Reviews of new/recent books on art, architect., photog.
Steve Brock
recent books on fine arts and architecture. All reviews are
written by Steve Brock:
STUDIES IN TECTONIC CULTURE: THE POETICS OF CONSTRUCTION IN
NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE by Kenneth Frampton,
edited by John Cava. MIT Press, 55 Hayward St., Cambridge, MA
02142, (800) 356-0343, (617) 258-6779 FAX. Those on the Internet
may place orders by sending e-mail to mitpres...@mit.edu. MIT
catalogs are available on the Internet by telneting to
techinfo.mit.edu (login: anonymous, password: your complete e-mail
address - at the main menu, choose #2, then #21), by gophering to
gopher.mit.edu (choose #5), or by sending e-mail to mitpress-
ord...@mit.edu. On the WWW, MIT Press is at
http://www.mitpress.edu/. Illustrated (510 drawings and black-and-
white photographs), index, bibliography, notes. 446 pp., $50.00
cloth. 0-262-06173-2
Frampton, a leading architecture historian at Columbia University,
provides a history of modern architecture with a focus on structure
and construction, as illustrated by the works of Auguste Perret,
Louis Kahn, Carlo Scarpa, Frank Lloyd Wright, Herman Hertzberger
and Renzo Piano, which challenge modernist theories that, he says,
are obsessed with form and style. Grade: A-. Also by Frampton:
"Modern Architecture: A Critical History" (1980).
BETTY HAHN: PHOTOGRAPHY OR MAYBE NOT by Steve Yates. University of
New Mexico Press, 1720 Lomas Blvd. N.E., Albuquerque, NM
87131-1591, (505) 277-2346, FAX: (505) 277-9270. Illustrated (70
halftones, 125 color plates), selected bibliography, illustrated
chronology, catalogue of works, collections, selected exhibition
history. 206 pp., $39.95 paper. 0-8263-1602-6
Not content to use the camera to document events or to explore the
nature of reality, Hahn, a professor of photography at the
University of New Mexico, has continued to explore new forms of
photographic expression by combining it with other design elements.
This catalogue for her thirty year retrospective exhibition
admirably documents Hahn's innovative use of the gum bichromate
process, photographic imagery on fabric, and work with the 20 x 24
camera. While several of the images seem uninspired, especially
the series on postage stamp commemmoratives, her embellished images
of the famous photograph of the Lone Ranger and Tonto (complete
with a saguaro cactus protruding from the Lone Ranger's head) and
her "Crime Scene" series are amazing, leaving the reader feeling
shorted on the amount of included photographs. Grade: B.
THE NEW AMERICAN GHETTO photography by Camilo Jose Vergara.
Rutgers University Press, 109 Church St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901,
(800) 446-9323. Illustrated, bibliography. 253 pp., $49.95 cloth.
0-8135-2209-9
Many of the large cities of the United States, instead of being
symbols of progress, have fallen into decline and have increasingly
become "fortresses of decay," places where, for example, what once
was a bank is now an adult theatre, where colorful murals depict
cultural themes, and billboards with liquor ads promising instant
intimacy rise above crumbling buildings and "wrecked
neighborhoods." Perhaps most striking are Vergara's time-series
photographs that document the "boom to bust" inner city
transformations, especially in Newark, Brooklyn, Chicago, Detroit,
and Los Angeles. Riveting and disturbing. Grade: A. Vergara's
photographs are on exhibition at the National Building Museum in
Washington, D.C., through May 5.
MAN RAY'S MAN RAYS by Man Ray. Aperture, 20 East 23rd St., N.Y.,
NY 10010, (212) 505-5555, FAX: (212) 979-7759. Illustrated,
selected bibliography, notes, checklist. 76 pp., $19.95 paper. 0-
89381-658-2
This is the catalog of the eclectic collection that
Surrealist/Dadaist painter, sculptor, and photographer Man Ray left
to his family, including "Rayographs" (prints taken without a
camera), portraits, and photographs of his sculptures and
"mathematical objects," in association with an exhibit at the
Norton Museum of Art earlier this year. The catalog traces his
development from a painter to an artist who took photographs of his
canvases, to the point where "I destroyed the painting and kept the
reproduction." Grade: B.
