Shelves full of new art

Art now: 81 artists at the rise of the new millennium, edited by Uta Grosenik & Burkhard Riemschneider, Taschen $29.95

Ridiculously cheap price for a comprehensive reference guide to around 70 of the hottest contemporary artists around the world.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the German publishing house Taschen, Art Now is a handsome volume which devotes four pages to each artist, listed in alphabetical order, each with a handy list of selected exhibitions and bibliography, plus a glossary of terms at the back. It is also tri-lingual: English, German, French.

Though the editors focused their attention on Western art, they say the Asian, African and South American artists in the book "embrace visions that are oriented towards European and North American art".

Sadly, no New Zealand artists are in there, and only one Australian, Rachel Khedoori, but nevertheless this is a useful basic survey.

Light wine things, by Bill Culbert, Dunedin Public Art Gallery $29.95

Seventy-year-old New Zealander Culbert, based in London and the south of France, takes black-and-white photographs of objects as diverse as wine casks (but not the cardboard variety), ancient bicycles, lights, cans, glasses and dumps, and makes them beautiful because of his sharp eye for light and shadow.

The book's collection of 100 images, in an exhibition touring New Zealand, is preceded by an essay by Justin Paton, of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Paton calls Culbert's work "a record of character". He sees form where many of us would just see decay, and so helps us to look a little closer, for longer.

Nerli: An Italian painter in the South Pacific, by Michael Dunn, Auckland University Press, $79.99

Dunn, formerly head of Elam School of Fine Arts and the prolific chronicler of New Zealand art history, turns his eye on painter Girolamo Pieri Nerli, who spent two restless decades in Australasia in the late 1800s.

Nerli, a fine figurative painter, taught Frances Hodgkins, painted Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa, met his wife in Auckland, travelled a great deal, was regarded here as an exotic bohemian and died in Genoa in 1926, a pauper.

Some of his work is held in public galleries such as Te Papa, Auckland and Dunedin. Dunn has travelled extensively to track down as much information about Nerli as possible. The book features excellent plates and a definitive bibliography, and Dunn's text is clear and interesting. Linda Herrick