The delightful tales and theatrical drawings of Edward Gorey (American, 19252000) reflect a special kind of genius for what is left unwritten and unseen. In Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey, more than 175 reproductions include samples from Goreys books, illustrations produced for other writers, theatrical sets and costume designs, and a wealth of individual pieces, many never before published. Sketches, typewritten manuscripts, doodles, and musings join the generous selection of finished works.

This publication accompanies the Figuration Never Died: New York Painterly Painting, 1950-1970 exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. By about 1950, forward-looking New York painting was seen as synonymous with abstraction- especially charged, gestural Abstract Expressionism. But there was also a strong group of dissenters; artists, all born in the 1920s and many of them students of Hans Hofmann, who never lost their enthusiasm for the seductive qualities of thick, malleable oil paint. They remained, for the most part, 'painterly' painters. These rebellious artists include Lois Dodd, Jane Freilicher, Paul Georges, Grace Hartigan, Wolf Kahn, Alex Katz, Albert Kresch, Robert de Niro Sr., Paul Resika, and Anne Tabachnick. The compelling figurative work they made between about 1950 and 1970, in contrast to the prevailing Abstract Expressionism of the time, constitutes a significant chapter in the history of recent American Modernism.

A figurative realist in the heyday of abstract expres- sionism, Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) painted himself, his family, and friends in New York City, in Southampton, Long Island, and on an island off the Maine coast, all depicting a relaxed and comfortable world that seemed to mirror his own affluent, well- connected existence. With virtually all of the artist's previous publications now out of print, this much- anticipated volume is an important addition to the literature on this great American master. Porter graduated from Harvard in 1928 and then studied at the Art Students League in New York with Thomas Hart Benton. Along with months in Maine, Porter lived in New York and from 1948 on, in Southampton where he purchased a large, late Federal-style house for his own expanding family. Porter painted several artist friends, including Elaine de Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Jane Freilicher. He was also close to the modern poets John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and James Schuyler. With a carefully curated selection of the artist's best works, John Wilmerding, a specialist in American art, gives full consideration to Porter's expressive compositions and a color palette influenced by his coastal surroundings. Karen Wilkin discusses Porter's influences and pictorial creativity. Distinguished poet J. D. McClatchy writes a reflection on one of Porter's paintings.

This is the sixth volume in Lund Humphries' series of monographs on British sculptor Anthony Caro and the first publication to focus on his use of stainless steel as a distinct body of work. Caro employed stainless steel extensively, from intimately scaled Table Sculptures to extremely large works, over many decades, and in his mature works, Caro's exploration and interrogation of this material became increasingly important. Karen Wilkin analyses Caro's use of stainless steel in the context of the development of modernist constructed sculpture, pioneered in the UK by Caro and in the US by David Smith, a friend and admired predecessor, from whom Caro inherited most of the stainless steel he first employed, following Smith's untimely death in 1965. Karen Wilkin's text represents a much-needed overview of Caro's late career and a vital expansion of our understanding of 20th-century and early 21st-century modernist sculpture.

Giorgio Morandi’s lifelong pursuit of his poetic vision in still-life and landscape paintings as well as engravings and etchings has given him a deeply revered position in the history of modern art. This volume presents the work of this private and enigmatic 20th century Bolognese artist. Influenced by the work of Giotto, as well as Cézanne, the metaphysical painters, and the cubists, Morandi’s work denies any label. His still-lifes and landscapes are serene groupings of muted objects, yet Morandi provokes a tension between them which speaks of special relationships, negative space, and nuances of light and colour. His paintings seem to exist in a world outside of time, luminous and full of mysterious life.