MBR: The Art Shelf
Midwest Book Review
Circling Around Abstraction
Georgia O'Keeffe
Hudson Hills Press
PO Box 205, 74-2 Union Street, Manchester, VT 05254
0943411491, $50.00 www.hudsonhills.com
Georgia O'Keeffe continues to be regarded as one of America's most
creative and original painters whose work continues to influence and
inspire new generations of artists long after her death."Circling
Around Abstraction" beautifully traces and showcases O'Keeffe's
experiments with circular forms throughout her lengthy career from
hypnotic swirls in charcoal abstractions in the 1910s, through her
carefully constructed still lifes of the 1920, to close-up depictions
drawn from the natural world in the 1930s, to her seminal pelvis
series of the 1940s, and concludes with a selection of her late
paintings in which she went back to the visionary roots of her
earliest days as an artist. Enhanced with a pare of informed and
informative essays by exhibition curators Jonathan Stuhlman and
Barbara Buhler Lynes, "Circling Around Abstraction" is an invaluable
contribution to O'Keeffe studies and a critically important addition
to academic library American Art History reference collections.
Rubens
Susan Lawson
Chaucer Press
20 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3JH
www.chaucer-press.com
International Publishers Marketing (distributor)
22841 Quicksilver Drive, Dulles, VA 20166
1904449204, $55.00 www.internationalpubmarket.com 1-800-758-3756
Rubens, while best known today for his paintings, was also a
collector, a diplomat, a linguist, a renowned scholar, and a master of
Baroque theatricality who won acclaim for his powerful religious
altarpieces and large-scale commissions for the royal courts of
Europe. His profound influence on artists of future generations also
rested on his superbly executed landscapes and intimate portraits of
family and friends. Now the life and work of Rubens is superbly
presented in an historical survey by Susan Lawson (Commissioning
Editor in Contemporary Art and Visual Theory at I.B. Tauris
Publishers) that put into context Ruben's politics, religious beliefs,
and artistic mastery of brush and canvas. Superbly illustrated
throughout, "Rubens" is divided into eight chapters ranging from his
'Life and Times', to 'Arcadia: Portraits and Landscapes', to
'Architecture and Theatre in the Mature and Late Styles', to 'Figures,
Flesh, and the Rubenesque'. Enhanced with a recommended selection for
further reading on the artist and his work and a core addition to any
personal, academic, or community library Art History collection,
"Rubens" is a strongly recommended study of meticulous scholarship
that is as articulate as it is informative.
Art At Work/L' Au Travail
Victoria Henry, editor
Goose Lane Editions
500 Beverbrook Court, Suite 330, Fredericton, NB, Canada, E3B 5X4
0864924291, $50.00 www.gooselane.com 1-800-565-9523
Possessing more than 18,000 paintings, prints, photographs and
sculptures by more than 2,500 contemporary artists which they
accumulated over the past 35 years, the Canada Council Art Bank is the
largest public collection in Canada outside a public gallery.
Featuring a bilingual French/English text, "Art At Work" showcases a
representative survey of the artwork created by some of the best of
Canada's aborigines. Compiled and edited by Victoria Henry (Director
of the Canada Council Art Bank), "Art At Work" is profusely
illustrated with full color photography and the informative
contributions of Adrienne Clarkson (Governor General of Canada from
1999-2005 and selector of many Art Bank pieces); Toronto critic and
independent curator Peggy Gale; art historian, consultant, freelance
researcher and writer Pierre Landry; David P. Silcox (the Canada
Council's first arts officer); and noted photographic artist and
curator Jeffrey M. Thomas. "Art At Work" is a seminal work of
impressive dimensions and a welcome addition to Canadian Art History
reference collections and supplemental reading lists.
The Romance Of Modernism
George T. M. Shackelford
MFA Publications
c/o Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
0878467092, $50.00 www.mfa-publications.org 1-800-338-2665
Scott M. Black was named one of the world's top 200 art collectors by
ARTnews magazine and is well known for his more than twenty years of
collecting Impressionist, Post-impressionist, and Modernist works. The
Scott M. Black collection includes sculptures by Rodin, Maillol, and
Moore, paintings by Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Leger, Picasso, Braque,
Vuillard, Signac, De Chirico, Miro, and magritte; as well as works on
paper by Chagall, Pissarro, and Dega. Now for the first time, the
general public can appreciate the breadth and depth of this superb
collection with "The Romance Of Modernism: Paintings And Sculputre
>From The Scott M. Black Collection". Showcasing 60 representative
items from the collection as carefully selected by George Shackelford,
"The Romance Of Modernism" offers a panoramic and informative survey
of the Modernist period from 1870 to 1970. Indeed, "The Romance Of
Modernism" is an important and seminal addition to personal,
community, and academic library Art History reference collections.
Phaidon Press Inc.
180 Varick Street, 14th Floor, New York NY 10014
www.phaidon.com
If you're a regular New Yorker reader you already know the works of
Jean-Jacques Sempe, but having them all together under one cover is a
treat, and these new reprint collections cover the extent of his best-
loved works. EVERYTHING IS COMPLICATED (0714845426, $24.95) excels in
irony and pointed observations here: cartoons cover everything from
tourism to unruly kids and represent the second Sempe volume published
in France. His NOTHING IS SIMPLE (0714844837, $24.95) was the first
book of his drawings, originally published in 1962: it offers engaging
drawings, watercolors, and hilarious insights, all in black and white.
Factory Records
Matthew Robertson
Chronicle Books
85 Second Street, San Francisco CA 94105
0811856429 $35.00 www.chroniclebooks.com
FACTORY RECORDS: THE COMPLETE GRAPHIC ALBUM could have been featured
in our Music Shelf area but is profiled here for its artistic visual
inspection of one British music label's eye-catching covers and
productions. Notes for each production outline the varying graphic
design choices which made the albums notable and different, making
this a fine choice not just for contemporary music libraries but for
art library holdings strong in graphic arts representations.
The Lure of Gold
Hans-Gert Bachmann
Abbeville Press
137 Varick Street, New York NY 10013
0789209004 $75.00 www.abbevillepress.com
THE LURE OF GOLD: AN ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL HISTORY tells how the
search for gold has shaped mankind from prehistory to modern times.
It's a long history and a long story: to best organize the
information, THE LURE OF GOLD places each epoch in a different
chapter, explaining where people of the era found gold, how they mined
and worked it, and how it affected their lives. Nearly three hundred
color photos of art objects and relics enhance a detailed, outstanding
survey.
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Midwest Book Review
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