New ways of seeing art with an eye toward diversity and inclusivity are among this season’s themes, along with reconsiderations of major artists.
Top 10
The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design
Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct. 6 ($30, ISBN 978-0-358-12660-7)
The creators of the 99% Invisible podcast provide a guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements of cities. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
The Best of Nest: Celebrating the Extraordinary Interiors from Nest Magazine
Edited by Todd Oldham. Phaidon, Oct. 1 ($100, ISBN 978-1-83866-185-4)
This book contains selections from all 26 issues of Nest magazine and works by such writers and photographers as Simon Doonan, Michael Cunningham, Nan Goldin, Derry Moore, Amy Sedaris, and Patti Smith.
Gabrielle Chanel
Miren Arzalluz. Thames & Hudson, Sept. 1 ($60, ISBN 978-0-500-02346-4)
This chronicle of the life of the fashion icon who introduced the little black dress, created women’s trousers, and designed the first couture perfume (No. 5) contains specially commissioned photographs by Julien T. Hamon that showcase Gabrielle Chanel’s designs.
Goya: A Portrait of the Artist
Janis Tomlinson. Princeton Univ., Sept. 15 ($35, ISBN 978-0-691-19204-8)
In this biography of the last of Spain’s old masters, Tomlinson views Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) within the context of his age and challenges the conventional interpretation of his late years as a period of disillusion.
Humans
Brandon Stanton. St. Martin’s, Oct. 6 ($35, ISBN 978-1-250-11429-7)
The creator of the Humans of New York blog offers a global portrait of people from more than 40 countries.
Joan Mitchell
Sarah Roberts and Katy Siegel. Yale Univ., Sept. 15 ($65, ISBN 978-0-300-24727-5)
This retrospective explores the ways that Joan Mitchell expanded painting beyond abstract expressionism and the transatlantic contexts that shaped her work.
Latinx Photography in the United States: A Visual History
Elizabeth Ferrer. Univ. of Washington, Nov. 11 ($95, ISBN 978-0-295-74762-0)
Ferrer traces the rise of a Latinx consciousness in photography through the work of artists who have largely been excluded from the history of photography in the U.S.
The Look of the Book: Jackets, Covers, and Art at the Edges of Literature
Peter Mendelsund and David J. Alworth. Ten Speed, Oct. 6 ($50, ISBN 978-0-399-58102-1)
Mendelsund, a designer and art director, and Alworth, a humanities professor, examine the intersection of culture and commerce, and what a book cover can and should be.
On Photographs
David Campany. MIT, Oct. 13 ($34.95, ISBN 978-0-262-04424-0)
With a nod to Susan Sontag’s On Photography, Campany explores photography in 120 photographs.
Watercolor: A History
Marie-Pierre Salé. Abbeville, Sept. 29 ($125, ISBN 978-0-7892-1373-0)
This illustrated book traces the development of watercolor painting from the 13th to the 20th centuries in Europe and the U.S.
Listings
Abbeville
Deep Affinities: Art and Science by Philip F. Palmedo (Oct. 27, $40, ISBN 978-0-7892-1378-5). Illustrated with more than 125 creations of the genus Homo—from a flint hand ax to the abstractions of Hilma af Klint and the James Webb Space Telescope—this book explores the instinct for beauty shared by artists and scientists.
ABRAMS
Gray Malin: The Essential Collection by Gray Malin (Oct. 20, $65, ISBN 978-1-4197-5026-7) covers the first decade of Malin’s career and includes some of his best-known images along with new material that has never been seen or published.
Japanese Design Since 1945: A Complete Sourcebook by Naomi Pollock (Nov. 3, $85 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4197-5054-0) ) surveys more than 80 designers, hundreds of objects, and contributions from both Japanese and Western designers inspired by Japan.
Art Institute of Chicago
Bisa Butler: Portraits, edited by Erica Warren (Nov. 24, $35, ISBN 978-0-300-25431-0), offers the first monograph of the fiber artist’s work, which often depicts scenes of African-American life and history. Contributors, including Butler, situate her work within the broader history of textiles, photography, and contemporary art.
Ray Johnson c/o, edited by Caitlin Haskell (Oct. 27, $50, ISBN 978-0-300-25433-4), features hundreds of works by the 20th-century artist known for his small-scale collages, including troves of never-before-published material, as well as 21 short essays by various contributors.
