T h e A r t i s t B o o k F o u n d at i o n
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MISSION The Artist Book Foundation creates, shares, and preserves artist books that offer the richest visual presentations and most informative narratives of artists’ lives and work. Committed to artists, the Foundation believes that artist books, like the artwork that inspires them, serve as a vital source of knowledge and culture for current and future generations.
T h e A r t i s t B o o k F o u n d at i o n Publishing artist books in a whole new way.
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Contents Why The Artist Book Foundation?
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Experience
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Organizational Structure
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The Books
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Mission Initiatives
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Younger Artist Series
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Library Donation Program
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The Archive
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Funding Sources
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Directors and Advisors
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Artwork
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Why The Artist Book Foundation? Artist books, primarily artist monographs and catalogues raisonnés, are greatly valued by artists, galleries, collectors, museums, art students, art scholars, and many others. However, these books are being published less and less because they rarely are profitable for trade publishers. In order for artist books to survive, in a market driven by pop culture and design mania, they have to be published by a nonprofit organization that recognizes the critical importance of fine art book publishing, hence the need for The Artist Book Foundation. This nonprofit Foundation is far more than a way to fill
publish: [from Old French puplier, from Latin publicare], to make public.
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the gap being created by illustrated book publishers; it also offers an opportunity to coordinate with the highly charged art world, which is keen for this vital information. The importance of artist books is not in question, but their existence could be if they are not published by a nonprofit whose mission is to ensure their future and to capture the legacy that is found on the page—printed or digital—for generations to come. If you consider that museums are run as nonprofits for the common good, rather than to satisfy shareholders, then you can appreciate what inspired the creation of The Artist Book Foundation.
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Experience The Artist Book Foundation’s publisher is Leslie Pell van Breen, one of the most highly regarded and accomplished art book publishers working today. Prior to co-founding The Artist Book Foundation, Leslie was publisher and executive director of Hudson Hills Press for more than a decade, building that company into the premier American publisher of fine art books. Leslie has worked with some
of the finest museums in this country1 and published more than 75 titles ranging from artist monographs,2 catalogues raisonnés,3 to exhibition and collections catalogues as well as criticisms and historical surveys.4 Leslie and her team of the best book designers and editors in the United States are excited to continue working together, building on this impressive record.
1. Art Institute of Chicago, Asia Society, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Corning Museum of Glass, Portland Museum of Art, Milwaukee Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, National Gallery of Art, Pasadena Museum of Art, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, and Walker Art Center, in addition to many university museums and artists’ foundations. 2. April Gornik: Paintings and Drawings, Stephen Hannock, Robert Kipniss: Intaglios, 1982–2004, Fletcher Benton: An American Artist, Charles Biederman, Judy Pfaff, Carole A. Feuerman: Sculpture, Hans Van de Bovenkamp, Michele Oka Doner: Natural Seduction, Robert Vickrey: The Magic of Realism, Elias Rivera, Mignonette Yin Cheng, Boaz Vaadia: Sculpture 1971–2011. 3. John Baldessari: A Catalogue Raisonné of Prints and Multiples, 1971–2007, Wendell Castle: A Catalogue Raisonné 1958–2011, John Himmelfarb: A Catalogue Raisonné, The Prints of Josef Albers: A Catalogue Raisonné 1915–1976, Robert Motherwell: The Complete Prints 1940–1991, A Catalogue Raisonné, The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonné 1948–1997. 4. A History of American Tonalism 1880–1920, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon, Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky: Friends in Exile – A Decade of Correspondence, 1929–1939, Storytelling Time: Native North American Art from the Collections at the University of North Dakota, Storied Past: Four Centuries of French Drawings from the Blanton Museum of Art, The Great Picture: Making the World’s Largest Photograph.
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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE The Foundation’s publishing team, given its editorial, design, and production experience with world-renowned museums and international art book publishers, will continue to contribute to the finest artist books produced and incorporate the latest design concepts, the most informed scholarship, and cutting-edge technology. See the Foundation’s iPad app! Connecting artist books with markets worldwide is essential and easier than ever as a result of our global community. The Foundation has contacts internationally
to ensure that promotion, sales, distribution, and specialized content reach all corners of the civilized and, possibly, not-so-civilized world. Warehousing in the United States, Europe, and Asia is in place. It is critical to be where the art world is getting the greatest attention and setting the highest standards. While maintaining offices in New York City—a publishing and art-world hot spot—where all aspects of operations and publishing will be managed, the Foundation will soon be represented in London and Hong Kong.
