PUBLICATIONS

In 1891, Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) traveled to Tahiti in an effort to live simply and to draw inspiration from what he saw as the island’s exotic native culture. Although the artist was disappointed by the rapidly westernizing community he encountered, his works from this period nonetheless celebrate the myth of an untainted Tahitian idyll, a myth he continued to perpetuate upon his return to Paris. He created a travel journal entitled Noa Noa (fragrant scent), a largely fictionalized account that recalled his immersion into the spiritual world of the South Seas. To illustrate his text, Gauguin turned for the first time to the woodcut medium, creating a series of ten dark and brooding prints that he intended to publish alongside his journal—a publication that was never realized. The woodcuts crystallized important themes from his work and are the focus of this major new study.

Giuseppe Vasi's Rome: Lasting Impressions from the Age of the Grand Tour

Giuseppe Vasi's Rome: Lasting Impressions from the Age of the Grand Tour serves as the catalogue of the exhibition of the same name, organized by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon and curated by Professors Harper and Tice. On view in Eugene, OR, from September 25 through January 2, 2010, the exhibition will also be shown at the Princeton University Art Museum in spring 2011. In a set of eight scholarly essays and more than one hundred catalogue entries and images by Vasi, his predecessors and his contemporaries, this richly illustrated volume examines the eighteenth-century printmaker Giuseppe Vasi and his world. Subject areas addressed include printmaking, patronage networks, cartography, contemporary architecture, early tourism and the Grand Tour, social history, the festival life of the papal city, and Vasi's complex relationship with his student, Piranesi. The publication offers a comprehensive treatment of the artist and his major works, the first ever in the English language, while also elucidating the political, social, and artistic worlds in which Vasi moved.

• Soft cover
• 200 Pages

Publisher: Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Arts

Publication date: November 1, 2010

From its foundation in 1888, the Princeton University Art Museum has amassed an impressive collection of ancient Greek sculpture, which, along with the museum's other collections of ancient art, has long played an integral role in the training of art historians and archaeologists. This book is a comprehensive catalogue of The Art Museum's ancient Greek sculpture. A team of scholars headed by Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway thoroughly documents each of the 40 pieces that constitute this broad and diverse collection. 

The catalogue covers both original works of Greek stone sculpture as well as Roman sculptures that copy or owe their inspiration to earlier Greek works. Photographs of each piece are accompanied by information on dating, provenance, material, dimensions, and condition and by a detailed description and an analysis placing the piece in its artistic and historical contexts.

• Hardcover

Princeton University Art Museum Handbook of the Collections

Revised and Expanded Edition.

The encyclopedic collections of the Princeton University Art Museum comprise more than 92,000 objects ranging from ancient to contemporary art. This essential guide features more than 450 of the Museum's best-loved and most important works--including Chinese bronzes and calligraphy, Roman sculptures and mosaics, Maya ceramics, African beadwork and sculpture, old master prints and drawings, European and American paintings, drawings, and sculpture, and outstanding examples of photography--all beautifully illustrated and accompanied by informative texts. An introduction by Director James Steward offers a brief history of the Museum from its origins in the 1750s to today. Available exclusively at the Museum Store.

by Kathryn Watterson (Author), Cornel West (Foreword)

 I Hear My People Singing shines a light on a small but historic black neighborhood at the heart of one of the most elite and world-renowned Ivy-League towns―Princeton, New Jersey. The vivid first-person accounts of more than fifty black residents detail aspects of their lives throughout the twentieth century. Their stories show that the roots of Princeton’s African American community are as deeply intertwined with the town and university as they are with the history of the United States, the legacies of slavery, and the nation’s current conversations on race.

Drawn from an oral history collaboration with residents of the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, Princeton undergraduates, and their professor, Kathryn Watterson, neighbors speak candidly about Jim Crow segregation, the consequences of school integration, World Wars I and II, and the struggles for equal opportunities and civil rights. Despite three centuries of legal and economic obstacles, African American residents have created a flourishing, ethical, and humane neighborhood in which to raise their children, care for the sick and elderly, worship, stand their ground, and celebrate life. Abundantly filled with photographs, I Hear My People Singing personalizes the injustices faced by generations of black Princetonians―including the famed Paul Robeson―and highlights the community’s remarkable achievements. The introductions to each chapter provide historical context, as does the book’s foreword by noted scholar, theologian, and activist Cornel West.

An intimate testament of the black community’s resilience and ingenuity, I Hear My People Singing adds a never-before-compiled account of poignant black experience to an American narrative that needs to be heard now more than ever. 

