Wei, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir, Crown, 2021
Ai is a wonderful Writer with a talent for bringing the reader right into his stories that Agatha Christie might envy. Even better, signed copies can be had for a song. 
My look at Ai Wewei’s 2015 show at the Brooklyn Museum, one of my very first pieces, is here. My look at Ai Weiwei: Laundromat is here. My look at Ai Weiwei at Paula Cooper and Lisson Gallery is here.

Autobiography & Biography-

A copy with her beautiful signature.

Patti Smith, Just Kids, Ecco, 2010
Just read it.
My look at Patti’s most recent NYC Photography show, during the run of which I met her, Photographed her, and spoke with her, is here.

Biography

It rarely leaves my hand. My $4 (including shipping) used paperback copy with my bookmarks. The red one you can barely see is a Virgin Atlantic London to NYC Boarding Pass the previous owner left inside. I use scrap paper bookmarks because I leave them in at key points, and, unlike those of stiff materials, the book still flexes. But, that’s just me.

Shakespeare, Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt, Norton, 2004
You have Shakespeare questions? I finally have, too. Harvard Professor Stephen Greenblatt has the answers. And a hell of a lot more. 400+ years of distilled Shakespeare scholarship and a lifetime of research & learning have combined to give us the Shakespeare book many have been waiting for given how long it was on the NY Times Bestseller List. A former Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Winner for Non-Fiction, he was also a finalist for both for this book. It puts so many questions surrounding the immortal Bard to bed, as far as I’m concerned (“Good night, sweet Prince,” indeed), and allows readers to be just that- readers of Shakespeare, most likely knowing quite a bit more then they did before. One of the most important for me is “Why does it matter who wrote Shakespeare?” Professor Greenblatt’s book is all about how much his life may be in his work. The “Will” in the title is a giveaway to the author’s approach to humanizing the Playwright & Poet credited with “inventing humanity” (per Harold Bloom). He puts us inside what he may have been thinking and feeling while he lived his daily life, and outlines just how “Will” may have brought an incredible amount of that scarcely documented existence into his immortal work, “proving” it to be his “other” source, along with all the works of his predecessors he “poached.” (He addresses the legendary “pouching” story, too.)
Will is a book I literally have to force myself to put down. I have a beat up, $4 used paperback, the eBook AND the audiobook versions! I can’t say that for any other book I’ve ever owned. With my notes from the book totaling over 170 pages, having multiple editions is essential for me to transcribe and annotate it (there are no page numbers in audiobooks when I re-listen on the go, and those in eBooks are not reliable, and THIS SITE USES FOOTNOTES! (As you can see in my recent piece on my road to Shakespeare, which features this book, here.) 
Full of “Oh my gosh” and “Wow” moments, and drama worthy of, well, Shakespeare, Will in the World is, possibly, the most well-done, impeccably edited, biography I’ve ever read (along with the book that follows on this list). Can you tell yet that I LOVE THIS BOOK. Will is a book I’ll take with me to that desert island- IF I can figure out which version to take!

The hardcover (the two copies, right) is beautifully produced and feels wonderful in your hand, enhanced by a lovely paper. To help make it that way, they offloaded the footnotes! The first edition has a very nice, somewhat haunting, translucent dust jacket, too. I have no experience with the paperback (the two copies, left), for two reasons- 1) this book is a keeper, and the hardcover is more durable, and 2) I’m always leery of very large books in paperback. This one has 976 pages! That’s a lot of stress to put on most paperback bindings, especially with repeated handling over time. Add to that, the covers on paperbacks don’t hold up well, in too many cases. This being said, of course paperbacks have their place.

Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh: The Life, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Random House, 2011
Having grown up with the Van Gogh fiction of Irving Stone’s Lust for Life, Van Gogh: the Life came to me like one of Vincent’s brilliant suns through a sky of clouds. Essential reading, in my opinion, for anyone who wants to know more about Vincent. Don’t we all? Though Messers Naifeh & Smith won the Pulitzer for their DeKooning biography, which I have not read, it’s hard to imagine a biography of an Artist who lived before 1900 being better than this one, and this one was sorely needed when it was published. Read it along with his immortal Letters, which it provides context for (the Taschen Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings remains my choice for the best book on his Art). As well researched (if not better) than any Vincent bio to date, the authors have a way of putting you inside his life, and particularly inside his decisions. A good many of them are hard (i.e. painful) to watch unfolding, but no matter what he gets himself into, the reader comes away with something Vincent has not always received- a better understanding. The authors also append their fascinating theory that Vincent DID NOT commit suicide- he may have been murdered! To top it off, the book is accompanied by its own website for the voluminous footnotes. All I can say is that I hope someone tops The Life in my lifetime, because we’ll always want to know more, but good luck trying to!
Those taken with The Life should take a look at Mr. Naifeh’s very nice follow-up book Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved in 2021.
My look at Vincent van Gogh in The Met’s Permanent collection is here. My piece on The Met’s Van Gogh’s Cypresses show, “Van Gogh’s Cypresses: Art From Hell,” is here.

Frank Auerbach, Frank Auerbach: Speaking and Painting, Catherine Lampert, Thames & Hudson, 2015
I can’t say I’ve ever seen an Art book written by a long-term model of the Artist, who also happens to be a very accomplished Art historian and curator. Wow! What a unique book it yields! Catherine Lampert first sat for Mr. Auerbach in 1978! She curated the major Frank Auerbach Retrospective at Tate Britain in 2001 and has written extensively and authoritatively on the Artist (and other Artists) since (like her Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings, listed earlier). If that’s not enough to intrigue you, it’s also superbly written, and so well done that Mr. Auerbach joined Ms. Lampert for dual booksignings, making it as close as we have to an “Artist approved” biography of Mr. Auerbach, unless and until Frank’s son, Jake, the Auerbach Documentarian, writes one.
Catherine Lampert is, then, one of two authors with more than one book on this list, joining The Met’s Carmen Bambach- both curators.

NoteWorthy Art History Book of the 21st Century-

A first edition copy. The book was later revised & expanded in a paperback edition.

David Hockney, Secret Knowledge, Viking Books, 2001
Love his work, or not, you have to grant that David Hockney is one of the most remarkable figures in Modern & Contemporary Art. Ceaselessly prolific for 65+ years, it seems to me he doesn’t get enough credit for his innovations, like his “Joiners” (his amazing Photo montages), or being the first major Artist to explore the creative possibilities of the iPhone and then the iPad. In addition to everything else he’s done, his 2001 book, Secret Knowledge, rattled a lot of windows and cages of Art historians when it came out, asking the question- Did the “old masters” use optics in creating their Paintings? It spawned a BBC TV 2-part documentary AND a BBC TV series. Aided by the double-gatefold filling “Great Wall” of postcards of great Paintings chronologically arranged from Jan van Eyck’s 1400 to the early 20th century, Mr. Hockney proceeds to make a most compelling case that they may well have. Over time, his theories have gained more acceptance (or is it less resistance), making this book something of a landmark in the ever-evolving road of Art history’s evolution. It also changed the way a lot of people look at Paintings. Which of those two is more important? You decide.

My look at his Met Museum Retrospective is here. Also: A personal favorite I am going to make a general recommendation for (though not including on this list)- David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 (Royal Academy of Arts, 2021), is a book that helped me get through the pandemic. Completely devoid of people, Mr. Hockney depicts (mostly with iPad Paintings, as he calls them), an almost day-by-day chronicle of spring arriving in his new Normandy home. Living in a place where signs of spring can be hard to find, it’s a book I look through often. Beautifully done. Available cheaply as I write.

NoteWorthy Overview Art Book of the 21st Century-

Jeffrey Gibson (ed), An Indigenous Present, DelMonico, 2023
Thank goodness this book exists, and who better to have edited it than the brilliantly talented Jeffrey Gibson, he of what looks to have been a spectacular installation at the Venice Biennale in 2024. Full of wonderful Artists I wasn’t familiar with, I have a feeling a lot of galleries bought copies and are scouring them relentlessly looking for talent to sign, and this is a great place for that, and the best book for getting up to speed on the wondrous world of Contemporary Indigenous Artists for the rest of us.
My look at the most recent Jeffrey Gibson NYC solo show is here.

NoteWorthy Art Education Book of the 21st Century-

With his trademark large flat brush. Happy trees and happy clouds abound.

Bob Ross, Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting, Universe, 2017
Wait. What? Bob Ross on a NoteWorthy Art Book of the Century list? Say what you want about Bob Ross, love or hate his work, you HAVE to give him this- NO ONE in the history of the world has taught Painting to more people than Bob Ross has. And, he did it with joy! I’m sorry, as someone who considers himself first and foremost “a Painting guy,” it’s impossible for me to argue with that- or forget it. Ok, he taught oil Painting with a wet-on-wet technique, but much of what he taught can be adapted to acrylics. The point is to paint for enjoyment and/or the love of Painting. This book has an overview of his work, in Part 1, and then a number of step by step how-to’s in Part 2, which is great at a time when his show appears to be off the air (at least here). (Personally, I love watching him Paint clouds.) If that’s true everywhere right now, then this book is more important for keeping his message alive, out there, and inspiring even more people to paint. That message? Get some paint, some brushes, some canvas or paper and ENJOY yourself! Maybe you’ll create work that will be on this list when whoever does it in 2050. Maybe not. The Joy of Painting is the point. Bob Ross paid it forward.

NoteWorthy Music Books of the 21st Century-

Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney: The Lyrics, Norton, 2021
A book for the ages, this one has been published in huge numbers and so is unlikely to be as rare as the Francis Bacon set will be. Perhaps the best compliment I can give it is that it’s full of so much great, new information, that it practially FORCES you re-listen to the songs! The slip-cased hardcovers are beautiful, and the absolutely preferred edition. The paperback, not so much. AT ALL COSTS, AVOID THE eBOOK VERSION!
My piece naming it the NoteWorthy Music Book of 2021 is here.

Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Volume 1, 2004, and
The Philosophy of Modern Song, 2022, both Simon & Schuster.
After countless biographies written by innumerable others, Chronicles, Volume 1, is, FINALLY, the first volume in what (I, and many others, hope) will be as many as it takes for Bob to tell his story as only he can. And, what a book it is! Beginning right at the beginning of Bob’s recording career, Bob’s prose style here is a marvel of total recall. Like Patti Smith’s immortal Just Kids, we’re instantly transported back in time, this time to the turn of the 1950s into the 1960s NYC, able to feel the biting cold of an NYC winter before global warming, down to the smallest details of rooms Mr. Dylan was in at the time. WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR Chronicles V1 was when it came out after ALL the 2nd hand, unauthorized Dylan bios! It’s miraculous, in my view (a word that applies to Mr. Dylan’s other book on this list, The Philosophy of Modern Song). So much of what went on in the first part of Bob Dylan’s career is still impacting the world, the way The Beatles did. We FINALLY get to see and hear it from the inside, from behind those iconic dark glasses. Chronicles, Volume 1 left me with one overriding question- 21 years later, WHERE IS VOLUME 2????

It seems to me that Philosophy of  Modern Song is written in a completely different style! Whereas Chronicles, V 1 gives us Bob, the consummate storyteller, every sentence of Philosophy of bursts with passion, nuance and depth, belying how long Bob has lived with and thought about each and every one of the 60 songs he includes- each with its own essay. Passion, especially, flows from his pen like blood from a bullet wound. His first new book since said Chronicles, WHO better to write a book titled The Philosophy of Modern Song than Bobby D.? Hard at work crafting the greatest body of songs…maybe ever, since 1959, or so, songs with a depth that few (anyone?) can match. Filled with unexpected choices among the 60 songs he discusses, the choices are as unexpected as each accompanying essay is unpredictable. 12 years in the making, there’s a “freewheeling” (sorry!) spontaneity to his prose that packs so much information and linguistic gymnastics into each line as to leave the reader feeling like she or he has to cut back on the caffeine. Some of these songs I never gave a second listen to, or switched off when they came on. But here, in Mr. D’s hands, they get the due of their dreams.

