BookMarks

Kenn Sava’s Desert Island Art Books

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

A BookMarks Special. 

A reader writes, “Hey, Kenn. Leaving cost as a secondary concern, what are the Art books you’d take with you to that desert island?”

Wow…one of the hardest questions you could ask me. First, I’d never go to a desert, or any island without a museum, but I’m game. I’ll take “Art” to mean Paintings, Drawing, Sculpture, leaving Photography aside. (That way I’d get to take more books! Ha!) Well, cost is a PRIMARY concern for me, but I’ll make it secondary here. My criteria are 1) the importance & quality of the Art and 2) how well is it presented? Ok. After months of pondering it, here they are! (In no particular order…)

SPOILER ALERT! There are NO AFFILIATE LINKS in this piece! If you buy one of these somewhere, how about making a donation so I can keep helping you discover Art and books? 

Kenn Sava’s Desert Island Art Books

Filled with a lifetime’s fruits of observations, insights, and revelations. No Art lover should be without it, in my opinion.

The Story of Painting, Sister Wendy Beckett, DK Publishing.
The first book I simply must mention is one that had a bit to do with inspiring me to start NighthawkNYC.com, which is about to begin its ninth year: Sister Wendy’s The Story of Painting. A phenomenal accomplishment, covering the history of Painting right up to very recent times, her observations are based in what she sees in the work itself! In so doing, Sister Wendy showed the world how to look at Art without the noise surrounding it from those who would tell you what you “should” see so you can see Art for yourself. I first read Sister Wendy Beckett back in her days as a contributor to the excellent Modern Painters Magazine, before her BBC & PBS TV Series make her world-famous. Still, at the moment, if you look for it (it’s out of print), The Story of Painting can be had reasonably. I prefer the hardcover, mine shown above, because I wore out my softcover copy years ago. Yes, some of the blown up details are out of focus, making me wonder about the editors, but’s that’s no reason for the slightest hesitation- most of the 450 images over 800 pages are fine. This is a book that should always be in print, so it’s past time for a new edition! There is an exceptionally well done TV Series of the same name that is available on DVD, and her other, lesser-known TV Series, like Sister Wendy’s American Collection, in which she visits 6 U.S. museums are also amazing. Seeing her in the same halls of The Met that I frequent always gives me chills. All her shows are essential and should be rerun as often as any show is. Luckily, there is a Complete Collection of her TV Series in a DVD box set. I missed her when she retired to live in seclusion in her trailer, as I wrote here, and more so since her passing, which I mourned here, but what she left us lives on in me, which I try and share here, and countless others. I hope it continues to inspire countless millions indefinitely.

Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings, Taschen
If I were to take only one Art monograph, you might be looking at it. I’ve looked at it more than any other Art book besides The Story of Painting. Vincent became an Artist late in life, at about 28, and his career barely lasted 9 years. Yet, the intensity of his dedication to his craft saw him create about 2,100 works, including about 860 Paintings! The evolution of his style is continual after his earliest, “dark” period. Meanwhile, his life was full of tumult, disappointment, and unimaginable pain & suffering. Currently the “Brick” edition, which measures about 6 by 8 inches, $25. list, and/or XL edition, $60. list, are in print. Virtually the exact same book in 2 different sizes. Large or small, either is an incredible value. I’ve got both and each sees steady use. Choose small, shown above, if you want a ready reference, perfect for your bedside or backpack. Choose XL if you want to see the Art in a larger size. My look at the reinstalled Van Gogh Paintings at The Met, pondering what Vincent would think, is here. I’ve begun a piece on Van Gogh’s Cypresses, currently at The Met.

With its NoteWorthy Art Book of 2020 designation.

Rembrandt: The Complete Paintings, Taschen XXL
The canon of the Master’s Oils seems to be changing daily, even 354 years after his death! It has already changed since this was published in 2019. Still, unless you hit the Mega Millions, or are able to fly around the world and see all the Rembrandts on view in the world’s museums, this is as close as you’ll ever get to seeing them all. Even if you were able to do that, you’d only see some of them because museums rotate/lend their collections and those in private hands are probably inaccessible to you. Still, even if you were somehow able to see all of them, you’ll never see them this close. Nuff said. My hope is they update it in a few more years. In selecting this, I must mention my other go-to Rembrandt book- The Rembrandt Book by the legendary Dutch Art specialist, NYC-born, Gary Schwartz. Aptly titled. Essential. My look at Rembrandt’s First Masterpiece at the Morgan Library in 2016 is here.

My sealed XXL before being “touched.” In this case, “XXL” equals 19 pounds!

Michelangelo: Complete Works,  Taschen XXL
Michelangelo’s canon doesn’t change nearly as often as Rembrandt’s does, but it does look different when his Art is cleaned or restored (like the Sistine, which looks incredible now, as seen in here, though I hope no damage was done to it in the cleaning). But as I mentioned for the Rembrandt XXL, you’ll never seen all of it, and never this close. Trust me- The Vatican is NOT letting you up on a scaffold in the Sistine! The XXL is out of print and goes for $500. and up in VG or better condition. The $60. XL is almost as good and is still in print as are the two Bricks that include this material- Michelangelo: The Complete Paintings, Sculpture and Architecture and Michelangelo: The Graphic Work for his Drawings, My look at the monumental Michelangelo Divine Draftsman and Designer, at The Met in 2018 is here. One of the top 3 or 4 Art shows I’ve ever seen, it brilliantly revealed for all-time that Michelangelo, the Draftsman and Designer, may be the most overlooked aspect of his super-human genius, and just possibly his most under-rated talent. The Met’s catalog accompanying Divine Draftsman and Designer is one of the very best books on Michelangelo there is- and I’ve owned a lot of them.

Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art
HOW could I do a list like this and NOT include a Picasso book? In 1980, I made two trips back to NYC while I was on the road with a band, just to see MoMA’s Picasso Retrospective. The hype leading up to it called in a “once in a lifetime, must-see show.” The reality was just WOW! It marked the beginning of my Art show-going life. If my Art-going career had ended then and there I really couldn’t complain; it’s never been topped by anything I’ve seen since. The show, which filled ALL of the “old” MoMA,  was just overwhelming…mind-boggling. Almost ONE THOUSAND Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings, Collages, Prints, Ceramics, etc., etc. MoMA lent 230 works to other institutions to make room for it. I’ll never forget seeing his earliest works, which the show began with, including Science and Charity, which he Painted at 15(!), and and already being staggered by his talent TWO GALLERIES in, with the entirety of MoMA (THREE FULL FLOORS!) still ahead of me! The catalog published to accompany the show is a classic as well. It’s still to be had quite reasonably in hardcover, like mine above, which I bought at the show, or softcover (check it for yellowing first. It’s 43 years old and my copy makes no mention of acid-free paper). It’s endlessly staggering to page through it and realize that ONE PERSON created ALL of this! If you said of it, “THIS was the ultimate testament of man’s creative accomplishment in the 20th century,” I, for one, couldn’t argue with you.

Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, Skira Rizzoli
THE Painting show of the 2010s among all those I saw lives on in the terrific catalog that accompanied it. It’s still one of the two best books on Mr. Marshall, one of the most important Painters working today, along with the Phaidon Contemporary Kerry James Marshall book. You need both, but in a pinch I’ll take Mastry. I wrote about the show here.

I bought my copy used so it was pretty much like this. Out of print for a long time, it’s very hard to find now in VG condition for less than $200.

Neo Rauch, Taschen XXL
Perhaps the world’s most enigmatic living Painter, Neo Rauch’s work continues to both baffle me and hypnotize me in equal measures. Leave it to Taschen to create the most stunning book on his work published so far, even though his bibliography is ever-expanding and the track is fast. 12-years-old at this point it sorely needs to be updated with the work he’s done since added though the essay remain excellent. Long out of print and commanding big bucks, I’d advise holding off on it now and hope Taschen gives us a new edition with all of his work for the past decade+ added. In fact, I spoke with Neo Rauch this spring about just that and he told me another Painting book is coming out next year. It didn’t sound like it would be an Updated Taschen Neo Rauch.

*- Estate of Francis Bacon Photo

Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonne, Martin Harrison, The Estate of Francis Bacon
It seems like the Francis Bacon bibliography gets bigger every few months, but this will ALWAYS be THE place to begin, and end, when it comes to seeing his work. Especially ALL of it! His 584 Paintings are beautifully shown in 800 illustrations over 1,500+ pages in five volumes. Text by the world’s foremost living Francis Bacon authority, Martin Harrison (who also contributed to Saul Leiter’s Early Color, one of THE essential PhotoBooks of the 21st century). Here’s the thing- the Estate has said that once it’s sold out, “it will never be reprinted.” Gulp.

The Complete Oil Paintings of Edward Hopper & The Complete Watercolors of Edward Hopper, both Norton
The 4-volume Edward Hopper Catalogue Raisonne by Gail Levin and published by the Whitney in 1995 is more well-known, but it sold out and copies currently BEGIN at $1,000. per. Lesser-known is that the Whitney then sold the two volumes of The Complete Paintings & The Complete Watercolors from the set as stand-alone volumes. At this point, they’re actually probably harder to find. Recently a reader asked me for a Hopper recommendation. It’s really strange that there isn’t a comprehensive book on Hopper’s Art over his whole career currently in print. (The Whitney’s catalog for Edward Hopper’s New York is good, but it’s focused on his NYC work.), as I recommended in Part 2 of my recent look at Edward Hopper’s New York, seek out Gail Levin’s Edward Hopper: The Art & The Artist, the catalog for the last Edward Hopper Retrospective at the “old” Whitney Museum in 1981. Just beware the book is 42 years old now. Look at it before you buy a copy and make sure the pages haven’t yellowed, which this book is very prone to, since that drastically affects the color of the Art.

Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective, Guggenheim Museum
By far the most comprehensive look at almost all of Robert Rauschenberg’s career to 1997. A show I saw and will never forget. Mr. Rauschenberg was involved in its making (there’s a great video online of a brief interview with him as he stands on Frank Lloyd Wright’s ramp). The Artist would go on to live & work for another 11 years, and I am particularly a fan of his late work. Still, this is a glorious book, one I have gone through 3 copies of. The essential visual reference to Robert Rauschenberg’s Art. He remains one of THE most influential Artists on the Art I see in 2023. My look at what I called “The Summer of Rauschenberg” in 2017 is here.

*-National Gallery of Art Photo

Georgia O’Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonne, National Gallery of Art, Washington
A “name” here at home, Ms. O’Keefe is only beginning to be better known around the world. I believe her stature is only going to grow and grow from here on. This book shows why. Her work is singular, always based in nature with her one-of-a-kind vision, and just plain gorgeous. As we’re seeing right now in her terrific MoMA show, Georgia O’Keeffe: To See Takes Time– her work holds up gloriously!

Rothko by Christopher Rothko & Kate Rothko Prizel, Rizzoli Electa
Runs, doesn’t walk, to the head of its class. Some may still prefer Yale’s Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas, but it’s 25 years old now. Who better to write a book on their father than Mark Rothko’s son and daughter? They know whereof they speak on all things Rothko after spending their lives as closely involved with his work as anyone- not to mention actually living with the Artist. This all came home to me in spades when I met Kate and got to speak to her about a number of things Rothko-related. She thinks this is the better book, and when she told me that I didn’t get the feeling she was speaking out of bias. The handsome book in a slipcase includes an extremely wide range of work- on canvas and paper, from all periods. The 1999 Rothko Retrospective at the “old” Whitney changed my life, turning me back to being Art-centric from Music and made me a fan for life. My look at Mark Rothko: Dark Palette, 2016, is here.

Ralston Crawford by William C. Agee, Twelvetrees Press
Ralston Crawford is one of the most overlooked Artists I can think of, and I’ve been obsessed with his work since the Whitney Retrospective more years ago than I care to think about. Though shows have been scarce, books have begun to appear over the past decade. This is still the best comprehensive overview, but I hope a REALLY worthy Ralston Crawford book will be coming. Oh, he was also a very talented Photographer, as Keith Davis’s fine book The Photographs of Ralston Crawford reveals.

Vermeer: The Complete Works, Taschen
There are other excellent books of Vermeer’s complete Paintings, including those by Arthur Wheelock of the National Gallery, DC, and the late, lamented Walter Liedtke of The Met who was tragically killed in a train accident a while back. Both of those are excellent for their texts, the Taschen book is essential for its Photography. There hasn’t been an XXL-sized edition, but Vermeer: The Complete Works is now available in either the Brick size, pictured, or the XL size. You can’t go wrong either way- see my comment on Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings for why, though when it comes to Vermeer, you can’t get TOO close!

Caravaggio: The Complete Works, Taschen
The XXL is long out of print but seeing his work THAT large is an amazing experience if you can find one. The Brick and XL remain in print, and both work well. Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro has been infinitely influential, from Rembrandt on down, no less so today. And so his work remains essential for Photographers, those interested in Film, and of course Painters.

Dali: The Paintings, Taschen
Dali seems to be in a bit of eclipse these days, but anyone who saw the huge Dali Centennial Retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum in 2004-5 knows this is temporary. This remarkable book contains all his Paintings from a very long and very productive career that was marked by almost as many styles as his contemporary Picasso. Originally published as a Volume 1 & 2, now in one volume, available in the Brick or XL size. If you don’t think Salvador Dalí belongs on this list, look through a copy of this book and then tell me he doesn’t.

Getting harder to find- Frida Kahlo: The Complete Paintings, sealed, in its shipping box.

–Frida Kahlo: The Complete Paintings, Taschen
Unless you’re besties with Madonna, this is likely to remain THE very best place to see the astounding, indelible work of the Mexican genius. What else is there to say? Oh! My money is that Taschen will re-release it in smaller sizes, but if you want to see her work in FULL effect, the XXL, the only edition of it thus far, which seems to be disappearing, is likely to remain THE BEST place to do that. I wouldn’t wait long.

Diego Rivera: The Complete Murals, Taschen
Completing the only husband/wife team on this list, this is a terrifically important concept beautifully realized. It’s hard to feel now what a revolution Diego Rivera and the other Mexican Muralists created when they began making Murals in Mexico. They later created them elsewhere and along the way influenced many of the great Artists of 20th and now 21st century Art, including Jackson Pollock. Available in the XL size, I would have my doubts about how good it would be as a Brick.  But in the XL you can study all the marvelous detail on each Mural in a generous size.

Basquiat XXL seen here in its original, printed, shipping box, which has been replaced with an all brown box in recent printings.

Basquiat, Taschen XXL
The XXL is likely to forever be THE best place to see the most Basquiat Art as close to life size. There is a Brick edition, part of Taschen’s 40th Anniversary series, which is slightly edited, but that’s the tradeoff for the deep savings ($30 for the Brick vs $200 for the XXL). Neither can be beat among ANY Basquiat book currently in print, in my opinion, and I’ve owned or seen most of the books published on his work to date while I was doing research for the numerous pieces I’ve written on the Basquiat shows in NYC in 2019 and 2022, which can be seen here.

