david zwirner us (557 results)

Paperback. Condition: New. Originally published in 1930 in an edition of 100 copies, Gertrude Stein's Dix Portraits pairs her singular literary style with original lithographs by Pablo Picasso and other artists in Stein's circle to create an exceptional artist's book exploring written and visual portraiture. Written between 1913 and 1929, revolutionary years in art history, Dix Portraits conveys the deep human engagement between an artist and her subject. The artist's book unites Stein's ten portraits in prose with sketches by five artists: Pablo Picasso, Christian Bérard, Eugene Berman, Pavel Tchelitchew, and Kristians Tonny. Utilizing the interplay between word and image, Stein's writing and the artists' images provide nuance and depth, balancing humor and sincerity. With a new introduction by Lynne Tillman, Dix Portraits is an unforgettable artistic collaboration. The subjects represented include Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, Erik Satie, Pavel Tchelitchew, Virgil Thomson, Christian Bérard, Bernard Faÿ, Kristians Tonny, Georges Hugnet, and Eugene Berman. Originally printed in an edition of 100 copies with the lithography, and now widely accessible for the first time, Dix Portraits captures Stein's legacy as a champion of artists and a pioneer of creativity.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New. An intimate testament to the power of friendship between two creative forces-available again in English after more than a century. "I exaggerate, I sometimes make changes to the subject, but I still don't invent the whole of painting; on the contrary, I find it ready-made, but to be untangled, in the real world." - Vincent van Gogh The painter and poet Émile Bernard's firsthand account of the beloved Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh's life offers a close perspective into the difficulties the artist faced. First published in French in 1911, and presented here in English for the first time, Bernard details van Gogh's approach to painting, his tools, his style, his love of the medium. Moreover, he chronicles his attempts to have van Gogh's work recognized after his death, a sign of a true friend. Shedding light on the artistic community they were part of, Bernard also discusses notable figures such as Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Émile Zola, in his storied account of his friend's life and work. Letters written by van Gogh to a young Bernard, some of which are included in this volume, further the import of the friendship between the two men. Van Gogh's words of advice to Bernard as well as ruminations on his own practice, inspirations, and creative struggles are revealed in these pages. Brought together and introduced by preeminent van Gogh scholar Martin Bailey, these texts present a sensitive and discerning portrait of van Gogh that goes beyond his reputation as a troubled genius.

Paperback. Condition: New. Best known for his iconic print Under the Wave off Kanagawa, also known as the Great Wave, Katsushika Hokusai was a revolutionary printmaker. His mastery of ukiyo-e in the nineteenth century has inspired generations of artists since, and his works exposed the world to the delicate beauty and power of Japanese woodblock technique. In addition to his remarkable artistic output, Hokusai was also a dedicated teacher who sought to pass down his deep understanding of color and painting to practicing artists through immensely detailed written tutorials. Here, for the first time in centuries, are excerpts from his manuals, many available for the first time in English. It is an invaluable insight into the psyche of a true master, and a rare personal account of an artist's life during a fascinating period in Japan's history. Connecting Hokusai's prints from the Edo period to manga, author Ryoko Matsuba foregrounds Hokusai's contributions to Japanese creative expression from the 1800s to today. Also included in this book: Vincent Van Gogh's letter about Hokusai's Great Wave and the contemporary artist Ikeda Manabu's concise observations about Hokusai's lasting influence.

Paperback. Condition: New. An intimate and unique collection of the work of John Ashbery-a prolific poet and art critic-pairing poetry and art writings with playlists of music from his personal library. This book places poetry by Ashbery (1927-2017), gathered from his later collections, in conversation with a selection of contemporaneous art writing. In addition, as Ashbery loved music and listened to it while writing, the "playlists" here offer representative samplings of music from these same years, culled from Ashbery's own library of recordings. Ashbery's poetry is frequently described as ekphrastic, though, rather than writing a poem "based on'' or "inspired" by the content of an artwork of or piece of music, he engages with how the experience of seeing it and the artistic strategies employed offer ways of thinking about it and through it. Many of the observations from Ashbery's art writing also offer keys to how we might read his poetry. Many of the recordings he listened to feature contemporary classical works that emphasize complex textures, disparate sounds, and disjunct phrases. Ashbery's poetry similarly plays with a diversity of poetic textures and sudden turns such that a reader might construct multiple narratives or pathways of meaning. He rarely offers linear stories or focuses on evocative descriptions of a scene or object. In exploring this ekphrastic book project, the reader is invited to discover how, for Ashbery, these three forms might illuminate and inform one another.

