art Design

Hardcover. Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in a white cardboard slipcase, 352 pages. One of the best-known Japanese artists of the international scene, Mariko Mori, born in 1967 in Tokyo, envisions fantastical worlds and beings in spectacular photographs and videos--frequently casting herself amid these scenarios as a Bjork-esque avatar in biomorphic and technological symbiosis. Mori studied fashion design in Tokyo, worked briefly as a model and later studied fine art in England, and this early education is visible in her elaborately produced photographs, videos and sculpture that are as reminiscent of Hollywood as they are of contemporary art. Her recent work involves exotic landscapes, computer-generated images and choreographed performances for which the artist designs her own costumes and plays the central characters.This extraordinary and substantial publication offers a retrospective of Mori's entire oeuvre, and is the first to present the complete Beginning of the End: Past, Present, Future, a photographic cycle produced over a period of 11 years, in which Mori presents herself as a time traveler in a plexiglass capsule at significant symbolic locations, from Giza to New York to Shanghai.

Hardcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 287 pages. Pictorial boards, no dust jacket issued. This beautifully illustrated book-the definitive volume on American sculptor Mark di Suvero-features more than two hundred images of his most important works, interspersed with short texts by the artist and by other writers who have inspired his art-making practice, plus a contribution by Francois Barre. Humanist in approach and populist in sensibility, di Suvero's sculpture is accessible, inviting, and inclusive. Praised in particular for his monumental assemblages incorporating steel and wood, di Suvero emerged as a superstar in the 1960s. He was the first living artist to show his sculpture at the Tuileries Gardens, Paris, and the first honored with three major exhibitions at Storm King Art Center. His distinctive, bold pieces can be found in museums and public collections all over the world, and he continues to be the subject of numerous exhibitions both in the United States and in Europe. Mark di Suvero: Dreambook is a celebration of his artistic oeuvre and of his long, distinguished career. 

Hardcover. Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 1st Thus, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 237 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated with full color and black & white photographs. Clean, tight copy. PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. New York, NY, Rizzoli International Publications, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 304 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, like new in publishers shrink-wrap. Martine Sitbon has become an icon among designers and fashionistas, earning her praise from Karl Lagerfeld as being "the only living French designer." With never-before-seen sketches and photographs, this book allows readers to gain a better understanding of the designer's personal universe and inspirations that have until now been largely hidden from view.

Hardcover. London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 214 pages illustrated in color. "Matisse's relationship with the textiles that surrounded him from his earliest days is revealed here for the first time - the authors examine the ways in which Matisse used what he called his 'working library' of textiles to furnish, order and compose some of the twentieth century's most pioneering works of art". Exhibition catalog for a show at Le Cateau-Cambresis, France; London and New York, October 2004 to September 2005. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Edition Stemmle, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 136 pages. Bauhaus photography is well served by this first monograph on Max Baur, with many of the previously unpublished photographs also serving as a new source for Bauhaus studies. Working in Germany, at first providing images for postcards, Baur expanded his efforts to encompass landscape, portrait, and architectural images. In each of these genres, his work reflects the cool, objective approach of the Bauhaus style combined with the artist's elegant handling of light and perspective. In photos of stairways and colonnades, factories, and everyday objects, Baur was able to eliminate the extraneous and offer the essential nature of his subject. The book covers a period of vast changes in the world and in the life of the artist, but throughout there is a consistency of vision. An essay by William Ewing, director of the Mus e de l'Elys e (which specializes in photography), gives a brief description of the life and career of Baur with enthusiasm and warmth, while Edelmann-Pomplitz writes movingly about her experience as his student. In a letter to her, Baur expresses his credo most eloquently: "it is with light alone that we create images." This lovely work is a fine example of excellent printing and composition in harmony with content.

Hardcover. NY, McSweeney's, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 263 pages. Guest-editing Dave Eggers's literary journal, Jimmy Corrigan cartoonist Ware has assembled a beautifully designed anthology of contemporary art comics, with a few vintage treats thrown in, including an excerpt from "Obadiah Oldbuck"--an 1842 publication that's arguably the first American comic book--and a series of very rough sketches by Charles Schulz. A few pieces have recently been published elsewhere (including excerpts from Mark Beyer's loopy, design-heavy Amy and Jordan and Joe Sacco's comics essay on Sarajevo, The Fixer), but the book is a superb introduction to the best American cartoonists working today. Some of them, including Richard McGuire and Mark Newgarden, haven't published much since the heyday of RAW in the late 1980s and early '90s; others, like Lynda Barry and Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, are prolific creators at the top of their form. As Ira Glass points out in his introduction, Ware seems to believe cartooning gets no respect at all, and his McSweeney's is a passionate defense of the medium. Ware has included work by artists with an impressively varied range of visual styles and narrative techniques. And Ware's own contribution is brilliant: the book's cover unfolds into a gigantic "comics supplement" of his bitter little cartoons, with extra, tiny comic books by Ron Rege Jr. and John Porcellino tucked into its folds.

