Piet Mondrian, Sophie Calle, Gillian Wearing & Tracey Emin

Piet Mondrian by Hans L.C. Jaffe

This book presents a comprehensive survey of the work of Piet Mondrian, an artist who has exercised a vast influence on the art of our time - and not only on painting and architecture, but also on the minor arts: interior decoration, furniture design, advertising displays, typography, and book design. Though for many years he was regarded as the most ultra-refined of twentieth-century artists, Mondrian's pervasive presence can now be discerned in innumerable contexts - among them the pages of popular household magazines, the lobbies of apartment houses, and even women's fashions.
Born in Holland in 1872, Piet Mondrian began his career as a talented academic painter. Soon, however, his landscapes depicting the Dutch countryside became suffused with subtle overtones of uniquely original linear patterns, effects of light, and gradations of color. Finally - as he sought to bring out the essence of things - his paintings of trees, sand dunes, church towers, and windmills became progressively more refined until he had ultimately distilled their contours and planes into his well-known areas of primary colors and horizontal and vertical black lines.
In 1917, together with the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg, he founded the magazine De Stijl. In its pages Piet Mondrian crystallized his aesthetic credo in a number of important essays, some of which may be considered as cornerstones of the abstract movement. During his association with De Stijl, Mondrian was concerned with writing as with painting, but after a rift with van Doesburg he returned to painting with renewed ardor. He called his work "Neo-Plasticism"; his aim was a "pure art."
Pier Mondrian came to the United States in 1940; his final years, spent in New York, afforded him more satisfaction than the previous half century of endeavor. In the United States he not only completed a number of important canvases begun in Europe, but also created a group of new works, inspired by New York, which are regarded as comprising his artistic testament. Among these are two of his masterpieces, Broadway Boogie-Woogie and Victory Boogie-Woogie (the latter unfinished at the time of Mondrian's death in 1944). In these paintings the familiar black lines were eliminated, so that small squares of primary color sparkled against a white background.
Piet Mondrian by Hans L.C. Jaffe
Harry N. Abrams, 1986

Sophie Calle

After graduating from high school in Paris, Sophie Calle took a seven-year break to travel around the world. During this time she worked as a barmaid, dancer, and dog trainer.
Sophie Calle completed her first artwork shortly after her return, inviting 45 friends, neighbours and strangers to sleep in her bed. She documented these encounters with photographs and text. The Sleeper (1979) is the first link in a chain of often incredibly adventurous incursions into one's own sphere of privacy and that of others, a theme that seems to run through Calle's oeuvre. This publication presents Sophie Calle's Autobiographical Stories for the first time (since 1987) in a cycle of text-photo works. Also being published for the first time outside France, is a 2002 remake of the work, The Shadow (1981).
The presentation will be supplemented with what might be considered Sophie Calle's most controversial work, The Blind (1986), as well as the film stills of her 1999 video collaboration Double Blind, produced with Greg Sheppard (the film version of No Sex Last Night).
Sophie Calle
ISBN: 3883755923

Lucian Freud: Etchings 1946-2004

This book accompanies an exhibition by Lucian Freud, which is the first museum retrospective devoted to his prints.
Throughout his career Freud has been recognised for producing works of unnerving psychological intensity, and is regarded as one of the leading figurative artists of the twentieth century. His supreme ability as a draughtsman lends itself to the monochromatic, tightly controlled technique of etching and he has used this medium to produce works of great intimacy.
Lucian Freud: Etchings 1946-2004 by Craig Hartley
ISBN: 190327849X

Paula Rego

The monumentality and psychological drama of Paula Rego's paintings have established her as one of the most important figurative painters of her generation. The first retrospective exhibition of Paula Rego in London in 1988 brought together a range of her dramatically simplified paintings of the ambiguous relations of men, women and children.
This study was first published in 1992, but since then Paula Rego has produced new work, including the "Peter Pan" etchings, the "Dog Woman" series and "The Ostriches", which are illustrated and discussed. Bringing together paintings, prints and drawings alongside documentary photographs, this book features a revised chronology, and list of exhibitions.
Paula Rego by John McEwen
ISBN: 0714836222

Gillian Wearing

Artist Gillian Wearing uses photography and video to produce a portrait of the complexities of contemporary life. This book takes a look at all of her work, contextualizing it in relation to 20th-century painting, photography and video art.
The text discusses with the artist her collaborative approach towards her work and its subjects, and focuses on "10-16", a video installation that charts our transition from childhood to adolescence. The full transcripts of Gillian Wearing's videos are included.
The book is part of a series of studies of important artists of the late-20th century. Each title offers a comprehensive survey of the artist's work, providing analyses and multiple perspectives on contemporary art and its inspiration.
Gillian Wearing by Russell Ferguson, Donna De Salvo, Donna De Salvo and John Slyce
ISBN: 0714838241

Tracey Emin

The career of Tracey Emin, one of the best known contemporary British artists, has become a potent symbol of the relationship between art and celebrity in our time. When it was exhibited in London at the Tate in 1999, her now notorious installation My Bed was denounced by conservative critics as a national scandal, but this and her other work have continued to attract ever larger audiences.
Whether storming drunkenly out of live television debates, talking tearfully about her abortions or modelling evening gowns for Vivienne Westwood, Tracey Emin makes headlines. Yet if Tracey Emin is now universally recognized as a media phenomenon, her work has also begun to attract serious critical attention.
In The Art of Tracey Emin, distinguished critics from Britain and the United States explore her various artistic influences, for example Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele, and the separate parts of her oeuvre - her installations (most notably My Bed and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With), her film and video works, and her monoprints. The final essay takes the form of an interview with the artist.
The Art of Tracey Emin by Chris Townsend and Mandy Merck
ISBN: 0500283850