Book Description

First published in 1939, An American Exodus is one of the masterpieces of the documentary genre. Produced by incomparable documentary photographer Dorothea Lange with text by her husband, Paul Taylor, An American Exodus was taken in the early 1930s while the couple were working for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) The book documents the rural poverty of the depression-era exodus that brought over 300,000 migrants to California in search of farm work, a westward mass migration driven by economic deprivation as opposed to the Manifest Destiny of 19th century pioneers. This facsimile edition of the original volume reintroduces this sought-after work of art-a pioneering book that was among the first to combine photographs with oral testimony-to a contemporary audience, providing an insight into the struggles of the Depression as well as offering a profound and timeless look at the human condition. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

On the road, Thirties style.
A well printed paperback facsimile of the original 1939 hardback edition of this famous book. The 112 photos, one to a page with a short headline and quote, capture the desperate times thousands of farmers and their families endured in the South and Midwest and their migration to an uncertain future in California. Nearly all of the photos were taken by Dorothea Lange and this includes forty-six that she took for the Farm Security Administration between 1935 and 1938.

In the back of the book there are two essays, one by Sam Stourdze, is an excellent explanation of how Lange and Taylor compiled the book. The sales fell well short of their expectations and Stourdze comments "the rigor of its approach, the verism of its oral testimony and the radicality of its photographs were hardly designed to have mass appeal" Quite right I think, having looked through the book many times I don't think the powerful photos are backed up by adequate captions. All the photos are anonymous, even the ones with people, and surely any reader would want to know who are these folk, what is their story? This information was available because Lange took detailed notes on all her photographic assignments. It's as if the author's thought the only way they could put their point across was in an abstract way and ignore the very human turmoil the photos clearly show. In 1937 photographer Margaret Bourke-White and writer Erskine Caldwell compiled a similar photo book about the living conditions of the desperately poor rural underclass, called 'You Have Seen Their Faces' (reissued as a paperback in 1995) but here the photos and captions blend together better.

'An American Exodus' is a book of remarkable photos and well worth having if you are interested in America during the Depression years. BTW, the book reproduces the back dust jacket of the original and the New York publisher, Reynal & Hitchcock, list other "Vital books of our Time" and for three bucks you could buy 'Mein Kampf' by Adolf Hitler, "The blueprint of the Nazi program by the man who is shaking the world. No American should miss it".

Heart-wrenching vignettes of depression-era refugees
These heart-breaking black & whites were shot while Lange and her husband Paul Taylor were under contract with the Federal WPA and chronicle the exodus of dustbowl refugees of the Great Depression and the anguish of their daily struggles for survival in the 'promised land' of California. Some of these photographs are difficult to view, giving an infinite depth-of-field perspective of the arid, ruined farms and starving families of the midwest hitch-hiking or walking (sometimes barefoot) to find a better life. For it's superb detail, brutal realism, and captured raw emotion, this collection is regarded as one of the most important photographic documentaries published during the 20th century. It is criminal this masterful work has not been reissued in affordable hardback binding. Scholar, amateur photographer, and layman will surely peruse these monumental pages with pleasure for years to come. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (5)

Even his rough sketches have a quality few can match
It is a tribute to the artistic genius of Leonardo da Vinci that even his rough sketches have a dynamic quality that few people can match. The 60 sketches in this collection are sometimes rough, and yet they exhibit a detail and a precision that make them look like finished works. The level of detail in his anatomical drawings is so exquisite, that the bulges in the muscles appear to extend out of the page. Many of his sketches also represent daily events such a storm over a village, a grove of trees, plants in the wild and sometimes just the heads of people met in public.
My favorite is the sketch of drapery laying on an upraised surface. So lifelike that it is superior to many photographs, the level of detail is amazing. Arguably the most talented person who ever lived, da Vinci is clearly one of the best at drawing the world has ever seen. After looking at these drawings, no one could ever doubt that supposition.

A good reference book.
This small book is great for a quick reference to a DaVinci drawing but its not good for really anything else. Its just what you should get if you need a DaVinci drawing for a quick study. There are all types of drawing examples in it. I suppose its worth the money.

The Master's Work Is Incomparable
This is a good collection of da Vinci's drawings. It is one of the best among those in the Dover Art Library. A few of the pictures so vividly captured the instantaneous expressions of men in various emotional states that one is left breathless by da Vinci's incomparable power of observation and stunning drawing skills. Another bunch of drawings had complicated contents and they all showed amazingly accurate perspective geometry. One is left with no doubt that the great artist is no less a great scientist.

This book, being a collection of drawings, does little to teach, but it is a good reference and a standard of excellence for comparison with other drawings. I recommend it for any serious art student.

