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Tag: Alvin Lustig
Favourite Books 2010: Dan Wagstaff
by Dan
Art & Photography + Design & Typography + News / December 07, 2010
Born Modern: The Life and Design of Alvin Lustig
Steven Heller and Elaine Lustig Cohen
Chronicle Books ISBN 9780811861274
$58.00
Responsible for the iconic book covers of New Directions’ New Classics series from the 1940’s and early 1950’s, Alvin Lustig is the book designers’ book designer. Although he died tragically young aged 40 in 1955, Lustig changed the face of modern American design forever.
I tweeted about Born Modern the moment I heard about it at sales conference and immediately discovered that A LOT of other people just could not wait to get their hands on it. This really is my favourite, favourite book of the year and if you're at all interested in design (or just want a taste of genuine Mad Men era chic), you need this in your life.
Large Scale: Fabricating Sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s
Jonathan D. Lippincott
Princeton Architectural Press ISBN 9781568989341
$52.00
A couple of years ago, PAPress published an amazing collection of Pedro Guerrero's work that include photographs inside the homes of sculptors Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson. Then earlier this year, PAPress published Large Scale, a collection of behind-the-scenes photographs that capture the fabrication and installation of gigantic (GIGANTIC!) sculptures by Nevelson and other amazing post-war American artists like Claes Oldenburg, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, and Barnett Newman. Like the book of Guerrero's photographs, Large Scale is beautiful, rare and candid glimpse of artists in their element, and it captures a very particular moment in 20th century art history. Stunning.
KENK: A Graphic Portrait
Richard Poplak, illustrated by Nick Marinkovich
Pop Sandbox ISBN 9780986488405
$27.95
I think KENK caused me more anxiety and nail-biting than any other book we distributed this year, but the down-to-wire production and the subsequent controversy was all worth it in the end. The launch party at the Cadillac Lounge in Toronto was one of the most surreal book events I have ever been to (and yes, Kenk, like a moth to the flame, did arrive in person sending the attendant CBC camera crew into something of a tizzy). And although the book sadly wasn’t eligible for any of the major book awards in Canada, it was gratifying to see it picked by the Quill & Quire as one of their books of the year.
Dan Wagstaff lives in Toronto and works in online sales and marketing for Raincoast. He also drinks a lot of coffee and blogs about books, design and related stuff at The Casual Optimist.