Among all the surprises- in the choices and Bob’s essays, I was shocked to see “Pump it Up,” by Elvis Costello & The Attractions here(!), and even more shocked to read that what Mr. D. has to say about it sums up exactly how I felt about it at the time, but few who weren’t fans would listen. But, he takes it to another level only he can. This is how his look at it begins (CAPS his, for a change)-

“THIS SONG SPEAKS NEW SPEAK. It’s the song you sing when you’ve reached the boiling point. Tense and uneasy, comes with a discount—with a lot of give-a-way stuff. And you’re going to extend that stuff till it ruptures and splits into a million pieces. You never look back you look forward, you’ve had a classical education, and some on the job training. You’ve learned to look into every loathsome nauseating face and expect nothing.”

Philosophy of is a thrilling, one-of-a-kind ride into the world of songwriting, a world that seems to be getting lost today, and the fear of just that is what I sense may really be at the beating heart and soul of this book from one of the Art’s ultimate maters. (If you want to get an idea of Dylan’s encyclopedic knowledge of modern song, look for his radio series, “Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan,” which ran for about 100 episodes over two seasons.)

And? Get this- Bob is on the road RIGHT NOW as I write this barely 2 months shy of his 84th Birthday! Just LOOK at that itinerary- FIFTY-SEVEN SHOWS between March 11 and September 19th!!! And, he also Paints and makes Prints and Sculpture. PHEW! I’d like to write about his Art, but….. The man is a world treasure. So is Sir Paul. Generations yet unborn will be lucky to have these books.

NoteWorthy Art Book Publisher of the 21st Century-

A tower of “Bricks.” Not leaning, yet, but that Fashion book on the bottom looks ready to bust out.

Taschen, Cologne, Germany
Originally, the Bricks listed for $20.00(!), which earned them my NoteWorthy Art Book award in 2021. Then, someone got the great idea of releasing them in a slightly larger size under a “40th Anniversary” edition, for the slightly larger price of $30. (meanwhile, the smaller Bricks that remained in print were bumped to $25.). A brilliant way for Taschen to monetize almost exactly the same content, I’ll say it  yet again- TASCHEN’S BRICKS ARE THE BEST VALUE IN ART BOOKS TODAY! I call them “Bricks” because they’re about that size and they remain essential books for me on virtually every Artist included in the series. With usually with upwards of 500 pages with countless color illustrations, you still can’t go wrong with them. Taschen has been very busy, of course, publishing Art (& PhotoBooks) in other sizes, too. Most of their books that get reissued in other sizes are on Artists from before 1900. Their Contemporary Art books (except those on David Hockney) seem to come out in their XL size, but once they go out of print, like their Christopher Wool and Neo Rauch books (Neo listed earlier), they are not reissued in another size. So, get them while you can (Note- One Brick I would pass on is their Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Look for Andreas Mark’s “definitive” edition, which has much better, and slightly larger, plates, and is about the same price). 
My piece naming Taschen the Art book publisher of 2021, when their Bricks were TWENTY DOLLARS a copy, is here. Read it and weep.

Honorable Mention- The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Some love for a Photographer in an Art book piece! And, not just any Photographer. The great LaToya Ruby Frazier graciously holds her NighthawkNYC NoteWorthy PhotoBook of the Year, 2024, for me at its release at her stunning show of the same name. MoMA, May 10, 2024.

The Museum of Modern Art  gets the NoteWorthy Art Book Publisher of the Century Honorable Mention for the steady stream of excellent exhibition catalogs they have published this century. There are actually too many to list; Charles White: A Retrospective is on this list, two others (Dorothea Lange: Words and Pictures, and Luigi Ghiri: Cardboard Landscapes)  have been on my NoteWorthy Art Book Lists, a few others (Adrian Piper: A Synthesis of Intuitions, 1965-2016, Ed Ruscha / Now Then, Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends, Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not A Metaphor, Käthe Kollwitz: A Retrospective,) easily could have been. If that’s not enough, MoMA’s LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity was my NoteWorthy PhotoBook of 2024, AND Taryn Simon’s Expanded edition of The Innocents is on my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of the 21st Century list! PHEW! These books join a long list of excellent MoMA publications from the 20th century (going back to their now classic catalog for the very first show I ever saw- Picasso: A Retrospective in 1980) that continues to make MoMA a first stop when researching any Modern & Contemporary Artist.

All told, 58 books are listed (counting the Ed Ruscha as one title).

This piece is dedicated to all my fellow Art book lovers, everywhere, and especially to those who’ve written to me about Art books since 2015.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “This is Radio Clash,” by The Clash, since I’m, apparently, about as underground as it gets. “Please save us, not the whales,” (their words, not mine), are words I can relate to. Save us both!

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  1. Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings, Preface
  2. Health Disparities Chart Book on Disability and Racial and Ethnic Status in the United States.
  3. John is heard and seen relating this story in the Documentary John & Yoko: Above us only sky.”
  4. Richard Kendall, Uglow at work: the formative years in Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings, P.ix

Shakespeare, After All…

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited).

Having announced that I’m taking a break from Art writing in September to recover from a year’s worth of illnesses and ailments, compounded by the absence of any means of support for Independent Art writing, I’ve finally had time for something else!

In what little free time I have not spent working on surviving I’ve turned to Literature. Not one of the “Visual Arts,” per se, but an Art, of course, nonetheless.

It’s like he’s been there waiting for me for my whole life…Shakespeare, by John Quincy Adams Ward. I’m not a fan of any of the Statues in Central Park besides Bethesda Fountain and this one. Seen on October 27, 2024. Click any picture for full size.

Having been assigned to read James Joyce’s Dubliners as a senior in high school, the highest grade I was allowed to attain by my parents, so taken by it was I that I went on to his A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and then Ulysses on my own after. And so ended my life’s experience with Literature (and formal education for that matter. Everything I “know” now I learned on my own, except how to read & write and basic math). My life then became an endless procession of Art book after Art book. Until September. With no Art pieces hanging over my head to finish, in late September I decided to try and begin to try fill that gnawing Lit gap that’s been there for a very long time indeed. Immediately, there was NO DOUBT in my mind who I would turn to first in this quest.

William Shakespeare (circa April 23, 1564- April 23. 1616)

Edward Hopper, Shakespeare at Dusk, 1935, Oil on cavas. Literary Walk, Central Park, 90 years ago. The same Sculpture I shot above, 89 years after Hopper Painted it.  The inscription on the base says it was installed here in Central Park in honor of  The Bard’s 300th Birthday, which was in April, 1864. Yet, the Artist inscribed “1870” under his signature. Something is wrong in the State of New York.*- Photographer unknown.

Believe it or not, I’ve reached this stage in my life and never once cracked open one of his Plays or collection of Poems. HOW is that possible?  I blame my teachers. I remember being assigned such things as Ivanhoe in school which my book report on received a failing grade for primarily because I just couldn’t even bring myself to even open it. At the same time, my parents confiscated my copies of Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 because the “legion of decency” (small caps, mine-they were neither) blacklisted them. Suffice it to say that if I read Lit for the next 50 years, Ivanhoe is STILL going to remain unopened!

I quickly realized, however, that it may be impossible to reach adulthood without your life having been touched by William Shakespeare- even if, like me, you’ve never read him! How? Lines from his Plays and Poems have become cliches in many of our daily lives, often/usually without realizing their origins. FIFTY of them, including “For goodness sake,” “Too much of a good thing,” “Vanish into thin air,” or “All’s well that ends well,” can be found here! 

Edward Hopper, Study for Shakespeare at Dusk, 1935, Graphite pencil on paper. Comparing his Studies to the final Painting, shown earlier, t’s interesting how Hopper moved the trees around and changed the buildings. Seen at Edward Hopper’s New York, October, 17, 2022

In addition to that, the man contributed somewhere between 1,700 and 3,00 words to the English language (depending on whose numbers you choose to believe)! And these are not obscure words. They include-

Alligator

Bedroom

Critic (gulp)

Downstairs

Eyeball

Fashionable

Gossip

Huffy

Kissing

Lonely

Manager

Obscene

Puppy dog

Questioning

Rant

Skim milk

Traditional

Undress

Worthless

Zany

PHEW! (That’s not one- as far as I know!)

Between the quotes that have become catchphrases and the words he contributed to the language, I can’t think of any Visual Artist (i.e. Painter, Photographer, et al) who has had such a reach into our everyday lives as Shakespeare has. And that’s not even considering his Plays and Poems as Plays and Poems!

If these walls could talk! King Edward VI Grammar School – Church Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. It is “almost certain” that Shakespeare attended school here. *- Photo by Elliott Brown, Wikimedia Commons

As if that’s not astounding enough, remember Shakespeare only went to school until he was 14! He wasn’t permitted to go to college. What he didn’t learn in school, he taught himself!

PARTIAL view of the Shakespeare books at The Strand Bookstore, September 28, 2024. This bookcase has 10 shelves of books on The Bard. On the bookcases directly behind it, I counted 7 more shelves of Shakespeare books!

So, there I was in late September in a book store, but, for the first time in the 40+ years I’ve been going to this store, I found myself in a section I’d never been in before. Their Shakespeare section. I was shocked by what I saw. The books filled the entire bookcase! And, it filled most of the bookcase behind it! Though I’ve focused on these pages on Modern & Contemporary Art, I have written about Artists going back to the 15th century- Jan van Eyck, and the Renaissance- Michelangelo. In the 600 years that represents (1400-2025) NO Artist known to me has had anything close to the amount written about them as William Shakespeare has! Not Michelangelo, or Leonardo- even combined. Not Picasso. Not Vincent van Gogh (who I’ve written about twice). No one.

This is a bit ironic. Professor and Shakespeare biographer, Stephen Greenblatt, has this to say about Shakespeare and books-

“Even though as a poet Shakespeare dreamed of eternal fame, he does not seem to have associated that fame with the phenomenon of the printed book. And even when he was well established as a playwright, with his plays for sale in the bookstalls in St. Paul’s Churchyard, he showed little or no personal interest in seeing his plays on the printed page, let alone assuring the accuracy of the editions. He never, it seems, anticipated what turned out to be the case: that he would live as much on the page as on the stage… but the real excitement for him would have been access to books. Books were expensive, far too expensive for a young actor and untried playwright to buy out of his own pocket, and yet the ambitious Shakespeare needed them if he was to rise to the challenge posed by (Christoper) Marlowe’s stupendous work (i.e. specifically Tamburlaine).1

That explains a question a number of writers have wondered about- according to his last will, Shakespeare left no books. As I stood in front of more books on a subject I’m interested in than I’ve ever faced, one question loomed large- Where do I start?

The Rizzoli 400th Anniversary Edition of The First Folio of Shakespeare. It’s nice, but if I were in the market for a copy of The First Folio (TFF hence), I’d get the Norton Facsimile Edition. Why? The Rizzoli is a repro of the copy of TFF in the British Library. The Norton selects the page in each of 82 of the existing copies that’s in the best condition.

Eschewing all the biographies and commentaries, I started looking at the books containing his work- what he Wrote. I quickly discovered that there are COUNTLESS editions of EVERYTHING Shakespeare Wrote going back to what is called The First Folio (TFF hence), the very first published collection of his Plays published in 1623, seven years after his death, by two of his fellow actors & friends. The world owes an incalculable debt to those friends, John Hemminge (aka John Heminges) and Henry Condell. Shakespeare remembered them in his will. Now considered the most important book of fiction ever published. In it, about half of Shakespeare’s plays make their first appearance. They most likely would have been lost to history if not for its publication, the story of which has been the subject of a good many books on its own. I’ve come across 3 reproductions of TFF– The luxurious 400th Anniversary Edition published in 2023 by Rizzoli, the equally luxurious compilation edition published by Norton (which I prefer, IF I were in the market for one, as I explain above), and a used paperback copy of a knockoff edition of it that Norton sued over and was subsequently withdrawn. 

