The Art Bookshelf
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THE ART BOOKSHELF
Between Heaven and Hell
W. Bruce Lincoln
Viking Press
0-670-87568-6 $34.95
This blends art with history, covering a thousand years of artistic life in
Russia and telling how novelists, painters, and artists lived and worked in
Russia. The focus on how such artists shaped masterpieces which could be
determined as uniquely Russian in nature makes for a fine exploration of the
lives and achievements of the country's best artists.
Japan 2000
John Zukowsky, Editor
Art Institute of Chicago Press
0-86559-164-4 $24.95
This exhibition catalog released in conjunction with the museum's three-part
exhibition series explores the role of the Japanese government in fostering
innovation and artistic expansion. With the focus on the country's industrial
design, this packs in color photos of architectural achievements to accompany
discussions of Japan's design history.
Posters American Style
Therese Thau Heyman
Abrams
100 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10011
0-8109-3749-2 $35.00 1-212-206-7715
Although the last twenty years have brought increased awareness of the force
and significance of posters, Therese Heyman's Posters American Style is the
first to focus exclusively on those created in the United States. Featured here
are 120 enticing posters created by some of the most popular American artists
and graphic designers of the last hundred yeas including Will Bradley, Ben
Shahn, Robert Rauschenberg, Rupert Garcia, Georgia O'Keeffe, Wes Wilson, Norman
Rockwell, Victor Moscoso, "The Guerrilla Girls", and many less familiar
artists. The plat section of Posters American Style is divided into five
categories that address the social, commercial, political, and cultural roles
of posters: American Events, Designed to Sell, Patriots and Protestors, Advice
for Americans, and Sports. Persuasive images such as these continue to play an
integral part in almost every aspect of American live. Posters American Style
is an impressive and informative tour-de-force survey of American popular
culture as encapsulated and symbolized by the art of the wall poster.
Art and Objecthood
Michael Fried
University of Chicago Press
0-226-26319-3 $15.95
This isn't for the casual reader, but serious visual art students will find it
essential for a thorough grounding in the subject: Fried's art history provides
a review of Modernism and its substance. Almost thirty pieces originally
published between 1962 and 1977 are gathered for this fine critical volume,
recommended for college-level readers.
Florence: The Golden Age
Gene Brucker
University of California Press
0-520-21522-2 $29.95
Thousands have journeyed to Florence to admire the city's beauty and history:
this provides a review of the Italian Renaissance in Florence, examining
people's lives as well as artistic and literary achievement of the times. Over
200 paintings and illustrations appear in full color throughout this blend of
art presentation and history. A gorgeous achievement.
Designed to Sell
Frederick R. Brandt, et al.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
2800 Grove Ave., Richmond, VA 23221
0-917046-38-2 $30.00 1-800-943-8362
In Designed to Sell: Turn-of-The Century American Posters, three experts on
poster design and poster history (Frederick Brandt, Philip B. Meggs, Robert
Koch) explain and illustrate the phenomenal growth of the art of the poster in
America, the development of American graphic design beyond its European models,
and amazing advances in the printing industry that led to growth and innovation
in poster design. Featured is a portfolio of more than 100 vintage posters from
the Virginia Museum collection, with notes on their designers, including eight
outstanding women artists who blazed new pathways in American graphic design.
Technical Notes illustrate historic printing methods and explain how an
artist's drawing becomes a poster. Designed To Sell is a unique compendium of
American art poster lore and technical information.
The Picasso Papers
Rosalind E. Krauss
Farrar Straus Giroux
0-374-23209-1 $25.00
This scholarly examination of Picasso's styles and works goes beyond the usual
critical art presentation, examining previous writings on Picasso and
considering the techniques and works which made him famous. Included here are
his feelings about politics and circumstances surrounding critical analysis of
his works.
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