UPDATE, July 15, 2023- In response to my list, a reader wrote, “Basquiat? Could you tell me why he’s on your list?” Sure. Jean-Michel Basquiat is the most compositionally diverse and compositionally inventive Artist I can think of- besides Robert Rauschenberg. As I pointed out in my piece, his compositions alway surprise me, and virtually no two are alike. That’s remarkable. Jean-Michel was ahead of his time in addressing many issues that are now foregrounded in Art, and in the world, today. This is the best book to experience all of that.

Yes, my choices are books that contain Art. As an Art writer, I want to see the Art- as much as I can by any particular Artist I’m interested in. I’m also interested in his or her biography and the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Art. I don’t read Art criticism for 2 reasons. 1) I’m planning on writing my own take on the work, and 2) with all due respect, I don’t want to be influenced by what anyone else says about it. I need to see the Art for myself and I encourage (and have always encouraged) everyone to see Art for themselves. That being said, among Art books that are primarily text (well, the Sister Wendy is both), three stand out for me-

*-Van Gogh Museum/Thames & Hudson Photo

Vincent van Gogh: The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition (6 volumes), Thames & Hudson
A long time ago I was gifted the 3-volume set of Van Gogh’s Letters edited by Johanna (“Jo”) van Gogh-Bonger who, also wrote a Preface/Rememberance of Vincent. I still have them. This will forever be a very special set. If you love Van Gogh’s Art and don’t know the name Jo van Gogh-Bonger, get thee to a nunnery! Mrs. Van Gogh-Bonger was Theo’s bride, then quickly his widow when he died 6 months after Vincent in 1891. She inherited Vincent’s estate (i.e. virtually all his Art and Letters) after his tragic suicide or murder (in spite of everything, I remain unconvinced he wasn’t ((accidentally?)) murdered. See below..). She is THE person responsible for making Vincent van Gogh the world-wide phenomenon he is today. She believed his Letters were the key to understanding his Art. She was proved right. She edited a collection of them, which has stood until this expanded edition. Her passion for Vincent’s Art led to the creation of the Van Gogh Museum, after her son donated their collection to the Dutch state who agreed to build the building. The VG Museum undertook an updated edition of Vincent’s immortal Letters in 2009, an unparalleled body of writing in Art history, and authorized the publication of Vincent van Gogh: The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition in six volumes. WORD!- It’s ALL available for free online, with updates, which the books don’t get! (I just saved you the thousands of dollars the set goes for on Amazon right now! PLEASE donate so I can keep turning you on to things like that. Thanks.)

An older edition with black & white illustrations inside. Get the current edition. It has color illustrations.

Conversations with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester, Thames & Hudson
I’ve never read better interviews with an Artist. Period. Mr. Sylvester is Cecily Brown’s dad. I’ve met Cecily, but didn’t get to ask her if she met Francis…

Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Random House
There are a lot of great Artist’s biographies out there, and some terrific Autobiographies, too. However, I just can’t put Van Gogh: The Life down. Like so many others, I grew up believing the fiction written by Irving Stone (Lust for Life, which became the equally fictionalized Film, though it was shot in some actual places, and his Dear Theo.). It’s way past time the record on Vincent’s life was set straight! After I discovered his Letters I began to get the picture. Here the gaps are completely filled in. The decade of research, with the help/permission of the Van Gogh Museum, shows on every page. There’s also a website especially for the book’s footnotes(!), and, unlike many/most Art biographies written by non-Artists, the Art commentary is spot on. Not an easy thing to do with someone like Van Gogh. BRAVO!  I recommend looking for the hardcover, which is out of print. The cover of the paperback is a little thin for an almost 1,000 page book, and this book is almost guaranteed to be the definitive Van Gogh biography for, at least, the foreseeable future. It includes an appendix in which the authors lay out their theory that Vincent DID NOT COMMIT SUICIDE- he was accidentally murdered!!! They followed this up with an equally insightful supporting article in Vanity Fair. I find their case compelling.

The big takeaway of all this will no doubt be that I’m a big fan of Taschen. When it comes to Art books, I’ve said as much before. TEN books listed here are published by the German firm. Their Photography books, however, are VERY hit or miss, and could use a few more “hits.” I’ve said a few times that the Taschen small “Brick” sized books (with the newest releases bearing the “40th Anniversary Edition” moniker) are THE best value in Art books today. You could build a terrific Art library out of just Bricks, to coin a phrase. Taschen books consistently feature the most color illustrations of the Art in the highest quality Photographs and publication using excellent paper and always have a rock solid binding. From the Bricks to the XL to the XXL editions (of almost the exact same book, but, be aware, though Taschen doesn’t mention this: my side-by-side comparisons reveal the Bricks may be edited down subtly from the XXL in places- that’s the trade off for saving 85% of the price!), you pick your price point, and the size you want, and you’re good to go on so many of the Artists they include. In fact, only Phaidon can compare with them in terms of the roster of Artists they have published in-depth monographs on. Phaidon stands alone when it comes to their superb Contemporary Artists monograph series. Taschen’s roster is mostly older Artists, though more Contemporary Artists are being included. 

*-Soundtrack for this Piece is “Desert Island Disk” by Radiohead from A Moon Shaped Pool, 2016, the title of which is a play on the BBC Radio show Desert Island Discs.

This piece is dedicated to The Strand Bookstore, where I’ve discovered more great Art (& Photography) Books than anywhere else the past 45 years. This year, The Strand celebrates their 96th year. My previous BookMarks pieces are here.

THERE WERE NO AFFILIATE LINKS IN THIS PIECE!

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NoteWorthy Art Books- Rod Penner: Paintings, 1987-2022

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

Book review- Rod Penner: Paintings, 1987-2022, published by The Artist Book Foundation.

Rod Penner at his easel at work in the early stages of what would become Buy Pecans Here/San Saba, TX, in 2021, as seen in the book. Click any image for full size.

Rod Penner is best known for his Paintings of small-town America that combine his unique Artistic sensibility with a seemingly other-worldly level of technical mastery. Small-towns being most of what America is made up of, the scenes he renders resonate with the shared experience of life in America in Paintings that are open-ended allowing the viewer to create their own narratives and outcomes. Whenever they’re through basking in the sheer delight just looking at them brings, that is. Born and raised in Canada, the Artist settled in Texas in 1988, where he finds most (but not all) of his scenes. In spite of how detail-rich they are and time-consuming to make, he’s amassed a sizable body of work while still in mid-career. Yet, a Rod Penner monograph has been a long time coming. This month, with the publication of Rod Penner: Paintings, 1987-2022, the 36-year wait is over. It’s finally here.

Rod Penner: Paintings, 1987-2022 is a book that makes a real attempt to cover a lot of bases. It’s an introduction to his work, a monograph on his career to date, and a Catalogue Raisonne. That makes it fairly unique among Art books I’ve seen in my half century of buying Art books. Most books set out to be one of those things. In pondering that, keep this in mind- it’s hard for a Painter to get a book published. The great Alice Neel didn’t see her first monograph published until the year before she died at 84! Therefore, it’s not surprising that the first full-length book on Rod Penner is one that strives to check a lot of boxes and fill a lot of needs.

Whether you’re new to the Paintings of Rod Penner, or not, expect to be immersed in what the Artist has created because EVERYTHING Mr. Penner has Painted through 2022 is in it (along with a few stellar Drawings)! The #1 complaint I hear from Art book buyers is- “Not enough pictures!” Complaint #1A is “Not enough pictures in color.” With 268 color images over 200 pages, that’s not going to be the case here. However, Rod Penner: Paintings is not a pure monograph, per se, where sections of an Artist’s career are broken down and analyzed, which some new to his work might miss. The Paintings flow continuously from the beginning of the Paintings section,  shown above, to the end of it (pages 52 through 183). The benefit of this is that one is able to follow the Painter’s development on a work by work basis, right from the start, without interruption through 2022, which is unheard of in a monograph.

As a result, in my book, Rod Penner: Paintings scores highest as a Catalogue Raisonne, which is where it will probably have the longest-lasting importance, immediately becoming the standard reference on his Paintings through the end of last year. Though it doesn’t include a catalog numbering system usually seen in a Cat Raisonne, the pertinent information is provided for each piece. Works are referred to by their title, which will now remain their official reference point. Interestingly, nowhere in the book, or on The Artist Book Foundation site, is the term “Catalogue Raisonne” mentioned. Perhaps, someone feared it would scare off general Art book buyers. Yet, all his Paintings are included, so that’s indeed what it is. A rose by any other name…

In Mr. Penner’s case, a book containing all his work is particularly welcome, a dream for his staunchest admirers, and those wanting to see more. Shows have been infrequent, making the chances to see his Paintings in person precious. Rod Penner’s work always sells. When it does, it disappears into a private collection where chances for the public to see it are rare at best. So, Rod Penner: Paintings is a chance for the rest of us to see all of what the Artist has created. I, for one, am happy that this is the path that was chosen, though a “greatest hits” book might have been more marketable. Marketable, maybe. But, having watched visitors over multiple visits to three shows of his work, it seems to me viewers either like it right off, of they don’t. If they like it, why not show them more, even all, of it?

Two earlier works that will surprise those familiar with the “small-town” work. The top piece, El Greco’s Head of Christ, 1991, is one of his rarely seen Drawings.

Content determined, the next questions are- what’s the format of the book? How’s the design and how are the images laid out? What are the materials used? And, perhaps most importantly, how are the Photos of the Paintings? For Paintings as detail-rich as Rod Penner’s are, high-quality Photos are, possibly, the most important element in any book on his work. In a book covering over 3 decades of work, the early work might suffer from inferior Photography when compared with the more recent Paintings, particularly because these pieces “disappeared” into private collections after leaving his easel in the late 1980s and 1990s. A drop off in the quality of the Photos of the earlier work is not noticeable here. The Photos are of a consistently good quality of reproduction, with accurate colors and sufficient detail, assuaging what was a large concern going in. However, deciding to include all of his Paintings in one book temps my “law of more.” That is, “More of one thing means less of something else.” Welcome to the realm of the trade-off.

The book clocks in at 11 by 12 inches, an unusual format as Painting books go in my experience. If it had been any smaller in this format, I think the book may have failed. I was surprised it’s not a landscape format book to match the format of most of Mr. Penner’s Paintings. In any event, with 268 color plates and 200 pages, not all of them are going to be full-page. The Artist and the book designer appear to have worked together to carefully decide how big each Painting should be reproduced, instead of just making each image the same size. Since Mr. Penner was so involved with the making of this book, the relative sizes could be taken as an indication of which he feels are his most important works. But, that’s conjecture. I can quibble with some of their size choices, but overall, the results are surprisingly good. So, if all the Paintings are here, what’s missing?

The two Paintings in the upper left are about as small as I’d want to see a Rod Penner Painting reproduced.

The trade-off appears to be details. As anyone who has seen Mr. Penner’s Art knows it’s characterized by extraordinary details- everywhere you look, virtually ad infinitum. Watching visitors to those shows I mentioned, I see a familiar pattern.

The “Penner Neck Crane.” Something first-time and long-time Rod Penner viewers are very familiar with. The charming work under consideration here is Bar-B-Q/Marble Falls, TX, 2022, the most recent work in his current show, Rod Penner: Small Town Meditations in NYC.

First, the jaw slackens, then the mouth opens in disbelief at what the eyes are seeing. These are hallmarks of a first-time Penner experience. Then, the neck cranes, to look closer and closer. Then, the slight shuffle of the feet. This to look closer at another part of the piece. Rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, steps 2 & 3 are not particularly possible with a book. Here, the reader will find there are only a handful of details of Paintings, which is a sizable disappointment, but one that I, for one, will accept in order to see more Paintings. 

The Artist and the editors present a surprisingly wide range of image sizes. Luckily, the book is a good size so that most of the images are larger than you would see in a typical monograph. And they are tastefully placed, chronologically, on the page with not too big of a border. Inevitably, with a book like this representing 30 years of work, there will be some wailing that such and such a work is shown smaller than one would wish and you can’t study the detail. When that happens, ask yourself which Paintings you would have omitted. That’s the trade off. Yes, at 200 pages, perhaps another 50 of details could have been added. I would love to see details (plural), but not at the expense of a single Painting. Welcome to the world of budgetary considerations! The book lists for $65., which is $5 to $10 below most similar Art books I see, and as such is a very good value.

The #2 complaint Art book buyers make is that works go over the gutter. Before you ask, seven Paintings are shown large enough so that they go over the gutter by my count in the book (two them are shown here). I always feel I haven’t really seen a work that goes over the gutter when one appears in a book, in spite of the chance to see details. That is the case here, but, thankfully, it’s kept to a minimum. I really can’t blame them for doing this. Rod Penner’s work wants to be seen as close to life size as possible to give that effect they have in person. Without ANY large reproductions, you’re not showing that, and you’e doing Mr. Penner’s work a real disservice.

Overall, I find the design is tastefully minimal. Meaning it doesn’t get in the way. The book is a red cloth covered hardcover with a sewn binding and a dust jacket featuring Sands Motel & Cafe/Vaughn, MN, 2019, currently on view in Rod Penner: Small Town Meditations in NYC, wrapped around it. The red boards, (with the title appearing in white), are a bit of a surprise, red being a bit of an outlier in terms of frequency of appearance in his palette, but they work. The flaps don’t mention how many images are included, which I know book buyers consider when making a purchasing decision. The book is printed on 150gsm archival Garda Matt made by Lecta, a quality stock that should hold up to the book being used more than the average Art book given its comprehensiveness. When considering how sturdy gsm 150 is, consider that a gsm of 170 or over is considered board.

Among the included text, most importantly, Rod Penner has authored an Artist’s Statement, essential reading from an Artist who prefers to let his work speak for itself. Essays by David Amfan and Terrie Sultan, are also included as are a Foreword by Louis Meisel, a Chronology and a Bibliography where you will find my name with a list of the pieces I’ve written on Mr. Penner (which also appears below).

Rod Penner: Paintings will be an automatic acquisition for Rod’s collectors and admirers. For all other Art lovers- particularly lovers of Painting who’ve never seen a Rod Penner Painting- it’s a book you should make a point of seeing. You’ll know instantly if Rod Penner’s work is for you, or not. If it is, don’t hesitate to buy a copy. Books like this tend to go out of print, or sell out, quickly and then sell for substantial sums on the aftermarket.

With the publication of this book, and everything he’s created for the last 35 years now a matter of record, the real work can begin – assessing Rod Penner‘s place among his peers, and those who have preceded him, in Art history.

As I said in the beginning of this piece, Rod Penner: Paintings is a book that is many things. Given the Artist’s close involvement in each step along the way, it’s the definitive reference book for the collector, buyer or seller of his Art.  Yet, it’s also a treasure trove of the sheer beauty and skill a supremely gifted Artist can create that will endlessly delight lovers of Art and Painting.