Paperback. Condition: New. A comprehensive and inspiring collection of essays by Larry Neal, a founder of the seminal Black Arts Movement. "The Black Arts Movement is radically opposed to any concept of the artist that alienates him from his community. Black Art is the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept. As such, it envisions an art that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of Black America." - Larry Neal Growing up in Philadelphia, Neal was surrounded by Bebop music and writing. He culled inspiration and teachings from Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. After studying folklore at the University of Pennsylvania, Neal became a prolific poet and critic, and he served as the arts editor for the Liberator where he published many of his essays about art. Neal encouraged artists to produce work that was not only politically engaged but also unapologetically rooted in the Black experience, and this message reverberated through African American literature, theater, music, and visual arts. He probed the notion of the Western art historical canon and challenged Black artists and writers to reshape artistic traditions. Deeply invested in cultural and personal understandings of the artist's intentions and experiences, Neal argues that to properly create and critique a work of art one must invest in the history of the artist's culture. With an introduction by the writer and researcher Allie Biswas, this publication celebrates and memorializes the great writings of a powerful and influential activist and artist.

Paperback. Condition: New. This seminal 1929 surrealist novel by the painter Giorgio de Chirico merges the realms of dream and reality.In the artist's only novel, de Chirico invites the reader into a world where language, time, space, and meaning are fluid, highlighting themes of mystery, myth, and the uncanny. Following the titular character Hebdomeros as he embarks on a series of philosophical musings and bizarre experiences divorced from a specific place or time, Hebdomeros embraces ambiguity in a profound exploration of the subconscious mind. Highly visual passages evoke the landscapes and compositions of de Chirico's metaphysical paintings, and non sequiturs mirror the freedom that Surrealism allowed for in art of all categories.An introduction by the scholar Fabio Benzi contextualizes de Chirico's work within a broader modernist framework, highlighting its influence on surrealism and its resonance with the literary and artistic movements of the early twentieth century.

Paperback. Condition: New. Derek Jarman's Blue weaves a sensory tapestry that serves as both a political call to action and a meditation on illness, dying, and love. "For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions." -Derek Jarman Originally released as a feature film in 1993, the year before the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman's death due to an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a daring and powerful work of art. The film - and this highly-anticipated book's text - serve as iconoclastic responses to the lack of political engagement with the AIDS crisis. Written poetically and surrealistically, Jarman's text moves through myriad scenes, some banal, others fantastical. Stories of quotidian life--getting coffee, reading the newspaper, and walking down the sidewalk--escalate to visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue fighting yellow. Facing death and a cascade of pills, Jarman presents his illness in delirium and metaphors. He contemplates the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose as he grounds this story in the constant return to Blue - a color, a feeling, a funk. Michael Charlesworth's compelling introduction brings Blue into conversation with Jarman's visual paintings as never before.

Paperback. Condition: New. Originally published in 1930 in an edition of 100 copies, Gertrude Stein's Dix Portraits pairs her singular literary style with original lithographs by Pablo Picasso and other artists in Stein's circle to create an exceptional artist's book exploring written and visual portraiture. Written between 1913 and 1929, revolutionary years in art history, Dix Portraits conveys the deep human engagement between an artist and her subject. The artist's book unites Stein's ten portraits in prose with sketches by five artists: Pablo Picasso, Christian Bérard, Eugene Berman, Pavel Tchelitchew, and Kristians Tonny. Utilizing the interplay between word and image, Stein's writing and the artists' images provide nuance and depth, balancing humor and sincerity. With a new introduction by Lynne Tillman, Dix Portraits is an unforgettable artistic collaboration. The subjects represented include Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, Erik Satie, Pavel Tchelitchew, Virgil Thomson, Christian Bérard, Bernard Faÿ, Kristians Tonny, Georges Hugnet, and Eugene Berman. Originally printed in an edition of 100 copies with the lithography, and now widely accessible for the first time, Dix Portraits captures Stein's legacy as a champion of artists and a pioneer of creativity.