Hardcover. Taschen, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 392 pages, 684 illustrations, 664 in color. Text in English, German and French. Large volume, pictorial covers, no dust jacket issued. Menu Design is an omnibus showcasing the best examples of this graphic art. With nearly 800 examples, illustrated in vibrant color, this deluxe volume not only showcases this extraordinary collection of paper ephemera but serves as a history of restaurants and dining out in America. An introduction on the history of menu design by graphic design writer Steven Heller and extended captions by culinary historian John Mariani accompany the menus throughout the book.

Hardcover. Hatje Cantz, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 224 pages. The years from 1945 to 1985 are often identified as the moment in which Los Angeles established itself as a leading cultural center in America. However, this conception of its history entirely excludes the very controversial presence of the Mexican muralists, as well as the work of other artists who were influenced by them and responded to their ideas. It is likewise often thought that Los Angeles' Mexican culture arrived full formed from outside it, when in fact that culture originated within the city--it was in Los Angeles and Southern California that Jose Vasconcelos, Ricardo Flores Magon, Octavio Paz and other intellectuals developed the iconography of modern Mexico, while Anglos and Chicanos were developing their own. David Alfaro Siqueiros, Clemente Orozco, Alfredo Ramos Martinez and Jean Charlot made some of their earliest murals in Los Angeles, influencing the Mexican, Mexican-American and Chicano artists of the 1970s and 80s. MEX/LA: Mexican Modernism(s) in Los Angeles 1930-1985 focuses on the construction of different notions of "Mexicanidad" within modernist and contemporary art created in Los Angeles. From the Olvera Street mural by Siqueiros, to the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and the Disney silver-screen productions, to the revitalization of the street mural, up to the performance art of Guillermo Gomez-Pena, MEX/LA explores the bi-national and hybrid forms of artistic practices, popular culture and mass-media arts that have so uniquely shaped Los Angeles' cultural panorama.

Hardcover. NY, Back Stage Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 320 pages. Foreword by Frank Rich. Henderson (curator of the White Barn Theater Museum in Westport, Connecticut, she's lectured and written extensively on theater), using the substantial archive of his writings, has assembled a suitable tribute to one of America's most influential creators of theater design. The book proceeds chronologically through Mielziner's life and long career, richly supplemented with photos and high quality color reproductions of the designer's watercolor and pencil drawings, and excerpts from his writings. He designed the original sets for A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, and Carousel and operas such as Don Giovanni. NOTE: While this book is bright and clean, it has a light musty odor.

Hardcover. New York , Rizzoli, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Full-color photo-illustrated paper over boards, backed in gilt-stamped cloth; clear plastic dust jacket with full-color illustrations on flaps; 4to; 112 pages, illustrated in full-color throughout. With contributions from Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Etro, Todd Oldham, Carolina Herrera, John Galliano, Oscar de la Renta, Sonia Rykiel, Manolo Blahnik, Philip Treacy, and others. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Woodstock NY, Overlook Press, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket with wear to extremities. 239 pages with 344 illustrations, 97 in color. This book explores the extraordinary achievement of America's pre-eminent graphic artist. Here Glaser undertakes not only a wide-ranging representation of his oeuvre but, in a personally revealing introduction, speaks of the influences on his work, the responsibilities of the artist, the hierarchies of the traditional art world, and the role of graphic design in the area of his creative growth. His work ranges from posters to book and record covers; from store and restaurant design to toy creations, magazine formats, and logotypes all of which define the look of the 1960s and 70s. Tape repair to reverse of dust jacket, no markings. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Hacker Art Books, 1st US, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 269 pages, illustrated throughout with 119 plates in color. Light edgewear and rubbing to dust jacket. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. London, Gingko Press, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 256 pages. Modart editors showcase some of the actions and events from the first decade of the new millennium. It features now iconic images, passionate writing and a veritable fount of great new art from around the world.

Hardcover. New York , Rizzoli, 1st, 2008-10-14, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 272 pages, profusely illustrated in color. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. In the current world of twentieth-century design collecting, the trend has shifted away from accessible, mass-manufactured modernist furniture and toward designs that were custom-made or produced in very limited editions, with emphasis on American studio design of the 1940s to the 1990s. In contrast to the mass-produced mid-century furniture by Knoll and Herman Miller, American studio designs of the same period focused on novel forms and exquisite craftsmanship. Ranging from the organic shapes of George Nakashima and Vladimir Kagan to metalworks by Paul Evans, these limited production designs were highly sought after in their days by original tastemakers and movie stars. In the last decade, a revival for these rare designs began with connoisseurs such as Tom Ford. Modern Americana is the first full survey of the designs of this prolific but forgotten period, bringing to life again the works of Samuel Marx, Billy Haines, Wendell Castle, T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Karl Springer, James Mont, and many others -- including J.B. Blunk, Michael Coffey, Wharton Esherick, Arthur Espenet Carpenter, Sam Maloof, Jack Rogers Hopkins, Paul Evans & Philip Lloyd Powell, Vladimir Kagan, George Nakashima, Silas Seandel, Charles Hollis Jones, Philip & Kevin LaVerne, Tommi Parzinger, Harvey Probber, Edward Wormley, John Dickinson, Arthur Elrod, and Paul Laszlo.