Any page of the book shows how masterful a Painter Rod Penner is. As you page through it, moving through the years and decades of his work, the consistency of the very high level of quality of his Painting becomes every bit as impressive.

In the end, therefore, among everything else it is, Rod Penner: Paintings, 1987-2022 is also a personal testament.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “On The Road Again,” by Willie Nelson from the Honey Suckle Rose Soundtrack album, 1980.

As far as I know, to this point, I have written more extensively about Rod Penner’s Art than anyone else has. My previous pieces on Rod Penner are-

“The Vermeer of Marble Falls, Texas,” April 28, 2017

“Rod Penner: Brilliance, Under Cloudy Skies,” June 10, 2017

“Q & A With Master Painter Rod Penner,” June 14, 2017, and

“Rod Penner’s Neighborhood,” August 3, 2018

My previous BookMark pieces are here.

My thanks to Leslie Pell van Green and and Amanda Romanelli of The Artist Book Foundation.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 7 1/2 years, during which almost 300 full length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate 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.

ANNOUNCING ART & PHOTOBOOKS FOR SALE CURATED BY KENN SAVA

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

ANNOUNCING another way to support NighthawkNYC.com! Read on…

Wayyyyy back when in the day, I came across this book-

Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, His Time by Bob Haak, Abrams, 1969

I couldn’t believe it. Here, in one book was one man’s life and his entire Artistic career. You literally couldn’t see this any other way. Not if you traveled the entire world and went to every museum. Some of these pieces might not be on display when you went. Others belong to private owners who are probably not going to let you in to see them. But, HERE! Here in this ArtBook YOU COULD SEE IT ALL! And, see it any time you wanted to.

I was just amazed. The feeling of being able to see an entire life’s work in one book astounded me.

Of course, countless books like it had been printed before, but most of them had inadequate black & white reproductions of works that the Artist had painstakingly created in color. Here in Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, His Time by Bob Haak they were mostly in color, and the color prints was tipped on to the page. Meaning they were individually glued on to the page.

Just WOW.

At the time it came out, Rembrandt: His Life, His Work, His Time by Bob Haak was $32.00. An outrageous sum for a kid at the time (and not cheap now). I thought long and hard about how to buy it and finally I figured out a way. I still have it. It’s made an indelible impact on my life to this day, though I still remember how I felt when I first saw it. I feel that same way every time I see a great Art book or PhotoBook.

Now, the time has come to share that feeling with my readers!

Over the past 50+ years I’ve amassed a terrific library of ArtBooks, and more recently, PhotoBooks. I, frankly, don’t have the space for them. So, after 7+ years of writing about books here, I’ve decided to part with some of them. Also, in my travels through the NYC Art world I’ve come across many interesting, rare and unusual items that I think might appeal to my readers. I’m curating a selection of both to offer to you, about 400 items initially. I’m pleased to announce I’ve partnered with eBay seller GallerieK to facilitate these sales because my site is not set up to collect sales tax, which the law requires.

All of the currently available Art, Prints & Books may be seen here.

In case you’re wondering- I bought every item I’m selling. No one gives me free books- even when I’m going to write about it! All proceeds go to support NighthawkNYC.com, and to help KEEP IT FREE & AD-FREE, with my thanks. 

Questions, or something you’re looking for? click here.
NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 7 years, during which over 275 full length pieces have been published!
If you’ve found it worthwhile, buying a book helps me to continue it.
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NighthawkNYC.com Is Seven! A Year In The Life Of…

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

In honor of its 7th Anniversary, July 15, 2022, I decided to take a look back at Year Seven of NighthawkNYC.com, my most challenging year yet.

Lying in the hospital in November, I seriously doubted I’d be able to continue NighthawkNYC.com and get through Year Seven. Then, things got a bit worse…

During Year 7-
-The galleries that survived (alongside the countless galleries, stores, restaurants and businesses that didn’t) reopened, with restrictions, after the covid shutdown.
-The museums moved closer to full schedules (though not completely), with restrictions.
-Cézanne, Alice Neel, Jennifer Packer, Jasper Johns were each given blockbuster shows. Richard Estes, who like Jasper Johns also turned 90 this past year, was not. I wrote about all of them this year.

Along with this, this past year was a very hard year for me, personally. I hit year 15 free of cancer, but dealt with a mysterious illness that I still don’t have an answer for, then suffered a devastating financial setback. In spite of ALL of it, I created & published TWENTY-FIVE full-length pieces in those 52 weeks! 20 of them while I was working on the 3 Richard Estes pieces that took me 11 months to finish.
See for yourself-

Published on NighthawkNYC.com between July 15, 2021 and July 14, 2022, Year Seven, interspersed with personal “highlights” of my year-

August 1, 2021- “The Met’s Alice Need Love Letter To NYC” (Clicking on the title in each white box below opens the piece so you can revisit it.)

The Met’s Alice Neel Love Letter To NYC

August 21- “Don’t Call Chuck Close A ‘Photorealist'”

The last time I saw Chuck Close, I ran into him while we were both out gallery crawling late one Thursday eve in October, 2017, here in a small basement gallery in Chelsea. It was fascinating to watch him study Art he (or I) had never seen before and hear his comments.

Don’t Call Chuck Close A “photorealist”

September 10- “Remembering 9/11”- For the very first time, to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of that that horrific, indelible day, I shared my memories of 9/11 and the Photos I took before, on 9/11, and immediately after.

Just unimaginable. The view from my window shortly after 9:05am on 9/11/2001 showing the North Tower, 1 World Trade Center, on fire. I’ve never shared any of the Photos in this piece before.

Remembering 9/11

On September 15th, I began having spells of lightheadedness. I immediately went to the doctor, who tested me and couldn’t find anything wrong. 

September 21- “Cézanne’s Other Revolution”

The Murder, 1874-75, Pencil, watercolor, and gouache on paper. In this tiny work, the knife is held high amidst an idyllic scene, with an ominous cross lurking above.

Cézanne’s Other Revolution

October 23- “Art Is Back In Chelsea”

Metro Pictures on West 24th Street. I have seen many memorable shows here, including the fine Louise Lawler show that’s up now. They said they decided to close because of the globalization of the Art market, which doesn’t suit their model. I’ll miss it.

Art Is Back In Chelsea

November 7- “Tyler Mitchell: Bringing Joy Back To Art”

Tyler Mitchell

Tyler Mitchell: Bringing Joy Back To Art

At 4:30pm on November 9th, I nearly fainted crossing 8th Avenue. Wearing all black in the dark, I’m sure I would have been killed if the light had changed. I staggered to the other side then managed to get in a cab and go to the Emergency Room. After 10 hours, they decided to admit me. I was in the hospital for 3 days and saw 27 doctors. None could tell me what was wrong. I walked home (about 2 miles) after being released feeling just like I did when I went to the E.R. .

November 19- “John Chamberlain’s Twisted Dreams.” A nurse chastised me for working on this piece while I was in the hospital.

John Chamberlain’s Twisted Dreams

At 4:30pm on November 20th, the day after I published the John Chamberlain piece, I had another near fainting spell. I went back to the Emergency Room where I spent another 7 hours. Again, they couldn’t find a cause. This time I was released and walked home. To this minute, I still don’t know what was wrong. I was subsequently put on medication for a heart problem discovered during testing. The lightheadedness seemed to largely get better. The doctors I informed of this said it didn’t make any medical sense. 

November 27- “NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021”

Zanele Muholi, the catalog for her show at, and published by, the Tate, London.

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021

December 28- “NoteWorthy Art Books (And Bricks), 2021”

Toyin Ojih Odutola, The UmuEze Amara Clan and the House of Obafemi

NoteWorthy Art Books (and Bricks), 2021

January 14, 2022- “NoteWorthy Music Book, 2021- Paul McCartney: The Lyrics”

From The Lyrics: Throughout the text Sir Paul regularly registers a very wide range of literature. Art is not left out. Left, we see him visiting Willem de Kooning, and right, one of his own Paintings from 1991.

NoteWorthy Music Book, 2021- Paul McCartney: The Lyrics

On January 20th, I suffered a devastating financial loss that leaves me having to focus on my survival full-time. To that point, I had worked on NighthawkNYC full-time for 6 1/2 years for no money, while other costs, besides my labor, have been quite substantial. 

February 4-  “Jasper Johns: Contemporary Art Begins Here”

Jasper Johns, Untitled, 2021, Acrylic and graphic over etching on paper. As strong as ever- at 90!

Jasper Johns: Contemporary Art Begins Here

February 19- “Cancer, +15”  Going in to cancer treatment, I had a 20% chance of getting through year 1 without additional treatment. Hard to believe I’m alive 15 years later…There are no words to express my Thanks. I hope sharing my experiences may help others…

Cancer, +15

February 21- “Jennifer Packer Arrives”

Jennifer Packer @ The Whitney. The word is out. The crowds are beginning to show up. December 28, 2021.

Jennifer Packer Arrives

March 21- “The Sculptural Photography of Vik Muniz”

Vik Muniz with his Nameless (Woman with Turban) after Alberto Henschel, 2020, Archival inkjet print, 90 by 59 inches, One of a kind.

The Sculptural Photography of Vik Muniz

April 4- “Nick Sethi’s PhotoBook Release In Canal Street”

Mind the meter. Nick Sethi takes it to the streets.

Nick Sethi’s PhotoBook Release In Canal Street

April 7- “The Brutal/Smells Like Teen Spirit Mashup” (Olivia Rodrigo meets Kurt Cobain)

Screencap of “Good 4 u,” Directed by Petra Collins.

The Brutal / Smells Like Teen Spirit Mashup

April 14- “Highlights of the Whitney Biennial: Matt Connors”

Matt Connors, One Wants to Insist Very Strongly, 2020

Highlights of the 2022 Whitney Biennial: Matt Connors

April 22- “Caslon Bevington’s Counterfeit Weather”

Caslon Bevington, Frictions (Variations A), 2022, Acrylic on panel, 16 x 20″

Caslon Bevington’s Counterfeit Weather

May 9- “Alec Soth: A Pound of Pictures”

Alec Soth: A Pound of Pictures

May 16- “Ahndraya Parlato: Magic, Mystery, Love & Death”

The cover of Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

Ahndraya Parlato: Magic, Mystery, Love & Death

May 22- “Richard Estes: Painter. With No Prefixes”

Richard Estes even took over my banner for his 90th. Double Self-Portrait, 1967, from near the beginning of his mature career, seen here behind me.

Richard Estes: Painter. With No Prefixes.

June 6- “Richard Estes Art: What I See”

Richard Estes, Times Square, 2004, This may be the most technically astounding Painting I’ve ever seen, along with any Painting by Jan van Eyck. Having stood on this spot before, during and after 2004, I can certainly verify the overwhelming visual noise that still is Times Square, something that has never been more faithfully realized than it is here.

Richard Estes Art: What I See

June 19- “Richard Estes: Two ‘Manifestos'”

Self-Portrait, 2013

Richard Estes: Two “Manifestos”

June 29- “Learning to Think like David Byrne”

Learning To Think Like David Byrne

July 11- “Thank You, Sheena Wagstaff” I’ll miss the recently departed Chair of The Met’s Modern & Contemporary Department. I close out Year Seven of NHNYC with a look at what she’s given me, NYC, and the world this past decade.

Sheena Wagstaff looking at a very large work by Ursula von Rydingsvard at Galerie Lelong & Co., April, 2018, when I happened upon her when we were both making the rounds of galleries one afternoon (independently, of course).

Thank You, Sheena Wagstaff

P H E W!
I can’t begin to tell you how much work all of that was. Oh, and I got through it all, and spent all of the year, alone. Every minute of it for the second year in a row. Trust me. You don’t want to try it.

On July 15, 2015, I started this site to share my passion for Art and what I’ve seen in the NYC Art world with those everywhere else. In the past 7 years, I’ve published about 275 full-length pieces- 275 in 364 weeks! I have created everything you see on this site for free, and it’s been FREE to access for all!

Well, sooner or later something had to give. Nothing is truly “free” on the internet, though. It means that all the expenses incurred in creating, running  and maintaining NighthawkNYC.com have fallen on me. For the past 7 years, I’ve managed to keep this site ad-free. To defray some of the high costs, I experimented with Amazon links for 3 pieces, then abandoned them. I’ve considered using Patreon, I’ve been told I should put up a pay-gate like other similar sites use.

I’ve decided that first, I should see how much support there is for what I’ve been doing.

If you like what I’ve been doing, if you find this site useful, if you’ve discovered an Artist you previously didn’t know and now are interested in, or a book you’ve taken to, or you want to support Independent Art writing- your support has never been needed more than it is right now. THIS is the time to help.

Donate to keep it up & ad-free below. Thank you!

As always- Thank You for reading my pieces.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “New York Minute” by Don Henley from The End of the Innocence, 1989 performed here by Eagles, unplugged in 1994-

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.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

Subscribe to be notified of new Posts, if any, below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For L.

Learning To Think Like David Byrne

Show Seen: David Byrne: How I Learned About Non-Rational Logic at Pace Gallery

David Byrne has never been bashful about stepping out. First, as the the very strange, gangly, guy you couldn’t take your eyes off of with the legendary band Talking Heads, then by himself as a solo, or in collaborations with Brian Eno, Twyla Tharp, and St. Vincent, among others; in Films along the way (as an actor, director, or Oscar-winning composer), as a Photographer in his overlooked PhotoBook, Strange Ritual, and most recently in an acclaimed & successful one-man Broadway show, American Utopia.

Phew!

Me too. I spent a decade drawing every day and going to The Met to draw 3 times a week, even though I had a full-time job nowhere close to The Museum. It’s solitary, but rewarding in more ways than one.

As if that’s not enough, while American Utopia was still running on Broadway, came something else- a “mini retrospective” of his Drawings titled David Byrne: How I Learned About Non-Rational Logic, that ran from Feb 2 through March 19th, already his 8th show at Pace. The show included a selection of work dating back about 20 years, including a group of his Tree Drawings from the early 2000s, as seen in his book Arboretum, a group of Chair Drawings from 2004-7, and a group of Dingbat Drawings Mr. Byrne did during the pandemic. Some of his Dingbats were shown in a 2020 online show of that title. Always interested in what Mr. Byrne is doing, and what I can learn from it, and an eternal lover of the Art & essential skill that is Drawing, I took the elevator to the top floor of Pace’s new mega gallery on West 25th to take a look.

The show coincided with the release of his latest book, the astonishingly popular A History of the World (In Dingbats); a collection of 100 Drawings. Not to be confused stylistically with his earlier Drawings, the Dingbats are more “traditional” Drawings that range across a wide variety of subjects, IF you can call ANYTHING David Byrne does “traditional.”

Swim Inside My Head, 2020, Ink on paper.

