Calder: Sculpting Time

Culture

The introduction of movement into sculpture. That implausible leap from the static to the temporal. Alexander Calder, the inventor of the mobile, achieved what the great Hellenistic sculptors could only suggest in the windblown robe and fluttering wings of Nike of Samothrace. He broke the mold. Jean Paul Sartre described Calder’s mobiles as “mid-way between matter and life”. They are a composition of motions, a series of fleeting moments where balance, force and tension coexist in perfect harmony. Calder: Sculpting Time (published by Silvana Editorial, $50.00) covers MASILugano’s ambitious exhibition in 168 pages, highlighting his most prolific era, the 1930s to 1960s.

Book Review: Madame Grès Couture Paris

Fashion

Madame Grès Couture Paris, recently published by Rizzoli, is the latest book by fashion historian and curator Olivier Saillard. Saillard, whose extensive accomplishments at Paris’ Palais Galleria are credited with invigorating an interest in fashion beyond that of the more established Musée des Arts Décoratifs, is one of the leading voices on the work of Madame Grès. His recent “Alaïa / Grès” exhibition at the Alaïa Fondation, and “Madame Grès, The Art Of Draping” at SCAD last year, continues to further the legacy of one of the most innovative couturiers in the history of fashion.

Peter Hujar Behind The Camera And In The Darkroom

Culture

Gary Schneider arrived in New York City from Cape Town in 1976, landing a job doing technical work for an avant garde theater in Soho. Through his partner, he met artist photographer Peter Hujar with whom he had an immediate rapport as he was interested in photography and printing. Hujar secured Schneider a job at a printers where he began to print Hujar’s work, and in the process becoming a close friend, protége, assistant and occasional subject for Hujar’s lens. Their relationship is now commemorated in a new book Peter Hujar Behind The Camera And In The Darkroom (D.A.P. $50, out now).