What a pairing. And any publication that brings the late artist Frederick Weston’s work to a wider audience is cause for celebration. Smashion is a superfan. So happy when this arrived in the mailbox yesterday.

Hard to put down, this book documents the wave of apocalyptic thinking and superstitious hysteria that gripped Germany right after WWII. Particularly pertinent, since the divorce from reality is echoed in some of the right-wing hysteria we’re dealing with here after the 2020 election. Just sayin’.

This 1936 H.G. Wells sci-fi flick has it all: war, pestilence, weird politics and slick technological solutions heralding a sleek future. Was first reminded of the film when the Rick Owens website ran a clip from it on the eve of his Larry collection. In fact, the grills on my Rick platforms kinda resemble the Things to Come airplanes. Flying high!

Rewatched this 1980 sci-fi musical the other night when I was spacing out after my second Covid shot. Wasn’t disappointed. Satanic music agents running the world, hippies living in caves under bridges…a surprisingly prescient vision of what 1994 was actually like, right? Click Read More for my favorite number from the film.

We’re kind of into this comedic manga originally from 1992 about a superhero who accesses his powers when he puts a pair of panties on his head. We particularly relate to his dominatrix mom tbh. P.S. Live action movies and collectible figurines are also on offer.

Part of David Zwirner’s Ekphrasis series, ekphrasis being the literary representation of works of visual art. The codpiece-centric art in this book pretty much speaks for itself, though. And we’ll go out on a limb and predict a return of this most intimate of male accessories for fall/winter. You heard it here first.

Recently saw a big stack of Pansy Beat books at a local shop. Yum! A sharp retrospective for a magazine that helped define the 1980s/90s NYC drag boom. With Linda Simpson’s newish Drag Explosion book sold out until September, gobble up this morsel first if you haven’t already.

Love this slim volume that accompanied a 2020 exhibit on artistic output related to London’s Gay Liberation Front. Revolution as a fully lived experience includes aesthetics, as this book so succinctly demonstrates.

Sunday morning reading: The high modernist furniture designer and architect was a closet painter, and a 2015 exhibit at Osborne Samuel Gallery in London brought this rich vein of her work to light. The accompanying book is a sleek doozy.

Sunday morning reading: This gloriously glitchy photobook will wake you right up. Kobayashi’s first Everything book is scarce but Everything_2 is just as vibrant an example of his signature technicolor style.

Is it true that the Cooper Hewitt hasn’t reopened since the start of the pandemic? We hope to one day see in person the Willi Smith exhibit originally slated to open there March 2020. Meanwhile, at least there’s the fascinating catalog on this great democratizer of fashion who died too young.

Sure, the book has been around a while, but that doesn’t make it any less luscious. Prodigiously talented author/curator Antwaun Sargent offers up a perfect snapshot of Black excellence in fash/art photography. We could linger over this book for days.

Beyond words. Trippy psychological horror anime that goes deep on young girls and suicide. Makes us cry. We live for it. Watching on Funimation, who launched an English dub of early episodes April 1.

A book about our favorite ‘90s band? Sign us up. Their song “Spork” asked all the important questions. Click, click, preordered. Image: IG @ginavolpemusic

A nice Fulton Ryder offering. The paintings are cute and full of still relevant Pop pseudopep. The accompanying story by Sarah Nicole Prickett gave us precious pause but so what. Still worth a look.

A great art blog in general, greg.org’s section on artworks that are no longer with us strikes a chord for some reason. Fascinating little stories of loss.

Dia’s first Artist Web Project (1995) takes an interactive trip—and we mean trip—through the Lower East Side. Tour guides: chic AF Modern Love writer Constance DeJong, artist Tony Oursler and sound architect Stephen Vitiello. Watch the recent artist talk and wait for the emulator—the CD ROM only works on old computers.

A perfect document of NYC street magic. David Godlis is a better snapper than Garry Winogrand imho but it’s not about a competition. Luc Sante intro, Chris Stein outro. Enjoy!

Powerful shows in a breathtaking space. That’s Welancora Gallery. If you can’t book an appointment, start with the catalogs in the online shop. We recommend the one for the 2018 group show featuring Delano Dunn, Damien Davis and Tiffany Smith.

Catalog of the chef’s kiss 2018 Hirshorn show. Documents a period when artists simultaneously fretted and greased the wheels as the art market—and society generally—devolved into branding hell and buy, buy, buy, sell, sell, sell all the time.