The show’s title, How I Learned About Non-Rational Logic, sounds like an open invitation to learn how to think like Mr. Byrne. The range of styles on view gave the viewer the chance to approach that from a few directions that ranged from the apparently quite accessible to obtuse. I guess that’s saying there was something for everyone. On a wall near the entrance was something of an Artist’s Statement, quoted in part-

Installation view.

Cloud Chair, 2006, Ink on paper.

Installation view of 3/4 of the show.

I Dreamed of the Art Trap, 2007, Ink on paper.

A series of “Chair” Drawings from 2006, Ink on paper. The piece on the far right, Cloud Chair, is shown earlier.

A fascinating way to think. If you’re intrigued by it, check out Arboretum.

“I’m an ordinary guy
Burning down the house1“

After all he’s done to this point, it appears that David Byrne is David Byrne’s greatest creation. So, how to think like he does? I think you start by taking the essence of yourself, then throw out everything that’s too derivative of what someone else has done (“Stop Making Sense?”), and then emphasize what makes you unique. Along the way you can put down in Music, Film, on stage or on paper, things you see that no one else does. At least not in your own unique way!

Like these-

The Evolution of Eating Utensils, 2003, Pencil on paper.

Consensual Absurdities, 2003, Pencil on paper

Between his Music, his Films, his Photography, his stage work, and now his Art, as time has gone on, we’re continuing to see there is more…much more, to David Byrne than anyone could ever imagine when that very strange, gangly guy walked on stage with Talking Heads at CBGB in 1977. I hope he continues to amaze and puzzle us for decades to come.

BookMarks-

The most succinct thing to say about David Byrne is that I can think of nothing he has done to not recommend. Some may not be as big fans of The Catherine Wheel, or his album The Forest, but that’s splitting hairs. As the late, great Jaco Pastorius once told me when I told him I liked his work with Joni Mitchell “better” than her earlier work- “Hey man. You either like an Artist or you don’t.” The man has had an important career and written innumerable great songs. Since the surprise hit show American Utopia is introducing him to many new fans, I’ll just give a quick rundown here-

The 8 Talking Heads studio albums chronologically.

Starting from the beginning, ALL the Talking Heads albums are classics in my book. I gave it some thought and really couldn’t pick one to start with. Remain in Light? Fear of Music? The Dual Disc reissues with added tracks are particularly recommended, if you can find them reasonably priced. The complete Dual Brick of all 8 studio Lps on CD/DVD Dual Disc currently goes for $200 to $250 being out of print. Though you’ll gain more Music, the sanctity of the original album should be kept firmly in mind (which is included on the DVD in 5.1 Surround Sound, overseen by Jerry Harrison), though it’s hard to replicate the impact it had when each were released, now. In the midst of punk, Talking Heads seamlessly walked the line between punk and New Wave, if they did not singlehandedly define the latter. I remember it well. I wound up in a New Wave band the year after Talking Heads ’77 came out!

Stop Making Sense is a must-see concert Film. True Stories…I haven’t seen in a while, but it’s on my list to see again.

His work with Brian Eno has many fans.

I thought his collaboration with St. Vincent, Love This Giant. was wonderful. After they got it out on the road with punchy arrangements (I started out as a horn player, and there’s still nothing like the sound of live horns for me!), it sounds even better-

And then there are his countless solo albums. I’m still working my way through them. One thing I can say is those I’ve heard don’t sound dated.

Personally, I really like his PhotoBook Strange Ritual, though I advise you to take a look through it before deciding to buy. It’s not for everyone.

Arboretum is Artistic while showing a different way of thinking. I think the concept, a sample shown above and in other works in the show, works very well throughout. I think it’s a book that’s going to remain sought after.

How Music Works is a uniquely down to earth look at Music & the business of. As much a “field guide” for the working Musician as it is a book for listeners and his fans. Most books like it are written by Music business people or lawyers. Uggh. This one is written from the REAL inside by someone who counts- a Musician who’s done it all AND succeeded at all of it!

It includes sketches of CBGB’s, a club that Mr. Byrne helped make immortal, seen here before, left, & after its remodeling, right. I spent many, many a night on the right, a few on the left..In the mid-1990s, I booked Music into CB’s Gallery, another Music club CBGB later opened in the space to the right where the Drawing is labelled “CBGB” and “CBGB “Remodeled'”

A History of the World (In Dingbats) is one of those Art Books that may seem easy to write off at first, but then keeps surprising & intriguing you. I’ve been amazed watching it sell out everywhere. Say what you will about it- it’s speaking to a wide range of folks. Almost ANY book of Drawings that reaches people these days is probably going to be a book I am fond on. This one counts.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Born Under Punches” by David Byrne & Talking Heads from their album Remain in Light, 1980.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. As I face high expenses to keep it going, if you’ve found it worthwhile, please donate to keep it up & ad-free below. Thank you!

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.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

  1. “Burning Down The House,” Speaking in Tongues, 1983 ↩

Alec Soth: A Pound of Pictures

Show Seen: Alec Soth: A Pound of Pictures @ Sean Kelly Gallery, January 14 – February 26, 2022

Alec Soth returned to Sean Kelly on 10th Avenue with a show of his latest body of work titled A Pound of Pictures. The show coincided with the publication of his latest PhotoBook of the same title published by London’s Mack Books. Mr. Soth has been a full member of Magnum Photos since 2008, during which time his popularity has steadily increased, so the arrival of new work is met with much curiosity and attention. I went for a look myself. I’ll also take this opportunity to survey his PhotoBooks to date, and make some recommendations in BookMarks, at the end.

“Get yourself a bride
And bring your children down to the river side.”*

A Pound of Pictures consists of Photographs Alec Soth took between 2018 and 2021 on various road trips around the country. There was no check list available, the first time in a long time I’ve seen that, so the titles are lacking.

The title of the exhibition, and the book, comes from a vendor Mr. Soth discovered on his travels in Los Angeles who sells photographs by the pound.

“Across the great divide
Just grab your hat, and take that ride”*

“Harvest moon shinin’ down from the sky, a weary sign for all
I’m gonna leave this one horse town, had to stall till the fall
Now I’m gonna crawl, across the great divide”*

“Across the great divide
And bring your children down to the river side.”*

Five smaller works shown in an alcove completed the display.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Across The Great Divide,” by J. Robbie Robertson and recorded on The Band in 1969.

BookMarks-
When it comes to making & publishing PhotoBooks, Alec Soth has been quite prolific. To date, he has produced books with Steidl, Mack Books and his own publishing house, Little Brown Mushroom creating plenty to explore. His first two books are contemporary classics among PhotoBooks released in this century, and are both highly recommended.

Sleeping By The Mississippi, his first book, was published by Steidl in 2004 in a decorative cloth cover, before being reissued twice by Steidl with pictorial covers- all three editions gong out of print and fetching substantial prices on the aftermarket. The cheaper alternative is the Mack Books reprint edition published in 2017 and still in print.

Mississippi was followed by Niagara, first published by Steidl in 2008, and was quite hard to find until Mack Books reissued it on its 10th anniversary in 2018, which is still available.

Among his other books, Songbook and Gathered Leaves, both published by Mack Books in 2015, are the two most noteworthy, and recommended. Songbook, a collection of black & white Photos, shot around the country, was first published by Mack Books in 2015. It is notorious for its lime green cover which is the most prone to fading book I have ever seen. Good luck finding a first edition/first printing with a truly green cover. Unfortunately, the way it fades, to a dead grass brown, completely ruins the original intention. I have no idea if later printings have fixed this issue. The only choice for buyers of a copy with a truly green cover is to NEVER let it see the light of day. Find the most light-proof covering or bag you can and store it some place dark. Recommended with that caution.

Gathered Leaves is an interesting box set/compilation of reduced size versions of four complete PhotoBooks by Mr. Soth- Sleeping By The Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, and Songbook. At the time it was published, it was the only way for 99% of readers to see Broken Manual, (which was published by Mr. Soth & Steidl in 2010 in a limited edition which completely disappeared almost immediately), Mississippi, and Niagara, all three being mostly legends to those who missed them, and were out of print in 2015. Recommended because you get to see these four books complete, and in spite of the smaller size reproduction of the books.

Mack Books has just announced a new version of Gathered Leaves, to be released later this year. This time, five books are brought together in one large softcover- Sleeping By The Mississippi, Niagara (both originally published by Steidl), Broken Manual, Songbook are joined by the new A Pound of Pictures. Auspiciously missing from this group is I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating, released in 2019. Is leaving it out entirely an indication that Mr. Soth feels I Know How Furiously is not as strong as his other books? I found it surprising, but I agree.

I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating, 2019, Mack Books will be an essential purchase for Alec Soth fans and completists, I rank it as unnecessary for those seeking an overview or only the most essential books. Besides Broken Manual, which will run you thousands of dollars depending on what’s included, which I would include, Sleeping By The Mississippi and Niagara remain his essential books. Both remain affordable in the Mack Books editions.

The recently released A Pound of Pictures, published by Mack Books, is something of a return to form, another large-format, road trip based body of work, like Sleeping By The Mississippi and Songbook. Though not as strong as Mississippi or Niagara in my view, it retains Alec Soth’s curiosity and his ability to capture unexpected/incongruous combinations. Mr. Soth has continually experimented with format, layout and presentation throughout his PhotoBook career. Some succeed. Some a bit less so. I’m all for experimenting. I have some questions about Pound’s design from its curious covers (the title and Mr. Soth’s name appear in small type at the bottom of a long list on the front). I think the back cover should have been the front cover (ala the 3rd Steidl edition of Sleeping By The Mississippi), the front cover should have been the back cover. Inside, the prints, though a very nice size, seem to have a slightly faded look to them. When compared to the prints in the show (as seen above), the colors in the book lack a bit of “pop” to my eyes. Recommended, though after Sleeping By The Mississippi, Niagara and Songbook, among books readily available.

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The Sculptural Photography of Vik Muniz

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Detail of Gente Indo, 2021, seen in full further below, just to the right of the middle.

Brazilian Artist Vik Muniz is like the weather. The next time you look, his work will be completely different. A seemingly endless font of creativity, he continually invents new techniques with which to create, and has since he began creating Art in 1987. This fact alone is enough to put him on the list of important Contemporary Artists. His massive 16 1/2 pound, two-volume Catalogue Raisonne shows the Artist creating entire bodies of work in materials as diverse, and as far from the Art-world norm, as chocolate sauce, or ketchup, or jelly, in true Duchampian fashion. However, Mr. Muniz is so prolific his C.R. is already 6 years out of date! A look through it does reveal that the Artist’s process is to invent a technique, create an entire body of work with it, then invent another completely different technique, most likely in completely different materials, and create another body of Art using it. Rinse and repeat, over and over and over, for 35 yers now. Through it all, Photography remains central to his oeuvre. Originally a Sculptor, Mr. Muniz Photographs most of his works, those which are too delicate or ephemeral for display. Along with the extreme creativity in their creation, the other remarkable common thread that runs though his oeuvre is his work is often visually stunning and as a whole, in spite of the variety 0f techniques used, somehow manages to coalesce into one of the most unique bodies of work created since the mid-1980s.

Gente Indo, 2021, Dyptich, Archival inkjet print, 158 1/2 by 57 1/2 inches, One of a kind. Click any Photo for full size.

Needless to say, I had no idea what I was in for this time when I ventured through the doors of Sikkema Jenkins on February 17th, as Mr. Muniz returned with his latest work in a show titled Scraps, that runs through April 9th. His last show, Museum of Ashes, in late 2019, which I wrote about here, included two themes and two equally stunning bodies of work, including one made of its own ashes.

Oklahoma, 2020, Archival inkjet print, 50 1/2 by 71 inches, One of a kind. Good luck trying to count how many pieces make up this amazing recreation, from a media image, of this horrific event.

Detail of the right side seen from an angle.

This time, there is one theme and one body of work on view all sharing a complex process of creation. I’ll let the press release explain- “Muniz’s newest body of work, entitled Scraps, developed from the use of textures in his previous Surfaces series and his interest in mosaic compositions. He begins his collage process by sourcing painted elements from his studio and assembling them into an abstracted mosaic, which is then photographed, printed, and cut up; the cut pieces are arranged and layered to form the new, final photographic image. The physical element of painting is thus subtracted from resulting art object but is evoked visually through the cut prints. These multiple levels of dimensionality effect a dynamic sense of composition, and a sublime tension between part and whole.” I was told that the end piece of Art replicates an original Photo that either he had taken himself, or sourced from the media.

Jakarta, 2021, Archival inkjet print, One of a kind. In this Photo, it looks like a Photo. Standing in front of it, due to all the layers and pieces it’s made up of, it has a depth no 2D Photo can capture, a bit like Sculpture, that comes closer than a Photo does of what it must have felt like to stand there.

In Scraps, his subjects range from the mundane (Gas Station Sink, New Jersey, 2021, below) to the monumental (Oklahoma, 2020, recreating the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing), a number of cityscapes and large crowd scenes, and a stunning over-life sized portrait. I can’t begin to imagine how many individual pieces are in each work, or how long it took to make one. Unlike some of his pieces, the work in Scraps, though infinitely complex and one-of-a-kind, are Photo based and so are stable enough to display. They are mounted in case-like frames that allow three dimensional space for the multiple layers attached to the paper. Each one may be pondered from a distance, or studied in detail as close as one would care to for a different experience, like the work of Chuck Close.

Gas Station Sink, New Jersey, 2021

Scraps also wonderfully combines Painting and Photography in a new way. As seen in the detail from Gas Station Sink, New Jersey, the cut up pieces of Photos that went into this are of Paintings from Mr. Muniz’s studio.

“He begins his collage process by sourcing painted elements from his studio and assembling them into an abstracted mosaic, which is then photographed, printed, and cut up; the cut pieces are arranged and layered to form the new, final photographic image. The physical element of painting is thus subtracted from resulting art object but is evoked visually through the cut prints. These multiple levels of dimensionality effect a dynamic sense of composition, and a sublime tension between part and whole1.”

Detail.

The remarkable thing for me about this technique, and many of his prior inventions, is their way of reinventing the world- everything looks new again, and in Scraps he proceeds to walk us around that world through these new eyes.

Gavea (for Jorge Hue), 2021, Archival inkjet print, One of a kind.

Detail. Here, as in every part of every piece, if you stand to the side, you can see the layering, with, apparently, the same image in each layer. The effect is different from the Cubism of Picasso & Braque, but is still multi-dimensional.

I met Vik Muniz at his 2019 show and spoke with him again at the opening of Scraps. I commented that there was a new kind of cubism going on in this work and he replied that people had been talking about cubism in his work in another recent show.

Vik Muniz discusses Nameless (Woman with Turban) after Alberto Henschel, 2020, Archival inkjet print, 90 by 59 inches, One of a kind. Mr. Muniz was saying how this woman is ubiquitous in Brazil.