The cover of Volume II of the Bantam paperback edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. David Bevington edited the plays and contributes superb introductions to each Play.

But, Early Modern English, which is what Shakespeare wrote and spoke is a tough nut for me to crack. So are the fonts they used in 1623. So, I put TFF back on the shelf and kept looking. My eyes then alighted on a set of the Complete Works published by Bantam. Five words on the covers caught my attentions- “WITH FOREWORDS BY JOSEPH PAPP.” Even I know that Joseph Papp (1921-1991) was, and remains, “Mr. New York Shakespeare.”

Shakespeare Garden, Central Park, mere steps from The Delacourt Theater, home of Shakespeare in the Park.

Legendary for founding both The Public Theater and the annual, beloved, Shakespeare in The Park performances (i.e. in Central Park, under his New York Shakespeare Festival), who better to turn to for guidance? And so, the very first Shakespeare book I opened was Volume 1 of the Bantam Complete Works of William Shakespeare. I immediately turned to Mr. Papp’s “Foreword” for the whole set (reproduced below. (He also contributed “Forewords” to each Play!), I read these words—

“It’s hard to imagine, but Shakespeare wrote all his plays with a quill pen, a goose feather whose hard end had to be sharpened frequently. How many times did he scrape the dull end to a point with his knife, dip it into the inkwell, and bring up, dripping wet, those wonderful words and ideas that are known all over the world?,” as you can see below-

Bingo. I was immediately hooked, and 4 months later, remain so. Shakespeare has taken over my life. I found out the set in the store was incomplete, so I went home and bought a complete used 6-volume set online for $25. However, before I left the store that night, so I could get started right away, I opted for Helen Vendler’s The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which includes all of them, in a reproduction of the original publication accompanied by a version in a modern font, her commentary on each, and a CD of her reading most of them. I was especially taken with how she depicts their form visually. Faced with upwards of 20 shelves of books, I must have been guided by providence in choosing both of these as my starting points. 

“For though the camomile, The more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, Yet youth, the more it is wasted, The sooner it wears.” A scene in Shakespeare Garden with a quote from 1 Henry IV (II, 4).

After reading the first half of  the Sonnets, the Bantams arrived and I chose to begin the Plays with King Lear for no particular reason. It proved to be a most interesting choice- especially after the opening body of Sonnets. As you know, the first section of Sonnets harp over and over on the duty of a young and beautiful man to father children, a subject particularly hard for my older, childless, self to read, over and over, in the words of the man I already consider the greatest writer the language has ever produced.

Pregnant pause.

Then, King Lear is the story of an older man who is turned out by two of his three adult children! Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t, eh Shakespeare? Needless to say, my head was spinning after my first two Shakespeare experiences. What’s “the answer?” What is Shakespeare “telling us?”

“Heigh-ho! Sing, heigh-ho! Unto the green holly, Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. Then heigh-ho the holly! This life is most jolly.” A quote from As You Like It (II, 7)  in Shakespeare Garden.

One thing that’s already apparent to me from that bookcase, above, is that any number of the greatest minds of the past 400 years have written about and commented on Shakespeare. Tolstoy, Freud, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Van Doren, Isaac Asimov, Harold Bloom, Bertolt Brecht, and the aforementioned James Joyce among them, the list is endless and formidable. I’m not daring to throw my hat in that ring speaking on what Shakespeare is saying- especially only 4 months into exploring The Bard! As a result, after finishing each Play (Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet have followed), I’m taking 2 to 3 weeks to read commentary by some of these illustrious figures on the play just finished (I go into each Play cold. So far I’m choosing which one to read randomly. That may change to roughly chronologically as I get more info on dates when they may have been Written- there doesn’t seem to be a consensus.). I’m also waiting to watch any of the Films made of these Plays (most of which are incomplete, edited versions of the Play) until my own ideas on them have solidified.

DISCLAIMER- The subjects I touch on below remain contested. Therefore, I want to make it clear that I’m stating my opinions. 

A NighthawkNYC Art Book of the (1st Quarter of the) 21st Century. (The full list to come.) Though I answered a good many Shakespeare questions through my research, Stephen Greenblatt’s classic Will in the World, 2004, answered the rest, and those I hadn’t thought of. A spectacular achievement, if you read one book ON Shakespeare, this would be my recommendation. A New York Times Bestseller for 9 weeks, Professor Greenblatt is the general editor of The Norton Shakespeare, a Pulitzer Prize Winner, a National Book Award Winner for Nonfiction, and a Harvard Professor who has written 4 other books on Shakespeare.

In September, I decided to begin this quest by answering two questions (for myself)- First, WHO wrote Shakespeare? Second, when you consider his collected works total 835,996 words! Of these, 12,493 words occur only once, HOW did a man who was not permitted to go to college manage to write such knowing and diverse work, including so many words? I’ll make this short and just say, my research proved (to my satisfaction) that Shakespeare indeed wrote Shakespeare, and if you want specifics, I subsequently found them all wonderfully delineated in Pulitzer Prize & National Book Award Winner Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World. Even the title is startling; calling him “Will,” humanizes him and makes me feel like he’s someone I “know” already. Why do I care who wrote Shakespeare? Because I care who Painted The Starry Night, The Sistine Chapel, and on and on. There is autobiography to a lesser or greater extent in a good deal of, perhaps most of, the Art I’ve seen, and that becomes integral to looking at the work. IF we didn’t know who Painted the Mona Lisa don’t you think the #1 question people would have is not about her smile, but about who Painted it? Professor Greenblatt gets this.

“But the whole impulse to explore Shakespeare’s life arises from the powerful conviction that his plays and poems spring not only from other plays and poems but from things he knew firsthand, in his body and soul2.”

Through 419 absolutely riveting pages he goes on to make it perfectly plain that NO ONE else could have written Shakespeare (in my reading). Suffice it to say that though I became convinced of the answers to my first two questions elsewhere, Professor Greenblatt does a much more complete job of answering both.

HOW did the son of the failing glover make it into the theater? In the absence of any documentary traces, the principal evidence, pored over for clues by generations of ardent admirers, is the huge body of work that Shakespeare left behind, the plays and poems that spark the interest in the life in the first place and provide tantalizing hints of possible occupations he might have followed3.”

Along the way, I began to see that very intensive, focused, research may have been key for Shakespeare. I can relate to that in my own, tiny, way4. Having written 350 pieces here on about 300 Artists, many of which I was working on 3 or 4 at a time, I had to do my research, distill it, and move on to the next topic. Most of his Plays are based on the work of predecessors, and those sources are known, I wonder if Shakespeare did something somewhat similar. As an actor, he was already, no doubt, a quick study. 

“Shakespeare was a master of double consciousness. He was a man who spent his money on a coat of arms but who mocked the pretentiousness of such a claim; a man who invested in real estate but who ridiculed in Hamlet precisely such an entrepreneur as he himself was; a man who spent his life and his deepest energies on the theater but who laughed at the theater and regretted making himself a show.” 

Is this why there seem to be conflicting “messages” about having children between the Sonnets and King Lear? He continues…

“Though Shakespeare seems to have recycled every word he ever encountered, every person he ever met, every experience he ever had—it is difficult otherwise to explain the enormous richness of his work—he contrived at the same time to hide himself from view, to ward off vulnerability, to forswear intimacy5.”

Since The First Folio was compiled and edited by two Actors and friends of Shakespeare, John Heminges and Henry Condell, Martin Droeshout’s Portrait of William Shakespeare as it appears in it seven years after his death, is the most accepted representation of what Shakespeare looked like. On the facing page, Writer & Shakespeare associate, Ben Jonson writes that “the graver had a strife with nature to out do the life.” I’ve reproduced his full text, with his original spelling-

Ben Jonson
To the Reader

This Figure, that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut:
Wherein the Grauer had a strife
with Nature, to out-doo the life:
O, could he but haue drawne his wit
As well in brasse, as he hath hit
His face; the Print would then surpasse
All, that was euer writ in brasse.
But, since he cannot, Reader, looke
Not on his picture, but his Booke.

B.J.

Irony of ironies, something else then entered into my exploration of Shakespeare. Painting. “Just when I thought I was out…” Wait. That’s not from Shakespeare. (Is it?)

Having “settled” the above questions for myself, I was able to begin reading his work. Then, I got “stuck” on something I’d seen in the first few pages of TFF: Shakespeare’s Portrait, in an engraving done by one of  two Martin Droeshouts (There may have been two Martin Droeshouts in the same extended family, one, or both, of who may have been engravers). The consensus seems to be Martin Droeshout the Younger, 1601-c.1650, who was too young to have seen/known Shakespeare during his life.  Martin’s Portrait is, frankly, bizarre! The head too big for the body, and apparently disassociated from it, something’s wrong with his left eye (which might be his right eye since everything is usually reversed in an engraving), and on and on. Yet, on the facing page is the great Writer and Shakespeare associate, Ben Jonson’s, statement that “the graver had a strife with nature to out do the life,” meaning, I take it, that the Portrait looks better than Shakespeare did in real life, in his view. And that, along with the implied approval of two of his “fellows,” as Shakespeare refers to them in his will, John Hemminge (aka John Heminges) and Henry Condell who complied (“gather his works,” in their words), edited TFF and thereby approved the Portrait, are the most direct testimony there is on what Shakespeare looked like that we still have!

Attributed to John Taylor, William Shakespeare, aka the Chandos Portrait, Datę unknown. Seen in the National Portrait Gallery, London. *-Photo by City Guide London on Tumblr.

The second most accepted “Portrait” of Shakespeare is that on his funeral monument, since that, too, was overseen by those who knew him (though it has been altered over time). That attributed to John Taylor, above, is the 3rd and most accepted Painting. The very first work acquired by London’s National Portrait Gallery, they seem to have hedged their bet on it, saying their claim that it represents Shakespeare has “increased, but it’s not absolutely watertight. We may never find the clincher piece of evidence- though it may turn up6,” Dr. Tarnya Cooper of the NPG said.

The theory is that the Droeshout Portrait was based on a Painting. But, if it survives, which one? Over the centuries a number of candidates have been put forth. You know me. Unable to resist, I began looking at supposed Portraits of The Bard. I actually saw the Chandos Portrait on my last trip out of NYC overnight, when I went to London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2012. It hasn’t been cleaned since the NPG acquired in 1856, which makes it really hard to see, and some alteration has occured. The “white” of the collar has been worn down to just the undercoating for the whole Painting. It also features a possibly damaged, left eye. It has a beard, what appears to be curlier hair, and an earring- things that don’t appear in the Droeshout. It does, however, have the best provenance of the bunch of Paintings claiming to be “him.” But, as Dr. Cooper says, not enough to make it conclusively Shakespeare- or by John Taylor, for that matter. 

William Shakespeare lived from circa April 23, 1564 to April 23, 1616 and spent much of his adult life in London, a time when there were more than a few great Painters around. Having your portrait done was coming into fashion at this time, too. Being a man of enough success that he was both part owner of The Globe Theater and able to retire in his early 50s, it stands to reason that he would have had one done at some point, maybe more than one. Still, most of those we have are posthumous portrayals. Finding one rendered from life is the holy grail, and the reason why the search is so intense. It’s been postulated that these posthumous portrayals may have been done from Shakespeare’s death mask (which also apparently survives), or his skull (which was removed from his tomb, violating his curse, which itself may be the final thing he wrote, against “moving his bones,” and may also still be around).

The Wadlow Portrait, c.1590s, Oil on canvasas *-Photographer unknown.

