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New library acquisitions: Autumn 2023

25 October 2023

Covers of the books 'Art + DIY Electronics' and 'Rashid Johnson' side by side.

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Cover of the book 'What is the proper way to display a flag?', with bold, black text on a red background.

Cover of the book 'The Sculptural in the (Post-) Digital Age', with an x-ray inspired illustration of a person with sculptural and robotic layers superimposed.

Cover of the book 'Eduardo Chillida: Gravitation', showing curved, rusted metal sculptures by a stony beach.

Cover of the book 'Tacita Dean: Geography Biography', showing a close-up, cropped photo of a stone sculpture of a sphinx, tinted orange.

Cover of the book 'Art + DIY Electronics', showing two people looking at a makeshift robot, with a blue and purple filter applied.

Cover of the book 'Rashid Johnson', depicting a colourful abstract mosaic. A sticker in the corner reads 'Signed Copy'.

Cover of the book 'Outstanding', which has an image of a sculpture made from many intricate curved planes, appearing like a three-dimensional mathematical model made in bronze.

Cover of the book 'Mounir Fatmi: Suspect Language', showing a typewriter with a jumble of large, metal Arabic characters stuffed into the top.

Cover of the book 'Glass Exchange', showing several small figurines pinned to a wall.

Cover of the book 'Bohumil Vostal', showing an older man working on a clay portrait bust.

Cover of the book 'Blank. Raw', with black text on a grey background.

Cover of the book 'William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision', showing a sculpture of an angel carved in stone.

Cover of the book 'Tarik Kiswanson: Nest'. It has a white cover with a small photo of a white-walled gallery in the bottom right corner.

Publications on post-war sculptors and the relief feature in this season’s new acquisitions list.

Relief sculpture was the subject of the recent event Bradford’s Civic Future: The Art of Kirkgate Market, a collaboration between Bradford UK City of Culture 2025 and the Henry Moore Institute. The day focused on murals by William Mitchell and tiles by Fritz Steller in Bradford market, and how architects and artists contribute to both our civic spaces and our sense of place. Anyone wanting to follow up on the wider history of the relief will be interested in the catalogue Outstanding! The relief from Rodin to Picasso.

The catalogue asks the question: should relief as a medium be considered painting or sculpture? Published to coincide with exhibitions held at Stadel Museum, Frankfurt and Hamburger Kunsthalle, this book explores a distinct genre with its own aesthetic and its own innovative techniques. In its thirteen chapters, various themes are discussed, including post-war wall reliefs and the challenges of combining architecture and art. The volume showcases this hybrid medium in all its diversity, and whilst it may not answer the question originally posed, it is the complex nature of the genre that makes it all the more fascinating.

The library is also delighted to receive a new publication on émigré sculptor Franta Belsky by journalist and reporter Bohumil Vostal. Belsky was born in Czechoslovakia, and after the German occupation in 1938, he and his family fled to Britain. He became known for abstract public sculpture and statues and busts of noted British figures, including Churchill and members of the Royal Family. This new publication Portretoval anglickou kralovnu : Franta Belsky, cesko-britsky pribeh 20. Století includes numerous images from the Belsky archive held here at the Institute.

Full list of acquisitions

Click the links below to see all the new books we’ve added to the Sculpture Research Library.

July

August

September

New publication

Egon Altdorf: Poems + Images

Throughout his life, the German artist Egon Altdorf (1922-8008) wrote poetry.

Illustrated with woodcuts, sculpture and stained glass, Poems + Images is the first edition of Altdorf’s poetry with parallel English translations. It includes previously unpublished poems, written as a prisoner of war in the United States, as well as a cross-section of later poems exploring the artist’s origins, his faith, and his interest in dreams, the seasons, light and darkness.

Presenting Altdorf’s poetry alongside his art reveals a powerfully interconnected vision shaped but not defined by war: a humanitarian outlook informed by a profound spiritual belief.

Product details:
Softcover
120 pages
190 x 180mm
ISBN: 978-1-915670-12-0

Buy Egon Altdorf: Poems + Images

Buy Egon Altdorf: Poems + Images