POINTS OF ENTRY: A NATION OF STRANGERS, essays by Vicki Goldberg
and Arthur Ollman. Museum of Photographic Arts, 1649 El Prado, San
Diego, CA 92101, (619) 238-7559. Illustrated, bibliography,
chronology, checklist of exhibits. 148 pp., $24.95 paper. 1-
878062-03-4
A history of photography as well as a documentary of the major
waves of immigration to the United States, this book is the catalog
for one of three travelling exhibitions (the other two are "Tracing
Cultures" and "Reframing America") focusing on people that left
their homelands in search of a better life. "Strangers" is a
collection of black-and-white photographs by major photographers
such as Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Arnold Genthe, Lewis Hine,
Arthur Rothstein, and many others, along with other archival
material such as engravings and newspaper articles, that
dramatically depict the wonder and fear experienced by new arrivals
to the land of freedom and opportunity. Don't miss the picture of
newly-emigrated teenager Goldie Mabovits (who later changed her
name to Golda Meir) as the Statue of Liberty in a school play.
Grade: B. The "Points of Entry" exhibition is now at the Ansel
Adams Center for Photography in San Francisco through March, 1996.
Other stops include:
April, 1996 - International Museum of Photography at George
Eastman House, Rochester, New York,
August, 1996 - Center for African American History and
Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.,
February, 1997 - High Museum of Art ("Reframing America"),
Nexus Contemporary Art Center ("Tracing Cultures"), and
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
("Strangers"), Atlanta, Georgia,
May, 1997 - Jewish Museum, New York,
September, 1997 - Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, Florida.
EARTHWARDS: ROBERT SMITHSON AND ART AFTER BABEL by Gary Shapiro.
University of California Press, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA
94720, (800) 822-6657, FAX: (510) 643-7127. Illustrated, index,
notes. 285 pp., $34.95 cloth. 0-520-08856-5
Shapiro, professor of philosophy at the University of Richmond
(Virginia), portrays Smithson as one of the pioneers of modernism,
tracing his rise as a mostly self-taught practitioner of minimist
art and sculpture ("Spiral Jetty"), a writer ("Strata: A
Geophotographic Fiction"), an architectural philosopher (site
versus non-site) and a film-maker ("Spiral Jetty Photo
Documentation"), whose works are explained in light of Heidegger's
concept of our ability to understand and interpret the "discourse
of the earth." Shapiro, however, writes with a lack of freshness
and a feeling of closure, even though Smithson died at the age of
34 in a plane crash, with his artistic development still in its
infancy. Grade: C.
UNDER THE SUN: DESERT STYLE AND ARCHITECTURE, text by Suzi Moore,
photographs by Terrence Moore. Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and
Company, 34 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02154, (800) 759-0190, FAX:
(617) 890-0875. Illustrated, bibliography, source guide. 248 pp.,
$45.00, cloth. 0-8212-2226-0
The Moores provide an eloquent, though flawed, look at the
architecture and interiors of thirty-eight examples of adaptation,
innovation, and harmony in a desert environment. Beginning with
historical models in Tunisia, Morocco, Mexico, and Native American
pueblos, the authors bring readers into the present with profiles
from the sumptuous "Pumpkin House" in southern California's Borrego
Springs to the quaint, self-sufficient, and unelectrified retreat
of author Byrd Baylor in a remote area of southern Arizona.
Written and photographed with an infectious warmth, though the
presentation lacks balance. I also take exception to Moore's
inference that it's OK to collect Pueblo Indian pot shards and put
them in adobe walls. Grade: B-.