Hardcover. Czech Republic, Kant, 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 264 pages. Venturing across five decades of American culture, this landmark book explores how modern graphic design emerged in the United States and how it became an intrinsic feature of the country's identity. Author and design professor Christopher Long tells this story in a wholly new way, exposing many long-forgotten figures and movements and resurrecting the debates and conceptions that were integral to the new art. In a series of deeply involving portraits of American artists and innovators who helped shape the very look of the modern age, Modern Americanness offers a sweeping story of the country's visual culture and its distinctiveness across a variety of designed objects: magazine covers, food labels, event posters, chapbooks, advertisements, propaganda and much more. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Softcover. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2nd Ed., 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 431 pages. Softcover. Tight copy. Profusely illustrated with black & white photographs & architectural illustrations. One interior section includes full page, full color photographs. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. London, Black Dog Publishing, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 192 pages. Hardcover no dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to boards.

Hardcover. NY, William Helburn, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with silver stamping. Folio, 9 1/4 X 13 1/2". 80 plates printed on one side only, most in color. No date given but appears to be late 20s/1930. With architect Albert Kahn's ownership signature in pencil on front fly leaf. Covers with edgewear but interior is clean and bright. Bookplate on inside front cover. Scarce. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. Potsdam, Germany, H.F. Ullmann, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 512 pages, illustrated in color, b&w. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. A retrospective of the most important developments and highlights in design of the past 100 years, beginning with the latest trends for 2011. Concise texts accompanying the individually featured designs, as well as excurses on selected themes and styles written by experts, round off this benchmark illustrated book. PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, Original black lettered cloth quarter laid on pictorial boards, 184 pages. A fascinating exploration of how photography, graphic design, and popular magazines converged to transform American visual culture at mid-century. This dynamic study examines the intersection of modernist photography and American commercial graphic design between 1930 and 1960. Avant-garde strategies in photography and design reached the United States via European emigres, including Bauhaus artists forced out of Nazi Germany. The unmistakable aesthetic made popular by such magazines as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue--whose art directors, Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman, were both immigrants and accomplished photographers--emerged from a distinctly American combination of innovation, inclusiveness, and pragmatism. Beautifully illustrated with more than 150 revolutionary photographs, layouts, and cover designs, Modern Look considers the connections and mutual influences of such designers and photographers as Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Herbert Bayer, Robert Frank, Lisette Model, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Cipe Pineles, and Paul Rand. Essays draw a lineage from European experimental design to innovative work in American magazine design at mid-century and offer insights into the role of gender in fashion photography and political activism in the mass media.

Hardcover. London & New York , The Studio Publications, 1st, 1941, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth stamped in black, 127 pages + ads, illustrated throughout in b&w. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on front fly leaf. Light rubbing, fraying to edges, binding slightly shaken. Internally very good.

Hardcover. NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 200 pages. A look at the artistic and technical innovation of British printmaking from World War I to the eve of World War II, as artists from the Grosvenor School and beyond harnessed an emerging modernist style. This richly illustrated volume reintroduces rare print works from the collection of Leslie and Johanna Garfield into the narrative of modernism, demonstrating their relationship to other movements such as Cubism, Futurism, and Constructivism. Essays explore how artists turned to printmaking to alleviate trauma, memorialize their wartime experiences, and capture the aspirations and fears of the twenties and thirties. Special attention is given to the linocut technique revolutionized by Claude Flight and his students at London's Grosvenor School of Modern Art. Highlighted as well are the pioneering works of artists such as C. R. W. Nevinson, Sybil Andrews, Cyril E. Power, Paul Nash, Edward Wadsworth, Edith Lawrence, Ursula Fookes, and Lill Tschudi. In their quest to promote a more democratic art, these artists created innovative graphics that portrayed in subject, form, material, and technique the dynamic era in which they lived. In publisher's shrinkwrap.

Softcover. London, Batsford, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Softcover in pictorial dust jacket, 224 pages, color illustrations. A stunning survey of modern illustration that uses older styles of artistic expression to evoke a sense of another time and place. These vintage-style illustrations play with the past, subvert it, on occasion, but always feel fresh. Organized into 12 chapters by historical or cultural period, the book features hundreds of the best examples of modern retro illustration including styles as varied as Constructivist, Dada and Art Noveau. From work showing the ornamentation of Victorian fonts, the stylized angles of Art Deco, the lines of soviet poster art, the influence of Saul Bass and Blue Note record sleeves to the new slant on photorealism, and the renaissance of punk and comic art. Hundreds of artists from all over the world have contributed to a beautiful, witty and inspiring collection of vintage illustration. Clean copy.