Darsie Alexander

This dynamic new volume is the first major survey to chronicle the emergence and migration of Pop art from an international perspective, focusing on the period from the 1950s through the early 1970s. Including original texts from a diverse roster of contributors, this catalogue provides important new scholarship on the period, examining production by artists across the globe who were simultaneously confronting radical cultural and political developments that would lay the foundation for the emergence of an art form embracing figuration, media strategies and mechanical processes with a new spirit of urgency and/or exuberance. International Pop amplifies the scope and tenor of what we understand to be "Pop," exposing the tremendous variety and complexity of this pivotal period and subject matter, and revealing how artists alternatively celebrated, cannibalized, rejected or assimilated some of the presumed qualities of Pop advanced in the US and Britain. Anchored by an expansive 48-page visual chronology, the book features in-depth essays by a range of scholars examining developments in Britain, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Italy and Hungary as well as Western Europe and the US. The volume includes some 320 illustrations, including full-color plates of each work in the exhibition, which integrates many classics of Pop art with numerous rarely seen works.

Among the artists included are Evelyne Axel, Peter Blake, Raymundo Colares, Antonio Dias, Rosalyn Drexler, Erró, León Ferrari, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Tanaami Keiichi, Yves Klein, Jirí Kolár, Yayoi Kusama, Nelson Leirner, Anna Maria Maiolino, Antonio Manuel, Marisol, Marta Minujín, Claes Oldenburg, Wanda Pimentel, Michaelangelo Pistoletto, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Mimmo Rotella, Ed Ruscha, Niki de Saint Phalle, Shinjiro Okamoto, Tadanori Yokoo, Wayne Thiebaud, Jean Tinguely, Shinohara Ushio and Andy Warhol.

The Spectacular of Vernacular addresses the role of vernacular forms in the work of 26 artists who utilize craft, folklore and roadside kitsch to explore the role of culturally specific iconography in the increasingly global world of art. Drawing inspiration from such sources as local architecture, amateur photographs and state fair banners, their work runs the spectrum from the sleek to the handcrafted. Inspired by Mike Kelley's observation that "the mass culture of today is the folk art of tomorrow," these artists embrace the totems and neon signs of roadside America. Thus, alongside the visibly handcrafted works of Matthew Day Jackson and Dario Robleto we find the dense and day-glo paintings of Lari Pittman, the glittering trophy heads of Marc Swanson and the urban relics of Rachel Harrison. These works and others suggest a long road trip through the emblems and eyesores of tourist destinations and outmoded hotels. The photography component includes work by William Eggleston, whose color-saturated images gravitate toward the tawdry palette of faded billboards and road signs. This fully-illustrated catalogue includes an essay by exhibition curator Darsie Alexander exploring artists' interest in the vernacular as a means to address aspects of folk ritual, amateur craft and sense of place in their work; a reprint of John Brinckerhoff Jackson's "Vernacular" from his seminal 1984 reader Discovering the Vernacular Landscape; and a reflection by artist and curator Andy Sturdevant on the evolution of roadside vernacular, and attendant histories of heartland America where it is so abundant. Also included is a reading list gathered from a cross section of art criticism and cultural studies.

Spanning 170 years, from William Henry Fox Talbot's first negative to Jeff Wall's latest constructed tableau, Singular Images collects thought-provoking essays on individual photographs, one image per writer. The essayists consider, sometimes in highly personal ways, the artist's intention, their own response, the work's technical complexities, its historical context or its formal properties. Each text captures a sense of how challenging it is to create a perfect single piece. Art photography has been increasingly well-surveyed in recent years, but individual works have rarely been written about at length, perhaps because of lingering doubt that a single photograph can command the kind of sustained attention often given to individual paintings or sculptures. Singular Images is a lively inquiry into the value of analyzing individual photographs, and it persuasively encourages the reader to engage at length and in depth with one remarkable piece at a time. With its broad scope and diverse range of issues, it can also be read as an informal--and thoroughly entertaining--introduction to art photography. Featuring essays by some of the most brilliant critical minds in the field, including David Campany on Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp, Darsie Alexander on Nan Goldin and Liz Jobey on Diane Arbus.