Paperback. Condition: New. A selection from the memoir of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, the renowned eighteenth-century French portraitist and one of the most important women painters in art historyIn her memoir, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun offers a candid and thoroughly enjoyable account of her life and art. She relates her encounters among the royalty and aristocracy she painted--including, most famously, her patron Marie Antoinette--and the effusive reception they extended to her across Europe. Forced to flee during the French Revolution, Vigée Le Brun traveled through Italy, Russia, Germany, and England, returning twelve years later to France under Napoleon I. These pages demonstrate her unflagging creativity during unstable times and her remarkable savvy. Her observations provide unique insight into the art world of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, a time when women were rarely allowed success. In her introduction to this volume, the scholar Anne Higonnet conveys Vigée Le Brun's unique position at a turning point in the art world, as well as the larger world beyond, and navigates in particular how one retroactively reconstructs a relationship to a world-changing revolution.

Paperback. Condition: New. Most known for her bold and darkly painted portraits, Brooks was revolutionary in her feminist renderings of women in resistance. Openly queer, she challenged conceptions of gender and sexuality in her art, which also served as her refuge. While many of her male counterparts were disfiguring and cubing their subjects-often women-Brooks gave personhood and power to the figures she painted. Her frank approach to her complicated relationship with her mother, faith, wealth, sexuality, and gender is complemented by a keen wit that echoes the gray tones of her work. Though her paintings are held in major collections, Brooks's influence in modernist circles of the early twentieth century is largely underexplored. This new publication, guided by Brooks's own impressionistic musings, bridges an important gap between the art and the artist. An introduction by Lauren O'Neill-Butler explores Brooks's role as an artist in the early twentieth century through the lens of gender and sexuality.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New. Master sculptor Auguste Rodin's illuminating writings on cathedrals in France are especially relevant and significant following the recent fire at Notre Dame.In this volume, the writer and Rodin scholar Rachel Corbett selects excerpts from the famous sculptor's book Cathedrals of France, first published in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I. Cathedrals were central to the way Rodin thought about his art: he saw them as visual metaphors for the human figure, among the finest examples of craftsmanship known to modern man, and as a model for how to live and work-slowly, brick by brick.Here, Corbett takes the fire at Notre Dame and the concerns over its restoration as an entry point in an exploration of Rodin's cathedrals. Rodin adamantly opposed restoration, as he felt it often did more damage than the original injury. (Many of the cathedrals that Rodin looks at in his texts were, in fact, bombed during the war.) But while he rails against various restoration efforts as evidence that "we are letting our cathedrals die," the book, with its tenderly rendered sketches and written portraits, is itself an attempt to preserve these cathedrals. The selection of texts in this volume is a reminder-as is the tragedy of Notre Dame-of why we ought to appreciate these feats of architecture, whether or not they are still standing today.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New. Virgina Woolf's collection of writings on visual arts offer a whole new perspective on the revolutionary author. Despite wide interest in Woolf's writings, her circle, and her relationship with the visual arts, there is no accessible edition or selection of essays dedicated to her writings on art. This newest edition in David Zwirner Books's ekphrasis series collects such essays including "Walter Sickert: A Conversation" (1934), "Pictures" (1925), and "Pictures and Portraits" (1920). These formally inventive texts examine the connection between the literary writer and the visual artist and are innovative in their treatment of ideas about color and modern art as experienced in picture galleries. In these essays, Woolf looks at the complex and interdependent relationship between the artist and society. She also provides sharp and astute commentary on specific works of art and the relationship between art and writing. An introduction by Claudia Tobin situates the essays within their cultural contexts.

