Books – Detail

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Alexander Calder: Modern From the Start
Cara Manes

Alexander Calder's work first appeared in the Museum of Modern Art's galleries in 1930, in the exhibition Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans. Calder cultivated friendships and working relationships with notable figures, including Alfred H. Barr Jr., the Museum's founding director, and James Johnson Sweeney, with whom he collaborated on his retrospective exhibition in 1943. His work is imprinted on MoMA's early history, not only for its material and conceptual innovation but also for its presence at significant moments, such as a mobile made to hang over the lobby's grand staircase on the occasion of the new Goodwin and Stone building (Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, which hangs there to this day); a candelabra to adorn the tables at a celebratory anniversary event; and a sculpture to fly off a flagpole to advertise the landmark exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art.

144 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

Calder: Sculpting Time
ed. by Carmen Giménez and Ana Mingot Comenge

This catalogue includes over 30 masterworks made between 1930 and 1960 Calder's most innovative, prolific years from his early abstractions or sphériques to a magnificent selection of mobiles, stabiles, and standing mobiles of various scales. It also features a large body of Calder's Constellations, a term proposed by Duchamp and James Johnson Sweeney for the artists beloved objects made from wood and wire in 1943, a time when sheet metal was in short supply due to World War II.

157 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

City Shapers: Stories of Immigrant Designers
Graciela Carrillo, Shahad Sadeq, Yu-Ngok Lo

The Immigrant Architects Coalition was created by Graciela Carrillo, Shahad Sadeq, and Yu-Ngok Lo to create a community that offers mentorship, advice, and valuable resources to our fellow immigrant designers/architects. This book is the first step in achieving that mission. Twenty-four immigrant professionals share their experiences as firm owners, American Institute of Architects leaders, and entrepreneurs. The stories shared in this book portray a common path in their journey to achieve a successful and meaningful career in the U.S. - back cover.

227 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

The Club: Where American Women artists found refuge in Belle Époque Paris
Jennifer Dasal

In Belle Époque Paris, the Eiffel Tower was newly built, France was experiencing remarkable political stability, and American women were painting the town and gathering at a female-only Residence known as The American Girls' Club in Paris. Opened in 1893, The Club was the center of expatriate living and of dedication to a calling in the fine arts, and singularly harbored a generation of independent, talented, and driven American women.

316 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

The Devil Wears Rothko
Barry Avrich

The Devil Wears Rothko charts the explosive demise of Knoedler Gallery, one of New York’s oldest and most prestigious art galleries, with detailed and salacious insight into the art fraud scandal of the century.

222 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Encounters: Denise Scott Brown Photographs
Izzy Kornblatt (Edtor)

The first publication dedicated to the perceptive photographic oeuvre of one of the most important postwar architects and co-author of the influential Learning from Las Vegas

433 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Eventually Everything Connects: Mid-Century Modern Design in the US
Andrew Satake Blauvelt, Bridget Bartal

An expansive account of the ever-popular mid-century movement, from the place where it all began.

463 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Fashion & Interiors: A Gendered Affair
Romy Cockx, Robin Schuldenfrei, Lara Steinhäußer

Exploring fashion and interior design through a gender lens, from the Victorian era to contemporary designers like Martin Margiela and Raf Simons

223 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists
Susan Gubar

One of our most formidable literary critics explores how nine women artists flourished creatively in their final acts.

368 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

The Great Miscalculation: The Race to Save New York City's Citicorp Tower
Michael M. Greenburg

How an engineering crisis threatened a career, a building, and the lives of countless New Yorkers.

237 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Herzog & de Meuron
essays by Ricky Burdett et al.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Herzog and de Meuron, Royal Academy of Arts, 14 July - 15 October 2023.

Architects Herzog & de Meuron designed the building in Calder Gardens, which opened in September 2025 in Philadelphia.

159 pp. Paperback - Art, Architecture & Design

I'm Not Your Muse: Uncovering the Overshadowed Brilliance of Women Artists & Visionaries
Lori Zimmer

An illuminating exploration of 31 incredible women—across art, architecture, dance, literature, and more—whose culture-defining contributions have, until now, been overshadowed by their role as "muses" to history's better-known men.

188 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History
Maggie Gram

From a brilliant cultural historian, “a secret history of the twentieth century” (Louis Menand) told through the story of design and its utopian promises.

322 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

King Charles III: 40 Years of Architecture
Clive Aslet

In King Charles III: 40 Years of Architecture, Clive Aslet offers a lively account of the King and his epic engagement with architecture since the ‘carbuncle’ speech of 1984.