A number of these Portraits, the Chandos, the Droeshout, share an interesting trait-  if we take their primary features, the eyes and mouth and superimpose them, which I did using photo editing software, they line up. That, itself is quite strange, but hard to ignore. I was taken by one of the newest entries to the “Shakespeare” Portrait field, a Painting that’s come to be known as “The Wadlow Portrait,” after its owner, Stephen Wadlow, a self-employed window washer who inherited the Painting from his father, Peter. It hung over the family TV until an OMG moment watching a Shakespeare doc made the family wonder IF it might be HIM. Stephen has spent the past decade researching it and the results have been increasingly encouraging. Though I can’t imagine the drain of time and resources involved in such a quest, it seems that he’s been getting positive feedback from the tests the piece has undergone and his research. Looking over the documentation on his website, it doesn’t seem the time to stop looking for an answer is now.

So as to not make a very long piece longer, I will let Simon Andrew Stirling neatly sum up the stories on ALL of the major purported Shakespeare Portraits in this fascinating piece he wrote for Goldsmiths University, which completes the path I have been going down in what is compelling fashion, in my view- thus far.

Answering the “What did Shakespeare look like?” question is not going to be as “easy” as answering the “Who wrote Shakespeare?” question. At least for me! Ben Jonson neatly summed up the real point of all this 400 years ago in his “To the Reader” piece, above-

“Reader, looke not on his picture, but his Booke.”

And so, onward to Macbeth.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “I Contain Multitudes,” (a Walt Whitman quote) by Bob Dylan from Rough and Rowdy Ways, 2020.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 1/2 years, during which over 340 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate securely by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

  1. Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World, P.193
  2. Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World, P. 119
  3. Stephen Greenblatt, ibid, P.71
  4. PLEASE don’t read that as my comparing myself to Shakespeare. (I laughed typing that.)
  5. Stephen Greenblatt, ibid, P.185
  6. Here.

HELP KEEP THIS SITE ALIVE!

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

“I never seen you lookin’ so bad, my funky one
You tell me that your super fine mind has come undone”*

I’m sorry to announce that I’ve reached the point where I can no longer continue to create pieces for NighthawkNYC.com. Frankly, I just can’t afford to continue. The costs of this site these past 9 1/2 years has been over $200,000.00 while income has totaled less than $1 thousand dollars. In 2021, I came close to bankruptcy, and began selling off my personal belongings to keep going. Now, I’m forced to focus on survival full-time. I announced this on Instagram in late September. I delayed announcing it formally here, taking a minute to let the dust settle after a very hard year of one ailment after another (though I managed to keep writing), thinking I might feel differently. Three months later, I don’t.

Jenny Holzer, In A Dream…, Print on wood.  My thanks to Jenny Holzer.

For some reason, readership doubled after the Instagram announcement. I have no idea why. I must apologize to all those who’ve written for not replying. I simply haven’t had time, and frankly, I don’t know what else to say. I’ll respond to the #1 question I’ve been asked now- It is my intention and my hope that NighthawkNYC.com survives me. After all, it represents almost a decade of continual hard work. I have no idea how that will be possible right now. I believe, I hope, and, judging by the mail, it seems that there are at least some others who feel it has lasting value. When I have time, I will be retiring some of the pieces here in an effort to keep bandwidth down. Still, SUPPORT IS NEEDED to keep the site up.

Word. My thanks to @7soulsdeep.

I’m proud that since July 15, 2015, through thick and thin, I have kept this site free AND ad- free! PLEASE DONATE IF THIS SITE HAS BEEN OF VALUE TO YOU-

Securely Donate by PayPal here-

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Other Ways To Help-

-If you’re an Artist I’ve written about, please consider helping by sharing links to my pieces (that is, IF you approve of what I’ve done- If you don’t, let me know).
-Ditto galleries, and museums.
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-And, I’m still selling off my collections to keep going. The links are at the bottom of each piece. My Thanks in advance.

“O, had I but followed the arts!” Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, 1.3.93.

The bottom line is this- In spite of the fact that the Art world has never been bigger, with more and more Artists clamoring for attention, and more Art begging to be seen than ever before, there remains NO support for independent Art writing to help spread the word about it. That’s a bit self-defeating, no?

So, after 9 12 years, and 350 pieces, the time has come for me to move my efforts from supporting others to supporting myself.

“Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? Well, look at mine
The people on the street have all seen better times”*

As always, whether you’ve read one, or all of them, Thank You for reading my pieces.

Have a great night.
Peace,
Kenn. [Exit, pursued by a bear.]

“Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you, my friend
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When the demon is at your door
In the morning it won’t be there no more
Any major dude will tell you
Any major dude will tell you”*

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Any Major Dude,” by Donald Fagen & Walter Becker of Steely Dan from their classic album Pretzel Logic, 1974.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 1/2 years, during which 350 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

Es Devlin Rides the Wild Horses

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited).

Show Seen: An Atlas of Es Devlin @ the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum of Design

The one and only Es Devlin in the one and only time she appears in her show, in her piece Memory Place. (her hands appear a few times elsewhere). Displayed in the show’s entrance lobby where visitors wait for the next showing of her 4-minute intro video which takes place in a fascinating recreation of her studio. The pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

Having first experienced Es Devlin’s brilliance in 2010, the release of her debut Art , An Atlas of Es Devlin, the NighthawkNYC.com NoteWorthy Art Book of the Year for 2024, fired my curiosity as to what the show of the same name would be like. How would Es Devlin and the curators at the Cooper Hewitt distill the innumerable projects Ms. Devlin has been involved in these past 29 years already, and the book’s 900 pages, into a comprehensive and concise show, a “mid-career” retrospective, no less?

The show is so innovative, the attention to detail so exceptional, that even the shipping crates that transported the Art have their place in it! One of many things in An Atlas I’ve never seen before. I explain further on. Seen here are the labels on a crate that contained 2 models.

Opening in November, 2023, I pondered this all through 2024 as various ailments kept me from getting to 2 East 91st Street, and finding out. Stage Design is one of the most ephemeral Art forms there is. The book is divided between Sketches and notes, followed by a large section of color Photos of the performances. Building my expectations around that, finally getting to see the show twice during it’s final week, I got the unexpected: a show that largely consisted of beautiful scale Models of the stage sets, most created for exhibition! (Two were contained in the shipping crate shown here.) Well, if anything has proven to be the trademark of Es Devlin’s work, it’s the unexpected, which continues to remind me of Robert Rauschenberg.

Hang on to your hats! Installation view of the introductory gallery in the recreation of her studio before the Film begins. I rushed in to get this shot before it was filled up by those in line behind me. Beware, those seemingly innocent items on the table are not what they seem. Neither is that back wall.

Filling  the entirety of the 3rd floor, arriving visitors are asked to wait for the next showing of a 4-minute Introductory Film, which takes place in a gallery designed as a recreation of her studio, with a large work table in the middle, filled with the tools of her craft.

As the Artist speaks and Draws in the Video projected on the rear wall, the objects on the table undergo all sorts of permutations.

As visitors surround it and begin to take it all in, the Film begins. Compellingly narrated by the Artist in powerfully evocative words in Ms. Devlin’s hypnotic voice, accompanied by stunning visuals that somehow bring items lying on the table to life, the Artist takes us on a tour of her ideas and her work.

One section of the recreation of Es Devlin’s studio with the lights low during the Introductory Film. Full of ideas, some realized, some partially realized, some not realized yet, I imagined this room to be something akin to walking around in her brain.

On three of the walls surrounding the table were a cornucopia of fascinating objects I could have spent a few hours studying on their own. A bit like Sarah Sze’s incredibly involved installations, a lot of work went into their installation.

The Film ends with a bang.

At the culmination of the presentation, the Artist’s hands split the screen in half, opening the back wall, revealing her piece, Iris, beckoning visitors to enter the beginning of the main body of the show. Talk about a dramatic opening. Stage craft meets Art show in a way I can’t say I’ve experienced before. But, I bet I will again. I have no doubt An Atlas was must-see viewing for innumerable curators and gallerists.

The second “introductory gallery” features Es’s Iris.

Working with “names’ virtually her entire career, the first stop is her Iris with a voice over of Es reciting the names of her collaborators. A nice “Thank You” for the opportunities and sharing the credit for the results of this most collaborative of mediums. Iris, with multiple aperture blades, contains the names of the Artist collaborators on the outer blades, and all those involved with creating and mounting her projects fill the inner blades, a list that fills the first 9 pages in her book! It introduces what is a running theme in the show: collaboration, as you might expect for an Artist whose craft is Stage Design, like a bass player, something that doesn’t exist on its own (unless you’re a genius, like my late acquaintance, Jaco Pastorius). Still, it’s definitely her show. Her voice and vision runs through each and every work. Still, as any creative person who’s been hired by someone knows, working with someone else “who has a say” is often extremely challenging; perhaps the hardest part of the job. More than likely the Artist got the job for being who he or she is. For someone else to come in and suddenly want to change/modify that vision can be both counterproductive and counterintuitive. Not every Artist can do it.  The “dynamics” of creative collaboration is why most bands have the shelf life of milk. Yet, though it must have been there, in An Atlas there is no sign of creative struggle or difficulty. Making this all the more impressive, the list of her projects takes 4 pages in the book (as I showed here)! Either her brilliance is just a matter of fact for all her bosses, or she has an extremely winning way, as belied by her hypnotic voice. My money’s on both.

Installation view of the first gallery of work, with the earliest pieces at the far end. If you look closely you’ll notice mirrors at each end of the wall. In what might have been an effort to make the show feel larger, all the galleries had wall-sized mirrors on each end.

After leaving Iris, next up is the gallery of her fascinating early works, largely Drawings and Mixed Media works on paper, i.e. pen, markers, paint on paper Portrait and figure studies, like countless other Art students. I had to look closer to find the roots of her Stage Design work. In between the large studies, I saw sketchbooks, notebooks and loose sheets that contained outlines and ideas for stage productions, none of which are listed in her book.

On the very bottom of the far end of the wall, just above the power outlets, and so difficult to see, I spotted these notebook pages, the one at the lower right reads “Madam Butterfly,” perhaps one of the earliest Stage Designs in the show (the book in the upper left is dated October, 1994). Note that Es has Drawn the entire thing, boldly and confidently, in ink with no white-out or corrections. That speaks to the clarity of her vision, even early on. Immediately above it is a costume design. Note the inclusion of the pencil. I just love that her work was so centered on Drawing and hand-written notes, and continues to be. I don’t see Madam Butterfly listed in her book.

From this gallery, what are we to make of her beginnings? Where did all of what has followed come from? Between visits, I researched her background. Her CV on esdevlin.com, lists her Education, chronologically, as-

-Cranbrook School, 1984-1989 (a “co-ed grammar school1)
-BA Hans English Literature 2.1, Bristol University, 1990-1993
-Fine Art Foundation, Central Saint Martins, UAL, 1994-1995
-Motley Stage Design Course, 1995-1996

That’s it! After taking Art-centric courses for scarcely two years, then she just takes off. In only the second gallery of work, at the beginning of her professional career, the ideas are fresh, innovative & previously unseen- qualities that characterize her work to this day. Still in school(!), she’s already on her way. In the first vitrine, I was struck by her work with Wire, a 4-piece rock band, in 2003. Zillions of 4-piece bands, including a few with yours truly involved, have appeared on stage since The Beatles set a standard for what such a lineup “should” look like. “I didn’t know much, but I was bored of seeing the typical silhouette of a band,” she said on the wall card (where all Es Devlin quotes herein derive).

And so, Wire appeared like this-

Studies: Flag: Burning, for the band Wire’s Farewell Performance, 2003, Barbican Hall, London. Es Devlin’s first stage design for a concert. She made “illustrated cue sheets from which they ran the lights and the videos.” She spoke about not having enough money to afford velcro to enclose the band, so she had to use staples.

