Martin Parr by Sandra S. Phillips Phaidon Press Inc, 2008 Phaidon has recently published a new title of the popular photographer Martin Parr, one of Britain's most successful and prolific photographers. The essay by Sandra Phillips introduces us to his witty and controversial work, an affordable and accessible monograph with 56 images. Well known for his pictures of holidaymakers and day-trippers, Martin Parr joined Magnum Photos in 1994: "Magnum photographers were meant to go out as a crusade ... to places like famine and war and ... I went out and went round the corner to the local supermarket because this to me is the front line." (Martin Parr) The work by Martin Parr - whether his pictures are focused in Britain or somewhere else in the world - has always provided unexpected criticism against the global asset of tourism, the reliance on passive entertainment and, by extension, a critical reflection on our passive mode of receiving information and our firewall against interpretation. Paola Dugnani Doug Aitken: Sleepwalkers by Klaus Biesenbach MoMA, 2007 In January and February of 2007, the Los Angeles-based video artist Doug Aitken projected a new work, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art and the New York arts institution Creative Time, onto seven facades on and around MoMA's fabled West Fifty-third Street building. Sleepwalkers was both inspired by, and offered in opposition to, the densely built midtown environment; it integrated itself onto the surfaces on which it was projected, and it challenged viewers' perceptions of architecture and public space. The piece, which follows the trajectories of five characters as they make their way through nocturnal New York, explores Aitken's key recurring themes: broken and recombined narratives, the rhythm and flow of information and images, and the relationship of individuals to their environment. The viewer, as a pedestrian, a participant and a vital component of New York's energetic system, becomes part of the work, and of the interactive personal landscape that Aitken creates in and among the hard-edged concrete and glass language of Manhattan's architecture. In addition to documentation of Sleepwalkers, this publication contains an overview of the artist's work to date, with special emphasis on works since 2001. It also contains conversations between Aitken and a variety of artists, architects, writers and performers about different elements of city life, from the lit signage of Times Square to a taxi driver's eye view of the streets.

Painting People by Charlotte Mullins Trilce, 2006 After a century in which the lexicon of artists’ materials expanded from the classic oil, canvas, stone and plaster to include photography, film, performance, found objects and concepts, the spotlight has finally swung back. A new generation of artists--as well as some who never abandoned figurative painting in the first place--is relishing the solitary, slow, subtle set of processes involved in not just painting, but painting people. They are choosing paint’s unique ability to distill a lifetime of events rather than photography’s glimpse of a frozen moment. Painting People, edited by the prominent London art historian and critic Charlotte Mullins, unites and contrasts the work of a key group of artists from around the world, and investigates their richly varied accomplishments in lucid text with detailed commentaries, accompanied by more than 150 reproductions. The list of contributing artists is stellar, ranging from photo-based painters like Luc Tuymans, Peter Doig and Marlene Dumas to Pop artists like Sigmar Polke and Alex Katz, photorealists like Chuck Close and Gerhard Richter, Neoexpressionists like Cecily Brown, and comics-inspired painters like Yoshitomo Nara, Inka Essenhigh and Takashi Murakami. There are erotic grotesques from John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage, meditations on the muse by Elizabeth Peyton and Lucian Freud, "Repro-realistic" work from Neo Rauch and of course self-portraits by Philip Akkerman and Marcel Dzama, among others...

John Currin by Alison M. Gingeras, Dave Eggers... Rizzoli, 2006 One of the leading figurative painters of his generation, Currin's influences range from Italian and Northern Renaissance paintings to popular illustrations from the mid-20th century. Whether portraits of older women, buxom girls, nudes with elongated bodies, or group scenes of domestic life, his works are characterized by baroque gestures, loose brushstrokes, unorthodox palettes, and detailed backgrounds that startle the viewer into a reconsideration of the tradition of painting. His "old master" techniques and individual style have earned him accolades from critics and collectors worldwide. Allison Gingeras is an art critic who is adjunct curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Dave Eggers is the author of the best-selling A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and the editor of McSweeney's.

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