The Mad Potter of Biloxi: The Art and Life of George E. Ohr

from Amazon.com Book Description: A brilliantly written, lavishly produced volume on an important yet little- known clay artist. Misunderstood and unappreciated during his lifetime (1857-1918), George Ohr, America's archetypal artist-potter, pushed the form of the vessel beyond mere function to the point of abstraction. Today the genius of this radical and sophisticated artist has finally been recognized. His thin-walled, paper-light pots, labeled grotesque in his day, are now seen as a tour de force.

I was introduced to Ohr through artists and my work, he also is a pioneer of performance and Life as art.

Marcel Duchamp

by Marcel Duchamp

Unless a picture shocks, it is nothing. --Marcel Duchamp

The individual, man as a man, man as a brain, if you like, interests me more than what he makes, because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves. --Marcel Duchamp

Willem De Kooning: Paintings

Book Description from Amazon.com: This beautiful book presents a retrospective of eighty of Willem de Kooning`s finest paintings and painted works on paper. The book reassesses de Kooning`s critical status as one of America`s greatest and most influential artists, examines the complexity of his painting techniques, and places him in the context of other artists and art movements of his era. The book serves as the catalogue for a major exhibition of de Kooning`s work presented at the National Gallery of Art in Washington,

Object to be destroyed
by Pamela M. Lee, Gordon Matta-Clark

from Amazon.com: Book Description; Although highly regarded during his short life--and honored by artists and architects today--the American artist Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-78) has been largely ignored within the history of art. Matta-Clark is best remembered for site-specific projects known as "building cuts."

I highly recommend this artist.

Une Semaine De BontE (A worthwhile surrealist object)

by Max Ernst

Ernst uses collages made of illustrations from lurid French novels popular at the time. Ersnt is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. This has become available quite recently.

Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature

Artitst Peter Kadyk first introduced me to this artist, which led to many trips to bookstores going through every page of this man's incredible art. It is deep, is is ingenious, beautiful, very inspiring.

The Essential Joseph Beuys

from Amazon.com: Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), who reached cult status in his native Germany, was perhaps the most important artist to emerge in Europe after WW II; he was certainly the most influential thinker and teacher among artists of the postwar generation. His doctrine was that "every man is an artist,"

Mr. Fluxus: A Collective Portrait of George MacIunas 1931-1978 by Emmett Williams (Introduction), Ann Noel (Editor), Ay-O (Editor)

from Amazon.com: Book Description George Maciunas was the founding member and leader of the most radical and experimental art movement of the 1960s, Fluxus. Its members rejected the traditional systems of high art, practicing an extraordinary form of anti-art that encompassed everything from photography and pavement art to poetry and drama. Mr. Fluxus, the first biography of this key figure in twentieth- century art, reveals the story of an unorthodox, contradictory, and elusive genius. Maciunas attempted to rule Fluxus in totalitarian fashion, yet he laughed at himself and provoked others to laughter, poking fun at the incurable illnesses and painful realities that afflicted him throughout his relatively short life. What emerges from this collection of anecdotes and impressions, coaxed from many of his former Fluxus colleagues and from an array of friends and enemies, is an informative portrait of an inspiring crusader whose mission was to change the world, beginning with the world of art. Ingram George Maciunas was the founder and leader of a radical and experimental art movement of the 1960s known as Fluxus--which rejected traditional high art to practice an extraordinary form of anti-art. Maciunas attempted to rule Fluxus in totalitarian fashion, yet he laughed at himself and called forth laughter in others. This biography reveals the story of an unorthodox, contradictory, and elusive genius. 107 illustrations.