WILD RIVER, TIMELESS CANYONS: BALDUIN MOLLHAUSEN'S WATERCOLORS OF
THE COLORADO by Ben Huseman. Published by the Amon Carter Museum,
Fort Worth, TX, and distributed by the University of Arizona Press,
1230 N. Park, #102, Tucson, AZ 85719, (800) 426-3797, (602) 882-
3065 in Arizona, FAX: (602) 621-8899. The University of Arizona
Press online catalogue and order form may be accessed from the
Internet by telneting to INFO.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU. Login as INFO.
From the Main Menu choose 5 (On-line Information Services), 3
(University of Arizona Information), 1 (Campus Services), and 4
(University of Arizona Press). Illustrated, index, selected
bibliography. 232 pp., $70.00 cloth. 0-88360-084-6
Prussian artist Mollhausen was recruited by the United States
government to accompany the Ives expedition via steamboat up the
Colorado River in 1858, as an "artist and collector of natural
history." Members of the expedition are generally thought to be
the first white men to reach the floor of the Grand Canyon. This
book contains forty-six color plates of Mollhausen's watercolors,
as well as black-and-white sketches, excerpts from the expedition
report, a biography of the artist, and a complete catalog. Though
the watercolors run to brown and tan hues, their rugged detail is
striking, and the book is a fitting tribute, especially since the
collection was lost for many years and found in 1988 in a building
about to be demolished. Grade: A-.
RIEN POORTVLIET'S HORSES by Rien Poortvliet, translated by Anita
Boswinkel-Chang with Sonja Boswinkel, calligraphy by Alysia
Boswinkel. Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, Inc., 575 Broadway, N.Y.,
NY 10012, (800) 722-7202, FAX: (212) 941-2982. Illustrated.
Unpaginated, $60.00 cloth. 1-55670-430-5
Over 350 sketches and watercolors fill the pages of this
celebratory study by the renowned Dutch painter. The study depicts
a wide variety of breeds throughout history and folklore,
fulfilling governmental functions, at work (lots of cart- and
carriage-pulling), and their use in sports and recreation. The
illustrations, many displaying the affinity of Danish royalty for
horses, are accompanied by Poortvliet's descriptions ("Our Prince
on his first pony"), adroitly rendered by Alysia Boswinkel. A
magnificent, fascinating, and passionate portrayal, perfect for
"horse nuts" of all ages. Grade: A.
THE GRAND TRUNK ROAD: A PASSAGE THROUGH INDIA, photographs and text
by Raghubbir Singh. Aperture, 20 East 23rd St., N.Y., NY 10010,
(212) 505-5555, FAX: (212) 979-7759. Illustrated (117 color
photographs), map. 128 pp., $40.00 cloth. 0-89381-644-2
The 1,500-mile-long Grand Trunk Road, beginning in Calcutta, runs
along the Ganges and Jumuna Rivers, through Dehli, into Pakistan,
and ends at the Khyber Pass at the Afghanistan border. Singh's
striking documentary teems with contrasting images: trucks,
bicycles, horse-drawn carts, and rickshaws, colorful marketplaces,
religious shrines and political statues, street performers, and
monsoon floods, all occupying a road which ensures "the
transmission of the highest speculations of the human spirit,"
though Singh is careful not to mention the many truck hijackings
that are routine on certain stretches of the road. Includes a
historical essay. Grade: B.
JOHANNES VERMEER, edited by Arthur Wheelock, Jr. Yale University
Press, 302 Temple Street, New Haven, CT 06511, (203) 432-0960, FAX:
(203) 432-3111, co-published with the National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C. Illustrated (105 total, 50 in color), index,
bibliography, notes, chronology. 229 pp., $45.00 cloth. 0-300-
06558-2
Wheelock, the foremost expert on much-admired though largely
unknown Dutch painter, provides an uncommonly emotional study of
Vermeer's art in this catalog of the first exhibition devoted
exclusively to a man who "found and conveyed values and emotions of
lasting concern... reflecting upon the timeless aspects of the
human condition." The catalog focuses on 23 paintings (two-thirds
of the artist's thirty-five works) and provides a historical
interpretation (by Wheelock), a technical description by Nicola
Costaras, and a discussion of provenance and Vermeer's creative
process by Ben Broos. Vermeer deserves a wider audience; highly
recommended for both public and academic libraries. Grade: A.