Great for drawing practice
This booklet is good for copying practice. All of the lines are clear, but deterioration marks transferred on some sheets. Figurative drawing is best represented, but there is also some architecture, flowers, horses, landscape, and two drapery studies. The text is minimal, but it provides the date, location and materials used for each sheet.

If you want a more beautiful book, Clayton's "LdV: A Singular Vision". It has many of the same drawings (and many more) cleaned up in full color (lines lighter, but still clear). Marani's "LdV: The Complete Paintings" also has clean reproductions of many of these drawings (usually smaller) and excellent reproductions of the paintings.

the ultimate picture book
This a great book if you're looking to decorate your room, but it's not much for explanations. It is very lacking in text, but then again, the prints more than speak for themselves. A great book for any art collector. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Outstanding retrospective
This book is a wonderful introduction and overview of the career of Micheal Kenna. Kenna's long-lived exposures and unusual eye for his subject material are unmistakably unique It is no wonder he is considered one of the world's most collectible photographers and apppeals to collectors just beginning to develop an interest in photography. ... Read more

Book Description

A true genius whose talents embraced painting, engineering, anatomy, and flight, Leonardo da Vinci was--and remains--an extraordinary human being, indeed one of the most intriguing figures in world history, as the recent success of The Da Vinci Code attests. Now, in this new biography, Martin Kemp explores the essential nature of this forever fascinating artist-engineer, both as an individual and as a historical phenomenon.How can we best understand Leonardo? How did his mind work--was he prolific but scattered in his thinking, or is there a method in what often seems to be his madness? Was he basically an artist who also pursued science and technology, or was "science"--his understanding of the physical world--central to his artistic vision? In Leonardo, Martin Kemp offers a vivid portrait of the Renaissance giant that answers these questions and more. The book takes us on an absorbing journey through the life and work of Leonardo, looking first at the historical man, portraying an impressive and cultivated figure, an artist who in truth completed few paintings, rarely satisfied a commission, and yet lived in style and ended his career with a massive salary. More important, the author examines the ideas underlying Leonardo's investigations of nature, illuminating his vision of the artist-engineer as matching nature itself in his creativity. Kemp argues that Leonardo's apparent diversities reveal a desire to find an inner unity in the functioning of everything in the observable world. For Leonardo, writes Kemp, every act of looking and drawing was an act of analysis, and he used these analyses to re-make and re-interpret his surroundings. In a final chapter, Kemp also comments on the Da Vinci Code and "the continuing public appetite for Leonardo and his doings." Beautifully illustrated with a unique "thumbnail museum" that offers a tour of all Leonardo's paintings, plus 30 additional illustrations and life-size reproductions of pages from his famous notebooks, Leonardo is a powerful portrait of one of the towering geniuses of world history. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Please fix the spelling of the name
The middle initial for Clare Bell is P, not ... Read more

Book Description

This visually stunning collection of all Klimt’s landscape paintings and drawings brings to light a little-known aspect of the Viennese painter’s oeuvre, proving that his mastery extends beyond portraiture, and revealing themes that appeared throughout his life’s work. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Lee Krasner was one of the central figures in twentieth century American art, but as the wife of famed abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollack, she was often hidden in the long shadow cast by her husband. Every known example of her work is listed here--some 600 works in oil, collage, mosaic, and on paper--including its exhibition history, provenance, and title changes. Nearly every work is illustrated, and there are 267 plates in full color in this long-awaited reference on one of our most important artists, and one of the few such studies ever devoted to a female artist. Ellen Landau, a professor in the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Museum of Art Joint Program in Art History, is also the author of a monograph on Pollack. ... Read more

Book Description

An intimate friendship of more than three decades is chronicled here, along with the aesthetic evolution of two major American artists. R.B. Kitaj's unusual, handsome, troubled, charismatic face has been a rich subject for Lee Friedlander's camera since the two artists became friends in 1970, when both were teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Kitaj" begins and ends with photographs shot in Los Angeles, and the artist's passage from raw and vigorous young man to grizzly, white-haired prophet is charted through more than 90 images. A frank and moving series of images from 1994, focused on Kitaj during the days following his wife Sandra's sudden and unexpected death, achieve a disarming intimacy that could only have been the result of a deep and trusting friendship. "Kitaj" includes a reminiscence by Kitaj himself as well as an introduction by Friedlander's wife, Maria. A great photograph is like a great translation, which gives you a little something of a more gorgeous original. It's a short-lived illusion glancing my day. That's why we place photos of loved ones around the house. They escape the tomb, don't they? We read and reread them into a spectral life. --R.B. KitajI can sympathize with Kitaj that at times he would wish to look better in a certain photo, to be rendered differently... But there we are, both Kitaj and myself, I for more than forty years and Kitaj for over thirty, accepting ourselves as subjects for a photographer we trust. --Maria Friedlander
Introduction by Maria Friedlander. Afterword by R.B. Kitaj.

