From painting to fashion, these new art books make for chic coffee table reads.
Creative Couples: Collaborations That Changed History “We were not two halves seeking the other: We were a whole which confronted that inconceivable wholeness with a shiver of recognition.” This haunting Lou Andreas-Salomé quote opens Assouline’s new tome, Creative Couples: Collaborations That Changed History ($50, Assouline), which spotlights couples who have altered culture through their shared legacies. Author Angella Nazarian delves deeper than the typical Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera or Willem and Elaine de Kooning, instead looking to pairs like Andreas-Salomé, a Russian psychoanalyst, and Rainer Maria Rilke, a German poet. The book—including couples such as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, and Ruth Bader and Martin Ginsburg—spans across literature, art, politics and film.
Dior: Moments of Joy One of many books that explore the world of Dior, this one, in particular, focuses on joyful expressions of fashion, rather than the label’s dark glamour. In 220 shots, some taken by icons such as Richard Avedon and Henry Clarke, Dior: Moments of Joy ($85, Rizzoli) looks at the house’s most cheerful fashions and ad campaigns (think Natalie Portman leaping off a dock or Monica Bellucci posing in a fountain) from every era of its history. The book, by Muriel Téodori, is full of sketches, behind-the-scenes photographs, vintage advertisements and illustrations that encompass the fun behind the fashion. As Christian Dior said, “Women, with their ever-sharp instincts, understood that I not only wanted to make them more beautiful, but happier too.”
Walls of Change: The Story of the Wynwood Walls In Miami’s Wynwood warehouse district, the Wynwood Walls stand tall, popping with graffitied colors. The walls, generally credited as the start of the city’s blooming street-art scene, were a project envisioned by real estate developer Tony Goldman in 2009. Now, 50 artists from 16 countries have covered more than 80,000 square feet with psychedelic animals, manga-style characters, loping text and so much more. Written by Jessica Goldman Srebnick, Goldman’s daughter and the Wynwood Walls’ curator, Walls of Change: The Story of the Wynwood Walls ($60, Assouline) chronicles a landmark that has thrust street artists into stardom. “To me, the story of Wynwood is not about discovering a new neighborhood and taking financial risks,” Srebnick writes. “It’s not about cap rates and NOIs and returns on investment. It’s about pursuing passion, thinking creatively, differentiating ourselves, elevating others, doing the unexpected and leading by example.”
Ezra Stoller Photographing everything from New York’s Guggenheim Museum to the Tennessee Valley Authority fossil plant, Ezra Stoller views monolithic structures through an artistic, graphic lens. Phaidon’s homage, fittingly entitled Ezra Stoller ($125, Phaidon), is one of the first to present the famed photographer’s oeuvre, which, in itself, is an archive of modern architecture in America. “Stoller, in many respects, defined the way the 20th century looked in terms of American modernism,” author Pierluigi Serraino said in an interview with the publisher. “He was the spokesperson with his camera, communicating on behalf of a community that was avant-garde to a wider audience. That way of seeing the world was entirely of his own invention.”
Photography by: Photos courtesy of publishers
