MBR: The Art Shelf
MWBOOKREVW
Steuben Design
Mary Jean Madigan
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
www.abramsbooks.com
115 West 18th Street, NY, NY 10011
0810946459 $29.95 1-800-759-0190
Steuben glassware has been justifiably acclaimed as the pinnacle of the
American glassmaker's art for the past hundred years. Steuben Design: A Legacy
Of Light And Form by Mary Jean Madigan showcases Steuben's colorful and complex
history, internationally recognized artisanship, and demonstrably uncompromised
standards of production quality. Profusely illustrated with 120 illustrations
(46 in full color) Steuben Design combines vintage photography and a
journalistic approach to chronicling the painstaking process of designing,
forming, finishing, and engraving a piece of Steuben glassware. Enhanced for
the reader with introductory texts and extended captions, Steuben Design is a
welcome and recommended addition to any glassware connoisseur's personal
collection and would make a popular addition to academic and community library
American Art History reference collections as well.
Artists Of The Middle Ages
Leslie Ross
Greenwood Publishing Group
88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
0313319030 $59.95 1-800-225-5800
Part of the outstanding "Artists of an Era" series from Greenwood Publishers,
Artists Of The Middle Ages by Leslie Ross (Professor and Chair of the Art
History Program, Dominican University of California) is a portrait of various
famous and era-defining medieval artists, including Villard de Honnecourt,
Andrei Rublev, the Limbourg Brothers, and many more. Black-and-white
photographs of classical medieval artworks sparsely illustrate these thoughtful
accounts that delve into the artists' lives, materials, methods, patrons, and
more. An extensive bibliography rounds out this excellent survey and reference,
as enjoyable to satisfy curiosity as it is useful for research.
The Sketchbook
Nancy Heimburger & Marco Bratt
Hotei Publishing/Stylus Publishing, Inc.
22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012
9074822622 $69.50 1-800-232-0223
The Sketchbook is a large coffee-table compendium showcasing eighty unique
designs by some of the world's finest body art tattoo experts. An introductory
essay explores the history of body tattoos, and both Japanese and Western views
of the art practice. The eighty diverse designs themselves are showcased
largely in black-and-white, in their original drawn concept form rather than a
photograph of the tattoo on human skin. With a photograph of its artist along
with a paragraph by the artist about his or her background and philosophy. The
Sketchbook is a very different kind of artbook, in which East truly meets West.
The Parramore Sketches
Dock Dilworth Parramore
State House Press
McMurray Station, Box 637, Abilene, TX 79697-0637
1880510820 $18.00 1-800-421-3378
The Parramore Sketches: Scenes And Stories Of Early West Texas by Dock
Parramore, who was born in the late 1800's and experienced Texas ranch life
firsthand as well as formal art study, was originally published in 1976 and out
of print for a number of years. Presenting simple black-and-white sketches with
accompanying brief reminiscences of life in early west Texas, The Parramore
Sketches offers a personal glimpse of daily life branding cows, socializing
with neighbors, and wistful reflections concerning Texas' vanishing wildlife. A
piece of Texas past preserved with such flavor and luster that it practically
transports the reader through time.
Movers And Shapers
Vera Ryan
Collins Press/Dufour Editions Inc.
Box 7, Chester Springs, PA 19425-0007
www.collinspress.com
1903464382 $29.95 1-800-869-5677
The price tag is hefty for a standard-sized paperback, that's because it is an
overseas import. But any collection strong in Irish arts will want to accept
Vera Ryan's Movers & Shakers: Irish Art Since 1960 into the fold anyway as it
offers an invaluable modern art history which ranges from interviews and black
and white photos to source documents, using as its foundation interviews with
12 modern Irish artists who have been influential in their genres. Highly
recommended!
Notable Acquisitions At The Art Institute Of Chicago
Museum Studies, Volume 30, No. 1
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 So. Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
www.artic.edu/aic/books/msbooks
0865592098 $30.00 1-312-443-3786
Beginning with a preface by Gail A. Pearson and an Introduction (with
acknowledgements) by James N. Wood, Notable Acquisitions At The Art Institute
Of Chicago is divided into five major categories: American Arts; Architecture;
Asian Art; European Painting; Prints and Drawings. Enhanced with superb
illustrations and three pages of extensive notes, Notable Acquisitions At The
Art Institute Of Chicago is both a recommended "stand alone" introduction to
the holdings of this outstanding Chicago-based collection, but also a worthy
example of the academic quality of the Museum Studies series which will leave
art patrons and librarians looking forward to their "Victorian Art" spring
issue and "Symbolist Art" fall issue.
The Big Fat Book Of Watercolor Basics
Pamela Wissman, et al.
North Light Books
c/o F&W Publications
4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati OH 45236
1581801912 $24.99 1-800-448-0915
Collaboratively compiled and edited by the team of Pamela Wissman, Bethe
Ferguson, and Gina Rath, The Big Fat Book Of Watercolor Basics is a beautifully
illustrated, 303-page compendium of step-by-step instructions on basic
watercolor painting. These practical, "hands on" lessons make it fun and easy
to create a water color painting of any subject matter. From selecting
materials, to choosing and mixing colors, to basic principles of composition;
to controlling the paint; to creating texture and lighting effects, every facet
of watercolor painting is superbly covered, including the use of reference
photos; and the use of color to instill energy and excitement into the visual
image. An ideal addition to art school and community library reference
collections, The Big Fat Book Of Watercolor Basics is a "must" for anyone
wanting to try their hand and imagination to the creation of inspiring and
visually entertaining watercolors.
The Potter's Art
Garth Clark
Phaidon Press
180 Varick St., 14th fl., NY, NY 10014
0714843881 $29.95 www.phaidon.com
The Potter's Art: A Complete History Of Pottery In Britain by Garth Clark
(founder of the Institute for Ceramic History and director of a New York and a
Los Angeles gallery specializing in modern and contemporary ceramic art) is an
impressively illustrated (219 color, 100 b/w illustrations) and meticulously
informative history of British ceramics organized into four major sections: The
Peasant Potter (The Archaic Tradition; From Neolithic to Modern Times); The
Industrial Potter; The Artist-Potter; and The Studio Potter. Nicely enhanced
with Notes; an extensive Bibliography for further studies; a Chronology; a
Glossary; and an Index, The Potter's Art is an especially recommended selection
choice for personal and professional reading lists, as well as academic, and
community library Art History collections.
Great Masters of American Art
Jordi Vigue
Watson-Guptill
770 Broadway, New, York NY 10003
www.watsonguptill.com
0823021157 $21.95 www.amazon.com
With so many books on the market covering American art, what makes Jordi
Vigue's Great Masters of American Artdifferent? The answer lies in a
combination of packaging and presentation, selective representation, and
reproduction quality. Packaging the result in a slightly oversized pocket-sized
book assures the lack of formidable appearance most weighty hardcovers
generate; selecting the top 74 American painters allows for a focus on only the
most notable achievers, and adding gorgeous reproductions of a range of each
artist's best works, along with biographical background and a brief history,
allows for a guide which lends to novice leisure browsing more than most.
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