11 years later, another 4-piece band looked like this-

No staples here! U2, “Innocence & Experience” World Tour, 2014. *= Photo from esdevlin.com.

Wire would lead to such extraordinarily innovative shows as “Innocence & Experience,” 2014, and the subsequent “Experience & Innocence,” 2018, both by U2, who also includes 4 members. I believe this performance of “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” is from the “Experience & Innocence” tour. I saw U2 on what I believe was their first U.S. tour at the Ritz in 1980. Bono still sounds as strong as ever. To my mind, Wire, 2003, to U2 a decade later provides a classic case study in Es Devlin’s evolution.

Model, Bangerz, 3-D printed resin, recreated for exhibition. Staged, 2014, Miley Cyrus’s Bangerz World Arena Tour. Models of Ms. Devlin’s designs were the highlight of the show for me. Here, her face is a video projection from above that continually changed. To the side, a huge model of her beloved dog was also on stage. “We decided the Miley Cyrus should perform the entire show on her tongue. The first iteration was impractical, so we reduced the length of the tongue to a slide, down which Miley made her entrance- a sculptural portrait of a young woman rewriting her own script.”

Moving through the show, it became apparent to me that though elements recur, as. you see, Es Devlin has no one “style.” Since her words appear on virtually every wall card. Who else to speak better about her work? I’ll largely let her take it from here.

Model, The Lehman Trilogy, Painted MDF, acrylic, yardstick, 3-D printed resin, brass, and LED, recreated for exhibition, Staged in 2018 at the Royal National Theater, London, and the Park Avenue Armory, NYC. Es Devlin’s Tony Award-winning, rotating, design for Stefano Massini’s play The Lehman Trilogy, based on the family of businessmen. All the Models shown here with a center pole rotated. “A revolving glass box propels the action of The Lehman Trilogy, a parable that follows three generations of the Lehman family to chart the rise and periodic crashes of capitalism. Cardboard bankers boxes formed the foundations of the visual vocabulary. The more we invested the boxes with meaning, the more poignant the revelation became that those containers of cotton and coffee would become containers of financial records and numbers, ultimately revealing themselves to contain nothing at all.”

Model, Parsifal, Laser-cut form, resin and paint, recreated for exhibition. Staged in 2012 at the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen. “Richard Wagner conceived his final work as a ritual mass for the consecration of a stage. Over four hours of largely static drama, the audience transcends time and space through a rite of compassion. The director Keith Warner and I conceived an enormous revolving rook chess piece whose conical interior formed a new theater within Copenhagen’s opera house. We presented Parsifal’s odyssey from naivety to wisdom as a resistance to the rules of an antiquated game.”

As her career has progressed, a good number of her works have an “otherworldly” feel to them. Figures are frequently enclosed, in a maze, or presented in surroundings that are hard to fathom, often with no apparent way out.

Model, Howie The Rookie, Graphite and paint on laser-cut MDF and LED, recreated for exhibition, Staged 1999, Bush Theater, London, UK. “My first stab designs were experiments in framing light. The Bush Theatre was a room above a West London pub with an audience of 75 people. Mark O’Rowe’s play Howie the Rookie is a pair of potent, visceral monologues set in the housing estates of Tallaght on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. I perforated a concrete plane with a line of light. This line conveyed both a burning horizon and a road making on a highway.”

Model, Macbeth, Graphite and paint on laser-cut MDF, acrylic mirror and LED, recreated for exhibition, Staged 2003, Theater an her Wien, Vienna. “The design for Ernest Block’s opera of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth was based on a revolving mirrored illusion box. It’s rotations evoked Macbeth’s churning conscience. We conjured scenes through smoke and mirrors. A half-bed wedged against a mirror appeared as a single whole, while Macbeth and his wife were duplicated. The illusion of a whole banquet full of guests overlaid their machinations as the box turned.”

Installation view of one of the corridors. It’s not as long as it looks. Note the overhead video projectors.

Model, Atlas, 3D-printed resin and LED, recreated for exhibition. Staged 2019, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA. Meredith Monk’s transcendent wordless opera, Atlas, charts the spiritual growth of the 19th-century explorer Alexandra David-Néel. The young girl encounters travel companions and spirit guides within a 12-meter-diameter sphere, scored with webs of international trade and travel routes. The form encompasses Monk’s radiant vision of a possible alternative to the current world order.”

Model, La Caja Mágica/The Seed, Graphite and paint on laser-cut MDF, nd LED, recreated for exhibition. Staged 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards, La Caja Mágica Arena, Madrid, and 2020, Jubail Mangrove Park, Abu Dhabi. “For the MTV Europe Music Awards, I imagined a 10-meter high revolving box that could reveal a shapeshifting series of performances. (Among others) Rhianna sang within a sea of red carnations pouring out of an iris (see next pic).”

Model, Fundamental, MDF, acrylic, acetate, and LED, recreated for exhibition. Staged for the Pet Sop Boys World Tour, 2006-7. Es says, “Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s album Fundamental critiqued Tony Blair, George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and immigration policy. For the tour, an X-ray image of a divided brain expressed the cognitive dissonance we felt as our country remained entangled in a ware we didn’t want. The show was performed outside the Tower of London, complete with projected pink tanks for the anti-war extravaganza ‘The Sodom and Gomorrah Show’ and giant sequined cowboy hats for the Bush/Blair pantomime “I’m with Stupid.” 

Model, Your Voices, Acrylic, filament, nylon thread, and LED, recreated for exhibition. Installed in the fountain at Lincoln Center, NYC, in 2022, Es says of it, “New York is the most linguistically diverse city on the planet, with 637 languages spoken by its inhabitants. Your Voices celebrated this diversity. Like a giant harp, the sculpture’s glowing arcs enveloped visitors and local choirs with an illuminated web. The piece rotated through a soundscape of languages from all over the city: from Arabic to Ashanti to Zapotec and Zulu. The strands spliced and framed the viewer’s perspectives, just as our perspectives are shifted when we learn to speak through the voices of others.”

Installation view.

Model, Compton Super Bowl, Laser-cut MDF, acrylic, 3D-printed resin, and LED, recreated for exhibition. Staged for the 2022 NFL Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring Dr. Dre, Kenrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, and 50 Cent, Los Angeles, CA. “Dr. Dre and I proposed etching a map of the city of Compton onto the global Super Bowl stage. We case the buildings as charcters that led from Snoop Dogg’s house to 50 Cent in the club to Eminem breaking out of jail.”

Model: Come Home Again, 2022, Acrylic and printed resin. “For Come Home Again, I constructed a one-third-scale replica of the dome of London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral on the lawn outside Tate Modern, facing the cathedral across the river. I filled dome with observational drawings of 243 of the 15,000 non-human species that call London home; the Londoners most at risk of extinction. ”All of the 243 animals depicted were based on Es Devlin Drawings.

Es Devlin in front of  the real Come Home Again, Tate Modern, London, 2022 *- Photo by Matt Alexander

The shipping crates for the Art, teased earlier, filled a gallery where a video screen was mounted in a stage set, providing seats for the visitors, with more all around me as I took this, and, cutting down on the need for space to store them! Something I’ve never seen before, it’s a  touch that shows the depth of the imagination and attention to detail that went into An Atlas at the Cooper Hewitt.

As if all the thought, planning and work that went into mounting An Atlas wasn’t enough, there is the incredibly innovative 900-page(!) book that accompanies it! So far, it’s the only Art book I’ve named a NoteWorthy Art Book for 2024, and that was before I saw the show. Here, in the show’s final gallery, another recreation of her studio, visitors get a look at the making of it, including the original book dummy (off-camera, in a vitrine to my left). This time, visitors were free to handle the items on the table, which were reproductions of the original work materials…right?

An Atlas, the show, reveals, that as her fame and notoriety grows,  so too are the opportunities for the Artist to step out and present her own work, without an overriding “boss,” as she has in major works like Come Home Again, and Your Voices, both 2022, and, of course, in An Atlas of Es Devlin, the book & show. Her own work shows the Artist bringing “big questions” to the forefront- including species near extinction (in Come Home Again, and in her piece Nevada Ark for U2’s The Sphere shows in 2023),

That Es Devlin’s work, and practice, is deeply rooted in traditional Art-making techniques, like Drawing and Sculpture, is a continual touchstone in both the show and the book. She uses them to produce work that lives on, and continually pushes, the cutting-edge of Stage Design and Production. I find this both fascinating and inspiring. On one hand, her example shows what is still possible by just putting pen or pencil to paper; that a master’s or doctorate degree are not prerequisites for achieving a very successful career, or greatness, in one’s chosen field in the Arts. On the other, it also reaffirms over and over again the power of one person’s creative vision. In her chosen field, her work strikes me as being downright unprecedented. In the larger world of Art, Es Devlin’s vision is at once as personal and as expansive as almost anyone else’s working today.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,” by U2 from Achtung Baby, 1991.

My look at the 900-page An Atlas of Es Devlin, the NighthawkNYC.com NoteWorthy Art Book of 2024, published to accompany the show, is here

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

Thank you, SV.

  1. Their site describes the school as “a co-educational grammar school in the heart of the glorious Wealden countryside.”

So, You Want To Work At An Art Gallery…

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited).

Summer in the City is a time for Fresh Air Kids, scrambling to stay cool, making sure to put on that sunscreen and water, water, water. 

Notice that none of those are particularly Art-related. 

That’s because most of the galleries are on short schedules, closed on Saturdays, or maybe the entire month of August, and the museums are gearing up for their new fall seasons. As a result, it was easy to miss a sleeper show up at David Zwirner’s 19th Street location- After Hours, mounted just east of the construction going on in their western gallery, which they apparently figured summer was a good time to get done. I’m glad I didn’t sleep on it. It’s a show of Art by the staff of David Zwirner’s galleries around the world. Very handsomely installed, it’s easy on the eyes and a number of pieces linger in the mind. “Easy” and “linger”…two words that go nicely with summer. 

T. Dylan Moore, Self-Portrait, 2024, Casein on paper. Jasper Johns, has used this seemingly difficult medium to work with medium extensively, making me sit up and take notice of its possibilities- as T. Dylan Moore’s Self-Portrait does here (shot at an angle to minimize glare). Seen in After Hours, July 17, 2024. Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

I can hear some readers saying, “Man, it must be slow in NYC if he’s writing about a show by gallery staff members.” In reply I would remind readers that I first met Caslon Bevington in 2017 while she was working at David Zwirner. I have subsequently written about two of her solo shows.

Chase Barnes, Stateless Revision 1, Machine Vision, 2023, Multi-channel video installation on dual NEC monitors. Seen in  After Hours, July 18, 2024.

The big takeaway from After Hours for me is that there are A LOT of talented folks working for David Zwirner. This is not the first rodeo for any number of them. Chase Barnes, for example, already has a PhotoBook published by Jason Koxvold’s renowned Gnomic Book. It shows me the track to working at a major gallery is F A S T. Being an Artist looks good on a resume for a gallery gig, and having shown or been published travels well by repute. It’s also got to be a real asset for said Art dealer to have such people on their staff in innumerable ways. 

Lauren Ferrara, Absence, 2020, Found wood, recycled fabric, recycled paper, and recycled plastic bags, seen at After Hours, July 17, 2024.

In my experience, most people don’t give a second thought to staff members they encounter at an Art gallery. To work in a New York Gallery is an achievement in itself. A lot of people are drawn by the beauty and glamour of working with Art & Artists. That means there’s a lot of competition for these jobs. It serves to reason that an Artist seeking such employment would have an edge all other things being equal. And maybe that’s why the quality in After Hours was so high.

I was impressed with After Hours to the point that I saw it 4 times.The last two visits were because of  Oji Haynes. 

