Lili Lakich. Sirens & Other Neon Seductions. Northridge, CA: Art Galleries, California State University (18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8299), 2001, 32 pp., 20.00 (includes postage), ISBN 0-9707022-0-5, paper. Lili Lakich’s art was published in the pioneering lesbian magazine called The Ladder (1956-1973). She was one of 10 out lesbian artists honored in The Great American Lesbian Art Show in Los Angeles in 1980. A co-founder of the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles, her work combines neon with cut aluminum. Some work in this volume deals with HIV and lesbian romance.
An Artistic Friendship: Beauford Delaney and Lawrence Calcagno. University Park, PA: Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, 2001, 71 pp., $19.95, ISBN 0-911209-53-0, paper. Dist. by Penn State Press. Discussion of the relationship between Delaney (1901-1979), an African American Abstract Expressionist artist who spent much of his adult life in Paris, and Lawrence Calcagno (1913-1993), also an American expatriate working in abstraction whom he met in Paris in 1953.
Catherine Opie, introduction by Kate Bush, interview by Russell Ferguson, essay by Joshua Decter. London: The Photographers’ Gallery, 2000, 56 pp., 24.00, ISBN 0-907879-58-6, cloth. Includes early 1990s portraits, black and white freeway scenes, Southern California house fronts, and recent lesbian family portraits by Opie (b. 1961) whose work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago) and elsewhere.
Dear Friends: American Photographs of Men Together, 1840-1918, by David Deitcher. N.Y.: Harry N. Abrams, 2001, 160 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-8109-5712-4, cloth. One hundred and eight photographs with an informative commentary.
Water From A Bucket, A Diary 1948-1957 by Charles Henri Ford, introduction by Lynne Tillman. New York: Turtle Point Press, July 2001, $16.95, ISBN 1-885586-20-5, paperback, dist. by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. Charming, sexy account of the nine years preceeding the death of Ford’s lover, painter Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957).
Fashioning Sapphism: The Origins of a Modern English Lesbian Culture by Laura Doan. New York: Columbia U. Press, 2001, 286 pp., $ 16.50, ISBN 0-231-11007-3, paper; $49.50, ISBN 0-231-11006-5, cloth. Deals with Radclyffe Hall, photography, fashion, cartoons, and much more in the decade following the First World War.
A History of Women Photographers by Naomi Rosenblum, updated and expanded edition. New York: Abbeville, 2000, 400 pp., $65.00, ISBN 0-7892-0658-7, cloth. This handsomely-produced volume includes bisexual photographer Ruth Bernhard and lesbian photographers Berenice Abbott, Alice Austen, Claude Cahun, Gisèle Freund, Laura Gilpin, Frances Benjamin Johnson, Margarethe Mather, Clara Sipprell, and Edith S. Watson although there is virtually no discussion of how their queer lives interacted with their photo production.
Pierre et Gilles by Dan Cameron. London: Merrell, 2000, 120 pp., $35 (£25), ISBN 1-85894-113-X, cloth. A substantial overview of the collaborative photographic work of two contemporary French gay male photographers.
I haven’t yet seen Sublime Mutations: Photographs 1990-2000 by Del LaGrace Volcano with texts in English and German by Jay Prosser. Tübingen, Germany: Konkursbuch, 2000, 172pp, £24.95, ISBN: 3-88769-135-0, cloth. Distributed by Turnaround, Unit 3 Olympia Trading Estate, Coburg Road, Wood Green, London, N22 6TZ, E:orders@turnaround-uk.com. “explores the eroticism and sexuality of inter-sexed and transgendered identities.” Volcano (b. 1957) is one of the few artists who is engaged in visualizing ftm trans sexuality.
Beyond Decorum: The Photography of Iké Udé, ed. by Mark H.C. Bessire and Lauri Firstenberg. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000, 184 pp., $25.00, ISBN 0-262-52280-2, cloth. Contemporary photographer and performance artist, Nigerian-born Udé often uses his own body in the service of his art.
My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home by Amber L. Hollibaugh. Durham and London: Duke U. Press, 2000, 278 pp., $17.95, ISBN 0-8223-2619-1, paper. Includes several photographs by Honey Lee Cottrell and discussions of butch/femme identity.
