Jill D'Alessandro – författare

A resplendent celebration of the spectacular fashion designs of Guo Pei, China’s first and preeminent couturierGuo Pei: Couture Fantasy is a journey into the imaginative world of Guo Pei, China’s first couturier and one of the world’s most innovative fashion designers. Guo Pei has astonished fashion audiences from Beijing to Paris for over 20 years and made headlines in the U.S. as the designer of Rihanna’s trailing yellow gown at the 2015 Met Gala. Known for dazzling designs which make the implausible possible, Guo Pei takes inspiration from sources as varied as China’s imperial heritage, European architecture, and the botanical world; she has been sought for commissions by celebrities, royalty, and the Olympics. With more than 200 color illustrations highlighting 60 of her exquisite creations, this sumptuous volume showcases the garments’ consummate craftsmanship, lavish embroidery, and unconventional dressmaking techniques, all of which are hallmarks of Guo Pei’s work. In addition to its visual splendor, the book features a Q&A with the designer, a facsimile sketchbook, and a chronology tracing her career from its start at the Beijing Industrial School of Design to celebrated couturier.Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San FranciscoExhibition Schedule:Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco(April 16–September 5, 2022)

Featuring a wide array of iconic rock posters, period photographs, music memorabilia and light shows, "out-of-this-world" clothing, and avant-garde films, this catalogue celebrates San Francisco's rebellious and colorful counterculture that blossomed in the years surrounding the 1967 Summer of Love. This book explores, through essays and a succession of thematic plates, the visual and material cultures of a generation searching for personal fulfillment and social change. Presenting key cultural artifacts of the time, Summer of Love introduces and explores the events and experiences that today define this dynamic era. With essays by Victoria Binder, Dennis McNally, and Joel Selvin. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exhibition dates: de Young, San Francisco: April 8-August 20, 2017

A massive panorama of Native American art from Navajo weaving to Apache basketryPublished with Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.Spanning nearly 1,000 years of artistic creativity, this wide-ranging volume brings together 206 artworks that exemplify both exquisite aesthetics and rich cultural histories. The majority of the collection is from the American Southwest—19th-century Navajo weavings, ancestral and historical Pueblo pottery, Hopi and Zuni carved figures, and Yavapai and Apache basketry—along with art from the Pacific Northwest and the first Plains ledger drawings to enter the museums' collections.This book, which features new research and specially commissioned essays and extended captions, developed in collaboration with cultural advisors, reflects the complex and multilayered nature of the artworks in the field of Native American art. Contributions from more than 80 authors from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds, including scholars, culture-bearers, artists, collectors and museum professionals, illuminate details about the living histories of the works. With striking new photography and full-color reproductions, this is a cornerstone publication in the field of Native American art history.

Kilims from Mazandaran are true masterpieces of woven minimalism. From stripes to fields of pure and deep colour, these textiles represent a singular kind of artistic abstraction.The women who authored these pieces made them for their own use. In wool and silk, they created works of textile art using the basic building blocks of all hand weaving: warp and weft. The grid thus created is at the same time rigid and flexible; it lends itself to geometric pattern, but also allows for feathery ikat-like effects and multidimensional colour expression.This book is a sumptuous visual celebration of a largely unknown modern art form. Expert writers add context to the pieces by contemplating subjects such as 20th-century minimalism, materiality and the nature of colour.