Liz Johnson Artur: PDA, Bierke Verlag, 224pp, £50 (hb)
The Russian Ghanaian artist Liz Johnson Artur presents a photographic record of PDA, a hugely popular queer Black club night held monthly in a Hackney basement in east London from 2011 to 2021. (PDA is thought to stand for Public Display of Affection or Please Don’t Ask.) “Combining both glamour and a spirit of chaos, PDA offered a world away from the conventions and systems upheld by the UK’s patriarchal imperialism,” says a publisher’s statement. PDA, which overflowed with sequins and sunglasses, did not last forever though. “We have a wonderful time, then suddenly it’s over. We’re only here for a minute. Let’s enjoy it,” Johnson Artur told The Guardian.
William Nicholson, Simon Martin (editor), Pallant House Gallery, 176pp, £35 (hb)
This survey of the UK artist William Nicholson’s career accompanies an exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, UK. Nicholson, the head of a family of artists, is often overshadowed by his more famous son Ben but William’s output was prolific and eclectic, encompassing witty woodcuts, including the celebrated portfolios An Alphabet and London Types, along with book illustrations and commissions for the theatre. “Visitors [and readers] can view rarely seen works, and intimate depictions of family and friends including a newly displayed portrait of his son, artist Ben Nicholson,” says a publisher’s statement.
Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature, Laura van Straaten, Damiani, 64pp, €30 (hb)
The publication Enchanting Nature accompanies an exhibition of Sandy Skoglund’s work at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas (until 1 February). Skoglund creates surreal, colour-filled environments bursting with handmade props and repetitive visual motifs. “The conflict between the manmade world and the natural environment, and the paradoxes this conflict creates, are a central focus in the work of the artist,” says a publisher’s statement. The publication includes the artist’s installations Revenge of the Goldfish and Radioactive Cats alongside the unseen work Fresh Hybrid (2008).
The Accidental Picasso Thief: The True Story of a Reverse Heist, Outrunning the FBI, and Fleeing the Boston Mob, Whit Rummel and Noah Charney, Bloomsbury Academic, 168pp, $24.50 (hb)
“This book is the true story of one of the oddest art crimes in American history,” writes Whit Rummel in The Accidental Picasso Thief, which is described by the publisher as “part true crime, part memoir”. The book tells the tale of Bill Rummel, Whit Rummel’s brother and a young forklift operator, who offloaded a crate containing Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of a Woman and a Musketeer from Logan Airport in Boston in 1969. The painting was bound for Holden Luntz Gallery in Milwaukee but ended up in Bill Rummel’s house, sparking a search by the FBI. Rummel’s father got rid of the work by telling a taxi driver to drop it off at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, paying the cabbie $20. The note left with the painting, which was signed Robbin Hood, stated: “Please accept this to replace in part some of the paintings removed from museums throughout [sic] the country.” The book uncovers the “Rummel family’s incredible brush with art history, crime, and secrecy”, adds a publisher’s statement.
