John van Steenberg Collection

The official publication celebrating Judy Chicago's feminist art masterpiece, The Dinner Party installation at the Brooklyn Museum, and an introduction to outstanding women in history. Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party is a defining work of feminist and contemporary art that brought women's history to light on the national stage when it was completed in 1979. Published to coincide with Chicago's 75th birthday and a nationwide series of events and exhibitions, the book features newly commissioned photography and two new essays by Chicago, along with essays by art historian Frances Borzello and historian Jane Gerhard, and a foreword from museum director Arnold Lehman. The Dinner Party, a monumental triangular table, and the Heritage Floor on which the table rests, represents 1,038 women in history - 39 by unique large ceramic plates and runners with another 999 names inscribed on the floor's ceramic tiles. It has been seen by more than a million visitors during its international exhibition tour, and has been a principal destination at the Brooklyn Museum since its permanent housing in 2007. A perfect companion to a revolutionary artwork, the book is a must-have for both long-standing fans of Judy Chicago's oeuvre and young artists and women looking for reflections of themselves in the history of Western Civilization.

In 2018 the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, will host exhibitons on two of the greatest artists of the 20th century - Egon Schiele, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Both exhibitions will have the same curator, and will be held at the same time. The shows will illustrate exactly what it is that linked the two artists: line, and the use of expressive force. This, the catalogue of the Basquiat exhibition, labelled "the definitive exhibition" by its curator, brings together 100 of the artist's most important masterpieces, sourced from interational museums and private collections. With the astonishing radicalness of his artistic practice, Basquiat renewed the concept of art with enduring impact. This Basquiat retrospective centres on the idea of Basquiat's unique energetic line, his use of words, symbols, and how he integrates collage in his paintings, sculptures, objects, and large-scale drawings. The catalogue includes texts by great authors, including Paul Schimmel who tells of his meeting with Basquiat in California; Francesco Pellizi who knew Basquiat well and has not written about him for a long time; and Okwui Enwezor who talks about the Afro American identity. AUTHOR: Dieter Buchhart is a curator and art theorist based in Vienna. He has PhD degrees in art history and restoration (science). He has curated many exhibitions in renowned international museums and art spaces, and was co-curator of the Barbican's exhibition, Basquiat: Boom for Real (21 September 2017-28 January 2018).

The McCarthy era is generally considered the worst period of political repression in recent American history. But while the famous question, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" resonated in the halls of Congress, security officials were posing another question at least as frequently, if more discreetly: "Information has come to the attention of the Civil Service Commission that you are a homosexual. What comment do you care to make?" Historian David K. Johnson here relates the frightening, untold story of how, during the Cold War, homosexuals were considered as dangerous a threat to national security as Communists. Charges that the Roosevelt and Truman administrations were havens for homosexuals proved a potent political weapon, sparking a "Lavender Scare" more vehement and long-lasting than McCarthy's Red Scare. Relying on newly declassified documents, years of research in the records of the National Archives and the FBI, and interviews with former civil servants, Johnson recreates the vibrant gay subculture that flourished in New Deal-era Washington and takes us inside the security interrogation rooms where thousands of Americans were questioned about their sex lives. The homosexual purges ended promising careers, ruined lives, and pushed many to suicide. But, as Johnson also shows, the purges brought victims together to protest their treatment, helping launch a new civil rights struggle. The Lavender Scare shatters the myth that homosexuality has only recently become a national political issue, changing the way we think about both the McCarthy era and the origins of the gay rights movement. And perhaps just as importantly, this book is a cautionary tale, reminding us of how acts taken by the government in the name of "national security" during the Cold War resulted in the infringement of the civil liberties of thousands of Americans.