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Reviews (1)

great
It had great pictures of 24 of his paintings that are in the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersberg FL. Only downside- didn't have a picture of "The Persitance of Memory",because the painting is not in the Salvador Dali Museum. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1973 Walker Evans began to work with the innovative Polaroid SX-70 camera and was given an unlimited supply of film from its manufacturer. The virtues of this camera, introduced in 1972, perfectly fit Evans's search for a concise yet poetic vision of his world: its instant prints were for the infirm seventy-year-old photographer what scissors and cut paper were for the aging Matisse. The unique SX-70 prints are the artist's last photographs, the culmination of half a century of work in photography. With this new camera, Evans returned to some of his key motifs -signs, posters, and their ultimate reduction, the letter itself. "Nobody should touch a Polaroid until he's over sixty," Evans once said. It was only, he implied, after years of work and struggle and experimentation, years of developing one's judgment and vision, that the instrument could be pushed to its full, revelatory potential. Using the SX-70, and leaving aside the intricacies of photographic technique, Evans stripped photography to its bare essentials: seeing and choosing. The 300 images in this book, almost all of them unpublished, were selected from a total of approximately 2500 Polaroids that Evans left behind when he died in 1975. The size of the book and the page design follow a sample page created by Evans.
Edited by Jeff L. Rosenheim.

Hardcover, 8 x 10 inches, 265 color illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Instant Pictures!
This is a near perfect, and very moving book. As the editor says in his introduction, Walker Evans was an ailing, elderly statesman whose best photographs were seemingly behind him when he decided to use a Polaroid SX-70 camera. The results obtained over the year or so that he photographed are startling. Here are examples of "seeing" in their purest form....the small intense prints are fading away as polaroids are apt to do, but they are exquisite and are simply the final amazing burst of creative activity of a master. The presentation here is great....one print per page, actual size and no text. Beautiful!
Please note...the book contains about 170 photos, and is 184 pages.
Recommended very highly, and "less is more".

Pure Composition
Superficially, this book of over 120 colour plates of Walker Evans' Polaroids could be categorised as a 'novelty' piece, much like the recent 'Ansel Adams in Color,' (Harry Callaghan, ed). Adams' colour work, however, never represented much more than a curious footnote in the master craftsman's career; Adams' overwhelming importance is in how he brought breathtaking drama to his prints through his use of the zone system, and a refined, exacting, approach to the printing process.

Walker Evans, on the other hand, was almost the opposite of Adams in his approach to the finished photograph: His approach centered more on a refinement of composition, and of excising the non-essential and extraneous from his final prints. Yet, along with Adams, he shared a disdain for colour photography -- both found it to be 'garish,' 'vulgar.'

However, this work -- which represents the final chapter in Evans' artistic life -- is a radical departure from his stated aversion to colour photography. The story is equally intriguing.

As Walker Evans approached 70, divorced and in failing health, it seemed that his creative days were behind him. He had produced some images since the mid 1960s, but it became increasingly difficult for him to have to schlep around his cumbersome view camera and tripod. Quite fortuitously, though, the Polaroid corporation sent Evans its SX-70 auto-focus camera and an unlimited supply of film, hoping that the prestige of Evans' name would have help market its latest camera. Suddenly, Evans found his artistic 'second wind,' and began manically snapping up instant photographs with this simple camera he referred to affectionately as 'the toy.'

In the last two and-a-half years of his life, Evans would eventually take more than 2500 pictures with this camera. The photographs contained within are pure Walker Evans: Sometimes simple, sometimes complex, but always perfect compositions, always ruthlessly cropped within the camera. Evans commented about this camera "that nobody should touch a Polaroid until he's over sixty." Yet, viewing Evans' prints, which combines a colourful joy de vivre within the context of refined taste, it becomes obvious that anyone aspiring to the title of 'artist' or 'serious photographer' should not be permitted to advance to medium format or large format view cameras until he's mastered the art of composition with this seemingly innocuous 'toy.' Keep in mind that the photographs within are in the shape of a perfect square, a much more difficult canvas on which to let the compositional elements coalesce than the easy rectangle offered by 35mm cameras.

Many of the plates in 'Polaroids' were first published in earlier volumes, such as 'Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye' (1993) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2000 retrospective, which along with this volume, was also edited by Jeff Rosenheim. The only drawback to this book, is that the photographs are printed 1:1 to the actual prints (just 3-1/8" sqaure) and are somewhat darker than in the two previous volumes, obscuring some detail. Also, the colours have also faded since the two previous volumes' release, showing just how fragile the Polaroid medium is.

