Vincent Borrelli, Bookseller

NZ Library #1: Steve Kahn: The Hollywood Suites, Special Limited Edition (with 2 Prints) (NZ Library - Set One, Volume Three)

KAHN, Steve

Publisher: Portland, Oregon: Nazraeli Press, 2014
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781590053850
Condition: New / New
Item #: 110445

$1,500.00

Specifics

SPECIAL ORDER: PRICING & AVAILABILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE (please inquire). Price is net to all; promotional discounts do not apply.

SPECIAL EDITION SUBSCRIBER DISCOUNT: Customers who purchase the complete Set 1 of six titles (item #110782) qualify for a $150 discount off the price of this special limited edition (with print) from Set 1 (the special limited edition also includes a copy of the slipcased book). Otherwise, special edition price is net to all; promotional discounts do not apply.

First edition, first printing. Special limited edition of 25 copies, with two original 11 x 14-inch archival pigment prints, each signed and numbered by Kahn. The book is signed by the artist on a label tipped in to the back cover, and numbered on the colophon page. Hardcover. Silk cloth-covered boards with screenprinted star design on cover; with photographically illustrated dust jacket and silk cloth-covered slipcase with screenprinted star design. 56 pp., with 51 duotone plates. 15 x 12 inches.

Condition

New in publisher's packaging.

Description

From the publisher: "The images in Steve Kahn's enigmatic The Hollywood Suites were all made in run-down apartments between the years 1974 and 1976. Alternately provocative and haunting, they were the subject of solo exhibitions on the West Coast and in Europe during that decade and included in noted group exhibitions such as 'Exposing: Photographic Definitions' at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art in 1976 and 'The Altered Photograph' at P.S. 1 in New York in 1979. The series divides into two groups of pictures. The Hollywood Suites (nudes) features sexually charged pictures of young women, often partially clad and sometimes cropped. In The Hollywood Suites (mirrors, windows and doors), Kahn concentrated on architectural interiors, making arresting use of windows and doors. The images themselves are grainy and offer an unnaturally sharp contrast between darks and lights. Select examples feature doorways embellished with geometric patterns done in twine.

Kahn, who was born in 1943, was part of an important generation of Los Angeles photographers that included Robert Heinecken, Ilene Segalove and Jerry McMillan, among others. They brought a conceptual and collage approach to the picture. Many were chronicled in the important exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum, Proof: Los Angeles and the Photograph: 1960-1980 and Kahn is also included the 2011 book, L.A. Rising: SoCal Artists Before 1980. Steve Kahn's work is included in the permanent collections of institutions across the United States and Europe, including those of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, Toulon, France; and De Beyerd Museum; Breda, Holland."

From the publisher (about the NZ Library Series): "We are excited to announce the NZ Library, a new series of limited edition, highly collectible artist's books. Printed on Japanese art paper using our exclusive 'Daido black' inks, all books in the NZ Library have certain aspects in common: each title is produced using the highest material and production values; each is limited to 350 numbered and signed copies; each is bound in silk cloth and individually slipcased."

The NZ Library will be built six titles at a time, with groupings curated to balance and play off of past, present and future titles in the series. While copies--such as this item--will be available to purchase individually, a generous discount is extended for orders of all six titles in any given set. ($150 per book compared to $250 per book.)

Set 1 highlights work by some of the most creative and influential photographic artists active in Los Angeles during the 1970s; re-presents the long-overdue "wayward piece of the puzzle"-- John Schott's entire "Route 66 Motels" portfolio -- to the available literature relating to the groundbreaking New Topographics exhibition shown in 1975 at the George Eastman House in Rochester; offers new insight into Daido Moriyama's working methodology; and provides an ideal forum for the first international publication on the work of superstar contemporary artist Idris Khan."