Five Art Books for Christmas: From Noir Cinema to Street Art

A roundup of five art and culture books recommended for Christmas gifts, covering cinema, museum theory, visual culture, circus fashion, and street art. Stefano Sciacca's 'Prima e dopo il noir' (Falsopiano, 2017, €22) argues that film noir transcends its 1940s-50s golden age, serving as a politically engaged symptom of modernity. Maddalena d'Alfonso's 'Come lo spazio trasforma l'arte. Come l'arte trasforma lo spazio' (Silvana Editoriale, 2017, €18) examines how museums and exhibition spaces shape art, drawing on institutional critique and display theory, with a bibliography and integral photographs. Nicholas Mirzoeff's 'Come vedere il mondo' (Johan and Levi, 2017, €23) offers an introduction to visual studies spanning from self-portraits to selfies, maps to films, urging critical vigilance beyond the apocalittici vs. integrati debate. Maria Luisa Rinaldi with Arianna Piazza's 'Circus Style Fashion Show' (24 Ore Cultura, 2017, €35) explores the historical intersection of circus and fashion, using carnivalesque inversion as a critical lens. Stéphanie Martin Petit and Christian Omodeo's 'Street Art & Cinéma' (Éditions Pyramyd, 2017, €35) chronologically maps street art references to cinema from silent films to digital multiplexes, citing examples like Salomau's Nosferatu homage in Paris and Joy's Roger Rabbit in Vancouver.