Roni Horn, with text by Louise Neri, Lynne Cooke, Thierry du Duve. Harrisburg, PA, and London: Phaidon, 2000, 160 pp., $29.95 ($49.95 Canada, £19.95, $45.00 Australa, 199 FF), ISBN 0-7148-3865-9, paper. Photographer and sculptor Horn (b. 1955) works in many styles, the most queer-inflected of which is “You Are The Weather,” a series of close-ups of the same woman’s face which can be read as a metaphor for obsessive desire.
Twentieth-century Art of Latin America by Jacqueline Barnitz. Austin: U. of Texas Press, 2001, 400 pp, $34.95, ISBN 0-292-70858-0, paper; $70.00, ISBN 0-292-70857-2, cloth. Contains information about -- and reporduction of art by -- gay painters Louis Caballero (1943-1993) from Colombia and Nahum B. Zenil (b. 1947) from Mexico. Includes untitled triptych, 1977, by Caballero and “Con todo respeto” by Zenil.
• New in paperback • Latin American art in the twentieth century is edited by Edward Sullivan, London: Phaidon, 2000, $39.95, ISBN 0-7148-3890-9, paper; $69.95, ISBN 0-7148-3210-3, cloth (1996). Includes “Ex Voto” by Zenil and and untitled 1989 oil on paper by Caballero.
Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties compiled by Linda M. Montano. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2001, 553 pp, $24.95 (£15.95), ISBN 0-520-21022-0, paper; $60 (£32), ISBN 0-520-21021-2. Includes interviews with Geoffrey Hendricks, Pauline Oliveros, Cheri Gaulke, Betsy Damon, John Cage, Tim Miller (and others); Laura Cottingham’s introduction to the section on “money and fame”; and a discussion on HIV/AIDS and performance in the 1990s.
Winner of two Lambda Literary Awards, Pictures and Passions: a History of Homosexuality In the Visual Arts by James M. Saslow, is now available in paperback. New York: Penguin, (cloth 1999) 2001, 342 pp., $20.00 U.S and $28.00 Canadian, ISBN 0-14-024435-2.
David Hockney by Paul Melia and Ulrich Luckhardt. Munich, London, and New York: Prestel, 2000, 200 pp, $19.95, ISBN 3-7913-2413-6, paper; $65.00, ISBN 3-7913-1381-9, cloth. This is a reprint of the 1994 edition. Large and delightful as ever, however I wish the chronology had been brought up to date.
Reclaiming Identity: Realist Theory and the Predicament of Postmodernism. Paula M. L. Moya and Michael R. Hames-Garcia, editors. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2000, 354 pp., $24.95 U.S., £15.95, 0-520-22349-7, paper; $60 U.S., £38, 0-520-22348-9, cloth. Includes discussions of gay/lesbian idenity issues.
Painting Gender, Constructing Theory: The Alfred Stieglitz Circle and American Formalist Aesthetics by Marcia Brennan. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001, 377 pp., $39.95, ISBN 0-262-02488-8, cloth. Includes at least a passing mention of Jane Heap, Vernon Lee, Elizabeth McCausland, Monroe Wheeler, Djuna Barnes, The Little Review, and homosexual communities.
Sexuality and form: Caravaggio, Marlowe, and Bacon by Graham L. Hammill. Chicago and London: U. of Chicago Press, 2000, 219 pp., $30.00, ISBN 0-226-31518-5, cloth. Combines Queeer Theory and psychoanalysis in fascinating ways.
Ellsworth Kelly: The Early Drawings, 1948-1955, with commentary by Yve-Alain Bois. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1999, 264 pp., $45 US, £31.50, ISBN 1-891771-07-8; $65 US, £45 ISBN 1-891771-09-4, cloth. With new information about his life becoming available, it is a good time for a reconsideration of queer elements in Kelly’s work. That exploration will not be found in this collection which leans strongly toward abstraction. However, there is an engaging self-portrait with painting materials arranged on a table in front of a mirror in which the artist from the arms to just below the waist (hand, pen, ink bottle) is reflected. Text in English and German.
Pregnant Pictures by Sandra Matthews and Laura Wexler. New York and London: Routledge, 2000, 263 pp., $35.00, ISBN 0-415-92120-1, paper. I mentioned Cathy Cade’s photos of lesbian mothers in this book last issue, but failed to mention Jan Ballard’s photograph “Partner.”
... proceed to other new publications ...