MBR: The Art Shelf
MWBOOKREVW
How To Identify Prints
Bamber Gascoigne
Thames & Hudson
500 – 5th Ave., New York NY 10110
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
0500284806 $34.95 www.amazon.com
Back in print and updated in a new paperback edition is Bambar Gascoigne's
classic How To Identify Prints, first published in 1986 and enjoying ongoing
acclaim as an essential resource for any involved in identifying prints,
whether they be woodcuts, lithos, or etchings. Some ninety techniques –
manual and mechanical alike – are described to round out an accompanying
history of prints. A lasting, classic work essential to any art library and
many a general library reference collection.
Hugh Lauter Levin Associates
9 Burr Road, Westport, CT 06880
www.HLLA.com
Two exceptional specialty volumes expand this art publisher's choice
representations and are recommended picks. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The
Gates (0883630-036, $25.00) provides vivid black and white and color shots of
Christo and artist wife Jeanne-Claude's vision of over 7,500 gates, 16 feet
high each, following the edges of Central Park's 23 miles of footpaths. The
saffron-colored fabric panels are meant to both enhance the park's beauty and
reflect the artists' ongoing fascination for fabric embellishments of
wildlands. As their Gates project is as tem-porary as most of their works, The
Gates will prove a lasting visual tribute to a vast, expansive project.
Ireland's Treasures by Peter Harbison (0883638304, $75.00) covers 5,000 years
of artistic expression: while its price tag and narrowed focus may lend it to
art reference collections alone, Ireland's Treasures will also be a favored
pick by any Irish cultural collection. A range of media from stonework and
metalwork to painting and architecture reflect Irish artists and craftspeople
from prehistoric to modern time, making IRELAND'S TREASURES one of the most
expansive coverages in print. Both are unique, recommended picks.
TeNeues
16 West 22nd Street, NY, NY 10010
www.teneues.com
Andreas Bitesnich's Nudes (382385559X, $TBA) may not appeal to the general
library holding, but any art library with figure portrait studies will want to
consider Bitesnich's Nudes an essential guide. Black and white photos of
artistic male and female nudes and couples interacting vary from close-up shots
to full-body portraits – but the most intriguing juxtapose the nude form with
unusual angles. Pierre Thomas Karkau's Models Secret (382384-5551, $TBA),
focuses on models both nude and semi-clothed. From beach and indoor scenes to
scanty clothing displays, Models Secret offers a wide range of models and poses
and an oversized presentation to highlight the results. Both of these
outstanding titles are very highly recommended picks for personal,
professional, and academic library holdings.
North Light/F&W Publications
4700 East Galbriath Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236
www.artistsnetwork.com
North Light's exceptional 'how to' guides provide aspiring artists and painters
with the foundations for successful, professional results. Marie Browning's
Inspired By The Garden (1581804342, $22.99) outlines 16 handcrafted projects
inspired by gardening which can be used indoors or outside. A handmade garden
journal, painted tin field vase, and decorated Tuscan ceramic planter are only
a few of the bright projects Marie Browning presents using step-by-step color
photos. Sherry Nelson, M.D.A.'s Painting Garden Animals (158180427X, $24.99)
tells how to paint endearing garden animals with realistic details and
techniques lending to a beginner's efforts. Step-by-step demonstrations and
color reference photos tell how to capture the realistic look of animals in a
range of projects, making Painting Garden Animals most accessible to
non-artists. Sharon Hamilton, M.D.A's Lush & Lively Flowers You Can Paint
(1581804431, $24.99) uses ten step-by-step projects to illustrate the basics to
painting realistic-looking flowers, leaves and foliage. Sharon Hamilton fosters
a two-stage approach to painting florals and her techniques will appeal to both
beginners and painters with some experience. Mary Jo McGraw's Vintage Greeting
Cards (158180413X, $23.99) presents the skills of a rubber stamp artist and
card maker who tells how to create handmade cards which look like antique
heirlooms. The fourteen techniques McGraw teaches are used to make 23 cards,
with each project featuring easily-find vintage papers, old family photos,
foil, buttons and more.
Come Walk With Me
Dorris Curtis
University of Arkansas Press
201 Ozark Ave., Fayetteville, AR 72701
1557287643 $39.95 www.amazon.com
Having retired from a forty year teaching career, Dorris Curtis began painting
at the age of 65. Her work has been exhibited in Chicago and Washington, DC,
and she has been a guest on the acclaimed PBS series "American Art Forum".
Recently, Dorris donated her entire art collection to the University of Central
Arkansas. For those unfamiliar with her work, there is now published Come Walk
With Me: The Art Of Dorris Curtis which is enhanced with an informed and
informative introduction by Robert Cochran and showcases an extraordinary
talent comparable to the legendary Grandma Moses -- whose example provided
Dorris with the inspiration to first put color to canvas in 1973. Come Walk
With Me will prove to be a welcome and much appreciated contribution to any
personal, school art department, and community library American Art History
collections.
Victorian Approaches To Religion As Reflected In The Art Of The Pre-Raphaelites
Eva Peteri
Akademiai Kiado Budapest/ISBS, dist.
920 NE 58th Av #300, Portland OR 97213
9630580381 $25.00 1-503-287-3093
The core of the Pre-Raphaelite movement consisted of the dogmatic art critic
John Ruskin, moralist artist-preacher William Holman Hunt; intuitive
poet-painter Gabriel Rossetti, Conscientious realist and popular sentimentalist
John Everett Millais. The were very different men, but they were all typically
Victorian and had large followings among the public. Victorian Approaches To
Religion As Reflected In The Art Of The Pre-Raphaelites surveys their religious
ideas and use of biblical imagery to provide insights into the religious
concerns of their era. This was a time of passionate sectarian debates, the
spreading of agnosticism, new Bible-interpretations affected by (and sometimes
generated by) scientific discoveries, and repeated attempts to reconcile
religious beliefs with the growing phenomena of secularization at the end of
the century. Victorian Approaches To Religion As Reflected In The Art Of The
Pre-Raphaelites is a remarkable and strongly recommended work of impressive and
original scholarship which would grace any 19th Art History academic library
collection or supplemental studies reading list.
The Arts Of Fire
Catherine Hess, editor
Getty Publications
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500, Los Angeles, CA 90049-1682
089236758X $39.95 1-800-223-3431
Compiled and deftly edited by Catherine Hess (Associate Curator of Sculpture,
Getty Museum), The Arts Of Fire: Islamic Influences On Glass And Ceramics Of
The Italian Renaissance is informationally enhanced by the contributions of
George Saliba (Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science, Columbia University)
and Linda Komaroff (curator of Islamic Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art).
Graced with a map, 61 color images and 17 b/w illustrations, The Arts Of Fire
showcases luxury glass and ceramic objects made by Italian artists and
craftsmen during the 15th and 16th centuries -- an era considered to be a high
point in Renaissance art. What's less well known is that none of these
wonderful creations would have been possible without the introduction of the
technological and formal advances in the art and production of glass and
ceramic ware imported into Italy from contacts within the Islamic East where
they were originally developed and practiced. Also available in a hardcover
edition (0892367571, $65.00), The Arts Of Fire is a superb and enthusiastically
recommended addition to personal, professional, and academic Art History
reference collections, The Arts Of Fire is a joy to simply page through and
will leave the reader wondering what other treasures the Getty Museum has
within its collections.
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