Paperback. Condition: New. The newest volume in the beloved ekphrasis series focuses on dance and poetry through the eyes of one of the twentieth century's greatest critics "I am interested at the moment in recalling to you how it looks when one sees dancing as non-professionals do, in the way you yourselves I suppose look at pictures, at buildings, at political history or at landscapes or at strangers you pass on the street. Or as you read poetry." -Edwin Denby After starting his career as a dancer with companies and troupes in Germany and Switzerland, Edwin Denby moved to Manhattan, where he formed friendships with prominent members of the New York School, including Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery, and artists such as Rudy Burckhardt. In his critical writing, he brought his experience as a dancer to the page along with a poet's sensibility, distinguishing himself as an authority through delicate observation and illustrative prose. This collection of writings highlights Denby's interdisciplinary scope and range of expression, as well as his sharp, singular voice and empirical sensibility toward all works of art. This Still Moment pairs Denby's landmark essays on dance criticism and portraits of major performers, such as Vaslav Nijinsky, with selections of his poetry. The writer and editor Cal Revely-Calder further contextualizes Denby's life and work in his insightful introduction.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New. A selection of texts on art and artists by the Belgian French novelist and essayist Marguerite YourcenarBest known for her seminal novel Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), an imagined autobiography of the Roman emperor, Yourcenar brings the same depth of inquiry and inventive speculation to her lyric prose on art and artists in this newest title in the ekphrasis series. In these five jewel-like essays, Yourcenar meditates on the decay of time, the desire both satiated and refused by art, and the imagery animating the lives, works, and dreams of Michelangelo, Dürer, and Piranesi. And in an intimate mediation on the historical novel, Yourcenar describes her own encounters with how language reveals the past. Together these exquisite essays explore that fundamental awe-perhaps even the terror-at the heart of an encounter with beauty. An introduction by John Knight sketches the life of this extraordinary writer and situates Yourcenar's unique criticism within her attempt to capture the great struggle required to make an enduring work of art. Subtle and learned, Yourcenar's essays are like stepping stones into the past and the shadowy business of artistic creation. Bringing back into print Yourcenar's seminal essay "The Dark Brain of Piranesi" in the poet Richard Howard's elegant English translation, conducted in collaboration with the author, this volume also collects texts from That Mighty Sculptor, Time (1983) into a particularly focused volume.

Paperback. Condition: New.

Paperback. Condition: New. Derek Jarman's Blue weaves a sensory tapestry that serves as both a political call to action and a meditation on illness, dying, and love. "For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions." -Derek Jarman Originally released as a feature film in 1993, the year before the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman's death due to an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a daring and powerful work of art. The film - and this highly-anticipated book's text - serve as iconoclastic responses to the lack of political engagement with the AIDS crisis. Written poetically and surrealistically, Jarman's text moves through myriad scenes, some banal, others fantastical. Stories of quotidian life--getting coffee, reading the newspaper, and walking down the sidewalk--escalate to visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue fighting yellow. Facing death and a cascade of pills, Jarman presents his illness in delirium and metaphors. He contemplates the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose as he grounds this story in the constant return to Blue - a color, a feeling, a funk. Michael Charlesworth's compelling introduction brings Blue into conversation with Jarman's visual paintings as never before.

Paperback. Condition: New. This seminal 1929 surrealist novel by the painter Giorgio de Chirico merges the realms of dream and reality.In the artist's only novel, de Chirico invites the reader into a world where language, time, space, and meaning are fluid, highlighting themes of mystery, myth, and the uncanny. Following the titular character Hebdomeros as he embarks on a series of philosophical musings and bizarre experiences divorced from a specific place or time, Hebdomeros embraces ambiguity in a profound exploration of the subconscious mind. Highly visual passages evoke the landscapes and compositions of de Chirico's metaphysical paintings, and non sequiturs mirror the freedom that Surrealism allowed for in art of all categories.An introduction by the scholar Fabio Benzi contextualizes de Chirico's work within a broader modernist framework, highlighting its influence on surrealism and its resonance with the literary and artistic movements of the early twentieth century.

