Leon Golub Powerplay

Leon Golub (1922–2004) is best known for his iconic history paintings of mercenaries, interrogations, torture scenes, and the riots of the 1980s and ’90s. Published to accompany an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London running from March through November 2016, this collection of nearly all of Golub’s political portraits from 1975–1978, almost 100 paintings, offers a rich survey of his powerful style with analysis from curator Jon Bird and professor of art history Gill Perry. Bird and Perry examine the ways Golub increasingly explored the effects of power upon the body through facial expressions, gestures, and poses, and how he invested his characters with psychological tension and depth. As they show, Golub always derived his source material from media representations, aiming to capture the way power—whether political, military, or social—is mediated through the camera lens. This “look of power” is the dominant characteristic of the portraits included here, all painted as part of his Political Portraits series of the 1970s, which captured historical figures—ranging from Fidel Castro and Henry Kissinger to Pinochet and Mao Tse-Tung—at various stages of their public office. With a narrative of arrogance and venality traced clearly across the face, these portraits forcefully show that power is uncompromising. The result is a startling collection of faces, arrestingly rendered through Golub’s signature, visceral style.

The corporate market is now embracing free, "open source" software like never before, as evidenced by the recent success of the technologies underlying LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Each is the result of a publicly collaborative process among numerous developers who volunteer their time and energy to create better software. The truth is, however, that the overwhelming majority of free software projects fail. To help you beat the odds, O'Reilly has put together Producing Open Source Software, a guide that recommends tried and true steps to help free software developers work together toward a common goal. Not just for developers who are considering starting their own free software project, this book will also help those who want to participate in the process at any level. The book tackles this very complex topic by distilling it down into easily understandable parts. Starting with the basics of project management, it details specific tools used in free software projects, including version control, IRC, bug tracking, and Wikis. Author Karl Fogel, known for his work on CVS and Subversion, offers practical advice on how to set up and use a range of tools in combination with open mailing lists and archives. He also provides several chapters on the essentials of recruiting and motivating developers, as well as how to gain much-needed publicity for your project. While managing a team of enthusiastic developers -- most of whom you've never even met -- can be challenging, it can also be fun. Producing Open Source Software takes this into account, too, as it speaks of the sheer pleasure to be had from working with a motivated team of free software developers.

Although contemporary art may sometimes shock us, more alarming are recent attempts to regulate its display. Drawing upon extensive interviews, a broad sampling of media accounts, legal documents and his own observations of important events, sociologist Steven Dubin surveys the recent trend in censorship of the visual arts, photography and film, as well as artistic upstarts such as video and performance art. He examines the dual meaning of arresting images--both the nature of art work which disarms its viewers and the social reaction to it. Arresting Images examines the battles which erupt when artists address such controversial issues as racial polarization, AIDS, gay-bashing and sexual inequality in their work.

This open access book chronicles the rise of a new scientific paradigm offering novel insights into the age-old enigmas of existence. Over 300 years ago, the human mind discovered the machine code of reality: mathematics. By utilizing abstract thought systems, humans began to decode the workings of the cosmos. From this understanding, the current scientific paradigm emerged, ultimately discovering the gift of technology. Today, however, our island of knowledge is surrounded by ever longer shores of ignorance. Science appears to have hit a dead end when confronted with the nature of reality and consciousness. In this fascinating and accessible volume, James Glattfelder explores a radical paradigm shift uncovering the ontology of reality. It is found to be information-theoretic and participatory, yielding a computational and programmable universe.

Art Since the ’80s, a new series from Reaktion Books, seeks to offer compelling surveys of popular themes in contemporary art. In the first book in the series, Gill Perry reveals how the house and the idea of home have inspired a range of imaginative and playful works by artists across the globe. Exploring how artists have engaged with this theme in different contexts—from mobile homes and beach houses to haunted houses and broken homes—Playing at Home shows that our relationship with houses involves complex responses in which gender, race, class, and status overlap, and that through these relationships we turn a house into a home. Perry looks at the works of numerous artists, including Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Michael Landy, Mike Kelley, and Peter Garfield, as well as the work of artists who travel across continents and see home as a shifting notion, such as Do-Ho-Suh and Song Dong. She also engages with the work of philosophers and cultural theorists from Walter Benjamin and Gaston Bachelard to Johan Huizinga and Henri Lefebvre, who inform our understanding of living and dwelling. Ultimately, she argues that irony, parody, and play are equally important in our interpretations of these works on the home. With over one hundred images, Playing at Home covers a wide range of art and media in a fascinating look at why there’s no place like home.

Monster Roster: Existentialist Art in Postwar Chicago (on view at the Smart Museum in winter/spring 2016) will be accompanied by a comprehensive publication--the first of its kind--that includes an introductory essay by critic and collector Dennis Adrian; an overview of the Monster Roster by John Corbett; an essay about the historical context out of which the Monster Roster emerged by historian Thomas Dyja; a discussion of Monster Roster prints by art historian and curator Marc Pascale; an in depth look at Leon Golub's early work by art historian Jon Bird; and a personal response to the Monster Roster's work by contemporary artist Arlene Shechet. There will also be historic reprints of key texts including Franz Schulze's 1972 essay "Chicago: The Setting and the Group" from Fantastic Images: Chicago Art Since 1945 as well as Jean Dubuffet's lecture "Anticultural Positions" given at the Arts Club of Chicago in 1951. The publication will also contain full-color reproductions of all work on view in Monster Roster, a detailed chronology and exhibition history, and reproductions of ephemera and historical photographs.