Nonetheless, this volume was worth every penny I paid for it: There is such a serendipitous element of wry humour, even whimsy, that is both intimate and charming, and relate to the viewer Evans' essentially benevolent outlook on life, much of which had been brought back by this 'toy.'

Many of the photographs are purely abstract, but some are also literal in nature: Breaking down lettering in signage and from traffic markings, Evans attempted to collect a series of all the letters of the alphabet in idealised form. There are also some photos of signs that are witty puns (such as the 'IQ' isolated from a 'LIQUOR' sign) or double-entendre, such as the railway placard 'DO NOT HUMP.'

But best of all are his simple compositions of ordinary objects, such as a garden spade, a half-eaten blueberry pie, kitchen utensils, a mailbox, a dress-makers manequin and -- of course -- signs. Evans took deceptively prosaic objects, photographing them in an almost 'objective,' documentary manner, yet endowed them with his intelligent sense of selective observation. In his introduction, Rosenheim noted Evans' 1971 comment in relating Evans' aesthetic method: 'The secret of photography is, the camera takes on the character and the personality of the handler. The mind works on the machine -- through it, rather.'

In his adolesence, Walker Evans dreamed of becoming an author, a literary man of letters. He found out, however, early-on that he was better-suited to photography. But in the twilight of his years, he left the world his final chapter in the story of his life, this collection of Polaroids. These delicate, sardonic and bittersweet images more than fulfill his early aspirations, for all their visual prose and poetry. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1308, Duccio di Buoninsegna, one of the foremost European artists and the founder of the Sienese school, signed a contract to paint a panel for the high altar of Siena's cathedral. Three years later, the richest and most complex altarpiece ever created in Italy--the Maest--was carried amid general jubilation from the artist's workshop to be installed in the cathedral. It was the greatest achievement of Duccio's career and remains one of the most beautiful works in Italian art. Centuries later, the altarpiece was removed from the cathedral and several panels were separated from it. While most of the Maest--forty-six panels--survives in Siena's Cathedral Museum, parts of it can be found in museum collections around the world, including the National Gallery and the Frick Collection. This book brings together the known fragments and unites them with the two-sided altarpiece, illustrating the work in 150 sumptuous color plates, many of which reproduce details in actual size. The central panel on the front of the altarpiece shows the Virgin Enthroned with Angels and Saints, while the back contains mainly scenes from the Passion. Other panels depict the Apostles and scenes from the Life of Christ and the Gospel story. The authoritative text, by a noted Italian art historian, discusses the social and historical context of Duccio's commission, the artist's relationship with Cimabue and Giotto, and the influence of the work on Sienese and Italian painting. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great idea, variable reproductions
Any lover of Duccio's poetic and heartbreaking paintings will certainly want this book. But let the buyer be aware that many of the remarkable close up , actual-sized photographs are so out of color that the experience is compromised. As great an attempt as this book is in providing clear and insightful essays and the wealth of photos, each time I open the book, the overwhelmingly "hot" nature of the salmonly reproductions diminish the experience. ... Read more

Book Description

Original compilation of 41 full-page and six half-page drawings—some finished sketches; others, studies for future works—depict dancers on stage, in the classroom, and at rehearsals. Charming, spirited views of dancers pirouetting, executing grand battements and ports de bras, practicing at the barre, adjusting their costumes in moments of repose, and more.Delightful drawings to be enjoyed by lovers of art or the dance.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

A must have for Degas fans
This book is worth every penny you pay for it, and then some. It gives you a full page of information on Degas at the beginning of the book. Just 1 page. The next 44 pages are his sketches. You get 47 of these, most of them fill the entire page. Each plate is of the highest quality. It's almost as if you're looking directly into Degas' sketchbook. Alot of them even show where he made changes to what he originally drew. Most of them have his notes. Nearly all of them have his signature. Printed under each plate is it's title, size, and year it was drawn. This is, for the most part, the beginning of his wonderful paintings. The sketches from his studies of the dancers.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who even remotely likes Degas, or anyone who likes good art. The sketches are just beautiful, and there isn't a whole lot of history overshadowing the art. This book is just amazing. A must have! ... Read more