• Hardcover

by Laura M. Giles (Author), Lia Markey (Author), Claire Van Cleave (Author)

This richly illustrated volume offers a new look at the exceptional collection of Italian drawings at the Princeton University Art Museum. An introductory essay by Laura M. Giles chronicles the history and significance of the collection, and nearly one hundred of the collection’s masterworks are treated with essay-length entries and full-page images. The first scholarly examination of the collection since Felton Gibbons’s comprehensive publication of 1977, the catalogue includes an appendix of more than 150 drawings that have entered the collection since―many previously unpublished, and all fully documented with short entries. Highlights include works by celebrated masters, including Carpaccio and Modigliani, from the early Renaissance through the early Modern periods, with an emphasis on the collection’s renowned holdings of works by Luca Cambiaso, Guercino, and the two Tiepolos.

With contributions by Alessandra Bigi Iotti, Jonathan Bober, Giada Damen, Diane de Grazia, Rhoda Eitel-Porter, Frederick Ilchman, Anne Varick Lauder, John Marciari, Elizabeth Pilliod, John Pinto, David Stone, Catherine Whistler, and Giulio Zavatta.

• Hardcover, 324 pages
• Publication date: May 20, 2014

An inspirational how-to course on Japanese woodblock printing's history and techniques, with guidance on materials and studio practices, step-by-step demonstrations, and examples of finished works by modern masters of the medium as well as historic pieces.

A Modern Guide to the Ancient Art of mokuhanga

An increasingly popular yet age-old art form, Japanese woodblock printing (mokuhanga) is embraced for its non-toxic character, use of handmade materials, and easy integration with other printmaking techniques. In this comprehensive guide, artist and printmaker April Vollmer—one of the best known mokuhanga practitioners and instructors in the West—combines her deep knowledge of this historic printmaking practice with expert step-by-step instruction, guidance on materials and studio practices, and a diverse collection of prints by leading contemporary artists. At once practical and inspirational, this handbook is as useful to serious printmakers and artists as it is to creative people drawn
to Japanese history and aesthetics.

• 8.29"W x 10.29"H x 0.92"D  
• 256 pages

 Through its thematic organization into six chapters―Realism and Beyond, Post-Pop Landscapes, New Romanticism, Constructed Realities, Abstracted Topographies, and Complicated Vistas―the book affords a generous window into the very best of contemporary landscape painting, from Cecily Brown’s sensual, fleshy landscapes to Peter Doig’s magic realist renderings of Trinidad, Maureen Gallace’s serene views of beach cottages and the foaming ocean, David Hockney’s radiant capturings of seasonal change in the English countryside, Julie Mehretu’s dynamically cartographic abstractions, Alexis Rockman’s mural-sized, postapocalyptic dioramas, and far beyond. 

 The first survey of more than fifty years of drawing by a legendary sculptor and draftswoman.

Lee Bontecou (b. 1931) established a significant reputation in the 1960s with pioneering sculptures and reliefs made of raw and expressionistic materials. Her art is simultaneously organic and mechanical, and infused with biological, geological, and technological motifs.  These same qualities also animate a less-known but compelling body of work: her drawings. 

Ranging from her early soot on paper works created using powder from a welding torch to recent drawings in pencil and colored pencil that evoke cosmoses and microcosmic worlds, this stunning book is the first retrospective survey of Bontecou’s consistently innovative drawings.  More than sixty full-color plates, populated by imagery ranging from black voids to mechanomorphs to hybrid descendants of teeth, plants, and fish, are complemented by original essays from leading scholars who explore themes such as the drawings’ historical contexts, Bontecou’s use of the iconography of the void, and the eco-apocalyptic themes of an artist who came of age in the roiling political atmosphere of the 1960s.   

• Hardcover

Life Magazine and the Power of Photography, edited by Katherine A. Bussard and Kristen Gresh, is the catalogue for the eponymous exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum in Spring 2020.

This groundbreaking book considers how the magazine’s use of images fundamentally shaped the way its readers understood photography and experienced important historical events. Drawing on unprecedented access to Life Magazine's picture and paper archives, as well as some photographers' personal archives, this beautifully arranged volume presents new scholarship that sheds light on the collaborative process behind many now-iconic images and photo-essays. 

• Hardcover
• 245 illustrations 

 Winner of the 2020 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award, College Art Association 

This catalog accompanied Rose B. Simpson’s first solo exhibition in 2018 at the Wheelwright Museum. Simpson grew up in a permaculture environment on Santa Clara Pueblo in northern New Mexico among a family of renowned potters and artists―her mother is the famed sculptor Roxanne Swentzell. Simpson’s self-reflective work has made a big impact on the contemporary art scene. The pieces feature life-size mixed-media sculptures, faces, and monumental figures in the traditional medium of clay, combined with welded steel and leather. A range of sculptural styles and sizes reflect the trajectory of Simpson’s recent work.

