Aperture 200, Aperture, Fall 2010. Edited by Melissa Harris. Includes the feature Heroes of the Storm: Five Years after Katrina by Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick written by Deborah Willis, paperback, 9.5 x 11.25 in., 80 pages, illustrated throughout, ISBN 978-1-59711-150-8, $14.95.

In issue 200 of Aperture magazine, the English critic David Campany considers the dynamic work of British photographer Clare Strand; poet Max Blagg discusses Barney Kulok’s latest project and writer Aaron Schuman revisits Mike Mandel’s photo-baseball card project from the 1970s. Other features include portfolios of emerging photographers and a series on New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, five years after Katrina. Author Michael Lesy contributes a media watch piece, and exhibition reviews include La Subversion des Images: Surrealism, Photography and Film; Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; Street Seen: The Psychological Gesture in American Photography, 1940-1959; and international photography festivals in Lianzhou, China and Bamako, Mali, among others. The issue is available in two covers, one by Cindy Sherman, the other by Clare Strand.

Malick Sidibé: La Vie en Rose. Silvana Editoriale, August 2010, edited and text by Laura Incardona, Laura Serani, hardcover, 6.75 x 9.5 in., 160 pages, 70 tritone, ISBN 978-88-366-1716-6, $60.

Acclaimed for his black-and-white photographs of 1960s youth culture in Bamako, Mali, Malick Sidibé (born 1936) is today the African continent’s best-known photographer. Sidibé was recently awarded the Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement (2007)–the first time this award was presented to a photographer–and the Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement (2008), in recognition of his contribution to documentary photography and the historical record. Malick Sidibé: La Vie en Rose provides a survey of this work, focusing primarily on Sidibé’s images of Mali’s buzzing youth culture and family life in Bamako in the 1960s and 70s. Laura Serani’s foreword contextualizes Sidibé’s work in a wider survey of African photography; the book also includes an interview with the photographer by Laura Incardona and an appendix with Sidibé’s famous “chemises” (photographic dossiers), which documents his working methods.

A Useful Dream: African Photography 1960-2010, Silvana Editoriale, August 2010, Edited and with an introduction by Simon Njami. Text by Frank Vanhaecke, paperback, 9.5 x 11.25 in., 192 pages, 250 color, ISBN 978-88-366-1659-6, $45.

Photography has proved a particularly essential art in the African continent’s postcolonial era, both for recording the numerous seismic moments in its recent history, and for reclaiming the imagery of Africa from its colonial portrayers. As Africa has begun to step beyond its colonial subjugation, photography has also assumed a leading role in providing African countries with individual identities. Tracking the blossoming of postcolonial photography in Africa from 1960 to the present, and accompanying an exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, A Useful Dream: African Photography 1960-2010 celebrates 50 years of African photography. Among the 34 photographers gathered in its pages are Rui Assubuji, Nabil Boutros, Loulou Cherinet, James Depara, Samuel Fosso, David Goldblatt, Bob Gosani, Pierrot Men, Zwelethu Mtethwa, Eileen Perrier, Ricardo Rangel, Malick Sidibé and Patrice-Félix Tchikaya. The volume includes an introduction by Simon Njami and a text by Frank Vanhaecke.

L.A. Object & David Hammons Body Prints. Tilton Gallery/Roberts & Tilton, January 2011, edited by Lindsay Charlwood, Connie Rogers Tilton, Jack Tilton, hardcover, 10.25 x 12.25 in., 300 pages, 200 color, 100 b&w, ISBN 978-1-4276-1374-5, $65.

L.A. Object offers a historical overview of the Los Angeles assemblage movement of the 1960s and 70s. It focuses on works by artists often omitted from mainstream gallery and museum historical exhibitions who were working during the civil rights movement, the 1965 Watts riots and the era’s general social and cultural upheaval: Ed Bereal, Wallace Berman, Nathaniel Bustion, Alonzo Davis, Dale Brockman Davis, Charles Dickson, Mel Edwards, David Hammons, George Herms, Daniel La Rue Johnson, Ed Kienholz, Ron Miyashiro, Senga Nengudi, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, Joe Ray, Betye Saar, Kenzi Shiokava and Timothy Washington. Central to this book are the unique body prints of David Hammons–ironic, often political commentaries relevant to the African-American experience that are for the first time presented within the art historical context from which they arose.

How Many Billboards? Verlag für moderne Kunst, June 2010, edited by Peter Noever. Text by Kimberli Meyer, Gloria Sutton, Lisa Henry, Nizan. Shaked, paperback, 12 x 9 in., 160 pages, 50 color, ISBN 978-3-86984-039-0, $40.