What I was referring to was the intriguing layering that is seen in every work on display. Not apparent in pictures of them, which flatten the third dimension, as you stand in front of them, the multi-dimensionality is immediately apparent. It draws you closer and almost forces you to look again from an angle. As for a “new type of cubism,” unlike most work that hangs on a wall, every piece in Scraps has layers that protrude from the surface, or are layered on top of each other giving each part of the piece more or less depth. Moving slightly to the side, back and forth, allows the viewer to look behind the upper most layer(s). There he or she will find something fascinating. Each layer is identical. The effect, up close or at a distance, is sculptural, something I also mentioned to Mr. Muniz. “Sculptural” work that is labelled “Archival inkjet prrints,” that are “One of a kind.” Seeing them for first time I thought their effect akin to a kind of “static cubism,” since there is no sense of movement as there is in Picasso’s cubism, because each underlying piece being identical to the one above, shares the same perspective.

Boy, 2021, Archival inkjet print, 37 by 31 inches. One of a kind. I was told this piece is based oa Photo of Mr. Muniz at age 4.

Vik Muniz has had a long and successful and accomplished career, and is quite well-known, though he is only in mid-career. Still, it seems to me that his is the kind of work that almost any Art lover could take a shine to. I could see Via Muniz becoming an “Art superstar” very easily. Perhaps the only thing holding his work back from a very large level of popularity is that it really needs to be seen in person to appreciate. A large traveling U.S. mid-career retrospective might do the trick. It’s time. 

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “The Secret Life of Plants” by Stevie Wonder from Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants, 1979.

BookMarks-
If you choose to buy from a link below, I will receive a small commission, with my thanks. There are no such links in the body of the piece, above.

Gramacho, 2021, 50 1/2 by 70 1/2 inches, One of a kind. A work based on the Documentary, Waste Land, 2010, which Vik Muniz starred in.

Perhaps the best introduction to Vik Muniz is in the award winning documentary Documentary, Waste Land, 2010, which he starred in. It’s a look at the garbage sifters outside of Rio de Janeiro as Mr. Muniz creates portraits of them and learns about their lives. It’s available to stream or on DVD.

Vik Muniz: Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer, Aperture-The best overview I’ve seen on Mr. Muniz and his Art to 2005. Numerous illustrations, though not many full page images. Still, you get a lot of fascinating information about the creation of the Artist’s amazingly innovative techniques that other books don’t have. Copies of this out of print book trade for very reasonable prices (around $10).

Vik Muniz has released at two Catalogue Raisonnes that I know of, and a third book that calls itself “Incomplete.” Box Vik Muniz: Catalogue Raisonne 1985-2015  is the most current, complete, look at his output. It’s a beautifully produced, huge 16 1/2 pound, two-volumes in a slipcase, set, with countless large Photos of all his work to 2015. It’s a constant treat for the eye. I asked Vik about the fact that it is now 6 years old (published in 2016) and if he planned another one. He said that he was considering doing a Catalogue Raisonne online. So, this may be the last CR in book form. Note- It’s listed as being in Portuguese. The English set is titled Vik Muniz Catalogue Raisonne 1987-2015: Everything So Far (ISBN 978-8589063579). I’d recommend checking with the seller on the language before buying.

The earlier Catalogue Raisonne, Vik Muniz: Obra Complete 1987-2009, is beautiful and only one, large volume, but it only goes to 2009 and is in Portuguese only. Then there is Vik Muniz: Obra Incompleta/Incomplete Works, published in 2004, which is in both English & Portuguese and was published to accompany a retrospective, is also very well done and contains a very well chosen selection of his early work.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. If you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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  1. Scraps, Press release. ↩

Jasper Johns: Contemporary Art Begins Here

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (except *)

Art in NYC, 2021, Part 1-

Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Or is it Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg? Who came first? Mr. Johns said, Mr. Rauschenberg “was the first person I knew who was a real artist (i.e. a working artist)1.” At the time, Jasper Johns was working at the Marlboro Bookstore.

Contemporary Art starts here. Jasper Johns seen in his Pearl Street studio in 1955, with two of the most important early works in Contemporary Art- the first Flag Painting, 1954-55, and Target with Four Faces, 1955. At the time, Robert Rauschenberg had an apartment/studio upstairs. *Photo by George Moffet from the MoMA Jasper Johns: A Retrospective catalog, p.125.

Still, it was Jasper Johns who came to acclaim first when in 1957, Leo Castelli visited his Pearl Street studio, seen above, saw his work and offered him a solo show the following January. The rest is history. In 1959, Time Magazine said-

“Jasper Johns, 29, is the brand-new darling of the art world’s bright, brittle avant-garde. A year ago he was practically unknown; since then he has had a sellout show in Manhattan, has exhibited in Paris and Milan, was the only American to win a painting prize at the Carnegie International, and has seen three of his paintings brought for Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art.” 2.

For my part, I was so taken with Robert Rauschenberg’s work that I was slow in getting to Jasper Johns. Over the years, his work has spoken to me more and more, to the point of shouting to me now. Messers Johns & Rauschenberg eventually became romantically involved only to have it end in 1961. At this point, almost 70 years since the Photo above was taken, all that really matters for the rest of us is that both have created two of the most important bodies of work of our time.

Happy Birthday, Jasper Johns! The Artist cutting an Ale Can Birthday Cake on his 90th birthday, May 15, 2020. *Unknown Photographer.

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is an early candidate for the show of the decade. With around 500 pieces, it’s so vast it’s split between two major museums simultaneously- the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Philadelphia Museum. Scheduled to coincide with the Artist’s 90th birthday on May 15, 2020, its opening was unfortunately delayed due to covid until September 29, 2021. Still, it’s a stellar 90th Birthday present. Having visited the Whitney half about 10 times, in my opinion, it ranks with the finest shows yet mounted in their new building- Frank Stella, Vida Americana, and Julie Mehretu. It’s brilliantly conceived & laid out and very thoughtfully & intelligently installed.

Roll up! It just so happens this bus, the M14, will take you to the show, among other places…

There have been some important, major, Jasper Johns shows to this point including the 1996 Jasper Johns: A Retrospective at MoMA, Jasper Johns: Something Resembling Truth, at the Royal Academy, London in 2017, and previous large shows at the Whitney & Philadelphia Museums. Yet, given the long-standing relationships Mr. Johns has had with both of those institutions, and the large holdings of his work they each have, I wonder if there will EVER be a more comprehensive look at the work & career of this now legendary Artist, especially with his involvement. As a result, Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is something of a perfect storm in an imperfect time of a show. Though I have only seen the Whitney half (and the rest in the fine Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror catalog, the only place where you can see the entire show) , it still ranks among the great shows I’ve seen in the past decade including Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer and Kerry James Marshall: Mastry. Also, consider this- Imagine being the curator of the largest Jasper Johns show ever, then being told you only get to mount half of it in your institution! HOW do you divide an Artist’s career in half, and make it cohesive particularly to a discerning Art audience like NYC, while not shorting the equally discerning Philadelphia Art audience?– or vice versa?

Off and running. The exhibition’s lobby contains 39 Paintings, Drawings & Prints that range over his entire career arranged chronologically, and includes a number of very well-known works.

From the evidence I have right now, having seen the NYC half and the Mind/Mirror catalog , they’ve done an extraordinary job. Both halves are full of important pieces and rarely seen supporting works. The show is broken down into themes, which follow the chronological arc of the Artist’s career, which are then divided in half between the two locations and arranged into rooms by theme. Somehow, a visit to one doesn’t leave you with an overriding feeling of missing too much. Yes, if you have followed Mr. Johns career and you go to the Whitney you’ll find yourself looking for his first Flag, 1954-5, or Untitled, 1972, both of which are on view in Philly, but what IS here more than makes up for it. Time and again I found myself surprised that such and such a work WAS here. Not only that, more often than not, it is so thoughtfully displayed that there’s very likely supporting pieces nearby which shed completely new light on it. A good example of this is the wonderful gallery devoted to one of his most fascinating pieces, According to What?, 1964, which was surrounded with three walls of related work that reveal how much each detail in According to What? means to the Artist and how much thought and planning went into it. 

According to What?, 1964, Oil and objects on canvas. This is one of his works that can be seen as a “summing” up of where he was at that point, coming on the heels of Retrospectives at the Jewish Museum, NYC, and the Whitechapel Gallery, London (which would happen, again, after his MoMA Retrospective in 1996. It’s full of objects that he would reference in other works, which surround it in this gallery. It’s also a “tribute” to Marcel Duchamp, with a copy of his Self-Portrait hanging down on the left on the panel that is usually closed when this piece is seen.

Having said all of that, there is a somewhat basic conundrum to consider. Seeing ONE work by Jasper Johns leaves the exact same feeling as seeing, approximately, 250 in each half of this show, or all 500 for that matter: What’s going on? What is it “about?”

Installation view of parts of two of the surrounding and supporting walls. The series of Prints on the left isolate elements of the Painting, which brings the viewer back to study each in the larger work. There is another half of this gallery behind me.

Looking at a few or a few hundred begins to shed light. At the age of 24, in the fall 1954, Jasper Johns destroyed all of his work in his possession 3. He wiped the slate clean (something he would do again, non-destructively, after the MoMA Retrospective in 1996). Right from the earliest work he then created using “things the mind already knows,” he said of the flags, targets, numbers, etc. he featured resulted in pieces the viewing public immediately had a way “in to” at a time of densely personal Abstraction that often lacked one. He created multiple pieces with each object around the same time, then suddenly, one would return years, even decades, later. They became parts of his own language. Symbols. Stand ins. Of what? That’s up to Mr. Johns and each viewer to decide. Thus far, that’s kept viewers and the Art world busy for over 6 decades.

Three Flags, 1958, Encaustic on canvas.

“Jasper Johns is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada and pop art.” Wikipedia.

There, in one sentence spotted on a search result page is why I avoid Wikipedia. Mr. Johns’s early work is the antithesis of Abstract Expressionism! He and Robert Rauschenberg set out to do their own thing in the face of the all-encompassing tide of AbEx that was at its zenith when they began. To this end, Mr. Rauschenberg even famously erased a Drawing by Willem de Kooning, one of the most prominent of the first wave of AbEx Painters. Jasper Johns’s stated creed was “When I could observe what others did, I tried to remove that from my work. My work became a constant negation of impulses.4” “I was anxious to clarify for myself and others what I was5.” As for “Neo-Dada,” he, like countless others, was influenced by Marcel Duchamp AFTER he saw his work in 1957 and then met him circa 1958-9. But, people “associated” his work with Duchamp’s beginning in 1957, when he had never seen it!

White Flag, 1955, Encaustic, oil, newsprint, and charcoal on canvas. His second and largest flag, on loan from The Met.

Yes, his post-1954 early work center around familiar objects that he has turned into Paintings or Sculpture, his “vocabulary” of elements “the mind already knows” famously include the American Flag, targets, numerals, words, ale cans, Savorin cans and string. yet I don’t see them as “pop,” and I don’t consider Mr. Johns (or Robert Rauschenberg or James Rosenquist for the matter), “pop” Artists, though I know some do. Flags, targets and numbers are not soup cans or Brillo boxes. (His Ale Can Sculpture resulted from a dare, so I read it somewhat tongue in cheek.) His Savorin can Sculpture and Prints are based on the can and brushes in his studio. The wall card makes the case that the Savorin can and paint brushes are “stand-ins” for the Artist. Again, not “pop.” This is interesting because his “object” based work of the 1950s allowed him to remain detached. “I don’t want my work to be an exposure of my feelings,” he said around 1977 6. Over time that has seemed to change, but looking for specifics gets tricky.

A gallery full of his Savorin can Sculpture, 1960, and Monotypes from the 1970s and 80s he made of the object on the 4 surrounding walls. He used a Savorin can as a paint brush holder in his studio. Not sure that makes it “pop.”

As you walk through the show you’ll see expressive passages in Paintings that are a hallmark of AbEx (as in According to What?), but rarely entire Paintings (there are a few), and these were done after the heyday of the first wave Abstract Expressionist Painters. These passages don’t define him or any of his work, in my view, especially given his early work stood diametrically opposed to theirs. It’s really one technique among the very many Mr. Johns uses. As time has gone on, Jasper Johns has shown more interest in Art history, and numerous Artists, like Picasso, Leonardo, Duchamp and Edvard Munch, have “appeared” in his work. As I mentioned in my piece on MoMA’s Cézanne Drawing show, which included a dozen works from Mr. Johns’s collection, he has amassed a world-class Art collection, demonstrating impeccable taste in his acquisitions, that is fascinating in its breadth. Whatever his initial influences were, from the beginning with Flag, 1954-55, Jasper Johns’s work has looked like no one else’s. In my view, that Wikipedia page should read- Jasper Johns’s work is associated with Japer Johns.

One of the most extraordinary works of the 1950s. Target with Four Faces, 1955, Encaustic on newspaper and cloth over canvas surrounded by four tinted-plaster faces in wood box with hinged front.

Another fascinating early work is Target with Four Faces, 1955, which contains 4 heads cut off at just below the eye. They all appear to be male. The piece has a door that can be lowered blocking the faces from view. And, there it was, on loan from MoMA, appropriately on the first wall in the first gallery. A shot over the bow of the Art world in 1955, and today. I came away believing that if Jasper Johns had never made another work after it, Target with Four Faces was enough to seal his stature.

Detail. I was told by a Whitney staffer that the heads were cast from four people in his studio. Note the hinged door above them, which when closed, gives the work an entirely different effect. Also notice the amount of work that went into placing the heads just so. Standing to the side reveals that the tip of the noses must be right up against that door when it’s closed.

Either way, they can’t see what is going on in front of them. Are they present while someone is being targeted, but unseeing? Or, are they the ones with the target on them? It’s easy to read things into them, including Mr. Johns’s fellow gay men being targets, or the public being blind to the “targeting” of others. What about the prominence of their noses, or their closed mouths? Or…..? It’ll say something else the next time I look at it.

One of my favorite elements of Jasper Johns’s early collages are when the underlying material, often newspapers, comes through- either intentionally or through age. In this marvelous very small Flag from 1965, Encaustic and collage on canvas, 7 3/4 by 11 1/4 inches, it’s hard to tell which is the case, particularly with the row of faces to the right. Included in a stunning gallery at the heart of the show of small works from throughout his career.

But, fortunately for the world, he has continued to create. For 68 more years, so far! His Flags raise similar wonder. Does that they were Painted by a gay man in the 1950s living in a country with harsh stereotypes against him and his kind enter into it? A yearning for a Flag that stood for all? For me, anyway, it’s hard to see either of these pieces and not wonder about these things. Of course, as you move through the show one thing becomes quickly apparent. In the Art of Jasper Johns virtually nothing is THAT simple. 

Untitled, 1992-5, Oil on canvas, 78 by 118 inches.