9.5 x 9.5 in.
96 duotone illustrations ... Read more

Book Description

A beautifully illustrated coffee table art book that weaves its way through the art and mythology of The Da Vinci Code, this book is an art guide to unlocking The Da Vinci Code. Beautiful illustrations and insightful narratives guide the reader through the art and mythology and make us feel we are privy to the keys that unlock the secrets of The Da Vinci Code.

If you are like most readers, you mentally visualize the people, scenery, architecture, and objects described in whatever text you are perusing. The idea for this companion book to Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code was conceived by readers who, like you, do just that. Although they had created their own imaginary images to supplement their reading of this best selling novel, they wanted to actually see the images described and used to develop the plot. The Art and Mythology of the Da Vinci Code, by David Morris, provides the opportunity to do exactly that.It offers photographs of all the major buildings, landmarks, art and mythology referenced in Dan Brown's best selling novel.The images are presented in the order that the theological references, theories, and clues are provided to solve the mystery.Whether you are reading the novel because it's a great mystery or because you are intrigued by the theological hypotheses, this volume will exponentially enrich the experience.If you have already read the novel, this volume will allow you to revisit the art and mythology and perhaps expand your knowledge of them. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A spectacular augmentation to a masterpiece of fiction
What a tremendous addition to a great work.As a published author and someone with an insatiable appetite for reading, I was, like so many others, mesmerized by The DaVinci Code.What a tremendous bonus to discover 'The Art and Mythology of the DaVinci Code by David Morris.If you attempt to conjure images while reading (don't we all?), this work is nothing short of remarkable.While well read, I am not well traveled, making this work all the more enjoyable.I found myself re-reading DaVinci!!Don't miss this masterpiece.

extremely interesting
I have truly enjoyed every minute of it.The perpetual beauty of the book is remarkable.The perfect view and clearity of the pictures give you a 'being there' feeling; however, the knowledge that pours from the words are eqaully superb. Overall, this is a must have book to complete one's collection. ... Read more

Book Description

In small, stunningly rendered self-portraits, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo painted herself cracked open, hemorrhaging during a miscarriage, anesthetized on a hospital gurney, and weeping beside her own extracted heart. Her works are so incendiary in emotion and subject matter that one art critic suggested the walls of an exhibition be covered with asbestos.

In this beautiful book, art historian Hayden Herrera brings together numerous paintings and sketches by the amazing Mexican artist, documenting each with explanatory text that probes the influences in Kahlo's life and their meaning for her work. Included among the illustrations are more than eighty full-color paintings, as well as dozens of black-and-white pictures and line illustrations. Among the famous and little-known works included in Frida Kahlo: The Paintings are The Two Fridas, Self-Portrait as a Tehuana, Without Hope, The Dream, The Little Deer, Diego and I, Henry Ford Hospital, My Birth, and My Nurse and I. Here, too, are documentary photographs of Frida Kahlo and her world that help to illuminate the various stages of her life.

Reviews (5)

The best Kahlo bio out there
This is easily, and without fluff, the best Frida Kahlo bio in print. Herrera not only has a great gift with wordds, but she truly gets within Kahlo's turbulent times, affairs and issues to paint a very descriptive world of this brilliant, tortured woman.

A beautiful, beautiful book
My children gave this book to me for Christmas as a companion to Frida's biography. It is beautiful and comprehensive. A must-have for any fan of her work.

Nice
This is a very nice combination of biographical information and art. A little of both keeps the book interesting. The quality is very good and I was a little surprised how nice the images were for the price.

A-MAZ-ING
This book is spectacular. I hardly knew of Frida until this book but it sparked such an intrest I couldn't put it down for a moment. I highly reccomend it.

Captivating
The book, as noted, focuses on her paintings and covers a wide spectrum of her work. I couldn't put it down. I was captivated by Frida's work, and the comments, stories and history added by the author were excellent - relevant, interesting and informative. I recommend it to anyone interested in this fascinating and unique paintor. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Sol LeWitt "is to art as Bach was to music," says conceptual artist Adrian Piper, indicating LeWitt's seminal importance to both the theory and practice of contemporary art. LeWitt's creations are the direct embodiments of his theoretical writings, abstract principles that he develops with supreme integrity into physical form. Recognizing his key role in the minimalist and conceptual movements of the 1960s and '70s, New York's MoMA gave LeWitt a major retrospective in 1978. Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective and the accompanying exhibition organized by Gary Garrels of the San Francisco Museum of Modern bring us up-to-date.