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THE BOOKS The linchpin of the Foundation and the focus from which all activities emanate—the artist books and their worldwide distribution—will help inspire and develop a growing interest in the arts. Large and oversize formats offer the greatest opportunity to illustrate the artwork extensively and lavishly while incorporating details and supporting images wherever appropriate. Historians, curators, and experts in their field will author and contribute to all Foundation books. A successful collaboration of ideas and information will make all the difference in how the material is presented and, in some books, the artist’s voice will clearly be heard. The Foundation will partner with artists, galleries, museums, and others to publish these important books of exceptional quality, scholarship, and design. Publications will be supported financially through these partnerships to ultimately produce the most expansive presentation of an artist’s history and work. The excitement is already taking hold, as the Foundation has book projects underway for publication in 2013.
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MISSION INITIATIVES Create artist-centered books of definitive content and exceptional reproduction, focusing especially, but not exclusively, on modern and contemporary artists working in North America, Europe, and Asia. Artist monographs, catalogues raisonnÊs, surveys, and criticisms are at the heart of the Foundation’s work. The selective assessment of projects is the highest priority and an informed critical and editorial committee considering substance, content, and placement of previous works in private and public collections will determine acceptance.
Share the information, as publications of this nature are prepared to disseminate and enhance knowledge of culture while sustaining and perpetuating the history of art.
These books will be made available worldwide through traditional trade channels and new art-world opportunities, with a percentage of each first printing donated to a significant group of public, art, and university libraries in the United States and abroad.
Preserve the content and the extraordinary imagery to the benefit and greater good of society. Identifying and promoting workable electronic applications and platforms for future books is critical given the restraints on space in international libraries and developing markets, but does not preclude the need to also enhance and secure the printed page for generations to come.
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YOUNGER ARTIST SERIES This annual award will celebrate mid-career work through the publication of a first monograph of a chosen artist under the age of 50 worthy of greater exposure. The award will be determined by a committee of distinguished artists, art critics, and other members of the art community and will add an extra zing to the overall publishing program.
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Library Donation Program The Artist Book Foundation believes in a serious and directed library donation program, consisting of approximately 10 percent of each print run to public, art, and university libraries in the United States and abroad to ensure this richly illustrated and engaging content be made available to all who are interested.
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The Archive To sustain and protect important information regarding contemporary and modern art through the work of visual artists, the Foundation will establish an archive, both print and digital, to include artists’ monographs and catalogues raisonnés. This archive will house publications dating from 1880 produced by international publishers as well as The Artist Book Foundation.
monograph: a treatise on a particular subject, as a biographical study or study of the works of one artist. catalogue raisonné: literally, from French, “reasoned catalogue.” A thorough, reasoned, and systematic documentation of all works by an artist—the oeuvre—in a given medium (such as painting, sculpture, or prints) known at the time when the catalogue is prepared.
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FUNDING SOURCES The Foundation plans to generate the majority of its annual budget through the sale of artist books and is raising money from individuals, private foundations, and government grants. In addition, subventions and donated artwork will be used to fund specific projects. Detailed financial information is available upon request.
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DIRECTORS and ADVISORs Board of Directors This well-connected group currently includes a leading art book publisher with 25 years experience in publishing and the art world; a leading copyright attorney with three decades of experience in the publishing industry; a finance executive with 30 years of experience raising capital; a nonprofit fundraiser whose relationships include The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and other leading supporters of the arts; and an esteemed art scholar who has authored many important artist monographs.
Board of Advisors On this board are a highly regarded art consultant with numerous gallery and artist contacts, a well-informed editorial executive with years of experience in museum and fine art publications, and several accomplished American artists whose works can be found in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to name but a few.
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ARTWORK Tom Slaughter Library wallpaper, cut painted paper, 30 x 22 in., 2008 Watertowers wallpaper, cut painted paper, 44 x 30 in., 2007 Paintbrush, Flashe paint on paper, 6 x 9 in., 2012 John Stockwell Blossoms, oil on canvas, 40 x 65 in., 2011 Way In, oil on canvas, 45 x 65 in., 2011 Dave Muller Self-portrait (In the Studio), acrylic on paper (in two parts), 96 1/2 x 55 in. and 103 1/3 x 37 1/4 in., installed dimensions variable, 2006 Muller Family Car Listening Stack (From Frances Down to Dave), acrylic on paper (in three parts), 38 1/2 x 92 1/2 in. each, installed dimensions variable, 2011
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Stephen Hannock Northern City Renaissance, Mauve Dawn (Mass Moca #161), polished mixed media on canvas, 96 x 144 in., 2012 Madison Square Park at the Turn of the Century (View South), acrylic on canvas, 84 x 144 in., 1997 Moving Water for Frank Moore, Niagara Falls (Mass Moca #170), polished mixed media on canvas, 96 x 240 in., 2004–2012, detail Irene Cole Stone Energy, Yellow, oil, 6 x 6 in., 2010
Leslie Pell van Breen Publisher and Co-founder leslie@theartistbook.org Gibb Taylor Director and Co-founder gibb@theartistbook.org
theartistbook.org
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T h e A r t i s t B o o k F o u n d at i o n
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New York
London
Hong Kong