Reading List: 2021 Library Acquisitions

The Frick Art Reference Library’s collection is constantly evolving. While this reading list is a bit of a mixed bag, it represents a sampling of recent book acquisitions—all published in the past two years—that cover a wide variety of topics within the parameters of the library’s holdings. From catalogs of current blockbuster exhibitions to titles relating to public art and architecture in Mexico, Argentina, and Spain; biographies of women artists; and explorations of gender studies in art, this list highlights just a few fascinating and significant additions to the library.

As an institution, the Frick Art Reference Library continually aspires to enrich its holdings and to promote and provide access to resources on the works of diverse populations, including linguistic and geographic diversity, within the scope of our collection. See our collection development policy for more information on the library’s collecting practices.

The publications on this list are available for consultation by appointment in our reading room at Frick Madison.

1. The Morozov Collection: Icons of Modern Art

   Edited by Anne Baldassari (2021)

   This catalog presents nearly two hundred French and Russian modern artworks from the collection of brothers Ivan and Mikhail Morozov. The catalog accompanies the blockbuster exhibition of the same name, on view now through February 2022 at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. The show represents the first time the collection has traveled outside of Russia since its creation at the turn of the twentieth century. The catalog features information gleaned from the Morozov brothers’ unpublished archives, along with other unpublished texts, making it an exceptional resource for examining the history of such an incredible collection.

   

2. Entre ciudades: Buenos Aires, Puebla, Barcelona: paisajes culturales de la modernidad (1888–1929)

   Edited by Teresa-M. Sala and Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral (2020)

   One might not think of the Frick Art Reference Library as a resource on Mexican and Central and South American art, but this title, which explores the roles of architecture and public art in Buenos Aires, Puebla, and Barcelona, is one example of the many titles on the subject that the library has acquired in recent years. Written in Spanish, this book has a wide scope—covering art exhibitions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, public sculpture, and the role of artistic exchange and modernism in the three title cities.

3. Sophie Taeuber-Arp: A Life through Art (Ein Leben für die Kunst)

   By Silvia Boadella; translated by Tess Lewis (2020)

   While many are quick to think of Jean Arp (1886–1966), the famed Dadaist and abstract artist, this title takes a closer look at the work of his wife, Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943). Written by her grand-niece with the use of extensive archival information, this book provides a closer look at this often overlooked female Dada artist. This title is published in parallel English and German texts.

4. Mary Reynolds: artiste surréaliste et amante de Marcel Duchamp

   By Christine Oddo (2021)

   Artist Mary Reynolds’s exciting life (1891–1950) is explored in this book, which examines her time in France during World War II. In addition to socializing with collector Peggy Guggenheim and the most famous Dada and Surrealist artists like Henri-Pierre Roché, Constantin Brancusi, Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, André Breton, and Marcel Duchamp, Reynolds joined the French Resistance to thwart the Nazi occupation. Written in French, this title explores not only the social lives of artists but also the romantic and artistic relationship between Reynolds and Marcel Duchamp.

   

5. Wonder women: ni muses, ni modèles: artistes!

   By Régis Cotentin (2021)

   This title serves to highlight the role of women artists within the art historical context and the construction of cultural norms that spawned sustained discrimination on the basis of sex, race, and class. The author explores why art by women artists has been viewed as “disturbing” because of its subjugation of tropes normally expected of art created by men. The staunchly feminist tone of this title, written in French, provides an interesting exploration into the perception of female art and artists.

   

6. Femmes sauvages et ensauvagées dans les arts et les lettres (Moyen Age–XXIe siècle)

   By Bruno Boerner and Christine Ferlampin-Acher (2021)

   The trope of the “wild woman” (femme sauvage) is one that has permeated art and history since the Middle Ages. This woman can be vilified or deified, marginalized or valued. This title, in French, explores the role of the “wild woman” across historical and artistic contexts, examining the relationship of gender norms in Christianity and the Enlightenment all the way to the psychoanalytic lens of the twentieth century.

7. Genre androgyne: arts, culture visuelle et trouble de la masculinité (XVIIIe–XXe siècle)

   By Damien Delille (2020)

   In keeping with the theme of gender studies, this title, written in French, explores the role of androgynous figures and theories from eighteenth-century Neoclassicism to nineteenth-century Symbolism. Examining medical discourses, aesthetic theories, and visual cultures, this book invites readers to rethink artistic masculinity in its troubled links with the feminine.

   

8. Manliness in Britain, 1760–1900: Bodies, Emotion, and Material Culture

   By Joanne Begiato (2020)

   With an emphasis on the era of the Industrial Revolution, this title provides a reading into the perception of men’s bodies within British visual culture. This book analyzes idealized men who evoked desire and admiration—including boxers, soldiers, firemen, and noble industrial workers—while also investigating “unmanly” men, such as drunkards and wife-beaters, who elicited disgust and aversion. Through portrayals of men in visual culture, this title examines how images were used to comment on and shape male identity.

   

All photos by Joseph Coscia Jr., The Frick Collection