During the '80s and '90s, LeWitt's work moved from a cerebral asceticism toward rich color and surfaces and a more explicit sensuality and expressiveness. Nearly 500 carefully chosen and well-reproduced photographs and drawings document this evolution. Together with a sampling of LeWitt's own pithy statements, lucid essays by seven of America's leading curators analyze his contributions to contemporary art. Typical of his methods and attitudes are his signature large-scale wall paintings, their sense of movement and bright bands of color making them among the most gorgeous of his works. While articulating the designs of the wall paintings and the concepts behind them, LeWitt does not paint them himself. He is generous in welcoming anyone else to give physical reality to his designs: "It would be a compliment," he says. Sol LeWitt is a beautiful and substantial book, and its range of illustration and depth of scholarship make it the definitive study of this highly influential artist. --John Stevenson ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Not just a coffee table book!
For those of you have seen the Sol LeWitt exhibits, this book captures many of those works and more. It offers background information and discussion.

However, this book goes beyond the exhibit installations and shows examples of installations around the world (outdoor structures, indoor wall murals, etc). These are things by an accomplished artist that are just not "out there" for you and I to view.

For those who don't know, Sol Lewitt is an amazingly talented and intelligent artist. Yes, intelligent. Almost autistic seeming at times, Sol Lewitt has a way of setting up circumstances for artistic study and then executing *every* *single* possibility as deemed by those circumstances. In one exhibit (shown in this book), Sol LeWitt examines and deconstructs all the possible forms of an open frame cube. In other examples (also in this book and at the exhibit) are line drawings examining the interaction of hundreds of overlapping circles emanating from various points on the canvas.

Much Sol Lewitt's work goes unnoticed (not much of a web presence, and hard to find posters, examples and pictures). This book helped fill in the gaps and offer a more rounded treatise of his work. Having owned it for months, it is still a pleasure to flip through this book and explore the concepts and discoveries that the artist has gone through. These discoveries are amazingly illustrated (few art books capture the entire series and the evolution of the artist like this one does).

I have enjoyed this book tremendously....it is a sizeable book that is worth the money and is well put together. Worth the purchase.

The Show Itself
I saw LeWitt's "Retrospective" show in Chicago and loved it.It's great that a book is offered of such a fabulous show that offers the diverse and evolving work of one of the best contemporary artists in the U.S. If the book is anything like the show, I highly recommend it as an enjoyable addition to anyone's collection of art books.

lewitt is rad
sol lewitt is my #1 favorite artist. i own many books of his work, and i must say that this is one of the most complete. its got everything. if you went to the sf moma and saw this exibition you wont be dissapointed by this book, it captures it the experience well. if you ever get the chance to see lewitts work in person, DO NOT MISS IT ! you will regret it ! in person these works are extremely powerful !

A Fine Catalogue of a Superb Exhibit
Sol LeWitt is an artist for whom the catalogue is both essential and apt. Because his conception and work mainly consists of a set of instructions that are then executed by other artists, the results can be displayed in many different places. While the literally enormous beauty of the wall paintings and drawings cannot be displayed in the book, that's not the point. The paintings and drawings themselves are temporary, to be whitewashed over when the exhibit 'moves' on. The catalogue provides the valuable service of capturing moments in time when the work was someplace, and brings that to the reader, along with excellent essays on the artist.

Beautiful but small
The great thing about Sol LeWitt is that his wall painting surround the observor overwhelming them is color, shapes, textures, and patterns. Any book of Sol LeWitt's paintings will be a letdown for this reason because they simply can't have the size of the real thing. Nevertheless, the photography is beautiful, and the book survey's his art quite well. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Gardens
Exceptional photographs of well-known places. An gardnerer's heaven, no mole-hills even.

Beautifully elusive garden images
While the text essays in this book are a bit dry, the photographic reproductions are of top notch quality. Kenna's photographs are beautifully elusive, sometimes printed quite dark, yet remain salient throughout. I found myself wondering how the images looked on the contact sheets, straight, with no darkroom manipulations. This book serves as a great example of what you can do in the darkroom to bring out a more poignant image than you actually shot at the location. It should be required for anyone who works with black and white photography in the darkroom; not because you will gleen any certain tips or techiques but because you will study the final results and perhaps wonder how they were achieved.

As a photographer, this book will remain in my photo book collection and it is Kenna's strongest work to date.