Kris Graves, the mastermind behind LOST IV taking a group portrait of 7 of the 10 Artist/Authors included in the set. From left, Oji Haynes, Richard Renaldi, Melody Melamed, Peter Baker, Tracy Dong, Melissa Alcena and Yoav Horesh. Seen at the LOST IV Book Release, Printed Matter, July 11, 2024.

I met Mr. Haynes at the Kris Graves Project’s 10-volume  LOST IV book release at Printed Matter. So taken with his PhotoBook, Anthem, was I that I took the bold step (for me) of walking over and telling him. We proceeded to have a remarkable conversation during which we discovered a shared passion for Art book collecting, with any number of overlapping Artists, from Robert Rauschenberg to Gordon Parks and Jeff Wall. He also revealed it was his first PhotoBook, consisting of an overview of his Photography to date,  and he had been reluctant to do it. Luckily, Kris Graves managed to convince him that now was indeed the time and the results are one of the strongest books (in my view) in the set. No mean feat in fast company. 

A spread from Anthem. Mr. Haynes told me he had originally envisioned the right-hand Photo as the cover. *- Kris Graves Projects Photo.

Then, he told me he had moved on in his practice and was now creating Sculptural pieces, and one of them was included in After Hours! Ahhh…he, too, is a David Zwirner staffer. I went back to the show on a mission.

Oji Haynes, Scriptures, 2024, String lights, cement, inkjet photo, diamond dust, and mixed media on fabric couch. Seen in  After Hours, July 17, 2024.

Tucked nicely into a corner at the far end of a large gallery, his piece, Scriptures, 2024, couldn’t be more different, yet similar, to his Photography. His book consists of intimate moments, most, but not all, including people- singly, in paris or small groups. Scriptures is intimate, as well, in a different way. Though I continue to ponder it, I had a few initial reactions. 

Left side showing the text, “LISTEN TO WHAT”

Right side showing the text, “GOD HAS TO SAY.”

First, it struck me as a collection of things people might find buried if they took apart a couch they’d had for a long time. Things that might fall out if you lifted it up from one end. Second, it gave me a feeling somewhat reminiscent to looking at Kerry James Marshall’s Souvenir II, a work that memorializes memories.

Kerry James Marshall, Souvenir II, 1997, Acrylic, collage, and glitter on unstreteched canvas banner. *-Renaissance Society Photo.

Then, I thought I’d love to see it hung between Mr. Marshall’s piece and Robert Rauschenberg’s revolutionary Bed. Rauschenberg mounted a bed on a wall. Mr. Haynes has mounted a couch on the two walls of a corner.

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed, 1955, Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports. The first work to take a piece of everyday household furniture and reenvision it. Of this work, Sarah Sze said, “That kind of intimacy is very specific to Rauschenberg. A willingness to be tender, to be intimate, to share a kind of a very interior urgency. An urgency to share a kind of interior self publicly1.” Her words resonated with me while seeing Scriptures. Seen at MoMA during Robert Rauschenberg Among Friends, August 5, 2017.

Or, next to them in chronological sequence. While Mr. Marshall’s piece may be seen as primarily a memorial to MLK, JFK and RFK and slain Civil Rights workers, the intimacy is heightened by the fact that it, and Mr. Marshall’s similar Souvenirs Series, take place in living rooms, where (no doubt) carefully chosen items abound, including couches. It’s that feeling and those items I thought of when seeing Mr. Haynes’s Scriptures. All three works are filled with the touchstones of a life, or the lives of an immediate few. In Oji Haynes’s case, the “meaning” is up to the viewer. I see a number of dreams in a self-enclosed space, though your results may differ. 

Oji Haynes holding a copy of his first PhotoBook, Anthem, at the LOST IV Book Release, Printed Matter, July 11.2024.

The definitions of “scriptures’ in the American Heritage Dictionary are- “1. A sacred writing or book. 2- A passage from such a writing or book. 3- The writings collected as the Bible.” Taking those as a point of context, tilts things to the “sacred,” and what’s sacred for whosever items these are. In one sense, it’s a time capsule of hopes, dreams, achievements, memories, simultaneously revealing the passage of time. Auspicious, indeed. Mr. Haynes was not on hand when I went back to After Hours. He told me he had to go install work in a show in San Francisco.

With work like Scriptures hot on the heels of a just-released auspicious first PhotoBook Anthem, Oji Haynes has already reached another new plateau. I’ll be among those watching with interest where he, and his Art, goes next. 

So, Beware: That Art gallery staff member you see or speak to on your next visit may well be an Artist whose work you’ll be going to see one day soon. It’s happened to me. More than once.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Summer in the City” by John Sebastian and Lovin’ Spoonful from 1966. This vintage video could have been shot here this week-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

Stepping Into “Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks”

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

The numeric convergence begins. August 28, 2013, eleven years ago next month- – The last time I stood in front of the real thing- Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, at Hopper Drawings at the old Whitney Museum. A moment later, a friend snapped a picture of me standing next to it. Would I ever get closer to it? Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

The Edward Hopper/NighthawkNYC Convergence, 1-

July 15, 2015, nine years ago this month, in my very first piece, “Welcome to the Night,” I mentioned I’ve always related to that figure sitting by himself with his back to the viewer in Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942. The one that no one ever talks about. Why is he even in the Painting?  Well, he’s really only half in it; his left side completely blends into the black background. So, what’s his deal? Did his date go bad? Is he worried about the recent outbreak of World War II? Is he waiting for the lady in red to lose her guy? (The couple are likely Edward & Jo Hopper stand-ins.1).  Well, he’s there and I’m glad he is. He’s also a witness to everything going on inside, close enough to the other subjects to hear their conversations. In Nighthawks, he has THE ideal seat to see and hear everything that’s really going on, that the rest of us can only imagine.

I’ve been that guy too many times to count, out on my own late at night in Hopper’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. I relate to that “witness” aspect of him, too. After all, isn’t that what I’m doing here; being a witness to the Art, Photography, Music  books I’ve experienced?. So, I named this site NighthawkNYC after him. Hopper’s Painting is titled “Nighthawks.”

But, what would it be like to be him?

Triple self-portrait, August 28, 2013. “That shape is my shade, there where I used to stand,” as I quoted Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues” in my very first piece, “Welcome to the Night,” on July 15, 2015.

Convergence 2-

On July 29, 2019, five years ago this week, I published “My Search For Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks Diner,” chronicling my decades-long quest to find the iconic eatery/drinkery. It’s turned out to be my most popular piece thus far.

This past Sunday, July 21st, I finally found it!

It happened to be on a triangular corner- Check.
It happened to be in the West Village, not all that far from 3 Washington Square, where Edward & Jo Hopper lived for half a century- both key criteria the real deal has to fit- Check.
But, it was not where I’d looked for it as I wrote in the piece. It was out in the open! Without a roof!?

I let that slide. After all, in the Painting we really can’t see the ceiling, just the light coming down, and it’s a one-story building shown at night. Maybe there was no roof? Imagine that. “Maybe. Maybe not,” I hear you saying.

The famous “Only 5c Phillies America’s No. 1 Cigar” sign was up top- Check.
The outside was painted in that familiar green- Check.

Everything looked like it was supposed to. Am I dreaming? Then, a nice gent named Nilo beckoned me inside!

As I approached the counter, about to take “my”place- the only seat I was interested in taking,  all the details long engrained in my memory were right in front of me.

It was empty. Wow. Perfect! I could look around and drink it all in without feeling self-conscious. Wait!…AM I conscious? A coffee will wake me up. I’m in the right place.

Living a dream…Kenn Sava, left, Lucas, right. July 21, 2024, Meatpacking District, NYC. Photo by Nilo for NighthawkNYC.com.

I could take the seat of my alter ego in peace, without that pesky couple, she in the flame-red dress, with her male companion, who for the past 82 years have gotten all the attention, in the room. I was free to finally chat with the counterman. His name was Lucas and I told him how long I’ve been looking for the place- and even wrote about just that, the nice weather, what else was going on this weekend. You know, small talk; the kind of stuff strangers talk about when they’re suddenly thrust together. But, we weren’t total strangers in the classic sense. We both knew why we were here. As he went back and forth to his duties, I just kept looking around, drinking it all in. Wow. I’m sitting inside of Nighthawks!

There’s the famous two large coffee urns.
There’s the yellow wall with that mysterious door.
The bar was the familiar brown.
The classic white ceramic coffee cups, glass salt & peppers, and napkin dispensers were all around giving me a feeling of familiarity and “home.” I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been looking at them for so long in Painted form.

So real, you could reach out and touch them. Of course, I did…

And, I got to experience it from THE seat, to see what “he” saw and ponder him anew. Maybe “he” was me in a prior life. If so, how many people have gotten to relive a moment from a prior life?

This MUST be the place! FINALLY! I can’t wait to rush home and tell readers I found it! What a scoop!

A close call with a bike running a Walk sign on the walk home snapped me out of it and back to reality. As I reviewed my pictures to make sure my phone was OK, it turns out I had come upon something called “Step Into Hopper. 

Convergence 3-

After nine years of “riffing” on Nighthawks in my Banner, it finally came to life! The Whitney Museum & the Meatpacking District got together to mount “Step Into Hopper,” along with fabrication by Theresa Rivera Design and an exceptional, welcoming, staff, to “recreate” Nighthawks, 1942, Early Sunday Morning, 1930, and his eternally mysterious Soir Bleu, 1914within one mile or so of the original sites of two of them2.

“Early Sunday Morning,” a take-off on Hopper’s 1930 timeless masterpiece of a street in my neighborhood, a few blocks away, on Seventh Avenue between West 15th & 16th Streets. Notice the shadow from the barber pole goes the “wrong way,” as it does in the Painting. People who live there know the sun never shines in that direction on 7th & 15/16th!

Convergence 4-

It truly was a moment frozen in time. Something out of a dream… I ended “My Search For Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks Diner”  with a quote from the song I chose as the Soundtrack for the piece, “I Saw You In A Dream” by Japanese House….

“I saw you in a dream
You had stayed the same
You were beckoning me
Said that I had changed”

How prescient.

Before I “changed.” Take away the side addition, and the former Rivera Cafe on 7th Avenue was my “Oh my gosh!” moment, as I wrote in “My Search…” Seen on July 23, 2018- convegently, six years ago this week.

In reading the mail that continues to come in on the piece, it seems that many people share my dream of unexpectedly coming across the Nighthawks Diner and having an “Oh my gosh!” moment of discovery.

Kenn Sava “inside” “Soir Bleu” (the Painting seen on the sandwich sign above) with the wonderful Tillie the Clown proving every bit as mysterious and stunning as the figure in the 1914 Painting done in Paris. Photo by Gregory for NighthawkNYC.com

A lot of folks seem to want to step inside, sit down at the counter for a bit, and just live in the Painting; experience it from the inside  even for a few moments. As if that might help solve its mystery…On Sunday, I came as close as I’m likely going to to having my “Nighthawks” moment.

A few moments after the Photo of me and Lucas inside “Nighthawks” was taken, I looked around for him and couldn’t find him. Lucas disappeared.

Of course he did.

Convergence 142-

Today, as I write this on July 22nd is Edward Hopper’s 142nd Birthday. Happy Birthday, big guy (Hopper was 6’5″). Thanks for saving me a seat in Art heaven. A short visit is probably the best I can hope for.

*- As it was for “Welcome to the Night” 9 years ago, the Soundtrack for this piece is  “Deacon Blues,” by Steely Dan (my “Forgotten Songs I Will Love Forever #2″, which remains the Anthem of NighthawkNYC.com, from their immortal album Aja, 1977. (I have no idea why the guy who made tihis video shows their album Gaucho. Ignore that- it’s Track 3 on Aja.)

“Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations, sensations
That stagger the mind.”

If the Nighthawks Diner had a jukebox, I like to think “Deacon Blues” would be on it.

