Spring 2024 Issue

Sofia Coppola: Archive

MACK recently published Sofia Coppola: Archive 1999–2023, the first publication to chronicle Coppola’s entire body of work in cinema. Comprised of the filmmaker’s personal photographs, developmental materials, drafted and annotated scripts, collages, and unseen behind-the-scenes photography from all of her films, the monograph offers readers an intimate look into the process behind these films.

Kirsten Dunst on the set of The Virgin Suicides (1999), directed by Sofia Coppola. Photo: Sofia Coppola, from Archive (MACK, 2023)

Art making, and in Sofia’s case specifically film making, exists largely outside the realm of words. The work she creates comes into being by harnessing a kind of visual intuition with a rhythm and form that is mysterious and undulating, even tidal.

The set of The Bling Ring (2013), directed by Sofia Coppola. Photo: Sofia Coppola, from Archive (MACK, 2023)

Sofia Coppola on the set of Marie Antoinette (2006) directed by Sofia Coppola. Photo: Sofia Coppola, from Archive (MACK, 2023)

Scarlett Johansson on the set of Lost in Translation (2003), directed by Sofia Coppola. Photo: Andrew Durham, from Archive (MACK, 2023)

With each film, she conjures a magical world that is both complex and quiet. In the process, she finds her own language that is separate from the dominant strain, in harmony with the imagery.

Bill Murray on the set of Lost in Translation (2003), directed by Sofia Coppola. Photo: Sofia Coppola, from Archive (MACK, 2023)

Elle Fanning on the set of The Beguiled (2017), directed by Sofia Coppola. Photo: Andrew Durham, from Archive (MACK, 2023)

This book is a peek into Sofia’s instrument at work.

—Rainer Judd

Photos: courtesy the artist and MACK

The “Gagosian & Film” supplement also includes: “Adaptability,” “Not Running, Just Going,” “Whit Stillman,” “On Frederick Wiseman”, and “You Don’t Buy Poetry at the Airport: John Klacsmann and Raymond Foye”

Sofia Coppola, Sofia Coppola: Archive 1999–2023 (MACK, 2023)

Still from The World of Apu (1959), directed by Satyajit Ray, it features a close up shot of a person crying, only half of their face is visible, the rest is hidden behind fabric

Mount Fuji in Satyajit Ray’s Woodblock Art, Part II

In the first installment of this two-part feature, published in our Winter 2023 edition, novelist and critic Amit Chaudhuri traced the global impacts of woodblock printing. Here, in the second installment, he focuses on the films of Satyajit Ray, demonstrating the enduring influence of the woodblock print on the formal composition of these works.

Two people stand on a snowy hill looking down

Adaptability

Adam Dalva looks at recent films born from short stories by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and asks, What makes a great adaptation? He considers how the beloved surrealist’s prose particularly lends itself to cinematic interpretation.

Black and white portrait of Alexey Brodovitch

Game Changer: Alexey Brodovitch

Gerry Badger reflects on the persistent influence of the graphic designer and photographer Alexey Brodovitch, the subject of an upcoming exhibition at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.

Various artworks by Jeff Perrone hang on a white gallery wall

Outsider Artist

David Frankel considers the life and work of Jeff Perrone, an artist who rejected every standard of success, and reflects on what defines an existence devoted to art.

Interior of Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland

Goetheanum: Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Art

Author and artist Ross Simonini reports on a recent trip to the world center of the anthroposophical movement, the Goetheanum in Switzerland, exploring the influence of the movement’s founder and building’s designer Rudolf Steiner on twentieth-century artists.

A sculpture by the artist Duane Hanson of two human figures sitting on a bench

Duane Hanson: To Shock Ourselves

On the occasion of an exhibition at Fondation Beyeler, novelist Rachel Cusk considers the ethical and aesthetic arrangements that Duane Hanson’s sculpture initiates within the viewer.

Lisa Lyon

Fiona Duncan pays homage to the unprecedented, and underappreciated, life and work of Lisa Lyon.

Black and white close up image of a person lying down, their face surrounded by a fog of film grain

On Frederick Wiseman

Carlos Valladares writes on the life and work of the legendary American filmmaker and documentarian.

Installation view with Douglas Gordon, Pretty much every film and video work from about 1992 until now... (1999–)

Douglas Gordon: To Sing

On the occasion of Douglas Gordon: All I need is a little bit of everything, an exhibition in London, curator Adam Szymczyk recounts his experiences with Gordon’s work across nearly three decades, noting the continuities and evolutions.

Detail of Lauren Halsey sculpture depicting praying hands, planets, and other symbol against red and green background

Black Futurity: Lessons in (Art) History to Forge a Path Forward

Jon Copes asks, What can Black History Month mean in the year 2024? He looks to a selection of scholars and artists for the answer.

an open road in the desert with a single car driving on it

Not Running, Just Going

Robert M. Rubin’s Vanishing Point Forever (RideWithBob/Film Desk Books, 2024) explores the production, reception, and lasting influence of Richard Sarafian’s 1971 film. In this excerpt, Rubin discusses the pseudonymous screenwriter Guillermo Cain (Guillermo Cabrera Infante), the famous Kowalski car, and how a nude hippie biker chick became the Lady Godiva of the internal combustion engine.

Inkjet print of Jeff Wall's "In the Legion" (2022)

Jeff Wall: In the Domain of Likeness

The Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, has staged a comprehensive Jeff Wall exhibition including more than fifty works spanning five decades. Here, Barry Schwabsky reflects on the enduring power of and mystery in Wall’s photography.

Gagosian Quarterly

Sofia Coppola: Archive

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