Bloomsbury
Craft: An American History by Glenn Adamson (Sept. 8, $30, ISBN 978-1-63557-458-6) rejects the notion that industry, commodities, and technology are at the center of the U.S.’s economic and social development. Instead, Adamson argues, makers have always been central to America’s identity, going back to silversmith Paul Revere.
Booth-Clibborn
Prognosis/Saudi Arabia: An Artist’s Odyssey by Ahmed Mater, edited by Stephen Stapleton and Edward Booth-Clibbon (Oct. 13, $80, ISBN 978-1-86154-387-5), explores doctor-turned-artist Mater’s life and work against the backdrop of 40 years of transformation and conflict across the Arabian Gulf and Islamic world.
Cernunnos
High Gloss: The Art of Vijat Mohindra by Vijat Mohindra (Nov. 10, $50, ISBN 978-1-4197-5024-3) showcases the pop and glossy universe of Mohindra’s ultramodernist and hypersynthetic aesthetic, which has attracted such celebrity clientele as Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, Nicki Minaj, and A$AP Rocky.
Chronicle
Rainbow Revolution by Magnus Hastings (Oct. 27, $40, ISBN 978-1-79720-782-7) features more than 300 photographs of the LGBTQ community that celebrate the expanding spectrum of queer identity and visibility, along with short statements by some of the subjects, about who they are and what that means.
Chronicle Chroma
India Mahdavi by India Mahdavi (Oct. 27, $60, ISBN 978-1-79720-323-2) provides a retrospective of the career of the Paris-based interior designer who is known for her unique sense of color. It includes signature projects, such as Sketch of London and the Ladurée restaurants in Tokyo, Geneva, and Los Angeles.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Shadow Drawing: How Science Taught Leonardo How to Paint by Francesca Fiorani (Oct. 13, $35, ISBN 978-0-374-26196-2). In this biography and reconsideration of how the Renaissance understood science and art, Fiorani examines the connection between Leonardo the artist and Leonardo the inventor.
Firefly
Capturing Motion: My Life in High Speed Nature Photography by Stephen Dalton (Oct. 1, $35, ISBN 978-0-228-10272-4) recounts Dalton’s determination to capture images of insects and birds in flight long before digital cameras and high-speed film. Included are some of his pioneering photographs.
J. Paul Getty Museum
Imogen Cunningham: A Retrospective by Paul Martineau (Sept. 29, $60, ISBN 978-1-60606-675-1). Organized chronologically, this volume explores the life and career of Cunningham (1883–1976) and contains nearly 200 color reproductions of her photographs, including several that have not been published previously.
Getty Research Institute
Hollywood Arensberg: Avant-Garde Collecting in Midcentury L.A. by Mark Nelson, William H. Sherman, and Ellen Hoobler (Oct. 6, $65, ISBN 978-1-60606-666-9). Following the Armory Show of 1913, Louise and Walter Arensberg began collecting thousands of rare books and manuscripts and works of art, which filled every room of their house. This book examines their collection as part of a single vision.
Graphic Arts
The Debt Project: 99 Portraits Across America by Brittany M. Powell (Oct. 27, $34.99, ISBN 978-1-5132-6433-2). Based on the online photo series that Powell began after she filed for bankruptcy for her photography business, this book brings together portraits taken in each subject’s home, surrounded by all their belongings, how much they owe, and the story behind the numbers.
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Frederick Law Olmsted: Plans and Views of Communities and Private Estates, edited by Irene Mills (Oct. 27, $74.95, ISBN 978-1-4214-3867-2). Focusing on living spaces designed to promote physical and mental well-being, this book contains more than 500 images and over 70 of Olmsted’s designs, including the Stanford University campus and the U.S. Capitol grounds.
Lonely Planet
The Perfect Shot by Lonely Planet (Oct. 20, $35, ISBN 978-1-83869-043-4) showcases travel photography from around the world, with 200 photographs and the stories behind how they were shot. Photographers include Philip Lee Harvey and Jonathan Gregson.
