Summer/Fall 2012 Download PDF - The Studio Museum in Harlem

Summer/Fall 2012 32Book Picksby Abbe Schriber,Curatorial Assistant“Read/As many books as you can without reading interfering/With yourtime for living,” wrote Kenneth Koch in his oft-quoted poem “Some GeneralInstructions.” It is advice that resonates with people who love to read butjuggle packed schedules—most of us who work at the Studio Museum are noexception to that. Below are a few suggestions for recent or brand new criticaltexts and novels well worth the interference with your schedule—booksthat, in my opinion, will enrich your experience of the artwork we show, andpossibly even your “time for living.”Anne ChengSecond Skin: Josephine Bakerand the Modern SurfaceOxford University Press, 2011Cheng’s second book, SecondSkin focuses on the early-twentiethcentury performer Josephine Baker.Through Baker’s critical reception,audience and skin/self, Chengexamines and connects Modernistaesthetics and architecture tothe fantasies and degradationsof otherness.Teju ColeOpen CityRandom House, 2011The protagonist of this novel, ayoung Nigerian psychiatry resident,walks the streets of Manhattan, fromMorningside Heights down, in theprocess contemplating his relationships,job, environment, and socialand political surroundings. The revelationsand ruminations that cometo light are not stream-of-consciousness,but the very plot and structureof the book itself.John P. BowlesAdrian Piper: Race, Gender, andEmbodimentDuke University Press, 2011.After a decade of research, art historicalanalysis and direct correspondencewith artist Adrian Piper, JohnP. Bowles locates the Conceptualand feminist roots of Piper’s work.He extends the art historical andtheoretical importance of her artisticpractice to reflect a larger societaland social accountability.