Book Description

Fascinated with optical effects and visual perception, Salvador Dali created paintings of gripping intensity and astonishing variety. This book focuses on Dali`s use of such pictorial techniques as distorted perspective, double images, and three-dimensional illusions, as well as photographs and holograms, to explore perception, perspective, and the ways that optical illusion affects our sense of reality. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

In reply to review no.1
Hallucinagenic Toreador is a painting that can never leave the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, and therefore could not, sadly, be included in the exhibition (and catalogue). Plenty of other double images were though.

not what I expected
I have an earlier book from author Ades that had text that was very good. I bought this book thinking Hallucenogenic Torreador would definately be in it- one of his most interesting optical illusions...and it wasn't in there!Pictures are big but I think she could have used more that she didnt. I sent it back as it wasnt worth $40... if it would have been in paperback and cheaper, I would have thought twice. Hope this helps.

A "must" for all Salvador Dali fans.
Dali's Optical Illusions is the first to probe Dali's fascination with optical effects and perception, packing in examples of Dali's works and commenting on his sources, inspiration, and methods. Accompanying discussions to each page of illustration comment on technique, inspiration, and visual impact of Deli's images. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is the first on Paul Delvaux to be written in English.David Scott looks at the artist's works from the 1930s onwards andexamines how his surrealist dreamlike paintings, depicting scenes oferotic nudes in classical landscapes, showed influences from both thetradition of European figurative painting and twentieth-centurySurrealism. ... Read more

Book Description

Thomas Eakins (1844–1916) is one of the most fascinating andimportant personalities in the history of American art. His memorable and much-lovedscenes of rowing, sailing, and boxing as well as his deeply moving portraits are renownedfor their vibrant realism and dramatic intensity. This beautiful and insightful book,published in conjunction with a major exhibition on the life and career of Eakins--thefirst in twenty years--presents a fresh perspective on the artist and his remarkableaccomplishments.Lavishly illustrated with more than 250 of Eakins's most significantpaintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculpture, the book features essays by prominentscholars who place his art in the context of the history and culture of late nineteenth- century Philadelphia, where he lived. The contributors also discuss how Eakins appliedhis French academic training to subjects that were distinctly American and part of hisown immediate and complex experience.Eakins's own photographs, which he used aspart of his unique creative process, are also examined for the first time in the full contextof his life's work. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

And research turns to wonder...
I'm a rower in high school on the west coast, and you don't really hear much about rowing over here, since it's mostly an east coast sport. So when my history teacher started going over Thomas Eakins and showed a clip about him from a documentary with some examples of his rowing paintings, my attention was immediately captures. I decided to do my term paper on him, but I expected it to be a long and tedious process, judging from the book I got from the library (which looked plain, boring, and old), so I put it off 'till the last minute. I just picked up the book an hour ago for the first time and just got online to see if they had any copies of it ..., since it proved to be well-written and interesting (so you don't space out so much in the middle of paragraphs like I tend to), and because it led me to think about things that are important parts of learning and art and life, but nobody ever talks about. This book proved to be insightful and fascinating, and after only one chapter, I'm hooked on the subject! And to think I was dreading reading it!

A BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE TO EAKINS THE ARTIST
Anecdotes abound in reference to Thomas Eakins American painter, watercolorist, draftsman, photographer, and sculptor. He is remembered for relaxing after painting by working calculus problems, and shocking friends with stories of his nude models.

A skilled portraitist he painted Walt Whitman. The poet said of his likeness, "I never knew of but one artist, and that's Tom Eakins, who could resist the temptation to see what they think ought to be rather than what is."

Whitman's opinion aside, Eakins (1844 - 1916) is recognized as one of the premier American artists to appear following the Civil War. He traveled to Paris for training, and later chose to apply Beaux-Arts techniques to distinctly American subjects. His fondness for athletics is found in his noted scenes of sailing, fishing, and boxing.

He is equally remembered for his then controversial paintings of surgeons at work, and remains a key figure in American art. This beautiful volume is apt affirmation of Eakins the artist.

- Gail Cooke ... Read more

Amazon.com

Robert Doisneau: A Photographer's Life covers the renowned work of the French photographer famous for the 1950 picture Le Baiser de le Hotel de Ville ("Kiss at the Hotel"). This frequently reproduced portrait of an attractive couple frozen in an embrace while Parisian city life whirls around them is an archetypal emblem of romance. It's pretty surprising to learn that Doisneau hired young actors for his entire kissing series; nevertheless, the moment rings undeniably true. Maybe it's his beginnings in advertising or his fashion work for Vogue that lend his images equal parts of real life and theater.

