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

Calder-isms
Alexander Calder, edited by Larry Warsh

Calder-isms is a collection of fascinating, irreverent, and often profound quotations from the influential modern American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976), who is most famous for his invention of what his friend Marcel Duchamp dubbed the "mobile."

152 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

Chicago Homes: A Portrait of the City's Everyday Architecture
Carla Bruni, Phil Thompson

A comprehensive, first-of-its-kind book about Chicago's residential architecture and the stories that shaped it. This is an entertaining and precisely illustrated story of Chicago homes from the city's earliest days through the postwar era, revealing everything about what makes a home a Chicago home

342 pp. Hardcover - 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

Elements of Timeless Style: Creating a Forever Home
Erin Gates

Your home is your sanctuary -- a safe space that nurtures your emotional, physical, and mental well-being. In Elements of Timeless Style, Erin shares her decades of expertise to guide you in making thoughtful choices, big and small, that enhance your living space.

415 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

Finding Ella Briggs
Despina Stratigakos and Elana Shapira

The life and work of an unconventional architect

283 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

The Grave Robber: The Biggest Stolen Artifacts Case in FBI History and the Bureau's Quest to Set Things Right
Tim Carpenter

Tim Carpenter--lead investigator of the FBI Art Crime team--uncovers over 40,000 artifacts and remains from around the world that had been stolen by a Midwestern graverobber

299 pp. Hardcover - 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

Living Cities: Three Centuries of Park Systems
Matthew Skjonsberg

This book demonstrates the ecological and social impact of park systems and highlights the diverse challenges that communities face when implementing such projects. At the same time, it encourages a reevaluation of civic design as an intergenerational practice of urban design.

287 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

Making Space: Interior Design by Women
Jane Hall

A global survey of 250 of the most creative women practicing interior design from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.

287 pp. Hardcover - Art, Architecture & Design

Managing the Magic of Old Places Crafting Public Policies for People-Centered Historic Preservation
Jeremy C. Wells

From 1849 to the early 1980s, fewer than one hundred highly educated, white, European and American men created what became today's US federal historic preservation policy. Jeremy C. Wells argues that the orthodox historic preservation doctrine that this lineage formulated has too long dominated federal policy and watered down the richness of laypeople's relationships to their own heritage.

266 pp. Paperback - Art, Architecture & Design

Matisse at War
Christopher C. Gorham

During World War II, French artist Henri Matisse and his family remained in Nazi-occupied France despite the dangers of war. Matisse at War examines this period of the artist's life, highlighting his and his family's connections to the French Resistance and the significant artworks he created during this time.

300 pp. Hardcover - 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.

192 pp. Paperback - 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

Stan and Gus: art, ardor, and the friendship that built the Gilded Age
Henry Wiencek

How the architect Stanford White and the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens transcended scandal to enrich their times.

304 pp. Hardcover - 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

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

Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation
Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett

The future of cities is female... As cities around the world face mounting crises - climate change, traffic congestion and growing inequity - the need for bold, people-first solutions has never been greater. Enter the women leading the charge. In Women Changing Cities, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett highlight the groundbreaking work of female mayors, planners, advocates, and policymakers in reshaping urban spaces for the better.

198 pp. Paperback - Art, Architecture & Design

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