Paperback. Condition: New. Most known for her bold and darkly painted portraits, Brooks was revolutionary in her feminist renderings of women in resistance. Openly queer, she challenged conceptions of gender and sexuality in her art, which also served as her refuge. While many of her male counterparts were disfiguring and cubing their subjects-often women-Brooks gave personhood and power to the figures she painted. Her frank approach to her complicated relationship with her mother, faith, wealth, sexuality, and gender is complemented by a keen wit that echoes the gray tones of her work. Though her paintings are held in major collections, Brooks's influence in modernist circles of the early twentieth century is largely underexplored. This new publication, guided by Brooks's own impressionistic musings, bridges an important gap between the art and the artist. An introduction by Lauren O'Neill-Butler explores Brooks's role as an artist in the early twentieth century through the lens of gender and sexuality.

Paperback. Condition: New. A teacher to Jacques Lacan, André Breton, and Albert Camus, Kojève defined art as the act of extracting the beautiful from objective reality. His poetic text, "The Concrete Paintings of Kandinsky," endorses nonrepresentational art as uniquely manifesting beauty. Taking the paintings of his renowned uncle, Wassily Kandinsky, as his inspiration, Kojève suggests that in creating (rather than replicating) beauty, the paintings are themselves complete universes as concrete as the natural world. Kojève's text considers the utility and necessity of beauty in life, and ultimately poses the involuted question: What is beauty? Including personal letters between Kandinsky and his nephew, this book further elaborates the unique relationship between artist and philosopher. An introduction by Boris Groys contextualizes Kojève's life and writings.

Paperback. Condition: New. An intimate testament to the power of friendship between two creative forces-available again in English after more than a century. "I exaggerate, I sometimes make changes to the subject, but I still don't invent the whole of painting; on the contrary, I find it ready-made, but to be untangled, in the real world." - Vincent van Gogh The painter and poet Émile Bernard's firsthand account of the beloved Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh's life offers a close perspective into the difficulties the artist faced. First published in French in 1911, and presented here in English for the first time, Bernard details van Gogh's approach to painting, his tools, his style, his love of the medium. Moreover, he chronicles his attempts to have van Gogh's work recognized after his death, a sign of a true friend. Shedding light on the artistic community they were part of, Bernard also discusses notable figures such as Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Émile Zola, in his storied account of his friend's life and work. Letters written by van Gogh to a young Bernard, some of which are included in this volume, further the import of the friendship between the two men. Van Gogh's words of advice to Bernard as well as ruminations on his own practice, inspirations, and creative struggles are revealed in these pages. Brought together and introduced by preeminent van Gogh scholar Martin Bailey, these texts present a sensitive and discerning portrait of van Gogh that goes beyond his reputation as a troubled genius.

Paperback. Condition: New. An intimate and unique collection of the work of John Ashbery-a prolific poet and art critic-pairing poetry and art writings with playlists of music from his personal library. This book places poetry by Ashbery (1927-2017), gathered from his later collections, in conversation with a selection of contemporaneous art writing. In addition, as Ashbery loved music and listened to it while writing, the "playlists" here offer representative samplings of music from these same years, culled from Ashbery's own library of recordings. Ashbery's poetry is frequently described as ekphrastic, though, rather than writing a poem "based on'' or "inspired" by the content of an artwork of or piece of music, he engages with how the experience of seeing it and the artistic strategies employed offer ways of thinking about it and through it. Many of the observations from Ashbery's art writing also offer keys to how we might read his poetry. Many of the recordings he listened to feature contemporary classical works that emphasize complex textures, disparate sounds, and disjunct phrases. Ashbery's poetry similarly plays with a diversity of poetic textures and sudden turns such that a reader might construct multiple narratives or pathways of meaning. He rarely offers linear stories or focuses on evocative descriptions of a scene or object. In exploring this ekphrastic book project, the reader is invited to discover how, for Ashbery, these three forms might illuminate and inform one another.