![[SIC]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_80,h_80,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feb417c97-4abd-4e64-9e0c-fa062e3f3534_874x874.png)
![[SIC]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/e_trim:10:white/e_trim:10:transparent/h_72,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F47cac4ef-6754-41d4-875b-2afe993c2ae8_1588x342.png)
![[SIC]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_36,h_36,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feb417c97-4abd-4e64-9e0c-fa062e3f3534_874x874.png)
[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED NINETY NINE
Vol 3, No. 18: Coffee Table Books. Unlocked.
I was struggling this morning with what to write about (the news cycle is so bonkers, where to actually begin?!) when I came across a couple of posts from Rectangle, the online book/art shop recently launched by the photographer / curator Tim Barber (my former colleague, of Tiny Vices fame). Rectangle’s got some great books for sale right now. Have a look.
Anyway, it occurred to me that I could write (briefly) about the books on my coffee table at the moment, since I recommend them all. I’ve accumulated a lot of art / photo monographs and anthologies over the last 20 years - so maybe this becomes a more regular feature. LMK if that’s interesting in the comments. Meantime, hope you find something new and interesting here.
B.
[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED NINETY NINE
Charlie Fox: “Flowers of Romance” / 2024 Climax Books
Darcy at Climax Books in the East Village sold me on this one - it’s the second publication they’ve done of Fox’s work. It’s a fun compendium of pop culture images screen-capped or rephotographed (I presume) and filed on his Tumblr page. Finds depth in insisting on being all surface, it’s a fun palate-cleanser compared to some of the more concept-driven stuff I’m also into.
Charles Sheeler “Across Media” / 2006 University of California Press
I discovered Sheeler via this WSJ article in November and was really taken by the picture of the chair / room interior they included with the story. It reminded me of work I’d seen recently by the contemporary painter Alexandra Barth, so I tracked down this Anthology from a 2006 Retrospective show (or, Marcella did - and gave me as a Christmas gift).
Sheeler was a pioneer of both photography and painting in a formal objective style nicknamed “Precisionist” and I was kind of stunned I’d never heard of him before, the way his work resonates with me. Another proof point for the value of always keeping searching.
Anna Weyant (Monograph) / 2023 Gagosian
I think I found Anna’s work around the time of her show at Half Gallery, and possibly through this Galerie Magazine story, or this multi-artist spotlight in pandemic-era W Magazine. Either way, I liked the off-kilter humor in her paintings and have been tracking her ever since (though I was obviously way too late to get anything other than her book). Anyway, the book is very good, and accessible. Like a well-wrought pop song.
Charlotte Perriand: Inventing a New World (Exhibition Catalog) / 2019 Gallimard
Borrowing again from the site description: “A sweeping overview of Charlotte Perriand's career, exploring the interrelation of art, architecture, and design in the work of this legendary 20th century modernist.” I didn’t know Perriand except as a last name in design auction catalogues prior to finding this book at 180 the Store a couple years back. Like Sheeler, Perriand made great stuff all over the place, and the book is huge and immersive.
Patrick O’Dell “Epicly Later’d” / 2024 Anthology Books
Patrick and I worked together for years but even before that I knew his name as a skate photographer for Thrasher. Epicly Later’d (the photoblog) was contemporaneous with Tiny Vices and similarly themed - these photos capture the early days of the blog; a very particular department of “misspent youth” that ended up becoming massively influential.
Agnes Martin “Monograph” / 2015 DAP / Tate
Agnes Martin is so rad. I pulled this one off the shelf recently and put it back on the coffee table as another meditative / palate-cleanser type of thing, in contrast to the chaos of Epicly, or Alain Levitt’s book (see below). Mindbending formalism; poetry.
“Newspaper” Anthology / 2023 Primary information
Gonna borrow from Artbook’s description:
“Published by Steve Lawrence and edited alongside Peter Hujar and Andrew Ullrick, Newspaper was issued in New York City between 1968 and 1971. A wordless, picture-only periodical that replicated the scale of the New York Times, Newspaper ran for 14 issues and featured the disparate practices of over 40 artists.”
I’ve been late to the photographer / multi-media artist Hujar, and only discovered Newspaper by virtue of this release, but man - had I been stalking the streets of NY when it was being published, I would have obsessively tracked this down. The best kind of ephemera: the kind that’s intended to be ephemeral, but become durable by its genius.
Matthew Genitempo “Dogbreath” / 2024 Trespasser
Speaking of genius - best photobook of last year (tie with Jim Mangan’s “The Crick” which has the advantage of still being available). Shots of everyday scenery in Tuscon in the last couple of years, Genitempo’s remarkable way with sequencing and juxtaposition makes this a newly surprising read-through every time. The best art reveals something new each time - this does that. Big thanks to [SIC] homie Rob Hubbert for this one.
Sean William Price “1000 Movies” / 2024 Metrograph
My favorite game with my kids’ friends is to sit them down and read them titles of films in this book, challenging them to guess if they’re real or fake. The gag is that all the titles are real, which is consistently amazing to children of the brainrot era.
Melissa Cody “Webbed Skies” / 2024 Museu de Arte de São Paulo/KMEC Books
My parents have always collected woven / textile art, so I have always enjoyed it, but it’s not a preferred format in my house (a story for another time). Melissa Cody might be the artist to change that. Her woven pieces, done by Navajo traditional means but incorporating a psychedic, almost digitalized style, is super beautiful and massively challenging. This book is going to be very important down the road, I think - buy it on sale now before it disappears into the rare artbook seller archives.
Alain Levitt “NYC 2000-2005” / 2024 FA Books
More misspent youth. The Cock, the Hole, the Fish. IYKYK. A surprise hit - now in its second printing, owing in some part to a show of Alain’s photos at the perennially great HVW8 gallery.
Roe Ethridge “American Polychronic” / 2022 Mack Books
The master of elevating the mundane into pictures that are funny / prosaic / beautiful / referential. This anthology is 10+ years for works that span his whole oeuvre, which makes it more essential IMO than some of his more show-specific books. Another forever return-to type thing that’ll move onto and off the shelf/coffee table in perpetuity.
New York 1962-1964 / 2022 SKIRA
“Charting the three momentous years in which New York became the global capital of art” - this is a really interesting anthology that collects notable developments across art, politics, culture and society to deliver a real time capsule of the early sixties in NYC, which might have been the last time the zeitgeist moved as fast as it seems to be now.
[SIC] DAY TWO HUNDRED NINETY NINE