The Art Shelf
MWBOOKREVW
THE ART SHELF
Conserving Paintings
Allan Byrne
Craftsman House
0-976-6410-46-1 $25.00
Modern artists will find this basic technical guide to prove essential to
preparing modern works for lasting quality. Lack of basic structural
information and conservation principles can result in unnecessary damage
to art: from eliminating problems of charcoal sketches appearing in
paint-applied final forms to general and specific rules for handling works
of art, this is an important and basic reference.
An Ocean Apart
Lois Tarlow
Roberts Rinehart
1-57098-055-1 $22.95
Contemporary art from the U.S. and Vietnam is presented in a title which
catalogs a traveling contemporary art exhibit which will be touring
through 1988. Vietnamese and
Vietnamese-American artists combine efforts to balance traditional with
modern art perceptions: over seventy works by over thirty artists are
profiled.
PBC International
Three new interior design guides will prove strong art school and public
library acquisitions for any collection focussing on interior design
basics. Carol Soucek King's Designing With Glass (0-86636-330-0, $42.50)
gathers the works of world-class architects and designers who use glass to
transform living spaces. Structural and design considerations are
contrasted using full-page color photos of completed projects to accompany
essays on glass inspirations. King's Designing With Fabric (331-9, $37.50)
provides the fourth volume in a series to consider how designers use
fabric to embellish home environments and create moods. The scale and
purposes of architectural designs are here matched with fabric interior
choices. Dylan Landis' Designing For Small Homes (378-5, $34.95) tells how
to match an economy of space with design choices which maximize smaller
proportions. The square footage of each small space is accounted for in
chapters which blend designer approaches and essays with fine color shots
of each room's effect. All are excellent, well-done creations.
African American Visual Aesthetics
David Driskell, Editor
Smithsonian Institute Press
1-56098-605-0 $24.95
Contemporary Afro-American art both embraces and challenges postmodernism:
here essays by five curators and scholars consider connections between
postmodern influences and black art, covering the works of contemporary
Afro-American artists as they examine issues of racial and artistic
struggles. Numerous black and white shots compliment these writings.
Western Art Masterpieces
T.H. Watkins & Joan Parker Watkins
Hugh Lauter Levin Associates
0-88363-596-8 $35.00
This is at once an art collection and a history of the American West,
providing almost fifty masterpieces and commentary on the works presented.
From Native American objects to works by master painters, this provides
fine artistic, pictorial representation of key moments in American
history.
Rustic Furniture Makers
Ralph Kylloe
Gibbs Smith, Publisher
PO Box 667, Layton, UT 84041
0-87905-680-0 $29.95 1-800-748-5439
Rustic furniture makers take objects from nature and craft them directly
into sometimes entertaining and always joyous designs. The several hundred
rustic furniture builders in the U.S. today are, by and large,
self-taught. They use just a few simple tools in their attempt to retain
the integrity of the natural materials. Every piece they create is an
original and unduplicatable, reflecting the personality and creativity of
the maker. Rustic Furniture Makers highlights the lives and works of 15
different craftsmen who epitomize this exciting style. Rustic Furniture
Makers presents 100 color photos and 40 b&w photos. Rustic Furniture
Makers is a unique, "must have"
contribution to any library art shelf or private art book collection!
Kant After Duchamp
Thierry de Duve
The MIT Press
55 Hayward S.t, Cambridge, MA 02142
0-262-04151-0 $39.95
Kant After Duchamp brings together eight essays around a central thesis
with many implications for the history of avant-gardes. Marcel Ducham
(Thierry de Duve observes) made the logic of modernist art practice the
subject matter of his work, a shift in aesthetic judgment that replaced
the classical "this is beautiful" with "this is art". De Duve emplys this
shift (replacing the word "beauty" by the word "art") in a rereading of
Kan'ts "Critique of Judgment" that reveals the hidden links between the
radical experiments of Duchamp and the Dadaists and mainstream pictorial
modernism. These essays, all updated, are divided into four parts. Part I
revolves around
Duchamp's famous/infamous "Fountain". Part II explores Duchamp's passage
from painting to the readymades, from art in particular to art in general.
Part III looks at the aesthetic and ethical consequences of the
replacement of "beauty" with "art" in Kant's "Critique of Judgement".
Finally, part IV attempts to reconstruct an "archaeology" of modernism
that paves the way for a renewed understanding of our postmodern
condition. Kant After Duchamp is an important and insightful contribution
to an insightful national understanding of the evolution of art, art
appreciation, art education, and the undeniable political implications
arising from the arts in the popular as well as
governmental and academic discussions.
Norwegian Folk Art
Marion Nelson, editor
Abbeville Press
488 Madison Avenue, NY, NY 10022
0-7892-0194-1 $65.00 1-800-228-2665
Fanciful wood carvings, tableware and furniture adorned with rosemaling,
snowflake-patterned knitted garments, and costumes with white Hardanger
embroider -- the unique, highly organic designs that characterize
Norwegian crafts have captured the admiration of collectors around the
world. Originally developed to decorate the essential tools of the landed
farmers, Norwegian folk motifs and techniques evolved into a distinctive
style that passed from generation to generation. As Norwegians immigrated
to America, they brought their treasured ceremonial serving vessels,
coverlets, and trunks with them. Their decorative traditions and material
culture (especially rich in the American midwest) have since been
transformed into exciting ways to serve new functions and allow for
individual expression. Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration Of A Tradition is
a fascinating study of the migration of the folk art tradition of Norway
to America with almost 250 color photographs displaying objects that span
four centuries, and include some of the finest holdings of Norwegian
museums, valuable family heirlooms brought to America, and 20th century
works created by Norwegian-Americans. A beautiful, richly illustrated,
comprehensive portrait of Norwegian folk art as practiced in America and a
highly recommended acquisition for personal and community library art
shelves.
