A richly illustrated monograph on the life and work of Lee Krasner, one of the twentieth century’s most inspiring women artists and a pioneer of abstract expressionism.
In 1984, Lee Krasner (1908–1984) became one of the few women artists to have been given a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She quipped about her belated recognition: “I was a woman, Jewish, a widow, a damn good painter, thank you, and a little too independent.” One of the original pioneers of abstract expressionism, Krasner has for too long been eclipsed by her husband, Jackson Pollock. In fact, his death in 1956 marked her renaissance as an artist.
Coinciding with a major exhibition at Barbican Art Gallery, Lee Krasner features an outstanding selection of her most important paintings, collages, and works on paper, contextualized by photography from the postwar period, an illustrated chronology, and an unpublished interview with her biographer Gail Levin. This richly illustrated monograph is a comprehensive survey of the work of one of the twentieth century’s most dynamic artists. 250 color illustrations

Lee Krasner

Arts & Photography

Nairne, Eleanor

History & Criticism

Thames&Hudson

In 1984, Lee Krasner (1908-1984) became one of the few women artists to have been given a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She quipped about her belated recognition: "I was a woman, Jewish, a widow, a damn good painter, thank you, and a little too independent." One of the original pioneers of abstract expressionism, Krasner has for too long been eclipsed by her husband, Jackson Pollock. In fact, his death in 1956 marked her renaissance as an artist. Lee Krasner features an outstanding selection of her most important paintings, collages, and works on paper, contextualized by photography from the postwar period, an illustrated chronology, and a previously unpublished interview with her biographer Gail Levin. This richly illustrated monograph is a comprehensive survey of the work of one of the twentieth century's most dynamic artists.

Throughout his international career spanning more than thirty years, artist and writer David Batchelor has long been preoccupied with color. "Colour is not just a feature of [my] sculpture or painting," he notes, "but its central and overriding subject." This new publication is devoted to an ongoing series of sculptures titled Concretos. First made in 2011, Concretos combine concrete with a variety of brightly colored – and often found – materials.\nThe publication features a text by Batchelor charting the origins and development of Concretos. He reveals that the first Concreto was made after encountering colored glass shards embedded in a concrete wall in the back streets of Palermo. Over time these Concretos, their title a nod to the Latin American art movement to which Batchelor’s work is much indebted, have become more complex adventures in layering, pattern, and process. Elements such as acrylic plastic, spray and household gloss paint, steel, fabric, and found objects all find themselves set in a concrete base. The most recent works, titled Extra-Concretos (2019–) retain much of the simplicity of the early pieces while working on a much larger scale.\nIn an essay commissioned for the publication, curator Eleanor Nairne considers Concretos in light of their material possibilities. Nairne’s vivid text draws connections between the sculptures and a wide range of art historical and literary references. Some of the playful and sensual characteristics of Batchelor’s artistic vocabulary are considered in relation to floral bouquets, sewing-machines, ice cream, and poetry.\nArchitectural historian Adrian Forty’s essay discusses concrete’s physical qualities and relationship with modernity. He notes that the imperfect nature and apparent neutrality of the material is key to its enduring place within architecture, design, and in Batchelor’s case, contemporary sculpture. "In the Concretos," asserts Forty, "concrete plays a necessary part in allowing colour to be itself. Present, but at the same time part of the barely noticed, half-invisible infrastructure of the city, concrete’s very neutrality performs an unexpectedly active part in these works."\nThe publication is edited by David Batchelor and Matt Price, designed by Hyperkit, printed by Park, London, and published by Anomie, London. The publication coincides with the first large-scale survey exhibition of Batchelor’s work taking place at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK, in 2022. The publication has been supported by Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, and Arts Council England.\nDavid Batchelor was born in Dundee in 1955 and lives and works in London. In 2013, a major solo exhibition of Batchelor’s two-dimensional work, "Flatlands", was displayed at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh and toured to Spike Island, Bristol. Batchelor’s work was included in the landmark group exhibition "Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915–2015" at Whitechapel Gallery, London. "My Own Private Bauhaus", a solo exhibition of sculptures and paintings by Batchelor was presented by Ingleby Gallery during the Edinburgh Art Festival, 2019. Between 2017 and 2020 a large-scale work by Batchelor was displayed in the collection of Tate Modern. He is represented by Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, and Galeria Leme, São Paulo. Batchelor’s portfolio also includes a number of major temporary and permanent artworks in the public realm including a chromatic clock titled "Sixty Minute Spectrum" installed in the roof of the Hayward Gallery, London.\n"Chromophobia", Batchelor’s book on color and the fear of color in the West, was published by Reaktion Books (2000), and is now available in ten languages. His more recent book, "The Luminous and the Grey" (2014), is also published by Reaktion. In 2008 he was commissioned to edit "Colour" an anthology of writings on color from 1850 to the present published by Whitechapel/MIT Press.

David Batchelor – Concretos

Batchelor, David

Forty, Prof. Adrian

Anomie Publishing

A handsome introduction to Rothko's rarely seen jewel-like paintings on paper of the late '60s 
This volume brings together key paintings from Rothko's (1903-70) renowned body of work made in the late 1960s--a significant and prolific period in the artist's life.In the wake of a particularly difficult bout of ill health, Rothko was forced to reduce the scale of his practice from his signature monumental canvas to more intimately sized paper. Despite physical limitations, Rothko worked feverishly with a renewed enthusiasm for color, delighted by the effect of acrylic paint, which he had newly discovered.In an intimate introduction, Christopher Rothko writes of the artist's shift in scale and the parallel between the viewer's experience with the paintings and his father's own creation of them. Eleanor Nairne explores Rothko's trajectory, tracing his early works and experience painting through the Seagram paintings and chapel commission to these works on paper. The book is produced on the occasion of the inaugural exhibition at Pace Gallery's new gallery space in London's Hanover Square.

