The Art Bookshelf
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The Art Bookshelf
The Glory of Byzantium:
Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantium Era, A.D. 843-1261
Helen C. Evans & William D. Wixon, editors.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Harry N. Abrams, dist.
1000 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10028-0198
0-8109-6507-0 $85.00 1-212-879-5500
The Glory Of Byzantium is a stunning, 604 page coffee-table artbook based
on the exhibition of the art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of the
Middle Byzantine period beginning with the restoration of the use of icons
by the Orthodox Church in 843 and ends with the occupation of
Constantinople by the Crusader forces from the West and 1204 to 1261. The
Glory Of Byzantium explores four interrelated themes: the religious and
secular culture of the Second Golden Age of the Byzantine Empire; the
empire's interaction with its Christian neighbors and rivals; its
relations with the Islamic East; and its contact with the Latin West.
Bringing together the contributions of 59 scholars and art historians, the
text explores the complex currents of Byzantine civilization. More than
350 works of art assembled from 119 institutions in 24 countries are
discussed and illustrated in the catalogue, presenting a significant
selection of works that survive from the empire and from the countries
that constituted its extended sphere of influence. Liturgical objects
(including icons, mosaics, chalices, ceramics, jewelry, and manuscripts)
reflect the dynamic nature of the art of this era both within and outside
of the empire. The first half of the volume treats the historical context,
the religious sphere, and the secular courtly realm of the empire; the
second half focuses on the interactions between Byzantium and other
medieval cultures, including Islam and the Latin West. The seventeen
essays are accompanied by views of architectural sites and comparative
illustrations. The Glory Of Byzantium is a highly recommended for academic
or community libraries, and would be especially appropriate as a Memorial
Fund acquisition selection.
Constable: The Natural Painter
Graham Reynolds
Granada/Academy Chicago Publishers
363 West Erie, Chicago, IL 60610
0-586-04401-9 $5.95 1-312-751-7300
John Constable was perhaps the greatest of the British landscape painters.
He had an artistic genius that manifested in his paintings of the natural
English countryside. Graham Reynolds' Constable: The Natural Painter gives
a complete survey of John Constable's life and art, embodying the results
of many years' research. It is an ideal introduction to the life and art
of John Constable. Informative for the art student, it is also a
fascinating read for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in
well written biography.
Abstracting Craft
Malcolm McCullough
MIT Press
0-262-13326-1 $30.00
The art of producing digital crafts is analyzed and revealed in a study
which uses a personal tone, with examples from various disciplines, to
examine new artistic challenges in digital production. From a treatise on
how creativity can fit into digital computing to chapters which
connections between inspiration and medium choice, this provides an
important examination.
North Light Books
Rod Lawrence's Painting Wild Life Textures Step By Step (0-89134-669-4,
$29.99) narrows the painter's focus to reproducing textures within
realistic wildlife portraits. Step-by-step demonstrations throughout cover
watercolor, oil and acrylic endeavors, using a specific focus (bills &
muzzles, eyes & ears) to provide a range of examples. Sybil Edwards'
Acrylic Decorative Painting Techniques (783-6, $24.99) provides over
thirty techniques embedded in step-by-step demonstrations which require no
prior expertise to reproduce. From delicate to bold painting techniques,
this covers the brush strokes and approaches necessary to produce a
variety of results. The color close-up photos in both books excel in
presenting exact details leading to finished results.
Thames & Hudson
Milan Kundera provides the strong introduction to Bacon (0-500-09266-4,
$60.00), which pairs an essay by France Borel with a collection of Bacon's
self-images and brutal portraits of self and compatriots. This is the
first catalog of these works: fine reproductions appear throughout.
Hughes Demeude's The Animated Alphabet (27908-X, $24.95) provides both a
history of the decorated letter and a strong collection of black and white
and color woodcut images of alphabet letters. The works and histories of
famous lettering artists are revealed in a lively survey. Abigail
Solomon-Godeau's Male Trouble (0-500-01765-4, $29.95) examines the
presence of and interest in the male nude in the late 18th and early 19th
centuries, considering the nature of the male image representations, its
eventual decline in popularity as the female nude became more popular, and
changing impressions of the erotic nature of men and women. This treatise
provides an important focus on male nudes in art history and modern
culture. Judy Collins and others provide essays accompanying Paula Rego
(27943-8, $29.95), a catalog examining and presenting the works of a
Portuguese woman who settled in London, but maintained her Portuguese
connections. The analyses accompanying these pictures is particularly well
done, exploring the themes and choices of each Rego painting.
Giambattista Tiepolo: 1696-1770
Keith Christiansen, editor
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10028-0198
0-8109-6505-4 $75.00 1-212-879-5500
This lavishly illustrated catalogue showcases the impressive body of work
by a true master. In entries on every work shown and wide-ranging essays
accompanied by 297 black-and-white and full-color illustrations, eight
American and European authorities explore the richness and diversity of
Tiepolo's achievements. They reveal enormous variety within his oeuvre,
demonstrating that he was one of the presiding geniuses of the European
imagination, the greatest artist of 18th century Venice, and, excepting
only Goya and David, of 18th century Europe. The essays focus on Tiepolo's
formation; his mastery of mythological and poetic subjects; his deeply
moving religious pictures; his rare excursions into portraiture and
studies of ideal heads; and the process by which he proceeded from initial
ideas to larger scale canvases and frescoes. Written for the scholar and
general reader alike, these texts are lavishly supported by illustrations
of Tiepolo's works and those of his predecessors and contemporaries. A
documented chronology of Tiepolo's life and art, detailed provenances,
references, and a bibliography are provided. No art library collection on
European art history can be considered complete without the inclusion of
Giambattista Tiepolo: 1696-1770.
University of Washington Press
Tran Turner, et.al.'s Expressions In Wood (1-882140-13-3, $35.00) provides
an exhibition catalog from the Wornick collection examining the nature of
wood art and craft, including an essay by Ron Wornick and details
surveying the extent of his collection. Full-page close-up color photos of
wood pieces supplement a history and discussion of contemporary
wood-working processes and the elements which define wood art. Bruce
Bustard's A New Deal For The Arts (97600-4, $24.95) examines New Deal arts
projects funded by the government, presenting a catalog gleaned from the
holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration. Discussions
of different artistic approaches and presentations accompany black and
white and color portraits in this powerful collection.
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reviewers are volunteers. No funding is accepted from any publisher or
author. Most of the books receiving our recommendation are available
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