In an urban zone crisscrossed by multilane freeways and gridded with broad boulevards, the roadside billboards of Los Angeles may well be the city’s most visible platform for art. How Many Billboards? documents a 2010 project in which billboards in Los Angeles were turned over to 23 artists to do with as they wished, asserting the ongoing legacy of California Conceptualism and its combination of language-based strategies with Pop-inflected aesthetics. “Astonish!” declares Kenneth Anger’s billboard, in commanding upper-case orange lettering, recapitulating Diaghilev’s famous advice to Cocteau. “I Look Good, I Know,” says Yvonne Rainer’s billboard; “I Can’t Hear, I Can’t See, But I Look Good.” Martha Rosler’s collaboration with Josh Neufeld makes a plea for spending on higher education in California, and Renée Green’s image of a darkened shore with silhouetted figures gathered near a tourist ferry is accompanied by the two-line commentary “Strangers begin again/Native strangers hosting.” Other artists participating in this occasion are Michael Asher, Jennifer Bornstein, Eileen Cowin, Christina Fernandez, Ken Gonzales Day, Kira Lynn Harris, Larry Johnson, John Knight, David Lamelas, Brandon Lattu, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Kori Newkirk, Allen Ruppersberg, Allan Sekula, Susan Silton, Kerry Tribe, Jim Welling and Lauren Woods. Essays by Kimberli Meyer, Gloria Sutton and Nizan Shaked, who co-curated the project, contextualize the works in relation to Conceptual and Pop art idioms, provide background material on the artists and outline the MAK Center’s plans to enliven public space.

Phyllis Galembo: Maske. Chris Boot, October 2010, Introduction by Chika Okeke-Agulu, hardcover, 8.5 x 9.5 in., 208 pages, 108 color, ISBN 978-1-905712-17-5, $45.

The clothes we wear invariably telegraph information about our identity, our place in society and the stories we wish to convey about ourselves. The fantastically colorful costumes specific to African and Caribbean rituals and celebrations go several steps further, transforming ordinary people into mythic figures and magicians, tricksters and gods, and symbolizing the roles their wearers play in the ancient dramas that form the cornerstones of their cultural heritage. Phyllis Galembo began photographing the characters and costumes of African masquerade in Nigeria in 1985, and since then she has continued developing her theme throughout Africa and the Caribbean. This volume collects 108 thrilling carnival photographs from Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Zambia and Haiti. In magnificent color shots, Galembo’s subjects pose in striped bodysuits that cover the entire body, including the face; or outfits made entirely of bunched greenery; or a lacquered wooden mask topped with a headdress featuring full-body models of other characters; or an oversize misshapen animal head and plywood wings. The carnival characters, rooted in African religion and spirituality, are presented in chapters organized by tribal or carnival tradition and are accompanied by Galembo’s personal commentary, shedding light on the characters and costumes portrayed, and on the events in which they play a pivotal role. Maske is a serious contribution to ethnographic study, a photo-essay about fashion and an assembly of superb images.

Introduction

Since the Rubell Family started collecting in the 1960’s, they have always collected African-American artists as a part of their broader mission to collect the most interesting art of our time. Approximately three years ago, they found there was a critical mass of emerging African-American artists, and began the process of understanding what seemed to be a new movement. When they asked these artists about their influences, they heard some of the same names over and over: Robert Colescott, Renée Green, David Hammons, Barkley Hendricks, Kerry James Marshall, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems. They had been collecting almost all of those artists for decades. Perfect conditions for a new exhibition.

As they explored the possibility of a show, they were deeply influenced by a series of outstanding exhibitions around the country focusing on African-American artists, including the “Freestyle” and “Frequency” shows at the Studio Museum of Harlem; “Black Is, Black Ain’t” at the Renaissance Society; the Barkley Hendricks show at the Nasher Art Museum at Duke University; the David Hammons show at P.S.1; and the museum retrospectives of Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Lorna Simpson and Kara Walker.

As the Rubells explain, “We have spent the last three years traveling everywhere we can, speaking to as many artists, critics, and curators as we can, finding and acquiring the best work we can.” The result is a show of more than 200 works of art, exhibited in 27 galleries occupying the entire 45,000 square-foot exhibition space of the Rubell Family Collection in Miami.

As the show evolved, they decided to call it “30 Americans.” “Americans,” rather than “African-Americans” or “Black Americans” because nationality is a statement of fact, while racial identity is a question each artist answers in his or her own way, or not at all. And the number 30 because the Rubells acknowledge that this show does not include everyone who could be in it. In fact, between the time the show’s name was established and the exhibition was installed, the actual number of artists grew to 31. The Rubell Family Collection is pleased to have the involvement of PUMA as Presenting Sponsor. As Jochen Zeitz, CEO of PUMA says, “I am impressed and inspired by the dedication of Mera and Don Rubell to encourage important debates. To contribute to this exhibition gives us the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to creative talent in unique and exciting ways.”