236 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Los Angeles Before the Freeways: Images of an Era 1850–1950
Arnold Hylen

Discover of a lost Los Angeles from an era before the freeways in this beautiful coffee table book from iconic architectural photographer Arnold Hylen.

191 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

The Manifesto House: Buildings that Changed the Future of Architecture
Owen Hopkins

Manifesto houses reflect new visions for how we can live. Often extreme and uncompromising, they are vehicles for innovation, new ideas, and new ways of doing things.

240 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Matisse in Morocco: A Journey of Light and Color
Jeff Koehler

Matisse in Morocco tells the story of the artist's groundbreaking time in Tangier and how it altered Matisse's development as a painter and indelibly marked his work for the next four decades.

311 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

Not a Woman Architect: The Life and Work of Brigitte Peterhans
David Fleener (ed.)

This book presents the life story of an extraordinary woman in the world of corporate architecture during the Mad Men era of the 1950s to 1980s. Born in a small village in Germany, Brigitte Peterhans managed to come to America to study with Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and then to work with Bruce Graham at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Her work during this time reflected the mid-century modernism of Mies and SOM. Later in her career, both towards the end of her time at SOM and then on her own after retiring from SOM, she developed her own individual style. Significantly, Peterhans avoided any attempt to be either challenged or praised strictly as a woman architect, insisting that she was merely an architect.

192 pp. Paperback - Art, Architecture & Design

Persuasion of Place: The Work of Cecil Baker Architect
Cecil Baker

Cecil Baker has designed some of the most prominent buildings in Philadelphia's recent history. Moving fluidly between scales, building types, and price points, his office helped shape the evolution of Philadelphia's City Center and set modernist precedents in its traditionally minded suburbs and beyond. This collection contains 35 of his finest projects, all of which embody the ethos of "persuasion of place."

421 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Piet Oudolf at Work
project editor: Victoria Clarke with support from Hélène Lesger and Noel Kingsbury

Step into a Piet Oudolf garden and you are transported into a dreamlike meadowscape, filled with perennials, seasonal color, and texture. Made in close collaboration with Oudolf, this book showcases gardens throughout his career and across the globe from New York's acclaimed High Line to the newly planted Vitra Campus in Germany.

287 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Retrouvius: Contemporary Salvage : Designing Homes from a Philosophy of Re-Use
Maria Speake

London-based design studio Retrouvius has carved a unique and important niche in the interior design and architecture spheres by blending architectural salvage with innovative design.

271 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

Sargent and Paris
Stephanie L. Herdrich

A fascinating look at John Singer Sargent’s formative years as a young painter in Paris, a city that helped forge his artistic identity and sparked his rise to the pinnacle of the nineteenth-century art world.

255 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Sketchbook Joy: How to embrace your creativity and fill your sketchbooks with colour
Katie Moody

Art can be accessible, so much fun and positive for your mental health, mindfulness, and memory. Kickstart your creative journey with this exciting guide to developing your art skills every day through your sketchbook.

159 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Strangers Need Strange Moments Together: Designing Interaction for Public Spaces
Mouna Andraos, Melissa Mongiat

We crave places that support us, nourish us and inspire us. We dream of going through our lives together, inclusively and tolerantly. Can we re-enchant the raw material of our shared everyday? This book frequently uses the word 'we'. We, as in the general public, engaged citizens, humans of planet Earth ... And we, Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat, together with our team at Daily tous les jours, as we seek new models for living together. --Back cover.

236 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Susan Watkins and Women Artists of the Progressive Era
Corey Piper (Editor)

This survey of the life and work of American painter Susan Watkins explores how she and other women artists carved paths to success at the turn of the twentieth century.

166 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Type V City: Codifying Material Inequity in Urban America
Jeana Ripple

"A history of the building codes in the United States and the role that wood frame construction has played in the development of American cities"-- Provided by publisher.

222 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
Sue Prideaux

An original and revealing portrait of the misunderstood French Post-Impressionist artist.

Shortlisted for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize

401 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

Wonder City: How to Reclaim Human-Scale Urban Life
Lynn Ellsworth

This book is an essential read for urban planners, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of urban living. Ellsworth’s clear, accessible insights into complex issues make Wonder City a vital contribution to the discourse on urban development, appealing to a broad audience that cares about the dynamics and future of city life.

374 pp. - Art, Architecture & Design

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