Every year Art on the Underground commissions temporary artworks to enrich the environment, and therefore the experiences of passengers, of a specific tube line of the London Underground. This book showcases works on the themes of “communication” and “exchange,” which were presented between 2011 and 2012 along the Central Line, the longest of London’s Tube … Read More

Collective Action was a Moscow-based group of artists that invited audiences to participate in simple actions, often outdoors. While many indexical documents of their performance art exist, this collection—which offers first-person accounts of the first five years of the group’s work—offers readers a more personal perspective. Collective Actions presents us with the opportunity to explore issues … Read More

Every year Art on the Underground commissions temporary artworks to enrich the environment, and therefore the experiences of passengers, of a specific tube line of the London Underground. This book focuses on work presented in 2010 and 2011 on the Jubilee line, where artists investigated “the value of time.” Color photographs, project descriptions, artist bios, … Read More

When Dan Witz was obtaining his art education at prestigious Cooper Union in the late 1970s, realist painting was like the proverbial fart at a dinner party: People of taste pretended it didn’t exist. This fact was enough to hook the iconoclastic Witz. From his first exhibition, however, featuring hyperreal portraits of pasty, overweight, middle-aged … Read More

In a series of conversations with fifteen individuals, from artists to art historians to “expert participants,” Tom Finkelpearl, executive director of the Queens Museum of Art, explores “socially cooperative art.” Interviewees describe varying participatory practices, challenges and intentions, and the difficulty of finding suitable language with which to talk about this form of art. In … Read More

New perspective from Nadja Rottner on Oldenburg’s often overlooked multimedia performances, 1960 to 1965; part of the October Files Series. Claes Oldenburg Nadja Rottner Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012 224 pages, $18.95 (paperback) Purchase (via Amazon)  

Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980 was a six-month collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions throughout southern California, including a 10-day Performance and Public Art Festival. Though PST officially closed March 31, the conversation about the history of art on America’s West Coast has continued through several new books. A good place to … Read More

Counterpoint, 2011 272 pages, $26.00 (Hardcover) Purchase (via Amazon) Editorial Review “Former New Yorker staff writer Weschler (The Passion of Poland) gathers the finest fruits of the last 15 years in this delectable collection. The title piece, a metaphysical twist on digital animation, discusses reality and trickery with the arbiters of “algorithmic” expressions and deftly … Read More

Jospeh Hart is associate editor of Public Art Review. Read More

SOL LEWITT: Structures, 1965–2006 Nicholas Baume, ed. New York: Public Art Fund, 2012 226 pages, $50 (hardcover) A definitive career overview of this public art giant.   DUBUFFET AS ARCHITECT Daniel Abadie Paris: Editions Hazan, 2011 192 pages, $40 (hardcover) Color photographs, drawings, and essays document the monumental architectural works by the father of art … Read More