Doisneau (1912-1994) spent his lifetime recording life in France. With his combination of photojournalism and art, he captured nightclubs, the Parisian working-class suburbs, national monuments, weddings, and famous folk like Picasso. Some of the most riveting pictures are of resistance fighters in the midst of the Occupation--young men in civilian clothes, sportcoats and all, standing with guns behind homemade barricades. Accompanying the hundreds of pictures are in-depth chapters that discuss the different periods in Doisneau's life and work. From his childhood, through the war, and on to his fascination with the banlieues (suburbs), the well-researched text gives invaluable insight into this influential photographer's practice. --J.P.Cohen ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Wonderful!
This book is a marvelously comprehensive collection of Doisneau's work. The photographs are beautifully reproduced, and reflect the character of a city and its people with humor, pathos, and great dignity. The text is clear, concise, and extremely insightful, with some extraordinary quotes and commentary from not only Doisneau himself, but other gifted artists of his time. A book to treasure!

Delightful!
Delightful photographs in fine reproduction with interesting and readable insight into the man behind the camera.

It was terrible!
It was really boring and I didn't like how the author rambled on and on about nothing important at all. It was the most awful book I have ever read. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Greatest Artist Of The 19th Century
Edgar Degas has a special place in my heart. No other artist used as many women as Degas did for subject. He is my favorite Impressionist artist and I regard his art as the finest, most realistic, meaningful and most beautiful of the late 19th century. Degas is most famous for his paintings of ballerinas, but he was a prolific artist and seemed to live only for his art.
When he died, he expressed his final wish: that during his funeral service, speeches must indicate that his greatest love was art and that he should be remembered as a great artist.

That's exactly how we remember him. This book provides a plethora of his paintings, and details about his life. It's very sad that this book is close to becoming out of print. I am honored to be the first to review this book. The cover painting is "L'Etoile" or "The Star on Stage". Degas painted ballerinas in the French opera-theaters in the 1870's. He was influenced by Japenese prints which enabled him to draw harmony and space. He was able to capture the transience of life, fleeting moments, as the ballerinas danced or moved in the stage during a performance. He also painted them during rehearsals and waiting in flocks in the wings. The pastels and oils were vibrant, colorful and made the ballerinas look nearly surreal in their artificial theatrical surrounding scenery. For contrast to the light and bright colors, he included gentlemen in dark suites waiting for the ballerinas backstage or observing them from a distance.

Edgar Degas, a gifted intellectual, had many friends in the art and literary world. Among his friends were the Naturalist writer Emile Zola and the Impressionist artist Edouard Manet. Degas participated in the Impressionist Exhibitions, was part of the movement by all means, although he considered himself a Realist painter of natural movement and contemporary society. He was a modern man in many respects and it was Degas who personally defended and helped Mary Cassat, the feminist and professional artist from America, exhibit with the Impressionists. This was a time when the art world was still very male-dominated. Mary Cassat and Edgar Degas remained good friends for many years.

This book seems to be Edgar Degas life through his paintings. Here, we see everything about him and we discover how unique and interesting he was. He never married, there was never any evidence that he fell in love, and although many accused him of voyeurism and presenting women as objects, this is not true. He loved women and respected them and treated them not only as works of great art but examples of people in motion. Later on, his subjects were prostitutes (albeit veiled by the guise of elegant high-class women in cafes), nightclub singers, and "bathers" as they fussed over their bodies and hair or other bedroom objects. Edgar Degas was incredibly gifted and a fine pro-feminist painter, despite what others might think.