Undying thanks to Kevin Callahan for the tip, the iconic Lucas for the coffee & the convo, Tillie the Clown for the Tillie Experience, Milo, Wendy, Alisa and Gregory for the Photos, their consideration and kindness in creating an experience I’ll never forget. A tip of the Fedora to the Meatpacking District, the Whitney Museum & Theresa Rivera Design for mounting Step Into Hopper. Push by Lana Hattan (9 years of NighthawkNYC.com– it’s ALL her fault!)

Be sure to see my 3-part series on the 2022-23 blockbuster Edward Hopper’s New York which begins here.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

  1. Cone to think of it, why are both guys wearing their Fedoras inside? Preparing for quick exits?
  2. The original site of Nighthawks remains up for discussion, as I wrote about, but most likely was inspired by locations in the nearby West Village.

NighthawkNYC.com is 9!

By Kenn Sava.

I know I’ve said this on previous anniversaries after rough years, but there were times this past year I never thought I’d get NighthawkNYC to its 9th Birthday, July 15th, 2024. The most recent in a year of ailments and illnesses was not being able to see in the intermediate distance, which includes my computer screen, for almost six weeks, while having a torn ligament in my foot which has had me using a cane, severely limiting what I could do, while frantically trying to avoid surgery. But? Seven pairs of glasses, and 4 Podiatrists later, here we are!

On the other hand, I somehow managed to publish THIRTY-TWO full-length pieces in Year 9. Better than one every two weeks. And, I was a Finalist for the 2023 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Award.

It all reminds me of what a lot of Artists go through. It’s not easy doing anything creative, and I hear a lot of stories of the travails involved in trying to get your work shown or seen. I admire anyone who is in there trying. It’s not all that different from doing something like this. There are the big media outlets, the “established” Art writers, and everyone else has to work extra hard to be heard. I try to ignore the “realities” involved in writing about Art, and keep focusing on the Art, but they eventually catch up with me. They haven’t sunk me yet!

Still, I’m lucky to still be here. I’m lucky that more and more people continue to find NighthawkNYC.com each and every year. I’m lucky to have so many friends I’ve never met who drop me a line, or who have followed my pieces going all the way back to July, 2015. And I’m very lucky to have the support of Artists I admire. 

It seems to me that doing anything creative, or doing something like this, has to be done without the overriding expectation (or need) of making money doing it. Making money from it was not my intention going in to starting NHNYC, and it only became a factor when I came close to going broke. My solution is to sell off my personal collection of books, music and Art (as you see in the postscript to each piece) to keep going, to keep the site FREE for everyone as it’s always been, AND to keep it ad-free! I’m sure you know in your travels around the world wide web that there are VERY few sites these days that are either free or ad-free, and almost none are both. The reason is it’s almost impossible to afford to do one, let alone both. These past nine years I’ve learned that the hard way. 

Need I say that your support is critical- however you are able to support my work and NighthawkNYC.com – IF you feel it’s worthy of your support. Here are some options- Donations via PayPal are gratefully accepted. My collections are available for purchase. Posting links to pieces you feel others should know about on social, or telling others about NHNHC helps! Any and all of that is incredibly appreciated. 

Thank You, again, (and in advance) for reading my pieces, and for your support.
Universe willing, Onward to Year 10!
Kenn. 

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

Ed Ruscha & The Two-Sided Coin of Influence

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- Unless otherwise credited.).

This is the third and final part of my look at Ed Ruscha/Now Then. Part 1  is here. Part 2 is here.

1- Heads

One door closed, another opened. Los Angeles County Museum on Fire, 1965-8, Oil on canvas, seen at MoMA. Ed Ruscha/Now Then is now open there. Pictures in this piece are thumbnails. Click any for full size.

Ed Ruscha/Now Then is a memory for those of us who saw it at MoMA from September 10, 2023 to January 15th of this year. It’s a memory in the making for those who are seeing it now at LACMA, seen above in Ed Ruscha’s 1965-8 nebulous “portrait” of it (which I discussed in Part 1), or will be seeing it until it closes there on October 6th. They’ll be pleased to know it’s a show with staying power, a show I continue to relive and think about on a daily basis, six months after it closed here. After following the trail of his devlopment in Part 1, “Ed Ruscha’s Head Scratchers,” seeing some echoes of the work of Artists past, I began to wonder… Every Artist I’ve come across has had influences. Who influenced Ed Ruscha? As the show was up, and now after it ended here, that question lingered.

Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919, or later. One Artist Ed Ruscha has repeatedly expressed his admiration for is Duchamp, who he met in the early 1960s. There are numerous version of L.H.O.O.Q. since the 1919 original. I chose this one because t contains all the elements of the original, which I cannot find (if you have  let me know)- the mustache, the goatee, and the famous letters all of which Duchamp added to a Mona Lisa postcard. Duchamp once said that L.H.O.O.Q. means “there is fire down below,” though I’ve seen other definitions.  *- Photographer unknown.

“Duchamp had quite a sizable influence on me from a pictorial standpoint and from an emotional standpoint,” Ed Ruscha (Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information After the Signal, P.324).

Ed Ruscha has not written an autobiography, so his book, Leave Any Information After the Signal, a collection of “Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages” from 1960 to 2000 is the closest thing we have to a primary written source. In addition to just looking, I turned to it, along with the numerous other interviews he’s given over his six-decade plus career, for insights.

As seen in Part 1– Encountering Johns’s  Target with Four Faces in a black & white reproduction in a 1957 magazine was, he said, an ‘atomic bomb’ in his training, ‘a stranger fruit’ that he ‘saw as something that didn’t seem to follow the history of art. My teachers said it was not art. ‘I didn’t need to see the colors or the size…’ ‘I was especially taken with the fact that it was symmetrical, which was just absolutely taboo in art school- you didn’t make anything symmetrical…Art school was modernism, it was asymmetry, it was giant brush strokes…it was all these other things that were gestural rather than cerebral. So I began moving to things that had more of a premeditation1.’” Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces, 1955, Encaustic on newspaper and cloth over canvas surrounded by four tinted-plaster faces in wood box with hinged front. Seen in Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror at the Whitney in 2021.

Besides naming Duchamp, Jasper Johns and his counterpart Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha hasn’t addressed the subject of influences all that often.

René Magritte, The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe), 1929, Oil on canvas. (Not in the show.) *-LACMA Photo

Pondering the visual evidence, the first name that came to mind was Rene Magritte, 1898-1967, a well-known Belgian Artist who also had a long career and touched on a number of subjects Ed Ruscha has, while sharing his fondness for taking the familiar out of context (which Mr. Ruscha does with words, objects and places). He also incorporated words. Though often labelled a “Surrealist,” his work touches on any number of other realms and styles of Painting, which made him ahead of his time. As a result, his influence is extraordinary and ongoing. Time and again, I’d look at an Ed Ruscha, or a section of one, and think “Magritte,” beginning with Actual Size, 1962, which I showed in Part 1, which echoes Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, 1929 better known by the famous words it includes, “This is Not a Pipe2.” The Magritte seems to echo his contemporary, Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q., from 1919.

Salvador Dalí, Open Field with Ball in Centre and Mountains in  Rear, Study for the Walt Disney film Destino, 1948, Oil on masonite, left. Ed Ruscha, Painkillers, Tranquilizers, Olive, 1969, right. (*- Dali from the Dalí & Film MoMA catalog. Ed Ruscha as I saw it in the show.)3.

Of him, Mr. Ruscha said, “Yes, Magritte did influence me, but it came the other way around—what I call 360-degree influence. That’s influence from a person’s thoughts and force and not from his pictures, which the person being influenced has not seen, until later on. The same with Dalí. I’ve been influenced by Dalí, but it’s been through other sources. Because I’ll go back, and I’ll be working on something and I’ll see a picture of Dalí’s I’ve never seen before, and there is my work. (P.56).” I wrote about seeing Dalí in Rauscha in Part 1– before I found that quote.

Surrealism Soaped and Scrubbed, Ed Ruscha’s cover design for Artforum 5, No. 1, Special Issue: Surrealism, September, 1966. 

What about “Surrealism’s” influence, that of the group of European Artists so labelled?

Ed Ruscha was Art Director for Artforum Magazine from 1966-19724. His cover for the September, 1966 “Surrealism” Special Edition I find fascinating, particularly in regards to Ed Ruscha’s Art, overall. While this image has almost nothing to do with “historical Surrealism,” I find it ripe with the “kind” of surrealism (small “s,” which he also uses here) I see in Ed Ruscha’s work, while also being another of his trademarked play on words. There is nothing in “historical Surrealism” that influenced this (as far as I know), and so it’s another work that makes me wonder what, if anything, inspired it. On page 349 of Leave Any Information After the Signal, Mr. Ruscha denies the influence of the Surrealists handling of light on his work. That’s all he has to say about it.

The Back of Hollywood, 1977, Oil on canvas. Was Ed Ruscha the first to Paint words backwards? Probably not.

What about influences on his Word Painting? In After the Signal, he said,  “Well, there’ve been so many artists who have used words throughout the centuries really, but the ones I enjoy are mostly from the twentieth century. Say, Kurt Schwitters. [. . .] 5” On page 115, Paul Karlstrom directly asks Mr. Ruscha,  “Who were your heroes then, your role models?” He replied, “Well, I guess de Kooning was, and Franz Kline. Franz Kline had a lot to say at that particular time, and so they were more or less the passwords. You just emulated them, almost automatically. Then if you couldn’t emulate them you weren’t really on the right track. I still think that. But the work of Johns and Rauschenberg marked a departure in the sense that their work was premeditated.” It sounds like he was referring to his early days as a student under the Abstract Expressionist influenced Chouinard faculty in the late 1950s, as once again, it’s hard for me to see the influence of de Kooning or Kline in Ed Ruscha’s work.

Joan Miró, Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams 1925, Oil on canvas. *- Met Museum Photo

The Surrealists began as a literary “movement,” that experimented with “automatic writing.” Later, their influence spread to Painting. In Miró’s Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams, it comes full circle. Part of the Artist’s “peinture-poésie” (painting-poetry) series, this strikes me as a forerunner or precursor to the Word Paintings of Ed Ruscha. Yet, I have no idea if he saw it, or other works in Mirós series,  or when.

America’s Future, 1977, Oil on canvas. The title is shown in the next picture.

The feeling I’m left with is that these Artists “effected” him in ways outside of a direct visual influence. They are, what I call, “echoes.” What Ed Ruscha called “360 degree” influences. As for the stated influences, in Part 2, I mentioned that Thomas Cole was the influence on Mr. Ruscha’s Course of Empire series, from who he borrowed the name of the series. It seems to me the rest of his influences, if any, remain up for conjecture. Still, taking him at his work on possible influences would leave Ed Ruscha remarkably original.

Detail. Though Painted 18 years before he began his Course of Empire series I showed in Part 2, seeing this made me wonder if this work should be appended to the end of the series, i.e. the final outcome of it.

2- Tails

Turning the influence coin over, however, 67 years, and counting, into one of the most remarkable careers in American Art history, at this moment in time it’s hard to think of another Modern & Contemporary Artist, let alone an American Artist, who is more influential than Ed Ruscha is. In fact, it’s impossible for me to list here all the realms in which his influence can be seen. Those that come to mind the quickest include-

-His role in furthering the breaking of the strangle hold of Abstract Expressionism in Painting in the early 1960s.

-His unique way of incorporating words and typography into his Art.

-His Paintings of L.A. and the American West6.

No place on the planet has more Artist’s books than NYC’s Printed Matter, home of 15 ,000 books they’ve created. How many are/were inspired in part or wholly by Ed Ruscha? I don’t know the total but I keep finding more every time I go in. May 6, 2024.

