Read Max Barrie's Tale of Fear and Loathing in Malibu and Mainlining Rainbows →

"I almost drowned in SoCal’s sea of superficial diarrhea… and I’m not out of the deep doo yet. The fact that I haven’t blown my brains out— is well… not really that miraculous. I’m a big pink muffin and I’m afraid that if I make my exit too soon, I’ll just be shit out someplace worse… like Sylmar." Writer Max Barrie describes fear and loathing in Malibu and mainlining rainbows in this rabid tale of materialism in Lost Angeles. It's an important and cautionary tale that all should take heed. Read the short non-fiction story here. 

Read: 'Beauty and The Light-Switch Are Thick As Thieves' →

Read 'Beauty and The Light-Switch Are Thick As Thieves'. It will be the first installment of a short non-fiction series, entitled A Trendy Tragedy, by Los Angeles based writer Max Barrie exploring sex, drugs and growing up in the vapidness of Beverly Hills and the entertainment industry. Click here to read. 

Torbjørn Rødland's Vanilla Partner

Torbjørn Rødland's photography is direct but idiosyncratic, pushing at the boundaries of aesthetic and social norms. His fifth book, Vanilla Partner, continues in this vein, combining images of fetishized isolation in a layout that rejects the linear structure of thematic photography books. Rødland’s practice navigates through the problematic and seemingly unchanging heart of popular photography. Accepting neither the humanist realism of most photographic portraiture nor the postmodern role-play, Vanilla Partner explores the cultural complexities and archaic foundation of contemporary image-making. Reconstructed scenes of ultrasoft BDSM read like twisted metaphors for photography’s ability to freeze or capture. The book title, dripping in innuendo, also poses a question about the ambiguity of the relationship between the artist and his medium. Is Rødland acknowledging the medium’s straight foundation or does he see himself dominated by it? Many of the images also have explicit political references, often linked to the 1980 US Presidential election. Vanilla Partner brings together works made in Oslo, Tokyo, Beijing and Rødland’s current home, Los Angeles. Torbjørn Rødland was born in 1970 in Hafrsfjord, Norway. Since the mid-90s his photographs have been exhibited widely. Vanilla Partner is available to purchase here.

Poet John Tottenham by Actor Adam Goldberg

British-born, Los Angeles-based poet John Tottenham photographed by actor Adam Goldberg (Dazed and Confused, Saving Private Ryan). John Tottenham's new book of poetry, entitled Antiepithalamia & Other Poems of Regret and Resentment, is out now on Penny-Ante Editions. Tottenham writes hilariously savage, self-lacerating verse about the artistic ego that always slyly implicates his audience. His readings have been a staple at literary readings in the Los Angeles area, and he is well known among the town's art and literary circles. In performance, at least, his literary voice comes across as a pitch-perfect channeling of the Dostoevsky character from Notes From Underground. And his truth hits always have his audiences doubled over with laughter.

Walter Pfeiffer's Scrapbooks

Walter Pfeiffer’s Scrapbooks from 1969 to 1982 are a very unique Wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities). Pfeiffer’s Polaroids and photographs alternate with miscellaneous objects – newspaper clippings, postcards, packaging, tickets – and brief punning notes. Pfeiffer assembles all of this into a large collage full of surprising references and comparisons that is both a visual diary and creative foundation of his artistic work. In his scrap books, Pfeiffer’s keen view of Eros, Zeitgeist and popular culture, his disrespectful humor as well as his appreciation for the poetry in the mundane and banal, are sharply revealed. They offer a view into Pfeiffer’s meandering and playful universe and are a contemporary document that captures the Zeitgeist of the 1970s and 1980s with ephemeral elegance. Walter Pfeiffer's Scrapbooks 1969-1985 is available here.

Wolfgang Tillmans Neue World Exhibition and Book

wolgang_tillmans_Neue_Welt_taschen

Tillmans's latest project sets its sights on the world. Over the period of more than two decades, Wolfgang Tillmans has explored the medium of photo-imaging with greater range than any other artist of his generation. From snapshots of his friends to abstract images made in a darkroom without a camera or works made with a photocopier, he has pushed the photographic process to its outer limits in myriad ways. For this collection of photos, his fourth book with Taschen, Tillmans turned away from the self-reflexive exploration of the photography medium that had occupied him for several years by focusing his lens on the outside world—from London and Nottingham to Tierra del Fuego, Tasmania, Saudi Arabia, and Papua New Guinea. He describes this new phase simply as “trying out what the camera can do for me, what I can do for it.” The result is a powerful and singular view of life today in diverse parts of the world, seen from many angles. Says Tillmans, “My travels are aimless as such, not looking for predetermined results, but hoping to find subject matter that in some way or other speaks about the time I'm in.” The exhibition Wolfgang Tillmans: Neue Welt / Wolfgang Tillmans. New World will be on show at the Kunsthalle in Zurich until November 2012. The  monograph will be available on October 30, but is available for preorder now. 