Mercatorfonds
Berber Memories: Women and Jewelry in Morocco by Michel Draguet (Sept. 29, $90, ISBN 978-0-300-25395-5). This illustrated book features ear and head ornaments as well as traditional tizerais, or large, triangular clasps designed to hold garments in place. It also includes a brief history of Berber culture, with a focus on ornament in the context of the status of Berber women.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Cubism and the Trompe L’Oeil Tradition by Emily Braun and Elizabeth Cowling, with Claire Le Thomas and Rachel Mustalish (Nov. 23, $50, ISBN 978-1-58839-676-1), explores the connections between the cubists and earlier trompe l’oeil artists and shows how Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and Pablo Picasso parodied classic trompe l’oeil motifs while inventing ways of challenging the viewer’s perception.
MIT
The Architecture of Bathing: Body, Landscape, Art by Christie Pearson (Oct. 6, $44.95, ISBN 978-0-262-04421-9). With more than 260 illustrations, many in color, Pearson’s survey views swimming pools, saunas, beaches, ritual baths, and sweat lodges through the lens of architecture and landscape.
Moleskine
Steven Holl: Inspiration and Process in Architecture by Steven Holl (Oct. 27, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-61689-897-7) brings together a selection of watercolors that Holl, named America’s best architect by Timemagazine in 2002, creates at the beginning of each project. Included are watercolors for the JFK Center for the Performing Arts expansion and University College Dublin, among others.
Monacelli
Objects: USA 2020 by Glenn Adamson (Oct. 27, $50, ISBN 978-1-58093-573-9) pairs 50 participants from the Smithsonian Institution’s 1969 exhibition on American craft with 50 contemporary artists representing the next generation of practitioners to upend the traditional methods and materials of craft. This heavily illustrated book also includes essays by leading voices in craft and contemporary art.
National Geographic Society
America the Beautiful: A Story in Photographs (Oct. 20, $40, ISBN 978-1-4262-2142-2). Inspired by the song, this collection of photographs, culled from National Geographic’s archives and spanning 130 years, attempts to capture the breadth of the people and spaces of the U.S.
Penguin Books
Artcurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History by Jennifer Dasal (Sept. 15, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-14-313459-6). Like the Artcurious podcast hosted by Dasal, named one of PC Magazine’s best Podcasts of the Year in 2018 and 2019, this book brings together unusual stories about artists and masterpieces.
Phaidon
Anni and Josef Albers: Equal but Unequal by Nicholas Fox Weber (Oct. 1, $150, ISBN 978-1-83866-142-7) offers a visual biography of Josef Albers (painter, designer, and teacher) and Anni Albers (textile artist and printmaker) from their formative years at the Bauhaus to Black Mountain College and their intensely productive period in Connecticut.
Dieter Rams: Complete Works by Klaus Klemp (Oct. 1, $59.95, ISBN 978-1-83866-153-3). This catalogue raisonné of every product Dieter Rams has designed celebrates his contribution to the field of industrial and product design and includes a foreword by Rams.
Princeton Architectural Press
The Conservatory: Gardens Under Glass by Alan Stein and Nancy Virts (Oct. 27, $60, ISBN 978-1-61689-827-4). Through archival and contemporary photographs and drawings, this book celebrates the glass structures originally designed to protect fruit trees and other delicate plants from harsh European winters.
Prints and Their Makers by Phil Sanders (Oct. 27, $75, ISBN 978-1-61689-818-2) covers printmaking processes, from lithography to chine collé, and features historical prints from artists like Albrecht Dürer and Sister Corita Kent, as well as contemporary works by Polly Apfelbaum, William Kentridge, Julie Mehretu, and Richard Serra, among others.
Princeton Univ.
¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now by Carmen Ramos et al. (Sept. 15, $45, ISBN 978-0-691-21080-3). Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., this book shows how artists have used graphic arts to engage the public, address social justice concerns, and wrestle with the term Chicano.
Walker Evans: Starting from Scratch by Svetlana Alpers (Oct. 20, $39.95, ISBN 978-0-691-19587-2). This study of photographer Walker Evans, known for his work addressing the Great Depression, brings his techniques into dialogue with the work of such writers as Elizabeth Bishop, William Faulkner, and Gustave Flaubert.
Schiffer
Manhattan’s Hotel Des Artistes: America’s Paris on West 67th Street by Robert Hudovernik (Oct. 28, $65, ISBN 978-0-7643-6044-2). More than 600 archival photos illustrate the story of the artists who convinced businessmen to invest in an arts colony in Manhattan, and of the tenants who lived there from 1917 to 2020.
