A selection of Baudelaire’s critical articles covering the poet’s preoccupation with the visual arts of his time and with his major artistic heroes—Delacroix, Poe, Wagner and Constantin Guys. Throughout his observations it becomes clear that his approach to art criticism was one that rejected the purely analytical textbook approach in favor of one that was “partial, passionate, political, amusing and poetic”—the point of view that opened the most horizons. The starting point of all critique, he contended, proceeds from the shock of pleasure experienced in front of a work of art and only later, through examination and analysis, is that initial pleasure transformed into knowledge. In other words, the true critic, like the artist, should be endowed with a creative temperament and be a kind of secondary poet, reflecting and translating the work of art. Add to this fundamental conviction Baudelaire’s poetic insight, his wit, his flawless description and, most importantly, his underlying humanity and this volume makes for an exciting read. MDG

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 226 pages
Illustrated

In another classic of film literature, film critic Parker Tyler reevaluates the films of Man Ray, Brakhage, Cassavetes, Warhol and many more circa 1969. Chapters include: “The Exploding Peephole of the Underground,” “The Pad Can Be Commercialized,” “Psychedelic Anamorphosis and Its Lesson,” and “The Plastic Pulse Ticks On.” OAA

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 266 pages
Illustrated

“Before he died, Weegee composed a mockup for a book about New York’s Greenwich Village in the late ‘40s and ‘50s. Folk singing, rent parties, costume balls, drag queens on parade, etc.”

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 96 pages
Illustrated

Through the eye of his camera Weegee discovered the visceral spirit of life in a country whose people were their own victims and enemies. Living far from the American dream, acting out a script imbued with bittersweet chaos and delivered with a jester’s smile, Weegee and his camera traversed the thin line between the inside and the outside. Although he was behind the camera, his spirit and compassion are evident in these vivid photographic moments that are difficult to erase from one’s memory. OAA

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 242 pages
Illustrated

The life and films of Buñuel, one of the world’s best directors and a cinematic pioneer, covering over 40 years of his enigmatic career including his early, influential years at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid where he established friendships with Lorca and Dali. The three Surrealist stooges/musketeers developed independent foundations that led them through trials and successes in the world of art, culture, and politics. Spotlights Buñuel’s talents in creating texts, films and cinematic critiques from the early 1920’s through his last days. The author is the first to examine the classical Buñuelian signatures of violence, cruelty, sexual aberration, sadism and eroticism. OAA

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 327 pages
Illustrated

Not a Dadaist biography like Man Ray’s own Self Portrait (1963), but a chronicle of the life of a man who claimed, “It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.” While most accounts on Ray look almost exclusively at his Dada and Surrealist years and focus on his photography, Baldwin presents an evenhanded approach to his entire career, stressing little-known facts, such as Ray’s determination to be taken seriously as a painter. The subtitle of this work is particularly notable, since it returns the artist to a context he had tried so hard to erase, his prior existence as Emmanuel Radnitsky, the Philadelphia son of a garment worker. With the assistance of Juliet Man Ray, the artist’s widow, the author also explores the details of Ray’s complex private life, including his numerous affairs during the expatriate heyday of the ‘20s and ‘30s. AP

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 449 pages
Illustrated

For those who slogged through any of Dali’s self-penned, self-invented autobiographical smokescreens, this is like a clear vista through winter air in which all of the edges of things are in sharp focus and the colors are crisp. The author is the European editor of Town and Country, and she understands the machinations of the rich and famous and how the art world really operates. Having gained access to numerous previously unavailable archives and unpublished letters, she has pieced together a realistic narrative of the strange and sometimes banal life of one of the world’s greatest self-promoters. We get a picture of Dali’s strained relation with his family that reached the breaking point when wife Gala took control.
Gala’s story is not a pretty one. She is painted here as a conniving, calculating, petty control freak who eventually held Dali a virtual prisoner in his studio, cranking out society portraits to support their increasingly extravagant lifestyle. By the end of his life, Dali had alienated everybody who should have mattered, and the credibility of his art was at serious risk. The author conveys a lurid story with an even hand. She closes with: “Beneath Dali’s posturing public figure is an artist who never ceased to explore his inner and outer worlds and their possibilities; a painter who never ceased in his endeavors to find a way that painting might advance and inspire in a century increasingly dominated by the abstract marvels of scientific discovery.” SA

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 480 pages
Illustrated

In 1931, the author opened the Julien Levy Gallery and a year later had the first Surrealist show in New York. In 1936, Levy’s Surrealism anthology introduced the movement to America’s readers and has been an enduring work. “Surrealism is not a rational, dogmatic and consequently static theory of art—hence from the Surrealist point of view, there can be no accurate definition or explanation. It is the purpose of this book to present such examples of Surrealism in illustration and translation—not to attempt a detailed explanation. It is only by familiarity with examples that one can reach that revolution in consciousness which is known as comprehension.” Surrealism deals with what Dali terms “the great vital constants” and attempts to explore the more-real-than-real world behind the Real. DW

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 192 pages
Illustrated

This little volume, which proves that less is more, is a reprint of a book originally published in 1971, before the diaries and tell-all biographies and while Warhol’s mystique was still firmly intact. It predates the time when Warhol got assimilated into straight society and started doing the portraits, endorsements and general wearing out of his welcome as an innovator. Here was a time when the world was so enthralled with Warhol that a passage like “Warhol has begun to move the camera, speech is becoming more regular, what we are accustomed to hearing, though the layers of satiric and politicosexual meaning are strongly in evidence” carried a sense of revelation about the man and his work. When it came out, this book was the last word on Warhol and remained so for years. It probably had as much to do with shaping the public’s perception of Warhol the artist as anything that he did himself. As Andy is quoted as saying to the author: “Oh, I just love your book, it’s so great, Peter. You’ve got to sign my copy, it’s so fabulous! SA

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 159 pages
Illustrated

“This insider’s account of the lives of Brian Jones, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger in the ‘60s and ‘70s has become legendary in the years since its first publication in 1979. Sanchez worked for Keith Richards for eight years—buying drugs, running errands and orchestrating cheap thrills—and he records unforgettable accounts of the Stones’ perilous misadventures: racing cars along the Cote d’Azur; murder at Altamont; nostalgic nights with the Beatles at the Stones-owned nightclub Vesuvio; frantic flights to Switzerland for blood changes; and the steady stream of women, including Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull and Bianca Jagger. Here are the Stones as never seen before, cavorting around the world, smashing Bentleys, working black magic, getting raided, having children, snorting coke and mainlining heroin. Sanchez tells the whole truth, sparing not even himself in the process. With hard-hitting prose and candid photographs, he creates an invaluable primary source for anyone interested in the world’s most famous rock’n’roll band.”

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 320 pages
Illustrated