Bringing you the next edition of our Book Club!
A selection of handpicked books that are worth talking about!! Varying in topic each Book Club, we will be fuelling your coffee table book addition and sharing our favourite selections at the same time. So this week we will be focusing on all things ART
So calling all art lovers, collectors and anyone infatuated by a good hardcover coffee table book – this ones for you! A curation of our current favourite art books to save away for your next purchase.
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Archie 100: A Centenary Of The Archibald Prize
by Natalie Wilson for Art Gallery of New South Wales
“A tribute to portraiture, as well as the artists and sitters, Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize marks 100 years of Australia’s oldest and most-loved annual portraiture award. Curator Natalie Wilson unearths fascinating stories behind more than 100 artworks representing every decade. Arranged thematically, these works reflect not just how artistic styles and approaches to portraiture have changed over time but, importantly, how the Archibald Prize reflects our society.
Resulting from many years of research for lost portraits, Archie 100 includes paintings from the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ collection as well as works from libraries, galleries and museums across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and private Australian and international collections. Some have not been exhibited since they first were seen in the Archibald Prize.
This lovely book includes: A fascinating essay by Wilson on her quest to find Archibald portraits from the past 100 years and the difficult task of selecting 100 for the centenary exhibition, illustrations of each portrait and accompanying text, a timeline of Archibald Prize landmarks, some fabulous facts and an index of artists and sitters.”
Jon Molvig: Maverick
by Michael Hawker for QAGOMA
“Jon Molvig settled in Brisbane in 1955 and dominated the city’s art scene into the late 1960s. A volatile and rebellious character, Molvig was also a charismatic teacher whose uncompromising commitment to painting inspired a group of young artists. Though short, Molvig’s career was influential, and he was always highly regarded by his peers, as well as by critics. Jon Molvig: Maverick acknowledges Molvig’s contribution to the Brisbane art community, highlights his stylistic eclecticism, and revalues his unique contribution to Australian and Queensland art history on the eve of the 50th anniversary of his death. This richly illustrated, hardcover publication of 192 pages features essays by Michael Hawker (exhibition curator), Samantha Littley, Michele Helmrich and Glenn R Cooke, as well as an interview by Bruce Heiser with Cornelia Bartzis about her late husband’s work and their life together. A selected bibliography and exhibition history are also included.”
Australia at The Venice Biennale: A Century of Contemporary Art
by Kerry Gardner
“With works from Sidney Nolan, Howard Arkley and more, this richly illustrated work illuminates the untold stories and origins of the most important event of the art world
Before the winds of World War I blew Europe apart, a rowdy and radical group of Australian artists would gather in the salons of Paris and London to embrace new ways of painting and seeing the world. By 1914 twelve of them had shown their works at the Venice International Exhibition, now known as the Venice Biennale. Bundled in with the British, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Thea Proctor were represented alongside legendary artists Corot, Rodin, Klimt and Renoir.
Four decades later Australia sent its first official delegation of artists: Sidney Nolan, Russell Drysdale and William Dobell; the works of Rover Thomas, Howard Arkley, Patricia Piccinini and Shaun Gladwell continued the story of bold Australian art in Venice. With the support of the Australian art community, the Venice Biennale today remains an aspiration and career highlight for contemporary artists and Australia’s love affair with the exhibition thrives. Discover the untold stories of the world’s most important art event through one hundred years of Australian modern art.”
Georg Baselitz
by Hans Werner Holzwarth for TASCHEN
The world seen upside down – the paintings and sculptures of Georg Baselitz
“Proverbially known for the audaciously simple but game-changing strategy of painting the motif on its head, Georg Baselitz has been a consistently challenging artist since the start of the 1960s. His work is always highly charged but surprisingly diverse, starting with the existential figures of paintings such as The Big Night Down the Drain, famously removed from his first solo exhibition for indecency, and the series of “Heroes” that portrayed disabled and exposed figures in a destroyed landscape and order.
This oversize and most in-depth monograph on the artist’s oeuvre features large-format reproductions of more than 400 works in all media plus installation shots and portraits along with texts that approach the subject from different perspectives: a portrait of the artist and his dark sense of humor by long-time connoisseur Richard Shiff, an essay on his formation and development as a painter by critic Jonathan Jones, on the sculptural work from his scandalous success at the Venice Biennale 1980 by art historian and curator Eva Mongi-Vollmer, on his artistic strategies by art historian and curator Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, a collection of small literary texts relating to the artist’s use of myth and history by author and director Alexander Kluge, and a studio conversation with the art journalist Cornelius Tittel. Statements from the artist through the years and an illustrated biography complete this unprecedented survey of Georg Baselitz’s work.”
David Hockney. A Bigger Book
by David Hockney / Hans Werner Holzwarth for TASCHEN
“A Bigger Book, TASCHEN’s SUMO-sized David Hockney monograph, is as spectacular in format as it is in scope. In it, the artist takes stock of more than 60 years of work, from his teenage days at the Bradford School of Art, through his breakthrough in 1960s Swinging London, life by Los Angeles pools in the 1970s, up to his recent extensive series of portraits, iPad drawings, and Yorkshire landscapes.
Never before has Hockney’s oeuvre been published on such an astonishing and immersive scale. As each page unfurls in a blaze of blues, pinks, greens, and oranges, we are spellbound both by the artist’s vibrancy as a colorist and his extraordinary sense of the conditions of the world that surrounds us. Through Hockney’s restless interrogation of perception and representation, we witness the mellow sheen of light on a muddy Yorkshire puddle, the ochre enormities of A Bigger Grand Canyon, the rustic majesty of Bigger Trees near Warter, and, of course, A Bigger Splash, with the exquisite sparkle of a turquoise pool beneath an iridescent California sky. These major paintings are joined by the artist’s drawings, photo-composites, multi-perspective collages, stage designs, multi-camera video works, and iPad drawings, each a panoply of looking and showing in different styles and media.”
This large scale 498 page hardcover book also comes with a fun adjustable book stand designed by Marc Newson!
Happy book hunting!