St. Martin’s
Glory: Magical Visions of Black Beauty by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt (Oct. 20, $30, ISBN 978-1-250-20456-1). This coffee-table book from the husband-and-wife duo behind CreativeSoul Photography uses essays and more than 100 photos to challenge the conventional standards of beauty for black children.
Tate
Magdalena Abakanowicz by Ann Coxon and Mary Jane Jacob (Sept. 15, $35 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-84976-673-9) explores the work of Abakanowicz (1930–2017), a Polish sculptor and fiber artist, who used textiles as a sculptural medium. In the 1960s and ’70s, she wove sisal to create hanging pieces that expanded the field of sculpture and installation art.
Thames & Hudson
Abstract Art: A Global History by Pepe Karmel (Nov. 17, $85, ISBN 978-0-500-23958-2) shows how artists from around the world have used abstract imagery to express social, cultural, and spiritual experience. This heavily illustrated book examines works from artists ranging from Wu Guanzhong, Joan Miró, and Jackson Pollock to Hilma af Klint and Odili Donald Odita.
The Iconic American House: Architectural Masterworks Since 1900 by Dominic Bradbury and Richard Powers (Sept. 8, $65, ISBN 978-0-500-02295-5) features 50 houses designed since 1900 by architects such as Peter Eisenman, Thomas Gluck, Philip Johnson, and Richard Neutra and includes specially commissioned photographs, floor plans, drawings, and architect biographies.
George F. Thompson
A Country No More: Rediscovering the Landscapes of John James Audubon by Krista Elrick (Oct. 15, $55, ISBN 978-1-938086-80-9). With a vintage Hasselblad film camera in hand, Elrick traveled more than 45,000 miles over 10 years and retraced Audubon’s many journeys, starting at his home in Mill Grove near Philadelphia.
Our Time on Earth by Tom Young (Oct. 15, $50, ISBN 978-1-938086-77-9). In this collection of 83 photographs, Young offers a visual narrative that hints at the apocalyptic unfolding of contemporary life while offering hope for a better world.
Univ. of Chicago
Matisse: The Books by Louise Rogers Lalaurie (Oct. 19, $75, ISBN 978-0-226-75054-5). This lavishly illustrated work looks at Matisse through his artist books, which reveal his engagement with questions of beauty and truth; his faith; his perspectives on aging, loss, and inspiration; and his relationship to his critics, the French art establishment, and the women in his life.
Univ. of Texas
Friday Night Lives: Photos from the Town, the Team, and After by Robert Clark (Oct. 6, $45, ISBN 978-1-4773-2119-5) brings together Clark’s previously unpublished photographs of the Permian Panthers taken 30 years ago for Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights with portraits of the players and the community today. In a foreword, Hanif Abdurraqib describes how the photos rehumanize the players.
Univ. of Virginia
Louis Kahn: A Life in Architecture by Carter Wiseman (Oct. 20, $26.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-8139-4497-5) examines the life and work of the American architect who envisioned and realized the Salk Institute, the Kimbell Art Museum, and the National Assembly complex in Bangladesh, among others.
Vendome
Markham Roberts: Notes on Decorating by Markham Roberts (Sept. 15, $70, ISBN 978-0-86565-385-6). Called a “master of timeless American style” by Vogue, interior designer Roberts describes how he addresses the key elements of a project, starting with his top priority, taking into account his clients’ point of view by interpreting their needs and reflecting their style.
Yale Univ.
Going There: Black Visual Satire by Richard J. Powell (Oct. 6, $50, ISBN 978-0-300-24574-5) recounts the history of African American visual satire and interweaves discussions of the midcentury cartoons of Ollie Harrington, the installations of Kara Walker, the paintings of Robert Colescott, and the movies of Spike Lee, among others.
Strict Beauty: Sol Lewitt Prints by David S. Areford (Sept. 29, $60, ISBN 978-0-300-25382-5). By focusing on Sol Lewitt’s printmaking, this book, with more than 400 illustrations, provides a more complete picture of the oeuvre of the conceptual artist (1928–2007), who is best known for his wall drawings and modular structures.
The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler by Margaret F. MacDonald (Oct. 6, $60, ISBN 978-0-300-25450-1) looks at the professional and personal relationship between artist James McNeil Whistler and his chief model, Joanna Hiffernan, and the works of art that resulted from their partnership, including his Symphony in White paintings.
