Writings about Music (First Edition, inscribed in 1975) by Steve Reich - 1974

New York: New York University Press / Halifax: The Press of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1974. First Edition. First Edition, softcover, issued simultaneously with the hardcover. First issue without the added note about typographical corrections by Reich at the end of his introduction. INSCRIBED by Reich in the year of publication on the verso of the front wrapper to museum curator and art historian Brenda Richardson: "for Brenda [and] Carol / with love / from Steve / Nov. 21, 1974." The composer's first book.

One of the most distinguished art curators and historians of the twentieth century, Brenda Richardson began her career at the University Art Museum in Berkeley (1964-1975), and went on to become the chief curator at the Baltimore Museum Art between 1975 and 1998. An unapologetic champion of contemporary art, she curated well over 70 major exhibitions for the BMA, the high spots being notable stagings for Frank Stella, Brice Marden, Barnett Newman, and Bruce Nauman. She also curated the 1985 exhibition of the Cone Collection, the BMA's prized centerpiece, which contains over 3000 works, including 600 pieces by Matisse, as well as work by Picasso, Cezanne, Gauguin, and others. She has authored and contributed to dozens of books on contemporary art, and John Waters, one of the most significant thinkers in the world of contemporary art, considers Richardson to be his mentor.

Near Fine in card wrappers, in a Near Fine example of the scarce dust jacket. Wrappers lightly and evenly toned. Jacket lightly soiled, with faint toning to spine and edges.