MAGNIFICENT MAGIC
I am very lucky indeed to have been able to see many of Michael Kenna's photographs at live exhibitions, both in Washington, D.C. and in New York City. Any art book is a "poor" substitution for the real thing, but there are some books that can give you true, beautiful examples of specific art works that then, hopefully, can someday be seen live. Kenna is a British photographer, in his 50's, who now lives in San Francisco....and seems to concentrate, in large part, on landscapes as his subjects. His images in this book are of the gardens created by Andre Le Notre, "the most important garden designer of the court of Louis XIV." In approximately 6o plates on 80 pages, we are taken to 10 different locations in France including the Tuileries in Paris and Versailles and Fontainebleau. The photographs are nothing short of breathtaking, obviously taken at dawn or dusk when the natural light is almost unreal. These images evoke mysterious, art movie settings---one almost expects a stranger to appear from one of the designed paths or pools or from behind one of the symmetrical trees or shrubs. All of it: the photographs, the accompanying essay, the way the book is put together with obvious care and love is magnificent magic.

excellent images
A beautiful book that is full of some of Michael Kenna's finest images. Truely beautiful black and white printing. Michael Kenna is a master in his own time. Some of the fimest landscape I have ever seen. A must have for photography lovers!! ... Read more

Book Description

Ellsworth Kelly's oeuvre can perhaps best be summed up by a phrase from Gottfried Boehm: "In between: this is the shortest formula of his aesthetics." With abstract expressionism at its peak, and based on the traditions of the abstract avant-garde in dialogue with color field painting, Kelly developed a vocabulary that left panel painting behind. In a conscious questioning of the conditions that underlie perception, he not only explores the relationships of painting and wall, sculpture and space, but also, and in particular, the relationship between viewer and work. A selection of more than 40 pieces of art from the past five decades, most of them from the collection of the artist, this book offers an expert investigation into the artistic development of one of the leading exponents of international postwar art.

Essays by Gottfried Boehm and Viola Weigel.

Hardcover, 11 x 12.5 in.168 pages, 70 color & 10 b/w illustrations ... Read more

Book Description

With more than 200 color and black-and-white photographs, this stunning collection spans the first 20 years of work by one of the most important photographers of our time. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

fantastic photo book
annie's book is an incredible collection of celebrity images with a series of text that describes her ascent to the top in her field

One Of The Most Celebrated Photographer of the 20th Century!
Annie Leibovitz's name is as recognizable as her photos. This collection spans two decades filled with her best work mostly from Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, but including some previously unpublished ones. She has the knack to bring out the side of a celebrities personality unexpected, and a way to turn a comic photo on it's side for another uplift of laughter. Some serious, some funny and many sentimental, Annie Leibovitz's photos invoke thought, humor, tenderness and empathy in every frame. A woman from modest beginnings shows the world what she has accomplished so far. It is an impressive feat.

Layers of Meaning Like the Brush Strokes of Old Masters
Seeing so many celebrity photographs from the beginning of Ms. Leibovitz's career unveils many of the most effective methods that she uses to create her deep insights into the subject of the portrait. Although you may feel the subtlety of her work viscerally, these comparisons make it easier to appreciate the purposefulness of how the effects are brilliantly captured. If you are like me, this book will enhance your already deep appreciation of her work.

Before going into all the reasons I like this book, let me mention that the book contains tasteful nudity and sexual situations that would probably cause an R rating for a motion picture (or possibly something a bit stronger, like an R plus). Many parents would be uncomfortable with some of their children seeing these images. So judge the appropriateness of this wonderful book for your own family.

First, Ms. Leibovitz is looking for the soul of the person. Who are they at the core? This is captured by establishing a composition that overtly expresses this inner kernel of truth. For Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold, this is captured by mud wrestling. For Muhammad Ali, you see a fully confident, capable man fully comfortable with himself and the world.

Second, she captures the subject's personality with posing and expression within the composition. Whoopi Goldberg's playfulness is captured by a composition that has little bits of her beautiful blackness emerging from a milk bath, with a characteristicly wry, happy smile.

Third, she shows the social mask that the subject uses. Lily Tomlin's face poses behind a television set image. Diane Keaton is shown wandering around with her face averted from the camera to capture her preference for privacy and appearance of shyness. Keith Haring appears wearing nothing but his painted on designs.

Fourth, she connects her subject to another person where that helps to establish part of the person's reality. John Lennon appears in foetal position with Yoko Ono, in that famous image from this book's cover. The Rolling Stones are literally flying through the air at the same time while performing. The Grateful Dead are asleep on each other's shoulders. Interestingly, she is usually able to do this with a humorous, light touch that dispells some of the celebrity power of the person.