After these early “objects” and object based works, in the early 1960s, Mr. Johns’s work becomes something of a “non abstract form of abstraction,” as the late Kirk Varnedoe, curator of the MoMA Johns Retrospective called it7, where objects and symbols become elements and not the sole subject. Was this done to subvert attempts at “reading” his Art?

The Seasons, 1989-90, Acrylic over intaglio on paper. That figure is reputed to be the Artist’s. On the terrific installation of this show- While this might seem a small detail, I can’t recall ever being in a show where virtually NONE of the pieces suffered terribly from glare. Here, I’m standing directly in front of  The Seasons and there is no reflection. Oh, if only other museums (and galleries) would see what a huge difference it makes it might help persuade them to pay the considerable current cost for glare-free acrylic glazing on pieces with glazing.

In the 1960s his work turned to more private imagery and symbols as opposed to the well-known objects, like Flags and targets. In works like According to What? his use of them reaches a crescendo, and these continued for some years until he wiped the slate clean, again, and began his Cross-hatched period. Things seem to build to another crescendo, like The Seasons, above or Untitled, 1992-94, which led up to his MoMA Retrospective, which would change everything.

Catenary (I Call to the Grave), 1998, Encaustic on canvas with wood and string. After the MoMA Retrospective, Mr. Johns stripped his canvases bare and began to address aging and death in the Catenary series, which numbers 19 Paintings, of which this one never fails to stir me, 55 Drawings and 6 Prints.

The MoMA Retrospective in 1996 caused the Artist to take stock of where he was and led to him drastically changing course. He wiped the slate clean, again. By that time, his work had grown very complex, but now his work emptied. His focus turned to the eventuality of death. This resulted in his extraordinary Catenary series, 1998, and has continued to be (one of) the overriding themes of his work to this day. 

The remarkable Farley Breaks Down 2014, Ink and water-soluble encaustic on plastic. I was stunned when I first saw this in 2019. A work without precedent in Jasper Johns’ enormous output created at 84. The Whitney wisely acquired it.

In 2019 I happened in to Jasper Johns: Recent Paintings & Works on Paper at Matthew Marks Gallery and was frankly overwhelmed when I saw a series of works titled Farley Breaks Down. I’d never seen anything like them, typical of Jasper Johns, yes, but even in his long and productive career they stand alone. I wrote about the show here. Just prior to these there are works in ink and water-soluble encaustic on plastic, but with this subject, Mr. Johns has reached an entirely new level. In 1965, LIFE Magazine Photographer Larry Burrows created a series of Photographs following a helicopter crew, Yankee Papa 13, on a mission in the Vietnam War. During it, one crew member was killed and another wounded. The last Photograph in the series shows Cpl. Farley back at the base breaking down. A few years later Larry Burrows was killed in another of these helicopter missions. It is this image that Jasper Johns chose to interpret. Jasper Johns did 2 years in the Army during the Korean War based in South Carolina and Japan. Still, exactly why he chose to create this series of works in his 80s is up for conjecture.

Detail of “Farley.”

Is it coincidence that over the years, Mr. Johns has lost his entire circle of fellow Artists- Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, Morton Feldman and John Cage among them? The series is remarkable both for its incredible power and melancholy (which is not new to his work), as well as it’s stunningly beautiful flowing technique. It’s almost like these pieces are created with colored tears. Yet here, loss is the subject, and for the first time in his work, it’s presented almost nakedly.

A half gallery of dark works created after the breakup with Rauschenberg in 1961 (except for the work on the far left and the sculpture in the middle, including Liar, in the facing left corner.

There is also the pain of another kind of loss. The loss of romantic love. While I have no idea what Jasper Johns’s romantic life has been like, the second part of the first gallery is devoted to the searing works Mr. Johns created after his relationship with Robert Rauschenberg ended in 1961. The visual evidence is overwhelming that it had a devastating effect on him. After these, there is silence in his work where romance might be concerned. He shows deep affection for friends and those he admires, but there is never an expression of romantic love. This, also, is rare in Art8.

Recent Jasper Johns. Untitled, 2020, Intaglio on Magnani Insisioni paper. This piece was on view in both the Matthew Marks & Whitney shows.

As if the Whitney & Philadelphia Museums shows weren’t enough Jasper Johns there was also a remarkable show of his most recent work coinciding with the opening of JJ:M/M, Jasper Johns: New Works on Paper at Matthew Marks Gallery!

Untitled, 2021, Acrylic and graphic over etching on paper. Different, as ever, these works emphasized the cosmology theme which has appeared in some earlier works. The detail in these is both subtle and remarkable. The show consisted of a wall of these, facing a wall of Drawing based works like Untitled, 2020, above with stick figures.

Having seen upwards of 300 of his pieces between the two NYC shows two things stand out for me are- first, Mr. Johns incredible intellect. As you walk through the show you begin to notice that Jasper Johns does nothing- including speak, without very carefully considering what’s going to come out. At first glance some of his pieces look improvised, until you see a carefully crafted Drawing or other supporting pieces in which every detail has been carefully rendered, belying the careful consideration and the large amount of work that went into them. And this is continued over a seemingly endless body of work over 65 years of continually doing something different.

Diver, 1962-3, Charcoal, pastel and paint on two sheets of paper mounted on two adjoining canvas supports, 7 FEET 2 1/2 by 71 3/4 inches!

Second, I haven’t realized how much the anguish of loss is a central theme of his work. This includes the thought of facing one’s own aging and death. For such a private man who’s work is often so dense as to defy understanding, he has repeatedly found his own unique ways of expressing it powerfully. Though each section (of both the NYC & Philly halves ) of Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is titled, loss and death are not among them. They are the unstated central themes of a good deal of his work, which continues through his latest work shown at Matthew Marks this past fall.

In the final gallery, along side 4 pieces from the remarkable Farley Breaks Down series, is this Painting, similar to the pieces lining the west wall of the Matthew Marks show, like Untitled, 2021, shown above.

Slice, 2020, Oil on canvas. A close look at this large piece reveals amazing detail and depth, the background reminiscent of End Paper, 1976 and Céline, 1978.

As the wall card says, “…ungraspable…”

Picasso outlived, and outworked, all of the boxes his work was put in- the so-called “Blue Period,” the “Rose Period,” Cubism, etc., etc. He did this by simply being himself. His Art changed as he changed. Jasper Johns, who has outlived all his contemporaries, was, perhaps, the first Artist to be lumped into the “Contemporary Art” box in 1958. Still going strong at 91 in 2022 as the Art world is morphs into whatever is coming next, Mr. Johns career has been one long continuous model for Artists- “When I could observe what others did, I tried to remove that from my work,” which has led to 68+ years of fresh ideas that point the way to the future.

Flag Above White With Collage, 1955, Encaustic and collage on canvas. Mr. Johns has used encaustic (a mixture of hot wax and paint) continuously throughout his career, one of the very few to use it so frequently, if not the only one, among major Artists. It is used in most of the works in the show.

It turns out that Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is not the only great and important show currently up in the Whitney this fall/winter! Since I sub-titled this piece “Art in NYC, 2021, Part 1,” Part 2 will look at it.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “I Don’t Want to Be Your Shadow,” by the Psychedelic Furs, from Forever Now, 1982, or “My Life is a Succession of People Saying Goodbye,” by Morrissey from You Are The Quarry, Extended Edition.

BookMarks-

With a career spanning a whopping 68 years(!), and counting, among the longest in Art history, you’d expect there have been a LOT of books published on Jasper Johns, and you’re right. There are. I see books I”ve never seen before each time I look. The latest being a catalog for a show on Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch (the book with the orange spine, above)! Among them, a few that I’ve seen are particularly recommended-

Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror, Philadelphia Museum/Whitney Museum/Yale-  Though it’s close to 4 pounds, it’s wonderfully succinct and the best place to get an overview of Jasper Johns’s work over his amazingly long career up to 2020. The text accompanying each chronological section is also concise, remarkably distilling voluminous information down to a few pages, though I found the essays hit or miss. The book is the only way to see the whole show besides traveling to both museums (where it is only up until February 13, 2022). Highest recommendation for those seeking one Jasper Johns book with the most and broadest range of his Art in color.

Jasper Johns: A Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art- The catalog for the landmark Johns show in late, 1996 to early 1997 with a fine essay by curator Kirk Varnedoe, is a thorough look at his work up to 1996. In my opinion, it remains the finest reference on Jasper Johns due to its comprehensive 250 page Chronology and Plates section which goes up to the end of 1995. It’s also of ongoing importance in the history of the Artist when you consider that having this Retrospective had such an impact on the Artist that it caused his work to drastically change after and since. The immediate result was the extraordinary Catenary series, though all of his work since bear the hallmarks of that change. Here is a terrific record of his work up to that point that includes many illustrations. A model exhibition catalog that Mr. Johns designed the endpapers for. Essential for the Jasper Johns fan.

Jasper Johns: Redo an Eye, Wildenstein- A 300+ page look at the work of Jasper Johns that provides a comprehensive look at the Artist’s Art over his entire career up to about 2018, and one of the few to cover his later work. Author Roberta Bernstein says she has spent much time with Mr. Johns over the past 50 years, in addition to focusing on studying his Art. As a result, the book provides numerous insights. The most comprehensive overview currently available, it’s also available as Volume 1 of the Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonné of Painting and Sculpture, listed further below. Includes many illustrations, though in smaller sizes then the MoMA Retrospective, above, or the Whitney book, which are meant to illuminate the text since it originally served as the introduction to the Catalogue Raisonné, which has the large size reproductions. Recommended for those who want to dive deeper into Jasper Johns.

Jasper Johns: Catenary, Matthew Marks Gallery- (The book with the blue spine in the bookshelf pic with the string appropriately hanging down from it.) Matthew Marks Gallery has shown the Artist for many years, and has often published very well done and beautiful catalogs for their shows. Each is worth seeking out. Among them, I’ll highlight two here. Published to accompany the show of the same name in 2005, this was the only opportunity to date to survey this exceptional body of 80 later works which was the result of the Artist’s reaction to the aforementioned MoMA Jasper Johns: A Retrospective. They center around aging and death, each of which is illustrated in color here. It includes a fine essay by Scott Rothkopf, the co-curator of Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror. It’s also beautifully published by Steidl. Out of print but not expensive.

Jasper Johns: Recent Paintings and Works on Paper, Matthew Marks Gallery- Published to accompany the unforgettable show of the same name in 2019, a NoteWorthy Show, which shows yet another new side of the Artist’s work. Featuring the extraordinary Farley Breaks Down series along with a number of other compelling recent works, with over 60 illustrated here. I was stunned when I saw the Farley pieces. They seemed to be without precedent- both in Johns’s work or that of any other. Both books are highly recommended to those interested in John later & current work.

For serious study & research, there is the Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonné of Painting and Sculpture, a 5 volume set that currently trade at big discounts from its $1,500.00 list price. I can’t help but wonder if this is because they are already out of date since Mr. Johns has continued to create prolifically since it was published. It only goes to 2014. Then there is the Jasper Johns Catalogue Raisonné of Drawing set published in 2018 and the Jasper Johns: Catalogue Raisonné of Monotypes, collecting his unique prints to about 2018 (like the Savorin can Prints seen above).

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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  1. Jasper Johns: A Retrospective MoMA Catalog, p.124 ↩
  2.  “His Heart Belongs to Dada,” Time, May 4, 1959 ↩
  3. Jasper Johns, Mind/Matter, p.29 ↩
  4. Quoted in Michael Crichton, Jasper Johns, 1977 Whitney Catalog, p.27. Roberta Bernstein, Jasper Johns: Redo An Eye, p.20, says “While Johns respected many of the Abstract Expressionists, he was committed to establishing a new direction that embraced a more literal subject matter and engaged viewers in a way that was independent of the artist’s personality. ↩
  5. Roberta Bernstein, Jasper Johns: Redo An Eye, p.20 ↩
  6. Michael Crichton, Jasper Johns Whitney 1977 exhibition catalog,  p.20 ↩
  7. MoMA Retrospective Catalog, p.15 ↩
  8. Robert Rauschenberg is, coincidentally or not, another Artist who’s work appears not to reference his romantic life. ↩

NoteWorthy Art Books (and Bricks), 2021

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

As it was for PhotoBooks, 2021 was a challenging year to see as many newly published Art Books as in years past.

Still, the companies kept releasing them, and there were some terrific ArtBooks released this past year. Since there is no such thing as “best” in the Arts, here are those I most highly recommend, which I call NoteWorthy.

MoMA’s Endless Wall of Art Books is at least 60 feet high and twice as wide. I’ve given up seeing Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube under the sleeping cat sculpture about 20 feet above the lady’s outstretched arm!

NoteWorthy Art Books, 2021

Following on the heels of Jordan Casteel’s terrific New Museum show, Jordan Casteel: Within Reach, accompanied by the now classic book of the same name, 2021 was the year of terrific and important Art Books by Black Women Painters, known, and on the verge of becoming much more well known. I’ll celebrate them first-

An early nominee for Art Book of the Decade.

Kara Walker: A Black Hole Is Everything A Star Longs To Be, JRP Editions- Kara Walker has never been one to mince a line, a word or a cut image, and in A Black Hole Is Everything, her raw power is seen in full effect in page after page (600 in all!) of stunning Drawings in this catalog for a show of the same name at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, which she has said was born of “an excavation of my archives.” For those who missed the show, it serves as an excellent retrospective of her Drawings. As anyone who has seen her Drawing shows at Sikkima Jenkins & Co. over the past few years can attest, her Drawings are often timely, and then will surprise by referencing Art history in equally fresh, unique, even humorous, ways. 700 of them created between 1992 and 2020 are included here, with only a small number I saw in her shows, allowing the reader to trace the evolution of this vital side of the Artis’s creativity. Most have never been published. While her huge installations and cut paper pieces often have an all-encompassing effect, her Drawings, which feature immediacy and intimacy, show another side of her range. A number of Kara Walker’s earlier books are now quite hard to find. Given the size of A Black Hole is Everything and the fact that it’s imported, don’t wait long before grabbing yours. An early nominee for one of the most important Art Books of the decade.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly In League With The Night, DAP & Tate- A big year for the British Artist is captured in full effect in this fine book ostensibly published for her exhibition at the Tate, London. It also serves as a fine introduction to her work for those who didn’t see it. I saw her debut NYC solo show in 2019, which the Artist attended, and was immediately impressed with how she made the influence of the masters, like Velazquez and Goya, entirely her own. Her figures are always strong, set against subtle backgrounds, though the overall tone is dark, which is something of a trademark of the Artist, she occasionally offsets them with vibrant color. In this regard, they affect me like some of Hopper’s urban portraits, but Ms. Yiadom-Boakye’s work is even darker. A Painter just beginning to receive world-wide acclaim. I don’t see that ending any time soon.