Robert Crumb: The Sketchbooks

Taschen has released 1,344 pages of artist Robert Crumb's hand-picked selections from his notebooks.This six-book boxed set is the first collection of Robert Crumb sketches to be printed from the original art since the hard-bound, slipcased, seven volume series issued by the German publisher Zweitausendeins between 1981 and 1997. The edition by Taschen has been personally edited by Crumb himself to include only what he considers his finest work, including hundreds of late period drawings not published in previous sketchbook collections. Robert Crumb: The Sketchbooks. 1982-2011 is now available by Taschen.

Dan Colen Monograph with Text by Harmony Korine

This artist’s book documents Dan Colen’s 2011 exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in New York, as well as his June 2012 Gagosian exhibition in Paris. Drawing from mass media, local environment, and subculture, Dan Colen’s art imbues the ordinary, the disenfranchised, and the tribal with provocative new status. This publication includes over fifty new works, including Colen’s series of Grass, Gum, Confetti, and Stud, with extensive details of the works. There is also text by Harmony Korine. Now available by Rizzoli.

His painting spells TRBL

In-your-face, achingly simple, deceptively frank, the work of Christopher Wool is so very New York. Though he owes a debt to abstract expressionism and pop art, he completely transcends—even demolishes—these genres. Whether it’s a text-based painting or an abstract spray-painted piece, his work is immediately engaging. Wool questions painting, like many other artists in his generation, but he doesn’t provide any easy answers. “The harder you look the harder you look,” he puts it in one of his word paintings, and that is an excellent example of how he states the obvious whilst provoking us to think deeper about what seems obvious. This September a new monograph will be available on Taschen – In over 400 pages, all of Wool's work phases are covered in large-scale reproductions, accompanied by production Polaroids and installation photos by Wool himself. Essays and analyses by Glenn O’Brien, Jim Lewis, Ann Goldstein, Anne Pontégnie, Richard Hell, and Eric Banks.

Sophie Calle's Address Book Published For the First Time

Never before published in its entirety in English, The Address Book is a key and controversial work in Sophie Calle’s oeuvre. Having found a lost address book on the street in Paris, Calle copied the pages before returning it anonymously to its owner. She then embarked on a search to come to know this stranger by contacting listed individuals—in essence, following him through the map of his acquaintances. Her written accounts of these encounters with friends, family and colleagues—juxtaposed with Calle’s photographs—originally appeared as serial in the newspaper Libération over the course of one month in 1983. As the entries accumulate, so do the vivid impressions of the address book’s owner, Pierre D., while also suggesting ever more complicated stories as information is gifted, parsed, and withheld by the people she encounters.hen Pierre D. learned about the work and its appearance in the newspaper, he threatened to sue (and demanded that Libérationpublish nude photographs of Calle as a reciprocal invasion of privacy). Calle agreed not to republish the work until after his death. Part conceptual art, part character study, part confession, part essay, The Address Book is, above all, a prism through which desire and the elusory, persona and identity, the private and the public, knowledge and the unknown are refracted in luminous and provocative ways. The Address Book can be purchased here. 

The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz

In December 2010, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington made headlines when it responded to protests from the Catholic League by voluntarily censoring an excerpt of David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly from its show on American portraiture. Why a work of art could stir such emotions is at the heart of Cynthia Carr's Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz, the first biography of a beleaguered art-world figure who became one of the most important voices of his generation. Wojnarowicz emerged from a Dickensian childhood that included orphanages, abusive and absent parents, and a life of hustling on the street. He first found acclaim in New York's East Village, a neighborhood noted in the 1970s and '80s for its abandoned buildings, junkies, and burgeoning art scene. Along with Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wojnarowicz helped redefine art for the times. As uptown art collectors looked downtown for the next big thing, this community of cultural outsiders was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. The ensuing culture war, the neighborhood's gentrification, and the AIDS crisis then devastated the East Village scene. Wojnarowicz died of AIDS in 1992 at the age of thirty-seven. Carr's brilliant biography traces the untold story of a controversial and seminal figure at a pivotal moment in American culture. Available now.