-His ground-breaking Artist’s books/PhotoBooks. (Is it a stretch to say he’s played a defining role in the Contemporary Artist’s Book & PhotoBook phenomenon? I don’t think so.)

-His style of nonjudgmental roadside and aerial Photography.

-Entire genres of Painting, Photography and books have sprung up around his work.

Jeff Brouws, Various Small Books Referencing Various Small Books by Ed Ruscha, 2013. 288 pages of books, and just books, by other Artists influenced by Ed Ruscha, and it’s now 11 years old!

To this point, at least two substantial books, including the book above, have been published focused solely on his influence! All of this is even more impressive (or mind-boggling) when you consider Ed Ruscha is still with us and going strong at 86. Usually, the influence of Artists is something referred to in the past tense.

-His unique way of incorporating words and typography into his Art.

Ed Ruscha’s presence is so pronounced at Printed Matter, they even have a well-worn box just for books he’s influenced. ‘Nuff said. No, that’s not a copy of Mr. Ruscha’s very rare Twentysix Gasoline Stations. It’s Michalis Pincher’s 2009 homage to it, which “borrows” Ruscha’s cover verbatim.

All of this, also, makes it harder to fathom that Ed Ruscha/Now Then was the first large Ed Ruscha show here in 41 years7, and his first show at MoMA! That makes the extent of his influence that much more impressive. Suffice it to say it’s a lot easier to see Ed Ruscha’s influence than it might be to see the influence of others on his work.is so pronounced.

The saddest moment of the entire 4 month run of Ed Ruscha/ Now Then: the show’s entrance, moments after it closed for the last time on January 15, 2024. I saw it on its first preview day, and I was there when it closed for good. Shows are fugacious events. The ending of a great show is always sad; like saying “goodbye” to a friend. One you’ll never see again.

-Takeaways

In addition to providing an opportunity to ponder the scope of his influence, Now Then provides the chance to assess his achievement and his place among the important Artists of both the 20th and 21st centuries. Ed Ruscha strikes me as an Artist who is continually moving forward to the point that he is a seemingly endless innovator. Ed Ruscha/Now Then provided a rare chance to see the craft behind the mystery his work evokes; to watch the Artist move on an almost step-by-step basis from his beginnings though each of his phases, with a focus on his recurring themes and his innovations.

Yet, he’s also an Artist who’s extremely aware of his, and our, pasts, and his Art stays in touch with it often in surprising ways. Ed Ruscha has never stood still long enough to have any box his work gets put in fit for very long. The Ed Ruscha box is the only one that fits an Artist as extraordinarily diverse as Mr. Ruscha has been and continues to be. Ed Ruscha/Now Then is a show that will live long in memory, and no doubt, influence.

Part 1 of my look at Ed Ruscha/Now Then is here. Part 2 is here.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is  “Goodnight My Love,” as performed by Paul Anna. In 2017, MOCA commissioned a short documentary on two themes in Ed Ruscha’s work (the text of which is here). In the resulting piece, Ed Ruscha says, “I’m gonna play this tune called ‘Goodnight My Love’ and this represents everrything I felt about California when I first came out here…” Because he doesn’t specify which recording he’s going to play, I chose the Paul Anka version from 1969.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for 9 years, during which 330 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal below to allow me to continue. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For “short takes,” my ongoing “Visual Diary” series, and outtakes from my pieces, be sure to follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram!

  1. Alexandra Schwartz, Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles, P.15
  2. I cannot think of Rene Magritte without thinking of the singular Photographer, Duane Michals. When I met him, I quickly shifted the chat from Photography to Painting. He rightly gloated over the fact that he had met and Photographed his three favorite Painters- Balthus, Giorgio de Chirico, and Rene Magritte, with who he did a terrific PhotoBook, that he graciously signed for me. All three are under-appreciated in my book, and remain among my favorites, too.
  3. In spite of being among the best known, in my view, Dalí may be the most under-appreciated Artist of the 20th century, as anyone who saw the incredible Salvador Dalí Centennial Exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum in 2005 knows. It’s partially his own fault, as the endless fantastic stunts he put on overshadows the appreciation of his Art in my opinion. History will eventually fix that, I believe.
  4. Alexandra Schwartz, P.35
  5. Ed Ruscha, Leave Any Information After the Signal, P. 324
  6. Along with those of, and quite different from,Georgia O’Keeffe.
  7. As I mentioned in Part 1, the last big Ed Ruscha show here was the traveling retrospective, The Works of Ed Ruscha, which came to the Whitney Museum in 1982!

NoteWorthy PhotoBook of 2024: LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

The NighthawkNYC.com NoteWorthy PhotoBook of 2024: LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity, Published by the Museum of Modern Art

When I met her at the Museum of Modern Art on May 10th, at the Preview of her stunning early mid-career retrospective, I told Ms. Frazier her book, LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity, was my NoteWorthy PhotoBook of the Year. Yes, the year. Even though we’re barely half way through 2024 as I write this and there are still six full months to go). With all due respect to all the books not yet released as well as those I have not yet seen, Ms. Frazier  gets my 2024 Trophy as most recommended PhotoBook for her powerful & urgently important book, published to accompany and expand on the show of the same name. Frankly, she deserves a medal for the work she has done.

LaToya Ruby Frazier proudly showing me her new book, Monuments of Soilidarity at MoMA, May 10, 2024

Having begun taking Photographs at 16, she seemed to find her voice almost immediately. “I had decided when I was a teenager that I had to make work that was socially and politically conscious1,” she said.

Auspicious beginnings. The Notion of Family, 2016.

Her early work focused on 3 generations of her family and life in her hometown of Braddock, PA in her debut PhotoBook, The Notion of Family, in 2016, which announced her arrival to the world in memorable fashion. She subsequently turned her attention to the coalminers in the Borinage, Belgium, in And From the Coaltips a Tree Will Rise, in 2017. Returning the U.S., she documented the closing of the G.M. plant in Lordstown, Ohio in The Last Cruze, 2019, and the man-made water crisis in Flint, Michigan in Flint Is Family In Three Acts, 2022 in book form. All four books are NoteWorthy in their own right.

MoMA, May 12, 2024

Monuments of Solidarity is an overview of LaToya Ruby Frazier’s work to date in what is a Show of the Year candidate along with Käthe Kollwitz, which happens to be installed right next to Monuments of Solidarity at MoMA. Monuments takes the viewer right up to the work shown in her most recent NYC gallery show, More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland, 2021-22, which I wrote about here. The piece, which consists of 18 Inkjet panels on IV stands, was recently fittingly acquired by the forward-looking Baltimore Museum.

Partial installation view, More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland, 2021-22, as installed at MoMA May 12, 2024. Each piece is in 2 parts. On the right-hand panel is a text written by the subject of her Photo on the left panel. You can see it installed at Gladstone Gallery in my look at it here.

There are a lot of great Artists in this country. You have your list. I have mine. There are also a lot of important Artists working here today. One thing that sets LaToya Ruby Frazier apart, in my view, is that, in addition to her poignant Photography, she brings her subjects right into her work. Though hers is the overall vision, the results feel collaborative. This serves to make the results unlike most of what’s come before.

Installation view. Flint Is Family section. May 12, 2024 including more compelling texts from her subjects accompanying her Photos.

After posing for the picture with her book, she asked me what I thought of her show. I told her I was very moved by the Photos she took with and about her Grandmother, now well-known images from her instant classic The Notion of Family. In them we see the Artist’s vision and talent were stunningly present from an early age, as if she was born with a camera in her hand, while we also get insights into her and her family’s life in her hometown. Braddock, PA, which in turn fueled her passion to inspire change and to right wrongs.

UPMC Braddock Hospital and Holland Avenue Parking Lot, 2011. The community hospital in ruins, where her grandmother passed.

After we see the passing of her Grandmother, the show took an immediate turn and from then on was focused on depicting crises effecting “everyday” citizens, working class people, and issues of race. 

MoMA, May 10, 2024

Monuments of Solidarity is not only a “PhotoBook.” It delves deeply into its subjects in a way I find every bit as powerful as her Photographs are. This is evidence of LaToya’s extraordinary way with people. Watching her at MoMA, she took the time to have an actual moment with everyone she encountered. Even me (we’d never met).

LaToya Ruby Frazier Takes on Levis, 2011, Stills from the Video which premiered on Art21. LaToya took issue with Levi’s after they featured her hometown, Braddock, PA, in an “Everybody’s Work Is Equally Important” ad campaign. As part of the campaign, Levi’s  opened a public Photo Workshop in SoHo. In response, LaToya put on a pair of Levi’s and in a performance in front of the Levi’s Photo Workshop, preceded to destroy them while wearing them. The intense Video is looped in the show. From the book, Monuments of Solidarity.

LaToya Ruby Frazier, the person, makes every bit as good, and memorable, an impression as her work does, though the intensity we see in pieces like her incredible Levi’s Performance Video remained under the surface.

MoMA, May 10, 2024

I think her people skills, which isn’t the right term for someone who is as genuine as Mr. Frazier is…make that her humanity, is a central reason why her Art is so powerful and so direct, project after project. LaToya gets to the heart of the issue and speaks to why it is important- for those directly involved, and for all of us, like very few Artists working today can.

Partial installation view. The Last Cruze, 2019 (recently acquired by MoMA), looks at the last Chevy Cruze to be made in Lordstown, Ohio after G.M. halted production and closed the plant, throwing all the workers out of their jobs.

Ms. Frazier’s work is compared by some to that of the F.S.A. (Farm Services Administration) Photographers of the 1930s, including Dorothea Lange. As I ‘ve showed, one thing of many that sets her work apart is that she foregrounds the experiences of her subjects right alongside her Photographs in texts they authored; something the FSA Artists didn’t do. In fact, I can’t think of any Artist who has done it as consistently as LaTory Ruby Frazier has.

On this spread from The Last Cruze PhotoBook the subjects of Photos accompany them in pieces they wrote.

She gives many, maybe event most, of the actual people she depicts in her projects, their own voice. Quite often their words take up more space in her books and in this exhibition than her Photos do! I can’t say I’ve ever seen that before, either. In the literal sense, her work truly is a collection of  “moments of solidarity” between Artist and subject.

Entrance to at MoMA as seen on May 10, 2024. The show is up through July 20th.

Two asides- Two coincidences struck me while preparing this piece. First, LaToya Ruby Frazier – Monuments of Soilidarity is installed right across the hall from the equally terrific Käthe Kollwitz at MoMA. Walking through one, and then the other, it was impossible for me to ignore how much in common they share. I wish I had asked LaToya what she made of Ms. Kollwitz’s show. Both Artists have made the “Art of social purpose” the center of their work.

“I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate. It is my duty to voice the sufferings of men, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain-high.” Käthe Kollwitz, 1867-1945, 2.

Her first major retrospective at an NYC museum (How is that possible?) makes an open and shut case for Käthe Kollwitz as one of the major Artists of her time, something that has been well-known in Germany and elsewhere, making it past time for the rest of the world to catch up.

Preparing this piece also reminded me of another young woman Artist who I selected as my NoteWorthy Art Book of 2024: Es Devlin. Though they’re from different parts of the world, and work in different mediums, they’re both making extraordinary inroads into the world with their work. As I wrote in my look at Es’s book, An Atlas of Es Devlin, she’s garnered unheard of media acclaim. LaToya was just named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People of 2024.” That’s pretty amazing, of course, but I bet it doesn’t come with a cool Owl statuette!  ; )

Woman of Steel Button Pin, 2017

“Woman of Steel” reads the button on the cover. Though she’s not a steelworker, she could easily wear one and it would completely suit her in the literal sense.

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “Poverty” by Yemi Alade, from her album, Woman of Steel, fittingly, performed here live-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 1/2 years, during which 320 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

  1. “Latoya Ruby Frazier Takes on Levi’s,” Art21
  2. As quoted, here.