Fifth, she lets a little slip in composure or a little blemish show where that adds to the underlying reality. Louis Armstrong looks scared in one classic portrait pose, while totally relaxed and in control in a less formal setting. Mick Jagger's partially healed scar is shown in another image. Jodie Foster puts on an intelligent expression that shows the Yale graduate rather than the young female star.

Sixth, she captures motion in ways that give the kinesthetics of the person and situation wonderfully. For example, a group of prisoners and family members hug at Soledad Prison in California at Christmas in 1971. You see many different relationships in this one image. It's like a microcosm of all humanity.

Here are my favorite images:

John Lennon, New York City, 1970

Louis Armstrong, Queens, New York, 1971

Christmas, 1971, Soledad Prison, California

The Grateful Dead, San Rafael, California, 1971

Ray Charles, San Francisco, 1972

Lily Tomlin, Los Angeles, 1973

Richard Pryor, Los Angeles, 1974

Andy Warhol, New York City, 1976

Tennessee Williams, Key West, Florida, 1974

Ron Kovic, Santa Monica, California, 1973

The Rolling Stones, Philadelphia, 1975

Brian Wilson, Malibu, California, 1976

Muhammad Ali, Chicago, 1978

Robert Penn Warren, Fairfield, Connecticut, 1980

John Lennon and Yoko Ono, New York City, December 8, 1981

Greg Louganis, Los Angeles, 1984

Bruce Springsteen, Asbury Park, New Jersey, 1987

Whoopi Goldberg, Berkeley, California, 1984

Twyla Tharp, New York City, 1989

Michael Jackson, Los Angeles, 1989

Mikhail Baryshnikov, New York City, 1989

After you have enjoyed the book, I suggest that you make a drawing that does a similar unveiling of someone you know well. You might even consider a self-portrait. Ms. Leibovitz says those are the hardest to do.

Look deeply into those all around you and see the truth . . . as well as the fictions.

The human face of celebrity
No-one captures the human face of celebrity on film like Annie Liebowitz (except for the brilliant Herb Ritts). This softback book is a wonderful chronological history of Annie's work over a 20 year period.

From the playful magic of Whoopi Goldberg in a bath of milk, Bette Midler under a blanket of roses and Sting baked in mud, this book shows the wit and insight of Annie Liebowitz. To lovers of either photography and/or celebrity this book is a must. Reasonably priced at $40 USD it also features the "foetus" shot of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. To students of photography, this book demonstrates her inventiveness and ability to portray the 'human' behind icons and public creations. A book you can leaf through time and time again whilst delighting in Ms Liebowitz's art.

Got Milk?
Annie Leibovitz has searching eyes which catch the light, the action, the expression of people the way Ansel Adams had the eyes for nature. In this beautiful coffee table book, one of the favorite pics is of Whoopi Goldberg. The contrast of her dark caramel skin peeking through the surface of a bright white milk bath is astounding. The curved artistic forms of Yoko Ono & John Lennon show them as they were--as one. You just want to slowly trace your finger over their shapes.

There are over 200 photos to delight the senses. Most are of famous people which Ms. L has had contacts with from her work at Rolling Stone and other venues. These performers seem to open up to this photographer and are willing to show something more than their "star" profile. Even people who are not into art or photography, like this book.

A grand illusionary celebration.

Thanks for your interest & comment vote--CDS ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Visual masterpiece of americana.
Do you want to learn about American History? Do you want your mind and heart expanded? Do you want to be touched, to be moved to tears? Then buy a copy of this marvelous book of Lange's photographs and let your journey begin. She has the amazing ablility to reveal the very essence of her subject matter - the human spirit. Enjoy! ... Read more

Book Description

One of the most influential American artists of the post-war period, Donald Judd changed the course of modern sculpture. Beginning as an art critic and then a painter, Judd moved into three dimensions with the box-like structures he produced in the early 1960s, either arranged on the gallery floor or mounted on the wall. Initially constructed by hand, the sculptures were later industrially manufactured in galvanized iron, steel, plexiglass, and plywood. His use of vibrant color, polished and reflective metals, and brightly hued lacquer confounded and continues to confound expectations of what "minimalist" sculpture should look like.
This lavishly illustrated survey features 41 works from collections around the world, many of them large scale, each illustrated with full catalogue entries alongside many other major works by Judd. Contributors Nicholas Serota (Director of the Tate), Rudi Fuchs (former Director of The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), American critics Richard Schiff and David Raskin, and British artist and critic David Batchelor explore the conflicts between previous critical interpretations of Judd and his own philosophical, political, and moral understanding of his work. Judd's critical response to the work of other artists is examined, as is the importance of color to his work, and his reaction to new man-made materials and artificially generated color in the late-20th-century environment. A section on Judd's installations at Marfa in Texas, and an extensive new chronology, compiled by Judd's assistant, Jeff Kopie, are also included. Donald Judd compromises the most thorough and up-to-date publication on Judd in print today.

