Five Books on Modern and Contemporary Artists for the New Season

A roundup of five recent publications on modern and contemporary artists, each offering fresh perspectives. Elio Grazioli's 'Duchamp oltre la fotografia' (Johan and Levi, 2017) examines Marcel Duchamp's relationship with photography, a previously underexplored topic. Marco Scotini edited 'Ugo La Pietra' (Archive Books, 2017), accompanying the artist's exhibition at Studio Dabbeni in Lugano (2017–2018), covering his transition from sign painting to interactive audiovisual environments. WunderKammer published the first Italian edition of Claude Cahun's 1934 pamphlet 'Le scommesse sono aperte' (2018), introduced by Silvia Mazzucchelli, discussing poetry's autonomy from political propaganda. Ilaria Bernardi's 'Giulio Paolini' (Prinp, 2017) focuses on the artist's works on paper as a gestural laboratory for image perception. Luca Scarlini edited 'Picasso. Uno, nessuno e centomila' (Skira, 2017), an anthology featuring texts by Gertrude Stein, Rainer Maria Rilke, Brassaï, Ray Bradbury, Pablo Neruda, and André Malraux, offering a multifaceted portrait of Picasso.