The art world runs on curiosity, connoisseurship, and the quiet thrill of discovery — qualities shared by collectors, curators, and devoted aesthetes alike. This season, consider gifts that speak directly to that impulse: publications that illuminate pivotal exhibitions, volumes that reframe familiar artists, and performances where visual culture and live art converge. From Wes Anderson’s cinematic mise-en-scènes to Calder’s fascination with chess, and even a Balanchine revival featuring sets and costumes by Georges Rouault, these selections celebrate the enduring power of artistic vision. Together, they offer both lasting objects and singular experiences—thoughtful reminders of the artists and ideas that continue to shape our cultural imagination.
DUBUFFET X GIACOMETTI
NAHMAD CONTEMPORARY
Bringing together two of the most significant artists of the 20th century, this landmark publication — created alongside Nahmad Contemporary’s 2024 exhibition — sets the radical visions of Jean Dubuffet and Alberto Giacometti in striking dialogue. Though rooted in different mediums, the two artists shared an artistic milieu, exhibited with Pierre Matisse Gallery, and helped shape the language of modernism. Dubuffet x Giacometti united more than 20 paintings and sculptures in a rare and revealing conversation, becoming only the second major presentation to place the two artists tête-à-tête. The accompanying catalogue extends that conversation with new research by curator and renowned art historian Eleanor Nairne and additional essays by Casimiro Di Crescenzo and Camille Houzé. A richly illustrated, deeply considered publication, it’s a must-have for any modern art devotee.
BALANCHINE + RATMANSKY FEATURING THE PRODIGAL SON
NEW YORK CITY BALLET
This season, New York City Ballet brings one of its most visually arresting ballets back to the stage with Prodigal Son, presented as part of its Balanchine + Ratmansky program from January 20 to February 1, 2026. A collaboration between choreographer George Balanchine and Georges Rouault, Prodigal Son remains a rare fusion of modern art and dance. Originally designed in 1929, the ballet transforms Rouault’s bold, stained-glass-like paintings into living theater, complete with expressive costumes and richly colored, Fauvist-inspired backdrops. Its return, reimagined with Ratmansky’s contemporary choreography, offers a vivid, dramatic evening at the ballet — a memorable gift for anyone drawn to performance, design, or modernism in motion.
CALDER: CHESS KNIGHTMARES
CAHIERS D’ART
Rooted in the 50 drawings Alexander Calder created in 1944 for The Knightmares Portfolio, Cahiers d’Art’s new publication Calder: Chess Knightmares traverses the artist’s long-standing fascination with chess and his delight in the absurd — a sensibility shaped in part by his decades-long friendship with Marcel Duchamp. This richly illustrated title features previously unpublished drawings, rarely-seen archival materials, and extensive documentation of Calder’s own handmade chess sets. Essays by leading voices deepen the exploration: art critic Jed Perl considers Calder’s transformation of the game into a comedic spectacle, while Calder’s grandson, Alexander S.C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation, pens a fictional conversation with the artist that reflects on concepts of artistic kinship and play. This singular, beautifully crafted publication is ideal for lovers of Calder, chess, and the imaginative edges of modernism.
HENRI MATISSE & JONAS WOOD
NAHMAD CONTEMPORARY
Pairing two artists born nearly a century apart, this first-of-its-kind publication brings Henri Matisse and Jonas Wood into a vibrant intergenerational dialogue. Both are masters of translating quiet domestic scenes into bold fields of color, pattern, and form. The exhibition catalogue highlights how Matisse’s groundbreaking stylistic innovations echo through Wood’s contemporary interiors and still lifes, offering a richly visual conversation between "the inspiration” and “the inspired.” An essay by legendary curator and art historian Helen Molesworth deepens the conversation, making this volume an essential addition for admirers of modern and contemporary painting alike.
THE WES ANDERSON COLLECTION: TEN FILMS, TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Like listening to an album of greatest hits, The Wes Anderson Collection: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years offers a deep dive into the Oscar-winning director’s meticulously crafted world. An auteur of domestic irreverence, Anderson develops his renowned films with exacting attention to sets, costumes, dialogues, and locations — filling them with art-world in-jokes, actual paintings, and plots that revolve around the power of art itself. This special-edition Criterion set features new 4K masters of Anderson’s first 10 films, more than 25 hours of special features, and 10 illustrated books with essays by Richard Brody, Martin Scorsese, and others, all housed in a clothbound box. From Bottle Rocket (1996) to The French Dispatch (2021), the collection stands as the definitive survey of contemporary cinema’s master of mise-en-scène.
RICHARD PRINCE: CARTOON JOKES
NAHMAD CONTEMPORARY
Created in collaboration with the artist, Richard Prince: Cartoon Jokes offers an in-depth look at Prince’s iconic Cartoon Jokes paintings (1988–91) and his more recent Blue Ripples series (2017-19). Featuring vivid plates, installation views, archival materials, and text by Nahmad Contemporary director Michelle Molokotos, the publication brings the breadth of Prince’s joke paintings into focus. It follows his wry, deadpan engagement with American humor — from silk-screened cartoons with mismatched punchlines to blue-veiled compositions that push appropriation into new territory. This smart, irreverent volume is perfect for fans of conceptual art and Prince’s off-kilter wit.
HIDDEN PORTRAITS: THE UNTOLD STORIES OF SIX WOMEN WHO LOVED PICASSO
SUE ROE
Across Pablo Picasso’s more than 70-year career, the women in his life were often cast as “muses,” their identities overshadowed by his own. Hidden Portraits overturns that narrative. In her newest book, biographer Sue Roe brings to light the stories of six women — Fernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque — whose lives and ambitions intersected with Picasso in complex, consequential ways. Rather than solely existing in his orbit, they emerge here as central figures whose relationships, perspectives, and worlds helped shape some of Picasso’s most pivotal periods. Roe’s vivid, incisive account reframes familiar histories through these women’s perspectives, offering an essential corrective to one of modern art’s most enduring myths.