Most Popular Books by Hilton Als

Dana Lixenberg''s photographs, like those of Cartier-Bresson, somehow find a subject''s deepest reality. Her portraits have broken through the well-tended exteriors of celebrities like Whitney Houston and Sean Penn as well as the hardened visages of Watts gang members. Now, with this book, Lixenberg finds the dignity in a group of people in Jeffersonville, Indiana. From 1997 to 2004, Lixenberg regularly visited the town to photograph homeless people who had found temporary shelters through Haven House Services. Characteristically, though, she does not confront us with spectacular, dramatic photos of the down and out, but discovers families put out on the street because they can no longer afford rent, single mothers who cannot support their children, and men who have been injured on the job without benefit of health insurance. Lixenberg''s clear-headed and empathetic vision comes through in this series of portraits of people who have only just fallen through the cracks.

Rosalyn Drexler, I thought to myself... She''d been praised by Donald Barthelme and Norman Mailer and Annie Dillard and Gloria Steinem and somehow shrugged it all off and stayed underground, irascible, implausible...she touched Pop, she touched Pulp, she touched Porn, she appropriate and satired and surrealled and film-noired, all with an intimacy and eccentricity that made the work a genre of its own.

Explore Frank Walter’s relationship to Antigua through a range of works and writings that express his intimate connection to Caribbean nature, landscape, and place. “Nothing seems to be reworked—it is as if each piece drew or painted itself without being adjusted, revised, or fussed over.” —Hyperallergic Influenced by his studies of agriculture and the sugar industry in the former British colony of Antigua as well as in England, Scotland, and West Germany, Walter created work inspired by his thoughts, knowledge, journeys, and surroundings—work that encompassed painting, drawing, writing, sculpture, photography, and sound. His paintings—tender, quiet, and lush—transcend the traditional tourist’s view of island life in favor of perspectives that explore how and why we look at where we are. Published on the occasion of the 2022 exhibition at David Zwirner, this catalogue includes an introduction by the show’s curator Hilton Als. Barbara Paca, the leading expert on Walter, writes a text detailing her personal experience meeting Walter and being in his presence. An essay by Charlie Porter takes readers on a walk as he muses about Walter’s life and the nature depicted in his paintings. Joshua Jelly-Schapiro travels to Antigua to explore the history of the island and Walter’s lasting impact there.

Robert Gober rose to prominence in the mid-1980s and was quickly acknowledged as one of the most significant artists of his generation. In the years since, his reputation has continued to grow, commensurate with the rich and complex body of work he has produced. Published in conjunction with the first comprehensive large-scale survey of the artists career to take place in the United States, this publication presents his works in all mediums, including individual sculptures and immersive sculptural environments, as well as a distinctive selection of drawings, prints, and photographs. Prepared in close collaboration with the artist, it traces the development of a remarkable body of work, highlighting themes and motifs that emerged in the early 1980s and continue to inform the artists work today. An essay by Hilton Als, and an in-depth chronology with extensive input from the artist himself, foregrounds images from Gobers archives, including many neverbefore- published photographs of works in progress.

Long awaited, the first survey of the work of one of America''s foremost contemporary fine art photographers For almost 40 years, Catherine Opie has been documenting with psychological acuity the cultural and geographic identity of contemporary America. This unique artist monograph presents a compelling visual narrative of Opie''s work since the early 1980s, pairing images across bodies of work to form a full picture of her artistic vision. With more than 300 beautiful illustrations and made in close collaboration with Opie, the book marks a turning point in the consideration of this artist''s work to date.

The tie-in publication for a major exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, this book is a comprehensive retrospective of the celebrated video artist Isaac Julien.

Published to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Museum of the City of New York and the centennial of the consolidation of the city''s five borroughs. The rich visual tale (portraits, views, prints, and photographs spanning four centuries) is interwoven with essays by noted New York City authors on such themes as architecture and urbanism, fashion, theater, cultural diversity, and parks and open spaces. Commentaries by the Museum''s staff on the illustrations offer a unique perspective on the city''s unique history of urban growth and dynamism. Includes an index of the illustrations but not of the essays. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Originally published in 1994 with the title, Gay pride: photographs from Stonewall to today.

Forces in Nature has been published to accompany an exhibition curated by celebrated US critic and author Hilton Als for Victoria Miro, London.The exhibition explores ideas of man in nature and includes works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Verne Dawson, Peter Doig, NS Harsha, Alice Neel, Chris Ofili, Celia Paul, Tal R, Sarah Sze, Kara Walker, and Francesca Woodman.Artists have long sought to represent man''s insoluble relationship to the natural world. Forces in Nature questions the male form and its absence in paintings, photographs, drawings, film and installation.Does nature mean more to us when seen alongside the human form? Or do we understand a landscape or seascape more acutely when the form is absent? And how much of our understanding of nature is filtered through experiences of the modern world? Forces in Nature is not only a celebration of these questions but an examination of them.

Andy Warhol: The Series contains two previously unpublished television scripts by the writer Hilton Als for a series on the life of Andy Warhol. Drawing on historical accounts, rumors, and artworks, Als interweaves Warhol’s childhood as the sickly youngest son of Ruthenian immigrants in Pittsburgh, the bustle and hysteria of the Factory’s heyday in New York, and fantasies inspired by the artist’s fixation on Hollywood. The episodes center on two women who greatly shaped Warhol’s life. The first is his doting, sensitive mother, Julia Warhola, who lived with her son in New York for two decades (and even played an aging star in Warhol’s film Mrs. Warhol). The second is the “poor little rich girl” Shirley Temple, a childhood obsession whose signed headshot—“To Andrew Warhola”—cemented the budding artist’s preoccupation with celebrity. In these scripts, which were written in 2016 and 2017, Als is at the height of his powers, tenderly touching on themes of motherhood, faith, and fame.

"In 1964, Richard Avedon, at the time the world''s most famous fashion photographer, and James Baldwin, a leading literary voice in the black struggle in America, collaborated on a searing portrait book, Nothing Personal. This controversial classic from the heart of the American civil rights movement explores the contradictions and extremities at the heart of the American experience, and is especially timely in the age of Donald Trump. Avedon''s subjects range from intellectuals, politicians, a former slave, newlyweds, preacher Billy Graham, pop singers, and civil rights activists, shot in his signature formal and graphic black and white, often tightly cropped. The collection is all the more poignant through its bold and deliberate juxtaposition of specific images, such as Jewish gay poet Vilen Ginsberg placed opposite the American Nazi Party. Avedon''s work with mental asylum patients, shot in a grainy documentary style, is equally harrowing, although he chooses to end Nothing Personal on a hopeful, positive note, with images of children and parents reveling in the Californian ocean. The photographs are complemented by Baldwin''s four-part polemic: a critique of a society that he feels is unjust, alienating, divisive, and therefore in the midst of an existential crisis. In a highly personal and pertinent testimony, Baldwin openly writes about his own experience of harassment by a racist policeman on the streets of New York. This is a meticulous reprint of the original, which has long been out of print, produced in close collaboration with the Richard Avedon Foundation. A 72-page accompanying booklet features never-before-seen outtakes, contact sheets, portraits of the authors at work, preliminary layouts, correspondence, ephemera, and an essay by Baldwin expert and Pulitzer Prize winner Hilton Als."--