Toyin Ojih Odutola: The UmuEze Amara Clan and the Hour of Obafemi, Rizzoli Electa- I can’t remember when the last time was I was so blown away by a Painter’s debut monograph. And this is after I had seen her terrific Whitney Museum show in 2017, and her work included in an equally wonderful group show at Jack Shainman Gallery in September, 2018. So, her work was not new to me when I picked up The Umueze Amara Clan. Still, I was just mesmerized by it as I paged through and every single time I pick it up since that feeling returns. Her unique style reminds me of a touch of Lucian Freud or Kathe Kollwitz, with larger touches of Charles White and Kerry James Marshall, but, in the end, comparisons are utterly pointless. I’m sure some will pick this up and say Ms. Odutola is “on her way to becoming a great Painter.” Ummm…no. She is one right now. An important book. Not to be missed.

Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing Serpentine Gallery– Most recently, I’ve been completely lost in Jennifer Packer’s work and the exceptional book, Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing, one of the most beautifully designed Painting books I’ve seen- in a year of exceptionally beautifully designed Painting books. Jennifer Packer is another Painter I was introduced to at the Whitney Museum- first in 4 Paintings in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, and now in her spectacular Whitney solo show of the same name as this book, which I saw the day it opened on October 30th, and is currently up as I write this. I’ll have more to say about her soon.

Mickalene Thomas, Phaidon- The newest book on this list was published just in time to make it, and I attended its release just this week. It, too, is one of the most beautifully designed Art Books of 2021, and a fitting overview of the work of this important and ground-breaking Artist & Activist who’s work is Photography based. It’s an overdue collection that was worth every bit of the wait. It joins Aperture’s excellent overview of her Photography, Muse, as an essential book on Ms. Thomas’s work.

Pick one of them? I can’t. I don’t think you can go wrong with whichever one you choose. All are Artists who will only be more and more important as time goes on, yet each of their books sticks a flag in the ground for their Art, and their vision, while making stunning cases for their work right now. 

Hito Steyerl, I Will Survive, Spector Books- Though a catalog for a European retrospective covering 30 years of her work, I’m moving this book out of the Retrospective or Exhibition Catalog category this year because her work is that important and this book is just so well done (like Paolo Pellegrin: Un’Antologia was among NoteWorthy PhotoBooks I looked at in 2020). Ms. Steyerl is probably better known in Europe where she famously turned down a top German honor, akin to British knighthood, because of her country’s pandemic response, so this book will hit Americans like it did me- a jolting wake up call to her work, her career, her ideas and how of-the-moment they seem today. (See Sara Cwynar in my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021 piece). Primarily a filmmaker (like Ms. Cwynar and Arthur Jaffa), theoretician and writer, her work centers on the circulation of images. As images take over our lives, in every realm besides Art, Hito Steyerl has been pointing out the dangers and the damages of this for a very long time. If her time isn’t now, it’s never going to be her time. The loss will be to the rest of us it’s all happening to who haven’t checked her work out. 

NoteWorthy Art Book/Autobiography, 2021

Ai Weiwei, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows– A few years ago I wondered if Ai Weiwei was the Artist of the Decade. Now that the 20 teens are over, it’s hard to think of anyone else who had the impact on both Art, and the world, as the former New Yorker, who finally left China behind for Germany, had between 2010 and 2019. His Autobiography couldn’t be more down to earth or matter of fact but that takes nothing away from how riveting page after page is. His journey is legendary, and I’ve written about it before, but to hear him lay it all out, in detail, makes for one of the most compelling Artist’s Autobiographies in the history of Art in my view. An essential document- on Art, on life, on growing up in China, and on living in the world today. 

NoteWorthy Exhibition Catalogs, 2021

Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands, Yale – A gorgeous book and terrific overview of the work of the late Chinese-American Artist who based some of her Paintings on the work of Dorothea Lange. Not unlike Ai Weiwei, Hung Liu lived with her family in exile during her childhood in China after Mao banished them to the hinterlands for “re-education.” Hung Liu came to know the hardships Dorothea Lange showed personally and spent the rest of her life expressing that in her work showing the disenfranchised of both her countries. Published to accompany the first museum retrospective of her work at the Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery, the Artist died as it was about to open. (My look at a simultaneous Fall, 2021 NYC show she also worked on before she passed is here.) The book serves as a terrific introduction to the work of an Artist who’s work I believe is going to be with us for the long haul. 

The Painter I’ve been looking at, and obsessed with, longer than any other FINALLY gets a book with text & images worthy of him & his Art.

Van Eyck– A “once in a lifetime” show of the work of the Artist I’ve been looking at longer than any other that I missed seeing in person due to the virus. The accompanying book gave me a second chance for which I am very grateful. Overflowing with the latest scholarship on Jan and his mysterious brother Hubert, two Artists who have been largely overlooked in the explosion of Art monographs this past decade. In my opinion, you buy this book for the text. Though a very large book, it does have numerous full page illustrations, which in my view are best seen in the context of supporting points made in the text. All of that said, it is the finest “coffee table” Van Eyck book available1. No Van Eyck book can hope to top the images available for free online at closertovaneyck.org, which I wrote about here, where you can zoom in as close as you want, seeing Art in entirely new ways, which I believe will soon become the norm (issues of print quality vs screen image quality aside). Jan van Eyck has been (rightly, in my view) honored for his unsurpassed technical mastery. Yet, there is far more going on in his work than just brilliant Painting. The man was an equally extraordinary thinker as well, leaving as much to think about in his work as there is to look at. Van Eyck is the state of the art of Van Eyck scholarship and is likely to remain so for a while, though I am very happy to see that scholars all over the world are continuing to explore his life and work. Don’t stop now!

NoteWorthy Art Book Publisher, 2021

A selection of Taschen’s huge XXL books that weigh 16-22 pounds each. Many are the best way to see the most works by the given Artist in the largest size. They generally run about $200, before they go out of print, which is considerably cheaper than it would cost to go and see these works in person. Frida Kahlo is their newest XXL and immediately goes to the top of the class of Kahlo books as THE best place to see her work. The Rembrandt on the far right was a NoteWorthy Art Book of 2020.

Taschen. It’s just impossible for me not to single out the longstanding, large German publisher for special notice. In particular, I want to make readers aware of the fact that they publish some of the great bargains in new Art Books in a series I call “the bricks.” They’re about the same size and weight as a brick, but they are packed from cover to cover with high quality illustrations and photos and, usually, very good text. At $20 to $25 each, the bricks are the biggest bargain in Art books known to me. ANYone interested in Art should know about them and check them out.

Pick your size. Top to bottom (left to right), Van Gogh in the old, smaller, brick, on top of Basquiat in the new larger brick, on top of The Charlie Chaplin Archives XL and The Charlie Chaplin Archives XXL, bottom, which comes in a brown shipping box.

The subjects, usually monographs, cover a surprisingly wide range of styles from the Old Masters to Basquiat and David Hockney. This past year saw Taschen release their incredible $200 Basquiat XXL 20 pound behemoth in a brick. Yes, the entire book is here, and yes the reproductions are reduced. Still, for $25. list price and over 500 pages, it’s an impossible- to-beat bargain. That’s the thing with Taschen. They release extremely well done Art Books in various sizes over time. First, the huge XXL edition, which usually clock in at about 20 pounds or so and are upwards of 2 feet tall for about said $200. They are, often, the last word on their subject Artist. Then, a year or so later comes the XL size. Substantially smaller and lighter, but still larger than most Art Books, for about $80. Still, at about 3/4 the size of the XXL, I think it’s a very good deal.

THE greatest bargain in Art books known to me. A row of “bricks” show how Taschen has slightly changed their size over the past decade. The newer releases, part of their 40th Anniversary series, like Egon Schiele and the Basquiat, are the bigger ones. The older bricks list for $20(!), the newer books list for $25. This entire row of 8 books lists for $175., less than the cost of one XXL!

And finally, a few years after the XL comes the brick. So, the buyer has choices. 3 sizes, priced accordingly, for the exact same book. You can build an excellent Art library with only the bricks. They’re handy, excellent overviews that hold up regardless of whatever other books come out, and any work you want to see larger can generally be found elsewhere or online.  I’ve been buying the bricks since they began releasing them, and while I prefer the XXL for some books (like the Rembrandt Complete Paintings), I generally wind up with the brick as time goes on. For me, the best thing about these Taschen books (in XXL, XL or brick size) is a good number of them feature “The Complete Works” or “The Complete Paintings,” something that you really can’t see anywhere else in contemporary Art books which make them an essential resource in which ever size you choose.

NoteWorthy Older Art Book Discovered in 2021- Mea Culpa!

Charlotte Salomon looks out at us in a Self Portrait from 1940 when the Artist was about 23, about two years before she was murdered. This Self Portrait is not part of Life? or Theatre? This is a copy of the 1981 first English edition, published by Gary Schwartz through Viking,  the first book to publish the complete Life? or Theater? It’s large size makes it the one to look for among sub-$100 versions.

Charlotte Salomon- Life? or Theatre? As I wrote about the incomparable Photographer & Artist Francesca Woodman a few years ago in my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks piece for 2019, I am equally unable to pick up a copy of Life? or Theatre? and not break into tears. Charlotte Salomon, 1917-42,  is one of the most remarkable Artists in Art history, an Artist who achieved something no other Artist known to me has- ever. She recreated her life’s story, and that of her family, in over 900 Paintings, which tell one continuous story that she completed just before being arrested by the Nazis and then executed at about 25 years of age. Equal parts cinema, opera and passion-play, each work is also accompanied by Music! Even more remarkably, each Painting has a velum overlay with text and Drawing on it that creates something of a different experience than seeing the Painting alone. Stylistically, it’s hard for me to look at Lotte’s work and not think of the great Marc Chagall (who, by some reports “was amazed by them” when he was shown them), but she definitely has her own style, one that she executed with just 3 colors!

The great Art writer Gary Schwartz should get the credit for rescuing her work from the archives where her parents donated it, putting together the first publication of the complete Life? or Theater? in 1980. Since, it’s been reprinted a number of times, all of which have gone in and out of print. There are good and not so good things about each edition. Just make sure to get a complete edition (in spite of what I just said above, I’d avoid the Taschen brick edition since it’s incomplete. The edition pictured above is about the same size and is complete). It’s the only series of Paintings ever created that can be “read” as a book! And, it’s also the ultimate revenge of the young Jewish girl who created a body of work that will be seen for as long as people have eyes to look with and will continue to gain her new admirers all the while. After all is said and done, in my eyes, as Life? or Theater? proves, great Art doesn’t only live today. I’m not interested in any other kind.

*Soundtrack for this Post is “Future People” by Alabama Shakes. Full lyrics, here.

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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. Ghent Altarpiece: Art, History, Science and Religion, 2019, is an excellent book focused on that one work, based around its ongoing restoration. ↩

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Oh, what would my life have been like these past almost 2 years without books? In a world without people, social events, or much else that most people considered regular parts of daily life “before,” I, like everyone else, was left to make the most out of what we had left, and make no mistake about it- I was, and am, grateful for what was left.

Though things returned to a semblance of what used to be called “normal” in the PhotoBook world in 2021, it was only that- a semblance. While the publishers somehow managed to hold up their end with the bigger houses announcing ambitious release plans with about the same amount of books as seen before 2020, things were a bit rockier elsewhere. The bigger book shows in NYC and the rest of the US were cancelled for 2021, so once again, retailers were the best way to actually see books in person, carefully. Things were still challenging for retail, and a number of independents I visited had cut down on their purchases, hours of operation, even whole departments, in order to survive. Hard to argue with that. So, it was still hard to see anywhere near as many new PhotoBooks as in years past. (Standard Disclaimer- As in years past, I have seen no one else’s list or reviews of books.)  Speaking of past years, I should mention that I have now been doing this list for four years. You can see the the prior installments for 2018 here, 2019 here, and 2020 here (I also looked at NoteWorthy Art Books in 2020 here and 2021 here). None of my pieces have sales links. As in past years, please note that publication dates are one thing, but I go by the dates I actually saw a book available for purchase- online or at retail, to include it in a specific year. Of those I saw this past year, these stood out as those I’d most highly recommend, which I call “NoteWorthy,” since there is no such thing as “best” in the Arts.

NoteWorthy Photobooks, 2021- Most Highly Recommended-

Gilles Peress, Whatever You Say, Say Nothing and the accompanying Annals of the North. Modified Steidl Photo

Gilles Peress, Whatever you say say nothing, Steidl- After 30 years in his archive, Mr. Peress has collaborated with Gerhard Steidl and the brilliant book designer Yolanda Cuomo on a book that many have already hailed as a PhotoBook for the ages. Indeed it is, but it also strikes me as a book for right now. At a time of so much strife here at home, it’s hard for me, for one, not to see elements of that in Mr. Peress’s strife filled work from a distant place and a another time.

Are there lessons from the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland in 1972 and 1980 when Mr. Peress took these Photographs we can use now? That’s for others to say. What I am sure of is that those killed remain dead. Does anything change? Well, there has been peace for almost 15 years now. While some might want to see more conflict documented among these 1,295 images, it is the images of courage to continue daily life in the midst of a world gone mad, to keep calm and carry on, as the catchphrase originally meant, that strike me just as much. Then there’s the Artistry.

Whatever you say is a master class in composition, street Photography/conflict Photography and immediate reaction, even though Mr. Peress was only in the early days of his illustrious career. So many times it seems that he anticipated an image the way Wayne Gretzky knew where the puck or his teammates would be seconds before they were. At close to 30 pounds with a wingspan when open close to 29 inches(!), it might not find its way into many homes, but every serious or institutional Art or Photography library needs it, and the accompanying 900 page annals of the north, on their sturdiest shelf.

Sara Cwynar, Glass Life, Aperture- In the world of surveillance capitalism we live in (but not here!), Sara Cwynar’s book looks and feels like a report card from the future, but it’s really a snap shot of the right now and recent past. Remember the marketing hubbub around the debut of the “Rose Gold” iPhone? Sara Cwynar made a film inspired by it called Rose Gold that’s now in MoMA’s Permanent Collection. Most of us are living in “Glass Life,” where much of our information, and some/many/most/all of our “personal connections” come from something with glass on it, which takes a good deal of our privacy in the process, providing a poor substitute for real intimacy. Her work has been most notably seen in a series of films (Soft Film, 2016, Rose Gold, 2017, and Red Film, 2018) that have been shown at MoMA and elsewhere. Stills from the films, and some of her portraits are collected in Glass Life. “But I now consider photography more of a tool in my work than a medium that I am totally devoted to,” she explained1. Though not a traditional “PhotoBook” per se, I find Glass Life stunning and ground-breaking.  