MADE IN L.A.: THE PRINTS OF CIRRUS EDITIONS by Bruce Davis.
D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 636 Broadway, 12th Floor, N.Y.,
NY 10012, (800) 338-2665, FAX: (212) 673-2887, in association with
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Illustrated (460 total, 60
in color), biographies of the artists, catalogue of prints, list of
printers. 368 pp., $65.00 cloth. 0-87587-173-9
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the acclaimed print
workshop begun by Jean Milant, this catalog of the recent
exhibition, arranged thematically (sequences and series, use of
nature, processes of ink and paper, verbal and visual language, and
personal issues such as feminism), displays 130 works of over 50
artists who have contributed to L.A.'s artistic enrichment. By
including every artist, however, the book suffers. Instead, it
should have focused on the works that defined Cirrus and given it
its essence, such as those by Vija Clemens, John Baldessari, Rachel
Carson, and Ed Moses. Grade: C+.
WILLIAM BLAKE THE ILLUMINATED BOOKS: THE CONTINENTAL PROPHESIES
(Vol. 4) and THE URIZEN BOOKS (Vol. 6) by William Blake. Princeton
University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, NJ 08540, (800)
777-4726, FAX: (609) 258-1335, in association with the William
Blake Trust. Illustrated, list of works cited. "Continental
Prophesies" is 367 pp., $85.00 cloth, 0-691-03674-8, "Urizen Books"
is 231 pp., $65.00 cloth, 0-691-04416-3.
The final two volumes in Princeton's handsome and well-designed
"Illuminated Books" facsimile series feature Blake's self-
illustrated poetry and ruminations on life, liberty, justice, the
almighty, and material gain. Personally, I think that Blake was a
much better poet than artist (many of his illustrations resemble
political cartoons) or visionary, and the series bears out my
opinion. Grade: B.
CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS SERIES: JIMMIE DURHAM. Published by Phaidon
Press Limited, distributed in the U.S. exclusively by Chronicle
Books, 275 Fifth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, (800) 722-6657,
(800) 445-7577 in CA, (415) 777-8887 FAX. Illustrated,
bibliography, chronology. 160 pp., $29.95 paper. 0-7148-3348-7.
This series of well-priced monographs profiles several mixed-media
sculptors and artists with photographs of their works, an
interview, a critical assessment, and a presentation of each of the
artist's writings. The volume on Cherokee artist and activist
Jimmie Durham focuses on his pun-driven installations which use
discarded and organic objects, usually with a message written on
them, and discusses the themes of history, culture, and time.
Grade: A-. Also in the series: Antony Gormley, Jessica
Stockholder, and Richard Deacon.
LE CORBUSIER: THE CREATIVE SEARCH by Geoffrey H. Baker. E & FN
Spon/Chapman & Hall, One Penn Plaza, 41st Floor, N.Y., NY 10019,
(800) 634-7064, FAX: (212) 564-1505. Illustrated, index,
references, bibliography, chronology. 336 pp., $77.00 cloth. 0-
442-02128-3
A companion to Baker's "Le Corbusier: An Analysis of Form" (1989)
this book is an examination of the early drawings, sketches, and
travel diaries of the French architect, artist, author, and founder
of the Purism movement (with Amedee Ozenfant), discovered at La
Chaux-de-Fonds and gathered together by the Foundation Le Corbusier
archive. Rather than an intensive biographical study, Baker
concentrates on the materials and Le Corbusier's conceptual
development. An accessible and dignified work. Grade: A.
SHORT MENTIONS:
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY by David D. Busch. MIS:Press, 115 W. 18th St.,
N.Y., NY 10011, (800) 488-5233, (212) 633-0748. Illustrated,
index, glossary. 207 pp., $39.95 paper. 1-55828-448-6. Contains
a discussion of digital cameras, their applications and technology,
and purchase considerations. Primarily for professionals. Grade:
B+.