Essays by Rudi Fuchs, David Batchelor, John Jervis, Richard Schiff, Nicholas Serota and David Raskin.

Hardcover, 9.5 x 12.25 in./288 pgs / 100 color and 30 b & w. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The One to Have
If you only buy one Donald Judd book in your lifetime, this may be the one to have. Beautifully designed and produced, with gorgeous full-bleed color reproductions, it is comprehensive in covering all the major aspects of his production (prints possibly excepted), including early paintings, the transition to sculpture, the late work, and the work on major art environments, i.e. Marfa and Spring Street. Most effectively, it groups major aspects of Judd's work into categories (stacks, linear wall pieces, series of boxes, etc.) clearly laying out his initial concepts, their evolution over time, and their relationships to other categories of work. In my brief time with this book, I have already come away with a much greater understanding of Judd's oeuvre and ways of thinking, thanks largely to the wonderfully didactic quality of the entire enterprise. I am assuming Nicolas Serota, the director of the Tate Modern and the book's editor, is largely responsible for this. Of the several intriguing essays, I have only thoroughly read the one by David Batchelor, a British Judd-ologist who addresses the issue of color. It alone is worth the price of the book, tracing aspects of the work back to initially wan late-nineteenth century attempts at the artistic representation of machinery, and then bringing us forward to Judd's thorough (albeit fascinatingly undocumented) familiarity with the technology and varieties of contemporary car paints (apparently his selection of [always impure] colors referenced specific automobiles, i.e. 1958 Ford Galaxy Celeste Green). The essay is full of wonderful observations such as Batchelor's equation of traditional brushes with organic nature, actual embodiments of their classical subject matter, that had to ultimately be abandoned by Judd (and of course others) in his search for artistic tools reflective of mechanization and urban modernity. Furthermore, Batchelor illustrates how the tools may have changed but Judd's concern with color, texture, and composition remained rooted in art-historical and even painterly considerations. Judd vehemently rejected the minimalist label, such label in Batchelor's view having contributed to critics' failure to recognize the sophisticated color and sensuality of the works. And finally, we are led to consider how the works may be as much about problems of painting and even (gasp) allusion and representation as about problems of sculpture. Great stuff. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

FASCINATING BLEND OF BIOGRAPHY AND ART HISTORY
"Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death." These are the words of Leonardo da Vinci, and according to the author, Serge Bramly, would have made the best epitaph for him. What is staggering about Leonardo is not just the volume of what filled his days, but the amazing range of pursuits that filled them. And this must pose a unique challenge to his biographers - a challenge Bramly rises to beautifully. As the title suggests, the primary focus of the book is on art. Bramly examines Leonardo's paintings from technical and aesthetic standpoints, as well as psychologically analyzing the paintings. He cites others who previously did such analysis, including Freud himself. The passages concerning the paintings are simply some of the most enjoyable art history I've read. What is most remarkable is that gradually an image of Leonardo the man emerges through his art. Leonardo's other pursuits (military engineer, city planner, architect, sculptor, anatomist, inventor, to name but some) are also of great interest of course. In these areas, Bramly devotes much space to examining the famous notebooks of Leonardo, and I can say that I have a much better understanding as to the significance and nature of these notebooks than before. The biographical details of Leonardo's life also prove to be quite entertaining. A virtual Who's Who of Renaissance Italy parades through his life, and Bramly gives us an idea of the sort of relationships Leonardo had with them as well as with his own family. Some of the terrain of Leonardo's life is difficult to traverse, his illegitimacy, his homosexuality, his failure to complete so much of what he started, and these issues are dealt with in a straightforward, honest fashion. Bramly's doesn't follow as strict a timeline as most biographies do; he skips around the years quite a bit. But I think this is necessary given Leonardo's wide range of pursuits. He never worked on just one project at a time, and the fact that Bramly follows these pursuits rather than a strict timeline makes the book more coherent than it would be otherwise. There are dozens of black & white illustrations throughout the book, as well as eight pages of color illustrations of some of his more notable paintings. I think that probably 4 pages should be added to the color illustrations. Among the paintings that should be, but are not, shown in color are the Mona Lisa, St. John the Baptist, and the Turin self-portrait. But that's a minor complaint (and one directed more at the publishers than the author). In short, this biography takes a mythical figure and shows him as a man; it takes the miracle of his paintings and other lifework and makes it comprehensible as being the work of that man. The resulting picture is that of a man whose life was more amazing and inspiring than any myth or miracle.