The catalog LIT: The Work of Rose B. Simpson provides insight into Rose’s art practice, academic achievements, and cultural background. Her brother, Dr. Porter Swentzell’s contribution acknowledges their shared upbringing, the colonial history of museums, and a powerful critique of the museumification of culture. 

• Preface by Jonathan Batkin, Museum Director
• Essays by Yve Chavez, Exhibit Curator and Dr. Porter Swentzell
• Photos of Rose B. Simpson and her exhibition by Minesh Bacrania
• Studio photo’s of Rose B. Simpson’s work by Addison Doty
• Artwork captions by Rose B. Simpson

The art of the past can seem very far away, obscured both by time and by knotty academic theory. Foregrounding the experience of the contemporary viewer, Look Again shows how this need not be the case. From the spectacular theatrics of Bosch to the harmonious simplicity of Cézanne, Ossian Ward tackles some of history’s greatest art in all its dynamism, horror and beauty. Ward’s simple, ten-step programme acts as an aid to looking, breaking down the often obscure strategies of the Old Masters into intuitive categories – from Art as Honesty to Art as Vision.

Look Again’s novel approach is influenced by John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, but is here updated for the art world of the 21st century. Key to this book is an emphasis on ways not simply of looking at Old Masters, but also of experiencing them. Just as contemporary art should be judged by how it moves us, cajoles us and envelops us, so too can the great paintings of the world be seen as immersive, captivating, even participatory experiences.

Ward does not deny the specific complexities and barriers associated with looking at art from other eras. Instead he offers readers a new formula to help illuminate this kind of art. His method not only provides the viewer with the tools to interpret a work of art, but also assumes that we hold some of this knowledge within ourselves already. In other words, everyone can share the enriching experience of Old Master paintings.

• Format: Flexibound
• Size: 19.6 x 14.8 cm
• Extent: 176 pp
• Publication date: 25 April 2019
• ISBN: 9780500239674

In 1929, Louise Nevelson was a disappointed housewife with a young son, surrounded by New York's vibrant artistic community but unable to fully engage with it. By 1950, she was an artist living on her own, financially dependent on her family, but she had received a glimmer of recognition from the establishment: inclusion in three group shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1980, Nevelson celebrated her second Whitney retrospective. Her work was held in public collections aroundthe world and her massive steel sculptures appeared in public spaces in seventeen states.

The story of Nevelson's artistic, spiritual, even physical transformation (she developed a taste for outrageous outfits and false eyelashes made of mink) is inseparable from major historical and cultural shifts of the twentieth century. Art historian and psychoanalyst Laurie Wilson brings a unique perspective to Nevelson's story, drawing on hours of interviews she conducted with Nevelson and her circle. Over one hundred images, many of them drawn from personal archives and never before published, make this the most comprehensive biography--both in terms of visuals and narrative detail--of this remarkable artist.Format: Flexibound

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0500297371
• ISBN13: 9780500297377
• Release Date: July 2023
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 9.1"

This volume features a total of 83 vintage prints by eight Magnum photographers―Werner Bischof, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Ernst Haas, Erich Lessing, Jean Marquis, Inge Morath, and Marc Riboud―in large-format reproductions, around the theme of “photographic humanism”: people and their everyday surroundings, photographed unsensationally by committed photojournalists who believed in educating and bettering the world through their work.

Edited by Todd Cronan and Peter C. Bunnell, with contributions by Andrew Kensett

One of the most significant unpublished texts in the history of photography, Memorable Fancies is the daybooks of Minor White, an artist who played a leading role in shaping the practice of photography in postwar America. Begun in the early 1930s and taking its name from a series of dialogues in William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, these writings are part diary, part photography manual, and part aesthetic treatise. Minor White, Memorable Fancies presents this work in its entirety for the first time, offering an intimate look at the ideas and interior life of one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century.

In this beautifully illustrated volume, art historian Todd Cronan sheds light on White’s guiding concerns and the connections between White’s writings and his public practice as a photographer and influential publisher and teacher. White’s journal is accompanied by an array of photographs by White as well as annotations that provide background and context, illuminating White’s life and career while capturing a vibrant and inventive moment in the history of modern photography.

Challenging our assumptions about photographic agency and the interplay between art and life, Minor White, Memorable Fancies engages deeply with the creative potential of photographic work, the nature and effect of artworks on viewers, and the formative role that chance plays in the production of photographs.