Sara Cwynar has been busy cataloging and connecting the various ways beauty and desirability are used by those in power to maintain or grow it, building a substantial image archive that, along with images she takes herself, she mines for her pieces. She first came to prominence for her eye-catching designs for the New York Times T Magazine, and has progressively built a major Art career this past decade with her Films and shows all over the world. As she approaches 10 years of solo shows, Ms. Cwynar has arrived as a doer and shaker in the Art world. Glass Life is a major, seminal, work of this young decade. 

Arthur Jafa, MAGNUMB, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark- Another Artist mostly known for his work in realms other than Photography, though in Mr. Jafa’s case, he works in a very wide range of mediums. MAGNUMB is an overview of his work with revealing interviews with the Artist included. From his sculpture of Ex-Slave Gordon on the cover, every page inside feels like it’s on fire.

Stills from his Films, and works in other medium, including his Photographs are included in one of the most important books of the year. After being called to work with Stanley Kubrick (on Eyes Wide Shut) and Spike Lee (he shot Crooklyn), Arthur Jafa has finally garnered recognition for his own work, something I don’t see that ending any time soon.

Unboxing my copy of American Geography…

Matt Black, American Geography, Thames & Hudson- Magnum Photos Member Matt Black (B. 1950) has been visiting & documenting American centers of poverty for the past six years, beginning with those around him in central California, where 1/3 of the population lives in poverty. During this time he has logged over 100,000 miles traveling to places with a poverty rate over 20% in 46 states and Puerto Rico. What he has brought back is body of work that is nothing short of comparable with that of the legendary Farm Security Administration (FSA) Photographs of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott and the rest in the 1930s, in my view, which are now icons of Photography and history.

Many of Mr. Black’s images are so stunning visually and Artistically they might be accused of distracting from their point- to show the rest of us how too many of us live. For me, it’s too hard to deny their status as Fine Art, but Mr. Black’s skill is such that he drives his point home in spades no matter the stunning Art of his craft. Lauded as a “future classic of photography” by the publisher, I’ve been watching this body of work being built the past five years and have been both stunned and mesmerized by each succeeding black & white image he has presented, so I knew this book would be a classic, without their words, the moment I learned of it. It’s not only a “future classic of photography,” it’s a classic right now.

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021- Excellent & Under The Radar-

Elliott Verdier from Reaching for Dawn. Elliott Verdier Photo.

Elliott Verdier, Reaching for Dawn, Dunes- After bringing the world A Shaded Path in 2019 on Kirghizistan, the French documentarian who has been featured in the New York Times (including this recent historic event he covered), among other outlets, turned his large format camera on the rarely seen country of Liberia in 2019, scene of a horrific civil war from 1989 to 2003. Mr. Verdier spent two years traipsing the country far and wide creating two different bodies of work- one, of landscapes in black & white, the other of color portraits. The results are published by Dune, the imprint he co-founded, in a book in a few different kinds of paper, and some pages in silver ink, like the books of that other great documentarian, Richard Mosse. The images are accompanied by texts by singer/songwriter Gaël Faye and 2011 Liberian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee. Reaching for Dawn makes a powerful counterpoint to Whatever you say, showing how the scars of war never really go away even though the conflict may be no longer seen. A remarkable PhotoBook and accomplishment on every level, that conveys a portrait of the land and the stoic resolve and dignity of the people who call it home.

Rosalind Fox Solomon, The Forgotten, Mack Books- Another Artist who has been on my list before- for her last book. In 2018, the instant classic Liberty Theater appeared here. This one is exceptional as well. It’s so easy to get caught up in imaginary narratives as you move from page to page to not fully appreciate how remarkable the passing Photos are. The Forgotten is another book in what is now an exceptional string of PhotoBooks by Rosalind Fox Solomon published by Mack Books, joining Them, in 2014, Got to Go, 2016, and the aforementioned Liberty Theater in 2018, each of which is highly recommended. At 91, it’s hard to think of any other Photographer who’s created so many excellent books the past 5-7 years besides Ms. Fox Solomon and Gregory Halpern. Find them while you can.

A sealed copy of Electronic Landscapes. Something that is going to be very rarely seen in the future, unless it’s reprinted.

Isaac Diggs and Edward Hillel, Electronic Landscapes, +Kris Graves Projects- I live in a city where great Music was has a long and storied history. Maybe you do, too. I bet for both of us, and probably almost every other place where great Music was made, almost no documentation of it exists, particularly of its beginnings. Isaac Diggs and Edward Hillel have seen to it that when people look back and want to know more about the beginnings of Detroit’s house, techno and hip-hop resurgence in 20 or 30 years the documentation will be there. And blessed they will be to have such a well-done and extremely well-organized book to refer to. +KGP was my NoteWorthy PhotoBook Publisher for 2020, when in spite of the pandemic and the worldwide shutdown, Kris Graves & Co. managed to publish 18 books! AND Mr. Graves created work, himself, that found him on the cover of National Geographic’s Photos of the Year Issue. This is Mr. Diggs third excellent book with +KGP. Only one, his equally excellent Middle Distance, is still available. Electronic Landscapes is just about sold out as I write this.

NoteWorthy 1st PhotoBooks, 2021-

Rahim Fortune, I can’t stand to see you cry, Loose Joints- Mr. Fortune’s debut is centered around his trip home to care for his ill father. The resulting book is a poignant meditation on life and its fleeting moments captured in black & white. Having had a parent who was sick for 6 years before passing, I am unfortunately acquainted with this. Mr. Fortune’s images don’t hide the worry, but his images are full of dignity and strength, while they meditate on life, death, love and loss. A remarkable debut.

Philip Montgomery: American Mirror, Aperture. 2021 saw a number of fine books that looked back at America either the past two years, or over the past few decades, by Mitch Epstein (Property Rights), Ken Light (Course of Empire), Robert Adams (American Silence) and Peter Van Agtmael (2020 and Sorry About The War), and others. For me, Philip Montgomery: American Mirror stood out for me among them, particularly because it’s a first PhotoBook. Mr. Montgomery’s style is stark, economical and direct all the while being beautiful, regardless of his subject. At just 33, his work has already been featured in the world’s most prestigious publications from The New York Times & The New York Times Magazine, to The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair, among many others. Here you can see why. While he Photographs other subjects, it only takes one look at American Mirror to see that Mr. Montgomery has all the makings of a major voice in what used to be called “Documentary Photography.” American Mirror screams “auspicious.” It’s one of those books people will be referring to while others will be desperately trying to find if it goes out of print.

NoteWorthy Retrospective, 2021-

Michael Schmidt: Photographs 1965-2014- The late German (1945-2014) is another of the many excellent Photographers who are not nearly as well known in the USA as they are in Europe. Michael Schmidt had a show, Michael Schmidt: U-NI-TY (EIN-HEIT), in 1996 at MoMA. It featured one of his most important bodies of work, created in response to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the two Germanys. It’s not the only excellent book Michael Schmidt produced. Waffenruhe (Ceasefire) is widely recognized as a 20th century classic. The fine softcover reprint is gradually disappearing, so be forewarned to get it soon. Michael Schmidt: Photographs 1965-2014 provides a very well done look at all of his books and his entire career, much of which will be new to PhotoBook aficionados in the USA. Check it out and don’t wait long if you want it. It will be very expensive after it goes out of print.

Eikoh Hosoe, Mack Books– Largely a contemporary of Michael Schmidt, though on the other side of the world, Eikoh Hosoe (B.1933) is something of a well-kept secret outside of his native Japan. Inside Japan, he’s known for his fine work over a 65 year career as a Photographer in helping to create post-war Japanese Photography, and as a teacher, who counts the world-famous Photographer, Daido Moriyama, among his students. For those looking to see where Mr. Moriyama’s signature high-contrast style came from, Eikoh Hosoe will prove most illuminating. Mack has outdone themselves with this excellent, 400 page, retrospective in which everything (the layout, the covers, the inclusion of a chronology, the quality of the binding and the printing) is first rate, especially the content. It’s now possible for those of us outside Japan to get up to speed on Mr. Hosoe’s accomplishment and follow his career step by step in this beautiful book, which is likely to stand as “definitive” for at least the near future.

NoteWorthy Reissued PhotoBook, 2021-

Jason Ezkenazi, Wonderland, Red Hook Editions- I’d given up hope of seeing this book, which quickly sold out, after achieving near legendary status. Then, earlier this year Jason Ezkenazi reissued his classic, in a larger size, and I immediately jumped on the chance to get it. Now, I come to it backwards, Wonderland being Book 1 of a trilogy. I was able to get the excellent Black Garden, Book 2, and Departure Lounge, Book 3 (see NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2020) last year, which only served to heighten my desire to see Book 1, Wonderland. It certainly holds up to both its reputation and the passage of time. Don’t miss it this time.

NoteWorthy Exhibition Catalog, 2021-

Zanele Muholi, Tate- The renowned Photographer, Painter & Activist received a Retrospective at the Tate, London this past year that included about 260 pieces covering her entire career. The only thing missing were her Paintings, who’s debut I recently looked at. For those of us not able to see the show, the Tate’s catalog is an essential book especially when you consider that some of her earlier books, like the excellent Faces & Phases 2006-14 and Only Half The Picture, are out of print and hard to find reasonably priced. At the moment, it’s the only way to see her early work and an overview of her whole accomplishment to this point.

NoteWorthy Photobook of 2018 I Missed- Mea Culpa!-

A word of warning- New, sealed copies, like this one, are getting quite hard to find.

Zanele Muholi, Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Aperture, 2018- Speaking of Ms. Muholi, HOW did I not include this in my 2018 NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2018 piece?

Zanele Muholi, from Brave Beauties and Somnyama Ngonyama (‘Hail, the Dark Lioness’), at Yancey Richardson, October, 2017

I had seen some of the work included in it at Yancey Richardson in 2017 and been stunned by it. The answer- the first printing sold out before I could get a copy. Suffice it to say that it is one of the masterpieces of the PhotoBook genre published this past decade. Though she has done other books and they are all worth seeking out, if she had only done this book, it would be sufficient to secure her place among the world’s great living portraitists- in any medium. Still, that only enhances the value of her ground-breaking work as an activist documenting over-looked and at risk communities.

NoteWorthy PhotoBook After My Own Heart, 2021-

Ahndraya Parlato, Who is Changed and Who is Dead, Mack Books- Parents aren’t supposed to leave their kids. At least that’s what their kids believe. Even into adulthood. So, few kids think about the death of their parent, none are prepared to lose one, or both. In my experience, even after a long terminal illness, the passing comes as a big shock. When one’s parent commits suicide, it can feel like abandonment. The “victim” in this case is NOT the deceased. It is those Mom or Dad left behind. Being an offspring of one parental suicide, I am one of those victims, like Ahndraya Parlato is. No one has spoken for us- writer, novelist, or Artist, until Ms. Parlato braved this minefield, accompanied by her children, to create a book that is at once extremely personal, yet expresses the permanence of loss that all parental suicide victims live with. Her wonderful Photography (most recently seen in 2016’s excellent A SPECTACLE AND NOTHING STRANGE), is here accompanied by her writing, the two dialoging with, and enhancing, the other at every turn of the page. The loss is tinged with a longing I know too well, in the form of a light from a distant star, or creating work with her mother’s ashes.

Her children provide another dimension, and something more- hope. Had they been absent, the book might have been darker, but more narrowly focused. Instead, they show that Ms. Parlato is not alone in this struggle to survive and overcome the past that never ends. Yet, with them comes fear. While all of us live with fear in our daily lives (my big one is being hit by an ever-present bike on the sidewalks or streets of Manhattan). In both our cases, it is the unexpected sudden and life-altering event that would seem to lie underneath them. I have no idea what it’s like to have and to raise kids. I’ve never even held a child. Yet, I can’t help but wonder if both our fears are born in the wake of the trauma of losing a parent so suddenly and horrifically. Ahndraya’s book is THE most personal PhotoBook I saw in 2021. I applaud her courage wholeheartedly, and if creating Who is Changed… was, in part at least, an act of therapy, I only hope it helps. 

NoteWorthy PhotoBook Issued Before 2021 First Seen in 2021-

The seven volumes of Robert Frank’s Visual Diaries, 2010-17, six in a similar design- a softcover in a slipcase. The seventh is Household Inventory Record, 2013, right, designed to look like the original which was created in an actual Household Inventory Record book, so it looks different.

Robert Frank, “The Visual Diaries,” Steidl- As I wrote in my piece, The “Other” Robert Frank, I was one of the many who best knew Robert Frank from The Americans (though I had London/Wales, Moving Out, and Looking In, the latter two are not “by” Mr. Frank), before launching into trying to see as many of his “other” books as possible during the shutdown, like most of the books on this list, thanks to the USPS! The Visual Diaries is not an official title but the title the publisher, Steidl, refers to the group of seven books Mr. Frank created between 2013 and 2017 by. Now having seen about 20 of his “other” books, they each have a good deal to recommend them, and they are essential for Photographers or anyone who is trying to get an overview of Modern & Contemporary Photography, post-the publication of Mr. Frank’s The Americans in 1958 and 1959. And oh yeah, anyone trying to get a more complete picture of Robert Frank’s seminal career & accomplishment. These are as personal as one would expect from a “diary.” Filled with unpublished and familiar images over Mr. Frank’s long and productive life (he never stopped creating, which will come as news to many Americans fans), they are master classes in “How to make a great PhotoBook,” from their arrangement, page layout, and of course, the uncompromising Photos, which often seem to go out of their way to break every rule anyone else holds dear. And, unlike 99% of the other PhotoBooks I saw in 2021, the images are marvelously chosen and beautifully sequenced. None are superfluous. None weaken, or even bring down, the whole. If there is one thing most PhotoBooks I see continually fall short in, that’s it.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Diggin The New” by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros as heard on their album Rock Art & The X-Ray Style.

The Old Chelsea Post Office, May 29, 2020, fittingly half in shadow, during the height of the pandemic in NYC and during the height of the discussion about cutting the funding of the USPS. Yet, through it all, Manager Miss Lloyd and her staff showed up almost every day and persevered throughout.

This Post is dedicated to Miss Lloyd & the Staff of the Old Chelsea Post Office, NYC, which not only got books to me, but also were my first source of masks and alcohol, when there were none to be found anywhere locally. Miss Lloyd, the overall manager of this Post Office, recently retired, but not before getting her staff and her customers through the worst of the very, very dark days of the early pandemic. Thank you for your service, Miss Lloyd & Staff!

November 26, 2021- I started this post in better times and have worked on it all year. I mysteriously fell ill in September and I have been in and out of the E.R. and the hospital since. While the 21 doctors I’ve seen thus far are still trying to get to the bottom of it, some progress has been made, and my life altered as a result. I’m being monitored 24/7 as I write this, (but Sara Cwynar might remind me that we all are. ; ) ) I want to extend my thanks to everyone involved with my treatment and the staff of Mount Sinai’s Emergency Room & Hospital for their truly amazing care. Yes, even to the nurse who chastised me for working on this piece while I was hospitalized!

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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. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/sara-cwynar/ ↩