Mark Rothko: 1968 Clearing Away

Rothko, Christopher

Individual Artists

Pace Publishing

Now available in paperback, this exciting book charts Jean-Michel Basquiat's groundbreaking career.Basquiat first came to prominence when he collaborated with Al Diaz to spray-paint enigmatic statements under the pseudonym SAMO©. From there he went on to work with others on collages, Xerox art, postcards, performances, and music before establishing his reputation as one of the most important painters of his generation. This book places his collaborations in a wider art historical context and looks at his career through the lens of performance. Six thematic chapters offer compelling research, with essays from poet Christian Campbell on SAMO©; curator Carlo McCormick on New York/New Wave; writer Glenn O'Brien on the downtown scene; academic Jordana Moore Saggese on Basquiat's relationship to film and television; and music scholar Francesco Martinelli on Basquiat's obsession with jazz. This insightful survey also features rare archival material and extensive illustrations, demonstrating how Basquiat's legacy remains more powerful and relevant than ever today.

Basquiat: Boom for Real

Buchhart, Dieter

Prestel

Featuring newly commissioned essays and photography of rarely exhibited works, this book highlights the radicalism of Jean Dubuffet, who was one of the most provocative voices of the postwar avant-garde. In 1940s occupied Paris, Jean Dubuffet began to champion a progressive vision for art; one that rejected classical notions of beauty in favor of a more visceral aesthetic. Taking a pioneering approach to materiality and technique, the artist variously blended paint with sand, glass, tar, coal dust, and string. At the same time, he began to assemble a collection of Art Brut--work that was made outside the academic tradition of fine art--even visiting psychiatric wards from 1945 to collect work by patients. This book features texts from leading scholars and is accompanied by images that illuminate Dubuffet's attempts to move beyond the artistic expectations of his time. The works are grouped into six thematic sections that focus on specific series, from his graffiti-inspired "Walls" and his notorious portrait series, "People are Much More Beautiful Than They Think" to the "Corps de dames," a controversial series of "female" landscapes, and his anthropomorphic sculptures, "Little Statues of Precarious Life." Exquisitely produced, this celebration of Dubuffet's work embraces his world view that art is for everyone, not just the elite.

Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty

Dynamic and forward thinking, this unconventional retrospective monograph takes its cues from Alice Neel's life and work-- at once intimate, powerful, and bursting with color. Alice Neel was one of the great American painters of the twentieth century and a pioneer among women artists. A painter of people, landscape and still life, Neel was never fashionable or in step with avant-garde movements. "One of the reasons I painted was to catch life as it goes by," she explained, "right hot off the griddle." This beautifully designed volume takes a unique approach to the exhibition catalog, highlighting Neel's understanding of the fundamentally political nature of how we look at others, and what it means to feel seen. Long a favorite of portrait lovers, Neel has recently gained an even wider 21st-century audience appreciative of the searing candor with which she viewed the world, the depth of her humanity, and her championing of the underdog. This beautifully produced catalog features a thoroughly modern design, as well as an essay by renowned critic Hilton Als and poetry by Daisy Lafarge.

Alice Neel: Hot Off the Griddle

The legend of Jean-Michel Basquiat is as strong as ever. Synonymous with New York in the 1980s, the artist first appeared in the late 1970s under the tag SAMO, spraying caustic comments and fragmented poems on the walls of the city. He appeared as part of a thriving underground scene of visual arts and graffiti, hip hop, post-punk, and DIY filmmaking, which met in a booming art world. As a painter with a strong personal voice, Basquiat soon broke into the established milieu, exhibiting in galleries around the world.
Basquiat’s expressive style was based on raw figures and integrated words and phrases. His work is inspired by a pantheon of luminaries from jazz, boxing, and basketball, with references to arcane history and the politics of street life―so when asked about his subject matter, Basquiat answered “royalty, heroism and the streets.” In 1983 he started collaborating with the most famous of art stars, Andy Warhol, and in 1985 was on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. When Basquiat died at the age of 27, he had become one of the most successful artists of his time.
This book allows an unprecedented insight into Basquiat’s art, with pristine reproductions of his most seminal paintings, drawings, and notebook sketches. In large-scale format, the book offers vivid proximity to Basquiat’s intricate marks and scribbled words, further illuminated by an introduction to the artist from editor Hans Werner Holzwarth, as well as an essay on his themes and artistic development from curator and art historian Eleanor Nairne. Richly illustrated year-by-year chapter breaks follow the artist’s life and quote from his own statements and contemporary reviews to provide both personal background and historical context.

Jean-michel Basquiat XXL

Taschen America, LLC

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Taschen

Taschen Deutschland GmbH+

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Books by Nairne, Eleanor

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Nairne, Eleanor. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner

David Batchelor – Concretos

Mark Rothko: 1968 Clearing Away

Basquiat: Boom for Real

Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty

Alice Neel: Hot Off the Griddle

Jean-michel Basquiat XXL

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat