David Zwirner Books
David Zwirner Books
Pop-Up Bookstore, New York
Visit for new releases and special offers on a selection of publication, posters, zines, and editions.
535 West 20th Street
CLOSED FOR SUMMER BREAK
Will reopen Saturday, September 16
AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers of 2016
We are very pleased to announce that two David Zwirner Books titles have been awarded with the prestigious AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers of 2016 award. Donald Judd Writings and Raymond Pettibon: Homo Americanus were selected from a body of 700 entries and have won in the category of 50 Books.
ekphrasis series
The ekphrasis series is specially dedicated to publishing out-of-print, rare, and newly commissioned texts as accessible paperback volumes. The series is part of an ongoing effort to publish new and surprising pieces of writing on visual culture.
Available now
Ramblings of a Wannabe Painter
Chardin and Rembrandt
Degas and His Model
Pissing Figures 1280–2014
Forthcoming in Fall 2017
Letters to a Young Painter
Summoning Pearl Harbor
New Release
Degas and His Model
'Monsieur Degas, you just said some things that would make an old soldier blush!' – Alice Michel
There are many myths about the artist Edgar Degas—from Degas the misanthrope to Degas the deviant, to Degas the obsessive. But there is no single text that better stokes the fire than Degas and His Model, a short memoir published by Alice Michel, who purportedly modeled for Degas. We know that Alice was writing under a pseudonym, but who the real person behind this account was remains a mystery—to this day nothing is known about her.
New Release
Pissing Figures 1280–2014
"Not just anyone makes a good pisser." – Jean-Claude Lebensztejn
Jean-Claude Lebensztejn’s history of the urinating figure in art, Pissing Figures 1280–2014, is at once a scholarly inquiry into an important visual motif, and a ribald statement on transgression and limits in works of art in general. First introducing the Manneken Pis—the iconic little boy whose stream of urine supplies water to this famous fountain and is also the logo for a Belgian beer company—the author takes the reader through a semi-scatological maze of cultural history.
New Release
Fred Sandback: Vertical Constructions
This catalogue, published on the occasion of the exhibition at David Zwirner, New York, in the fall of 2016, takes its lead from a 1987 mid-career presentation of Sandback’s work at Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster, also called Vertical Constructions. With a mixture of archival imagery of the sculptures in situ in Münster, and new photography of these works installed at Zwirner, this publication is both a historical document and a source of renewed attention to this body of work. It also features an expanded selection of sculpture, going beyond what was presented in the 1987 and 2016 exhibitions, to include key examples of vertical constructions spanning Sandback’s career.
New Release
Giorgio Morandi: Late Paintings
One of the most beloved painters of the twentieth century, Giorgio Morandi created works that continue to exert their mysterious power on viewers worldwide. This publication focuses on the period from 1948 to 1964, during which Morandi developed and refined his investigations of serial, reductive, and permutational forms and compositions, a body of work that has had a profound influence on twentieth-century art and painting. The catalogue is published on the occasion of the 2015 exhibition of Morandi’s paintings from this period at David Zwirner, New York—which, according to The New York Times, represent “lucid perfection, at once cerebral and impassioned.”
New Release
Al Taylor: Early Paintings
Al Taylor began his studio practice as a painter and although he is more widely known for the three-dimensional works he started making in 1985, the artist maintained that his constructions weren’t “at all about sculptural concerns; [they come] from a flatter set of traditions.” Throughout his career, whether he worked on canvas, drawings and prints, or sculpture, the creative process of Taylor’s oeuvre was fundamentally grounded in the formal concerns of painting. Published on the occasion of an exhibition at David Zwirner, New York, in spring 2017, Al Taylor: Early Paintings is the first book to focus exclusively on the artist’s works on canvas, featuring a selection of rarely seen paintings created between 1971 and 1980.
New Release
Alice Neel, Uptown
By Hilton Als
Known for her portraits of family, friends, writers, poets, artists, students, singers, salesmen, activists, and more, Alice Neel (1900–1984) created forthright, intimate, and, at times, humorous paintings that quietly engaged with political and social issues. In Alice Neel, Uptown, writer and curator Hilton Als brings together a body of paintings of African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and other people of color for the first time. Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at David Zwirner, New York, and Victoria Miro, London, in 2017, the publication explores Neel’s interest in the diversity of uptown New York and the variety of people amongst whom she lived.
Also by Hilton Als
New Release
Kerry James Marshall
Critically and commercially acclaimed, Kerry James Marshall is known for his representation of the history of African-American identity in Western art. Conversant with a wide typology of styles, subjects, and techniques, from abstraction to realism and comics, Marshall synthesizes different traditions and genres in his work while seeking to counter stereotypical depictions of black people in society. This is the most comprehensive overview available of his remarkable career.
New Release
Toba Khedoori
Published on the occasion of Toba Khedoori's exhibition at LACMA in 2016, this book documents the artistic development of the MacArthur "Genius" Award recipient who skillfully combines precise draftsmanship with a meditative quality, and who manages to invite viewers inside her works, despite their two-dimensionality. The exhibition is traveling to PAMM.
Toba Khedoori
Pérez Art Museum Miami
April 21 – September 24
New Release
Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work
This catalogue is published to coincide with a major survey at the New Museum, New York and traveling to Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, The Netherlands in 2017. The catalogue includes nearly 700 images, contributions from important figures in the art-historical and cultural fields, and a recent interview with the artist.
Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work
Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, The Netherlands
June 2 – October 29
New Release
James Welling: Metamorphosis
Marking the influential photographer’s first major European survey, this book features highlights from four decades of James Welling’s oeuvre. Emerging out of the “Picture Generation”—a group of artists focused on a critique of photographic media—James Welling has gone on to experiment successfully in nearly every photographic genre. This monograph, designed by Joseph Logan in close collaboration with the artist, presents a selection of works from the early 1970s to today, demonstrating the artist’s conceptual foundations.
New Release
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors
Kusama’s iconic Infinity Mirror Rooms, which originated with Phalli’s Field in 1965, situate viewers in kaleidoscopic spaces filled with multicolored lights or whimsical forms. These mirror-lined installations reflect endlessly, distorting rooms to project the illusion of infinite space. Generously illustrated, this publication—published on the occasion of the artist's major traveling exhibition—invites readers to examine the series’ impact over the course of the artist’s career.
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors The Broad Art Gallery of Ontario
Seattle Art Museum
June 30 – September 10
October 21, 2017 – January, 10 2018
March 3 – May 27, 2018
Carol Bove in Venice
Carol Bove's installation for the Swiss Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale is part of the exhibition 'Women of Venice,' which responds to the legacy of Alberto Giacometti. Bove's participation debuts new steel sculptures, similar to those reproduced in our recent publication Polka Dots
Venice Biennale
May 13 – November 26
Forthcoming
Letters to a Young Painter
"As for you, my dear Balthus, you surely know full well the love that connects us. Yours with all my heart, Rilke." – Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke’s fascinating Letters to a Young Painter, written toward the end of his life between 1920 and 1926, is a surprising companion to his infamous Letters to a Young Poet, earlier correspondence from 1902 to 1908. In these eight intimate letters written to a teenage Balthus—who would go on to become one of the leading artists of his generation—Rilke describes the challenges he faced, while opening the door for the young painter to take himself and his work seriously.
Forthcoming
Summoning Pearl Harbor
"Now he had time to think. Tadayoshi Koga, 19 years old, had just crash-landed his Mitsubishi Zero airplane on the remote Aleutian island of Akutan. It was June 1942, six months after Pearl Harbor..." – Alexander Nemerov
Summoning Pearl Harbor is a mesmerizing display of linguistic force that redefines remembering. How do words make the past appear? In what way does the historian summon bygone events? What is this kind of remembering, and for whom do we recall the dead, or the past? In this highly original meditation on the past, renowned art historian Alexander Nemerov delves into what it means to recall a significant event—Pearl Harbor—and how descriptions of images can summon it back to life.
Forthcoming
Tell Me Something Good: Artist Interviews from The Brooklyn Rail
The legendary Brooklyn Rail has been a platform for artists, academics, and writers in New York and abroad for over fifteen years. The monthly journal’s continued appeal is due in large part to its wonderfully diverse contributors, many of whom bring contrasting and often unexpected opinions to conversations about art and aesthetics. No other publication devotes as much space to the artist’s voice, allowing ideas to unfold and idiosyncrasies to emerge through open discussion. Selected and coedited by Jarrett Earnest, a frequent Rail contributor, with Lucas Zwirner, the book includes an introduction to the project by Phong Bui as well as many of the hand-drawn portraits he has made of those he has interviewed over the years. This combination of verbal and visual profiles offers a rare and personal insight into contemporary visual culture.
Forthcoming
Luc Tuymans: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings Volume 1: 1972–1994
The first volume of a comprehensive record of paintings by the prolific Belgian artist Luc Tuymans highlights his generative early work. The years 1972 to 1994 witnessed the maturation of his signature method of painting from preexisting imagery—such as magazine images, Polaroids, and television footage—as well as his first solo exhibition.
Forthcoming
Oscar Murillo
With a body of powerful paintings, dynamic installations, and hauntingly poetic video works, Oscar Murillo has distinguished himself as one of his generation’s leading voices. Published on the occasion of Murillo’s 2017 solo exhibition at Haus der Kunst in Munich, this volume––the first dedicated overview of his astonishing career to date––presents the artist’s multifaceted practice from every angle. With an introduction by Okwui Enwezor and new scholarship by Anna Schneider and Emma Enderby, this publication offers critical insight into Murillo’s complex, vibrant body of work that continually offers enriching, powerful observations of the world around us.
Capsule 07: Oscar Murillo
Haus der Kunst, Munich
September 15 – March 18, 2018
Forthcoming
R. Crumb: Bible of Filth
Featuring R. Crumb’s most outrageous sexual comics, Bible of Filth is possibly the dirtiest book around. This revised and expanded English edition contains all the original pieces from the 1986 volume, with over one hundred pages of additional material. Printed on bible paper and bound in leather, with gold debossing and edging, this volume looks and feels like a traditional bible, with no outward suggestion of what it contains.