New Japan Architecture: Recent Works by the World's Leading Architects

"As the world moves into the second decade of the 21st%C2%A0century, it is clear that the West no longer has all the answers. Japan has moved beyond the need to mimic the West." Columbia University professor Mehta (Japan Style) collaborates with art historian MacDonald for a sweeping survey of 48 recently completed projects, organized in seven categories: Living (private homes), Culture (museums), Learning (schools), Work (office buildings), Consumers (stores), City (public buildings), and Renewal (renovations).%C2%A0From a 102.7 square meter hut on the Chiba coast by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Architects ("House C") to Tokyo's massive National Art Center from Kisho Kurokawa Associates and Nihon Sekkei Inc., the 42 featured architects exhibit a dazzling range of outside-of-the-box structures. Mehta and MacDonald present a mesmerizing album of four-color photographs accompanied by text that explains the inspiration and construction of each project. Readers will be delighted to find a Nakamura Keith Haring Museum "that sits like an exclamation mark" on a hill in the village of Kobuchizawa in the Japanese Alps, with a gallery complex by Atsushi Kitagawara that features hot springs%C2%A0(onsen) in fanciful Haring-like shapes. (Sept.) %C2%A0 Andy Warhol Treasures: The Illustrated Story of Andy Warhol's Life and Work Matt Wrbican and Geralyn Huxley Goodman (www.carltonbooks.co.uk), $50 (128p) ISBN 978-1-84796-024-5 This intriguing and beautiful book chronicles the flamboyant life of Andy Warhol%E2%80%94the great Pop artist, connoisseur, and developer of arts and artists. Huxley (Hidden Frames: Stills from the Films of Andy Warhol), curator of film and video at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and Wrbican (Andy Warhol's Timeboxes), the museum's archivist, perform a masterful feat of organization, tracking Warhol's modest beginnings to his successes across diverse fields and fleshing in the narrative with explanations of places and eras. Warhol's paintings and drawings, love of celebrity, patronage of music and dance, publishing exploits, collections, travels, and lovers all come in for scrutiny. His magazine Interview is described as "a celebration of popular culture and an embodiment of Warhol's belief in the democratic nature of fame." Along with stunning illustrations, the authors have incorporated 20 items connected with the artist's life%E2%80%94reproduced in large envelopes and categorized by decade%E2%80%94including greeting cards, receipts, stencils and booklets. As Warhol explained: "%E2%80%98Once you got %E2%80%98Pop,' you could never see a sign the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again." (Oct.)