Louise Bourgeois
Marie-Laure Bernadac
Flammarion
200 Park Avenue South, NY, NY 10003
2-08013-600-3 $35.00 1-212-777-6888
Louise Bourgeois, born in Paris in 1991, has spent the majority of her
creative life in the United States. She occupies a unique place in the
history of modern sculpture as a quasi-mythic point of reference for an
entire generation of contemporary artists. Though linked stylistically to
both Brancusi and Gicometti, Bourgeois' oeuvre defies classification,
oscillating continually between abstract geometry and organic reality.
Using a wide range of materials, from wood and plaster to marble and
latex, Bourgeois explores universal themes (the body, whole or in parts,
childhood, maternity, and sexuality) from a deeply personal perspective,
imbuing the inert matter with extraordinary emotional intensity. Today,
interest in Bourgeois' work is greater than ever, as evidenced by numerous
successful traveling exhibitions and retrospective.s Louise Bourgeois is a
comprehensive and richly illustrated monograph, chronological in approach,
bringing together her works from early sketches and paintings to the most
recent sculptures and installations with which she has astonished the art
world. Marie-Laure Bernadac weaves her insightful text with Bourgeois' own
words from articles, films, and interview to provide a unique and highly
accessible study of this fascinating and complex artist. Louise Bourgeois
is a highly recommended addition
to community and academic artbook collections.
European Cocks in the J. Paul Getty Museum
Gillian Wilson, et al.
Getty Trust Publications
401 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 850, Santa Monica, CA 90401-1455
0-89236-254-5 $100.00
Among the finest examples of European craftsmanship are the clocks produce
for the luxury trade in the eighteenth century. The J. Paul Getty Museum
has in its decorative arts collection twenty of these clocks dating from
around 1680 to 1798. Eighteen were produced in France, and two in Germany.
These clocks demonstrate the extraordinary workmanship that went into both
the design and the execution of the cases and the intricate movements by
which the clocks operated. European Clocks In The J. Paul Getty Museum is
a wonderfully handsome book with each clock pictured and discussed in
detail. Each movement is both diagrammed and described. In addition,
biographies of the clockmakers and enamelers are included, as are indexes
of the names of the makers, previous owners, and locations.
A Small Book of Angels
Eugene Stiles
Pomegranate Publications
Box 6099, Rohnert Park, CA 94927
0-87654-595-9 $12.95 1-800-227-1428
From the Greek god Eros enfolding Psyche in his wings to the angel Gabriel
presenting Mary with the news of the coming birth of Jesus to modern
sightings, angels have played profound roles in human spirituality and
popular culture throughout history. Whether functioning as divine
messengers, protectors, healers, or guides, these celestial creatures
continue to inspire us. And as the recent upsurge of interest in angels
testifies, they are as important now as ever. A Small Book Of Angels is a
dramatically beautiful tribute to these revered figures. Beginning with an
excellent
textual summary by Eugene Stiles on the various roles angels have played
throughout history and their meanings in traditions as diverse as Native
America, Islamic, Christian, and Hindu, A Small Book Of Angels features
vibrant, exquisite, renderings of angels from such prominent 19th and 20th
century painters as Gustave Moreau, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sir Edward
Burne-Jones, and Walter Crane. Stories bout angels and reflections on
their nature, along with a generous sprinkling of quotations, round out
this delightful offering. A Small Book Of Angels is a unique,
multicultural pictorial that will gladden the eye and inspire the soul.
Bouguereau
Fronia E. Wissman
Pomegranate Publications
Box 6099, Rohnert Park, CA 94927
0-87654-582-7 $30.00 1-800-227-1428
Fronia Wissman's Bouguereau offers astute and illuminating insights into
his art, career, and family life of the French artist Adolphe-William
Bouguereau (1825-1905) whose evocative visions of a better, purer time and
place earned him a passionate following during his lifetime down through
the present. 60 full color reproductions and 15 black & white
illustrations perfectly exemplify Bouguereau's prodigious talent in
creating works of sensual, emotional, and intellectual appeal. By the time
of his death in 1905, Bouguereau was scorned by progressive painters and
critics who saw in his works all that was wrong with the official French
world of art, but he was also a favorite of collectors, who found in his
paintings of bathers, nymphs, and shepherdesses a
realm of eternal beauty far from contemporary life. Bouguereau displayed
his talent for drawing at a very early age, became educated at the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was a highly successful portraitist, was
exhibited at the Salon to an enthusiastic public, and had his work
recognized and awarded at various European expositions during his life.
Bouguereau is a beautiful tribute to an artist and would grace any art
school, community, or personal art library!
The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America
John Villani
John Muir Publications
PO Box 613, Santa Fe, NM 87504
1-56261-275-1 $15.95 1-800-888-7504
The 100 Best Small Art Towns In America: Where To Discover Creative
Communities, Fresh Air, And Affordable Living profiles and ranks the top
towns across the country with information on population, economics, real
estate, climate, recreation, and local arts organizations. Included are
quotes from local artists and extended profiles on ten towns. Criteria for
selection as on of the 100 best small art towns include: location, quality
of life, available cultural activities, the economic impact of the arts on
each town, an active local arts agency, galleries, art festivals and the
opinion of artists within each community. The 100 Best Small Towns In
America also includes a bonus section on the very best spots in Canada!
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