• Pages: 544
• Size: 6.5 x 9 in.
• Illus: 100 illus.

Five of Monet’s most beloved works spring to life in this vivid and brilliantly engineered collection of pop-up scenes.

One of the joys of a Monet painting is the sense of being fully immersed in a beautiful setting. Now fans of the great artist have an intriguing new way to dive into five of his most enduring paintings: Garden at Sainte-Adresse, Poppy Field, Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge, The Artist’s House at Argenteuil, and The Bridge at Argenteuil.

Each spread opens as a flat layout with a brief description of the painting and its historical context. As readers pull down the explanatory panel, a three-dimensional rendering pops up, and Monet’s exquisitely detailed flowers, waterlilies, clouds, trees, and people come alive.

Whether readers are appreciating Monet’s masterful use of color, brushstrokes, and light and shadow, or merely savoring the pleasures of the French countryside, this meticulously crafted and engineered book offers a thrilling new way to experience the artistic genius of this Impressionist icon.

Published on Nov 19, 2024 | 10 Pages | 8-2/5 x 10-2/3

The essays in More than One examine sequentiality and serialism in the practice of photography from the medium’s earliest years to the present. Contributors explore nuances of syntax and sense raised by works like photographic albums, books, thematic portfolios, journalistic photo features, and documentations of performance art.

Fully illustrated essays discuss, among other topics, the little-known volume Beyond This Point (1929), a collaborative experiment by American photographer Francis Bruguiere and London radio producer Lance Sieveking; the evolving relationship between public space and sexual self-definition in the early work of Minor White; and an important performance work by artist Ana Mendieta. The title essay surveys the social conditions and expressive motives that have given rise to serial and sequential forms throughout the history of photography.

About the Contributors: 

Joel Smith is curator of photography and Kelly Baum is the Locks Curatorial Fellow for Contemporary Art, both at the Princeton University Art Museum. Peter Barberie is curator of photography at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Anne McCauley is the David Hunter McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art at Princeton University. Kevin Moore is an independent scholar and curator.

Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment,  by co-curators Karl Kusserow and Alan C. Braddock, is the catalogue for the eponymous exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum October 2018 - January 2019.    

The book is a groundbreaking ecocritical exploration of American art that  examines the complex and evolving relationship between art and the  environment. The authors present more than 120 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, videos, and works of decorative art, from the colonial period to the present, exploring for the first time how American artists of different traditions and backgrounds have both reflected and shaped environmental understanding while contributing to the development of a modern ecological consciousness. 

• Hardcover
• 400 pages

  Winner of the 2019 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award, College Art Association  

Nobody's Property; Art, Land, Space, 2000-2010, by Kelly Baum, is the catalogue for the eponymous exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum from October 2010-February 2011.

This generously illustrated volume surveys a new chapter in the history of environmental art, one in which space, geopolitics, human relations, urbanism, and utopian dreamwork play as important a role as, if not more than, raw earth. Discussed are case studies by seven artists and two artist teams—Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Francis Alÿs, Yael Bartana, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Emre Hüner, Andrea Geyer, Matthew Day Jackson, Lucy Raven, and Santiago Sierra. While some of these artists explore historical and symbolic configurations of space, others parse the social, legal, and economic conditions of specific land-sites, including the Navajo Nation, the island of Vieques, the border town of Juarez, and the cities of Tongling, Jerusalem, and Beirut. Not confined to the displacement of matter, these artists employ a wide range of media, such as performance, animation, assemblage, and photography.

• Hardcover

A rich exploration of American artworks that reframes them within current debates on race, gender, the environment, and more

Object Lessons in American Art explores a diverse gathering of Euro-American, Native American, and African American art from a range of contemporary perspectives, illustrating how innovative analysis of historical art can inform, enhance, and afford new relevance to artifacts of the American past. The book is grounded in the understanding that the meanings of objects change over time, in different contexts, and as a consequence of the ways in which they are considered. 

Inspired by the concept of the object lesson, the study of a material thing or group of things in juxtaposition to convey embodied and underlying ideas, Object Lessons in American Art examines a broad range of art from Princeton University’s venerable collections as well as contemporary works that imaginatively appropriate and reframe their subjects and style, situating them within current social, cultural, and artistic debates on race, gender, the environment, and more.

Edited by Karl Kusserow, John Wilmerding Curator of American Art, Princeton University

Contributions by 

• Horace D. Ballard
• Kirsten Pai Buick
• Ellery E. Foutch
• Karl Kusserow
• Jeffrey Richmond-Moll
• Rebecca Zorach

Distributed for the Princeton University Art Museum

Published (US): Mar 28, 2023