Whale and Star

Whale & Star Press is a publishing imprint based in Culver City, CA. It conceptualizes, designs, and publishes books on art, poetry, artistic practice, and critical theory, with a particular concern to affirm the potential of art to address the most basic concerns and experiences of life. The publishing program involves collaboration and creative partnerships with scholars, writers, musicians, and artists, as well as publishers, museums, and other arts organizations. It publishes through five series: Artists & Writers, Working Book, Monographs, Whale, and Editions. The titles are promoted and distributed internationally through the University of Nebraska Press.^[1]

History

Founded by artist Enrique Martínez Celaya in 1998, Whale & Star Press reflects the influence that literature has exerted on his work. "Reading is a primary source for my work," Martínez Celaya said in a recent interview, "I read philosophy and literature and that is the universe I see my work in, even though I'm a visual artist."^[2] Regarding its influence on his studio practice, in an interview with Saul Ostrow he observes, "The work always begins with writing."^[3] The imprint's distinctive symbol, a shield depicting a whale following a shining star, reveals the influence of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick as well as the artist's belief that art and literature can offer direction. “The tendency of the homeless is to wander," Martínez Celaya said in a 2001 lecture at the Orange County Museum of Art, "and in this wandering art can be a guide, a beacon.”^[4]

Series

The publishing vision of Whale & Star Press is expressed through five series: Artists & Writers, Working Book, Monographs, Whale, and Editions.^[5]

Artists & Writers

From Charles Baudelaire to Joy Goswami, the Artists & Writers series is devoted to offering readers the best of world literature, art, and poetry in affordable editions.

• Joy Goswami: Selected Poems (2014). Translated from the Bengali. Edited and with an introductory essay by Roald Hoffmann.
• The Blog: Bad Time for Poetry (2009). Compilation of Enrique Martínez Celaya's blog, Bad Time for Poetry which began on August 24, 2007 and ended on May 25, 2009.
• Intimations: Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova (2009). Collection of Anna Akhmatova's poetry in English translation, translated by James E. Falen and edited by Kevin M.F. Platt.
• Modernist Archaist (2008). Collection of Osip Mandelstam's poetry in English translation, edited by Kevin M.F. Platt.
• Selections from Les Fleurs du Mal (2001). The artist assembled for the first time in an English publication poems selected from "Les Fleurs du Mal" and the full portfolio of 9 etchings from Odilon Redon's Les Fleurs du Mal, published by Henri Fleury, Paris, France, 1923.

Working Book

Working Book series includes concise and accessible books in a wide range of subjects related to the ideas and practical concerns relevant to artists, writers, and scholars.

• The Conversations (2007). Interviews with sixteen contemporary artists by Richard Whittaker, publisher and editor of the magazine works + conversations.
• Sketches of Landscapes(2002). Edited with commentaries by Enrique Martínez Celaya. Formulated as an introductory book, it includes original texts of seminal works on the philosophy of art as well as selections of influential critical writings of the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Monographs

Monographs carefully examines artists and their processes through selected illustrations and original texts by significant contemporary writers and art historians.

• Alchemy of Light by Mary Conover (2010).
• Martínez Celaya. Early Work (2006). The book explores the development of the artist's work.
• XX, a book of lyrics and photographs of the Cowboy Junkies, which also includes a suite of watercolors produced by the artist (2006).

Whale

Whale series consists of special publishing projects and collaborative efforts with other institutions, such as the Miami Art Museum.

• Cowboy Junkies:: The Nomad Series (2014).
• The &-Files: Art & Text (1989 - 2002).
• Nomad: Miami Art Museum (2007).
• Joseph Beuys, Multiples and Other Forms of Politics (2001). Text by Beatrice Foessel and Johannes Stuettgen. Working with German scholars, the artist published a small and accessible catalog with the goal of further expanding the understanding of Beuys among American audiences.
• Greg Colson (1999).
• Unbroken Poetry: The Work of Enrique Martinez Celaya (1999).

Editions

In addition to the above series, Whale & Star Press occasionally works to publish books in very limited editions that include original artworks and/or writings.

• Cowboy Junkies: XX Limited Edition (2006).
• Guide, (2002). Published in collaboration with Griffin Editions and Mark Hasencamp. Artist book. Text and Photographs by Enrique Martínez Celaya.

External links

• Official Whale & Star Press
• University of Nebraska Press Distributor

• Enrique Martínez Celaya on Facebook

References