To sum up everything he stood for, Degas himself said his art was intended to give "truth an illusion of madness". He was a true artist in the very sense of the word. No artist of the 19th century, in France, could compare to his dedication and his intelligence. Viva Edgar Degas! His paintings, originals, are still on display in the Louvre and in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. A trip there is a pilgrimage to ballet lovers and fans of Degas paintings. ... Read more

Book Description

In Odd Man Out, Carol Armstrong offers an important study of Edgar Degas's work and reputation. Armstrong grapples with contradictory portrayals of Degas as "odd man out" within the modernist canon: he was a realist whom realists rejected; a storyteller in pictures who did not satisfy novelist-critics; a painter of modern life who was not a modernist; a member of the impressionist group who was no impressionist. Armstrong confronts these and other paradoxes by analyzing the critical vocabularies used to describe Degas's work. By reading several groups of the artist's images through the lens of a sequence of critical texts, Armstrong shows how our critical and popular expectations of Degas are overturned and subverted. This is a reprint of the book first published by the University of Chicago Press in 1991. ... Read more

Book Description

Leonardo da Vinci's studies of physiognomy, the divinely beautiful and the grotesquely ugly, are some of the most idiosyncratic and fascinating works ever produced by this archetypal genius. This book looks in detail at eighty examples of Leonardo's drawings from the unrivaled collection preserved in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, and is the first work on the subject aimed at a general audience.

In his introductory essay, Martin Clayton explores the roots of Leonardo's life-long urge to create such drawings. Individual entries look in detail at each of the selected works, placing them in the context of contemporary attitudes to beauty, notions of perfect proportion, popular images of the comically ugly, and accepted modes of artistic creation and social behavior. Among the drawings are studies for Leonardo's masterpieces such as the Last Supper and Leda and the Swan, portraits of Leonardo's associates, dissections of skulls, and designs for masks. The pursuit of beauty and its opposite was one of the central themes of Leonardo's life, and this is the first book to explore the subject fully. 105 illustrations, 80 in color. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great Artist!
I feel that this book was very good it truly showed who Eisenstaedt was. It showed great views of his pictures and was wonderfully written. I truly liked this book. I only wish it could have had more on this life. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Katherine Crawford Luber examines twenty-five paintings by the German artist in an effort to reevaluate his relationship to contemporary Italian art and his status as a painter. Luber explains how DÜrer appropriated Venetian techniques and suggests that the artist was engaged in the exploration of an atmospheric, coloristic perspective. She argues that this exploration unifies DÜrer's work and necessitates a reassessment of the critical division between his painted and graphic work. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Sienese painting is often thought of in reference to the strikingly colorful and beautifully designed paintings of Duccio di Buoninsegna, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti brothers, from the dawn of the Italian Renaissance. This sumptuous book carefully traces that glorious early heritage. But it also extends its reach forward to about 1700 in order to include many later artists, with whom readers may not be as familiar, such as Rutilio Manetti, whose passionate style was radically altered after he came into contact with the revolutionary work of Caravaggio. The last chapters contain Baroque paintings of extraordinary color and warmth, such as Domenico Beccafumi's shadowy, sweet Annunciation. Nonetheless, it is the almost magically compelling early Sienese masters who dominate this volume. Lorenzetti's intricate Effects of Good Government in the Town and Countryside, for example, from the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, is thoughtfully reproduced both in its entirety, in a four-page fold-out, and in many details that do justice to such minutiae as the chain holding two hunting dogs together, or a pheasant flushed from a wheat field. Even amateur art lovers will sense both the piety and the struggle toward naturalism that inform the earliest of these works. The angel whispering to the saint, the rich red robe of Christ, Mary's sober countenance--all seem imbued with fervor, both painterly and religious.

This book gives the reader the closest possible look at these masterworks.It is organized chronologically, with thoroughly documented texts on each period and every work, printed in excellent, well-spaced type. One small flaw in an otherwise beautifully designed book: there are no dates or measurements in the captions. --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A sumptuously produced book, with some flaws.
'Sienese Painting' is a sumptuously produced book (it has some 350 illustrations, with 200 in colour) and as a general survey certainly does its job well. It does have a flaw however, namely in the lack of clear connections between the text and the illustrations.Indeed in a number of instances references are made in the text to paintings which are frustratingly not illustrated. There is a positive side to this of course: one's reading experience becomes much more interactive as one searches over a number of pages for the painting which is being discussed. Finding it becomes a real, and memorable, pleasure! This is really the only large survey of Sienese painting currently available and given that it has so many wonderful illustrations and a generally informative text I would, even with the above reservation, recommend it.

Extraordinary pictorial content
This volume is the ideal resource for those interested in the scholarship and pictorial wonder of the Sienese painters in Early Renaissance art. The enlarged sections are magnificently rendered. A wonderful alternative companion volume to the 1988 Met exhibition catalog (Painting in Renaissance Siena)which is unfortunately now out of print. A masterwork indeed. ... Read more