The Ferus Gallery: A Place to Begin ($59.95; signed by the author) is Kristine McKenna’s extraordinary new history of Ed Kienholz, Walter Hopps, and Irving Blum’s visionary Ferus Gallery. Between 1956 and 1966, the Ferus was home to such influential California artists as John Altoon, Billy Al Bengston, Wallace Berman, Bruce Conner, Jay De Feo, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Kienholz, Kenneth Price, and Ed Ruscha. It was also the site of the first Los Angeles exhibitions by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, and Ellsworth Kelly. The book recounts the gallery’s history chronologically in transcribed interviews with the Ferus artists, wives and girlfriends, collectors, and other well-placed Los Angeles denizens, and features hundreds of vintage images – including many published here for the first time.
Speaking of Ferus and its artists, one of the season’s most impressive and important books is devoted to one of the gallery’s most influential supporters, iconic Hollywood maverick Dennis Hooper. Limited to fifteen hundred signed and numbered copies, Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967 ($700.00) is a giant chronicle of a period of upheaval and change that, even at its hefty yet well-deserved price, is sure to sell out from the publisher before the holidays actually arrive. "During the 1960s, Hopper carried a camera everywhere–on film sets and locations, at parties, in diners, bars and galleries, driving on freeways and walking on political marches. He photographed movie idols, pop stars, writers, artists, girlfriends, and complete strangers. Along the way he captured some of the most intriguing moments of his generation with a keen and intuitive eye."
Taschen editor and graphic designer Jim Heimann has amassed one of the world’s most astonishing collections of reference material dealing with the visual representation of Los Angeles. For Los Angeles: Portrait of a City ($70.00) he presents over five hundred images drawn from his and other photographic archives alongside crack essays by Kevin Starr and David Ulin to fashion a massive and sumptuous, near-definitive volume that illuminate the forces that pushed and pulled this crazy burg throughout the twentieth century.
In the spirit of Los Angeles, we offer the work of Los Feliz’s own Mike Slack. Mike’s Polaroids have long been favorites of ours and his new book Pyramids ($30.00; signed by the photographer) completes a trilogy begun with the acclaimed titles coveted by collectors in-the-know: Ok Ok Ok and Scorpio. Just as the Polaroid age sadly is ending, Mike’s third book may be our fondest of his three, adding a romantic nostalgia to the arresting images. The individual photos are gorgeous, and collectively create a sublime cinematic narrative akin to a dream. Celebrate the dying medium at its absolute best with Pyramids
Scott Schuman’s daily internet style-bible The Sartorialist ($25.00) is now available for all eternity as an elegant brick-sized paperback that shows that elegance abounds at every street corner, and that one needn’t recreate David Hemming’s studio hubris from "Blow Up" to capture the perfect fashion moment. Schuman designed the book to be used–thumbed through, referred to, and studied for the fantastic blends of color, shape, proportion, and style it portrays–not just to sit revered on the coffee table. It’s the perfect gift for anyone at all interested in getting dressed, let alone fashion. Throw it in your bag and study when the mood strikes. We also have a few copies left of the luxe limited, signed and numbered hardbound, slipcased Bespoke edition that sells for $175.00.
