MBR: The Art Shelf
Midwest Book Review
The Art Book
Phaidon Press
180 Varick Street, 14th fl, NY, NY 10014
071484487X $24.95 www.phaidon.com
The Art Book is an A to Z guide of 500 great painters and sculptors,
from the medieval to the modern era. Each artist listing features a
full-color photograph of a selected work representing the artist, and a
couple paragraphs describing who the artist was and his or her
contribution to the vast realm of human expression. Completely
cross-referenced, with a glossary of technical terms as well as
artistic movements and a directory of recommended museums in which to
see more great works by effectively immortal individuals, The Art Book
is a captivating tribute to skilled and talented masters of their
craft, and a highly recommended introduction to the diversity of art
itself.
Changing Tides
Frederick Hart
Hudson Hills Press
PO Box 205, Manchester, VT 05254
155595233X $65.00 hudsonhills.com
Enhanced with an informative foreword by Frederick Turner (Founders
Professor of Arts and Humanities, University of Texas, Dallas) and an
insightful essay by Michael Novak (an expert on Hart's work and holder
of the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy at
the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C.), Changing Tides is
a 256-page monograph on sculptor Frederick hart (1943-1999) which is
superbly illustrated with 128 color plates, 12 duo tones, and 83
halftones. Readers and art students will appreciate Frederick hart's
working processes as renowned sculptor of the human form. Changing
Tides is a seminal, core addition to professional, art school,
community and university library 20th Century Art History collections
with respect to the development of figural sculpture in America.
The Watercolor Artist's Flower Handbook
Patricia Seligman
Watson Guptill
770 Broadway, New York NY 10003
www.watsonguptill.com
0823056163 $19.95 1-800-451-1741
Any amateur artist interested in learning via the sketching efforts of
others will find these step-by-step techniques in The Watercolor
Artist's Flower Handbook: Leading Floral Artists Show How To Capture
The Beauty Of Flowers to be specific and easy to follow. Thirteen
leading floral artists offer insights on how they work, from choosing
materials to sketching and producing polished results. Add
ready-to-point postcards bound into the book and you have an
extraordinary beginner's kit.
The Art Of Stephen Huneck
Laura Beach
Harry Abrams
100 - 5th Avenue, New York NY 10011
www.abramsbooks.com
0810955989 $50.00 1-800-759-0190
To aptly describe in text one Stephen Huneck's art, it might be best to
rely on the succinct quote from Arts and Antiques Magazine: "If Walt
Disney had ever met Rene Magritte and the two had decided to make
furniture together, they'd have produced something close to Stephen
Huneck's work." However, for an even better description, turn to Laura
Beach's definitive Art Of Stephen Huneck: it packs in full-page, color
reproductions of his work - sometimes as full as 2-page spreads - and
accompanies these with clear details on the artist and his works.
Highly recommended as the definitive work on Stephen Huneck's art.
UCLA Fowler Museum of History
PO Box 951549, L.A., CA 90095-1549
Two fine titles cover very different art topics, and are recommended
picks for college-level collections seeking specialty items. Patrick
Arthur Polk's Botanica Los Angeles: Latino Popular Religious Art In The
City Of Angels (0974872903) packs in color pictures of art with
interviews with artists and insights on Latino religious beliefs.
Articles range from coverages of sites of healing to objects of
devotion, surveying religion as an intrinsic subject of Latino art.
Unwrapping The Textile Traditions Of Madagascar by Chapurukha M.
Kusimba, J. Claire Odlund and Bennett Bronson (0930741951) provides
textile artists with a fine review of the island's textile artists.
This isn't just a review of art alone, however: cultural traditions are
probed in depth, usage customs and rituals examined, and first-person
accounts of encounters often assume travelogue discovery patterns of
excitement and intimacy.
Weirdo Deluxe
Matt Dukes Jordan
Chronicle Books
85 - 2nd Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco CA 94105
www.chroniclebooks.com
081184241X $24.95 1-800-722-6657
'Lowbrow art' blends pop culture, street culture, pop art and
surrealism with a strong focus on controversial sub-cultures from
bikers to 60s sitcoms. It's about time that a thorough coverage of this
genre is presented, and Painter and journalist Matt Dukes Jordan
provides a spirited assessment of the high points of lowbrow in Weirdo
Deluxe: The Wild World Of Pop Surrealism & Lowbrow Art. Full-page color
reproductions of such art, from labels to paintings, present both art
displays and commentary on the artists creating them.
Complete Guide For Models
Eric Bean & Jenni Bidner
Lark Books
67 Broadway, Asheville, SC 28801
1579905765 $19.95 www.larkbooks.com
It's fitting that art and crafts book publisher Lark Books should then
move to a book on photographic modeling, Complete Guide For Models:
Inside Advice From Industry Pros: it's a logical transition and offers
the power of an art book publisher paired with the expertise of a
fashion photographer and fashion editor. Models will learn all the
basics of what it takes to become a model for the artist; from posing
for commercial print ads to special opportunities for men, women and
child models. Complete Guide For Models could have easily been featured
in our 'Business and Careers' section, but is profiled here so artists
and art library holdings will catch sight of it: it's an important,
recommended instructional guide for the reference collections of
artschool, artists and sculptors.
On Becoming An Artist
Ellen J. Langer
Ballantine Books
1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
www.ballantinebooks.com
0345456297 $24.95 1-800-726-0600
The word 'someday' can be another word for 'never', when prejudices,
unproductive thinking patterns, and negativity get in the way of
creativity and artistic expression. All it takes to become an artist,
psychologist Ellen Langer maintains, is to start doing art. Her
insights on preconceptions and barriers to producing art encourage
readers to just go ahead and create.
Fine Art Publicity
Susan Abbott
Allworth Press
10 E. 53rd Street, #510, NY, NY 10010
1581154011 $19.95 www.allworth.com
The majority of art career guides come from either career counselors or
artists themselves, so it's refreshing to note that Fine Art Publicity:
The Complete Guide For Galleries And Artists, appearing in its second
updated edition, is written by an industry publicist backed by the
knowledge of her profession. Galleries and artists receive the basics
of marketing to the art community; from researching a media list for
both local and national contacts to locating businesses connected to
the arts, and gathering a library of samples for targeted publicity
contacts. Simply an outstanding reference; a 'must' for aspiring
artists and gallery owners alike.
Animal Anatomy For Artists
Eliot Goldfinger
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Ave., NY, NY 10016-4314
www.oup-usa.org
0195142144 $50.00 1-800-451-7556
Artists who plan on focusing on animals had better pick up a copy of
Animal Anatomy For Artists: The Elements Of Form: a virtual 'Bible' of
animal anatomy, is features over five hundred original drawings and
over seventy photos which painters, sculptors, and illustrators can use
to understand the underlying anatomy of a range of common and wild
animals. Forms created by muscles and bones provide artists with a
three-dimensional figure of the final surface of the animal, while
Goldfinger provides discussions of how each piece of animal anatomy
interacts with another.
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