Monroe by Norman Mailer and Bert Stern

On the anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death – August 25th – Taschen will release a hardcover version of Norman Mailer/Bert Stern: Marilyn Monroe. Taschen has paired Norman Mailer’s original text with Bert Stern’s photographs from the legendary Last Sitting—widely considered the most intimate photographs of Monroe ever taken—to create a fitting tribute to the woman who, at the time of her death in 1962, was the world’s most famous, a symbol of glamour and eroticism for an entire generation. But though she was feted and adored by her public, her private life was that of a little girl lost, desperate to find love and security. Mailer’s Marilyn is beautiful, tragic, and complex. As Mailer reflects upon her life—from her bleak childhood through to the mysterious circumstances of her death—she emerges as a symbol of the bizarre decade during which she reigned as Hollywood’s greatest female star.

Artists in Love

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

For centuries, great artists have been drawn together in friendship and in love. In Artists in Love, curator and writer Veronica Kavass delves into the passionate and creative underpinnings of the art world's most provocative romances. From Picasso and Francoise Gilot to Lee Miler and Man Ray to Saul Steinberg and Hedda Sterne, Kavass' graceful and daring text provides a generous glimpse into the inspiring and sometimes tempestuous relationships between celebrated artists throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Artists in Love will be out this October but is available for preorder now. 

Robert Longo: Charcoal

robert_longo_charcoal_shark

Robert Longo's mastery of charcoal drawing has made him one of America's most admired artists. With every new work he reinvests the tradition of history painting with fresh relevance and impact, rendering majestic, era-defining images in a sensuous and sculptural photorealism. A new volume, entitle Robert Longo: Charcoal, surveys Longo's drawings of the past two decades, from Magellan and the Freud cycle to Monsters (2000), Sickness of Reason (2003), Ophelia (2002), Beginning of the World (2007) and others. Robert Longo was born in Brooklyn in 1953. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Longo collaborated with musicians loosely associated with New York's No Wave movement, such as Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham and Jonathan Kane, and formed the band Robert Longo's Menthol Wars. In the 1980s, as his Men in the City drawing series was winning him critical acclaim, Longo also directed several music videos, including New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" and R.E.M.'s "The One I Love." In 1995 he directed the cyberpunk film Johnny Mnemonic, starring Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren and "Beat" Takeshi. Robert Longo: Charcoal will officially be available on June 30, but is available for preorder now.

Fendi Baguette

This is the first book to focus on the Fendi Baguette. Launched in 1997, the so-called Fendi Baguette instantly became one of the most popular and most important accessories of the decade, earning Fendi the Fashion Group International award for accessories in 2000 and creating an enduring style icon that women the world over coveted and collected with passion. This illustrated book celebrates the Baguette—a story of craftsmanship, artisanship, connoisseurship, and design. A deceptively small, simple handbag to be carried under the arm like the French loaf from which it takes its name, the Fendi Baguette has been produced in more than 700 models. Some are simple and understated, while others feature unique or deluxe materials, such as embroidery, sequins, beading, leather, fur, or crocodile skin. Some are embellished with precious stones, while others are wild, limited-edition works of art designed by artists such as Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, and Jeff Koons. Fendi Baguette with a hardcover by Rizzoli can be purchased here

The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan

"Messy, isn't it," his suicide note read. Confident and robust, Jubilee Hitchhiker is an comprehensive biography of late novelist and poet Richard Brautigan, author of Troutfishing in America and A Confederate General from Big Sur, among many others. When Brautigan took his own life in September of 1984 his close friends and network of artists and writers were devastated though not entirely surprised. To many, Brautigan was shrouded in enigma, erratic and unpredictable in his habits and presentation. But his career was formidable. Brautigan’s career wove its way through both the Beat-influenced San Francisco Renaissance in the 1950s and the “Flower Power” hippie movement of the 1960s; while he never claimed direct artistic involvement with either period, Jubilee Hitchhiker also delves deeply into the spirited times in which he lived. Part history, part biography, and part memoir this etches the portrait of a man destroyed by his genius.