This publication is available for pre-order. All orders will ship on or following November 14th, 2026.

James Little presents a comprehensive overview of an artist who has spent five decades making his own way, on his own terms, at the edge of American abstraction. For nearly fifty years, James Little has built one of American abstraction's most exacting and quietly defiant bodies of work, hand-grinding his own pigments and fusing oil with beeswax into paintings of taut geometry, saturated color, and hard-won rhythm. Illustrated with works spanning 1975 to 2024, the book traces the full arc of Little's evolution as a painter.

Little's paintings are supported by texts from Valerie Cassel Oliver, Aruna D'Souza, and Gavin Delahunty, which situate his work within the history of postwar American abstraction. An oral history by Carrie Cooperider, drawn from extensive conversations in Little's Brooklyn studio, traces his path from segregated Memphis to a career defined, in his own words, by self-determination and "making his own way."

Contributors: Valerie Cassel Oliver, Aruna D'Souza, Gavin Delahunty, Carrie Cooperider

Designer: Damien Saatdjian

Publisher: Petzel, 2026

Language: English 

Hardcover: 242 pages 

Dimensions: 12.75 x 10.25 inches 

ISBN: 9781734231120

About the artist

James Little is one of America’s leading abstract painters who over his decade long career has produced meticulous, precise, and formally complex works that have established him as one of the masters of his field. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions around the world, including at MoMA PS1, The Whitney Museum, Crystal Bridges, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Smithsonian Institute. He was awarded the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation award for painting in 2009 and was recognized by the New York Times as one of the breakout stars at the Whitney Biennale in 2022. In that same year, Little also collaborated with the New York Choral Society for a presentation of Duke Ellington’s concert of sacred music at the New School. His work is featured in the much-anticipated 2026 exhibitions Hard Art at MoMA PS1 and Geometries at the Studio Museum in Harlem, as well as a solo exhibition of his Homage El Shabazz series at Petzel Gallery.