Good general biography of Da Vinci
Translated from the French (the translation is fairly well done and readable), this is a good general bio of Leonardo's life. A primer rather than an in depth artistic analysis, it's geared towards the general reader and it does a fine job at that.

Da Vinci's life is followed from his small town upbringing by a father who was a notary (in the European sense not the American) and hence held a status higher than the average peasant or townsman.

Serge Bramly attempts some psychoanalysis of Da Vinci and if there is a main weakness to the book in my opinion it is that. His explanation of art workshops in the Renaissance era is interesting and informative. To be commended is his description of Da Vinci's relationships with his workers, friends and family. But best of all is Bramly's explanation of the relationships between the nobility who financed his projects and Da Vinci.

An informative and enjoyable biography; Leonardo: The Artist and the Man is worth a read.

An Enthralling Book on Da Vinci
Normally I am not a fan of non-fiction books. Yet, this book somehow has managed to enthrall me in a way that no other non-fiction book ever has. This alone is the reason that I would recommend it to others. Then, the question of who I would recommend this book to must also be answered. In this case, I would say that I would recommend for a reading level of high school senior and beyond.
Overall, this was a very encapsulating book, covering numerous aspects of da Vinci's life. I throughly enjoyed the book and actually learned interesting information from it. I look forward to a time when I might be able to read it again to get even more information from it.

Only for Renaissance scholars...
I forced myself to finish this book before I reviewed it, and being through with it now, I feel as though I've learned very little. I had so many problems with this book, or rather the way of writing, mostly stemming from the completely pompous arrogance of the author, that this was a difficult read. In his defense, he is, in MOST things, very thorough. My main and overwhelming problem with this book was that the author was arrogant enough to believe that he could relay what Leonardo was (or as he sometimes put it "must have been") thinking or feeling. While I give Mr. Bramly credit as a man very much versed in his subject, in my opinion, that still gives him no right to use what I understood to be a faithful biography as a place to put forward his own views. Since he himself stresses that Leonardo's famous notebooks contain little to no personal thoughts or feelings, he has no basis for those statements and they are only his overconfident postulations. In the instances that there is a controversy over some area of Leonardo's life, the author is very good about stating that there is a dispute regarding the matter, but only puts forward his OWN opinion, and his reasons why he believes what he does, without explaining the opposite side of the matter. In this manner, he forces his thoughts on the reader without leaving them any choice in the matter. Sentences beginning with "I think" or "In my view" are not uncommon. He also makes certain assumptions about the reader, referring often to other artists' works with the assumption that the reader is as knowledgeable as he is about them. Also, he occasionally goes into great detail regarding a painting or drawing of Leonardo's, often drawing attention to coloring or texture, without ever showing it, though the book has many drawings and paintings throughout. The author is an undoubtedly intelligent, well-learned man, very erudite where Leonardo da Vinci is concerned, but entirely overbearing in his writing. Overall, unless you are well versed in the Renaissance artists and don't mind being pulled out of a book by the author's VIEWS, then I would HIGHLY suggest staying away from this one.

Educators - Note the training of a genius
The other reviewers of this work have provided a good idea of what to expect, so I will confine my comments to only one aspect of this biography, the one which I found the most informative and fascinating: The manner in which Leonardo was trained and educated. The greatest service Serge Bramly provides in this work is a full, three dimensional portrait of what "education" was all about in the Renaissance. What comes through quite clearly is that while Leonardo Da Vinci was certainly a possessor of that rare combination of brilliant intellect and tremendous talent, what he became - the person who remains in Western history the epitome of "genius" - was the result of how he was trained. The Northern Italy of Brunaleschi, Verrochio, Da Vinci, Rafael, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and so many others was no historical accident. They were educated and trained in such a comprehensive manner that they realized that all knowledge was not only useful, but that it all related - and was therefore interesting.

Bramly postulates that when the very young Leonardo first came to Verrochio's workshop, the first thing he saw was the master working on a problem that required a knowledge of mathematics, geometry, engineering and physics: The design and construction of an over six foot diameter bronze sphere with cross on top, weighing over a ton, which had to be transported from its place of casting and construction to the principal cathedral of Florence, lifted over 250 feet in the air, attached to the top of "Il Duomo" and secured in such a manner that it would never topple even when buffeted by the strongest storm winds. As Bramly aptly points out, there was no such thing as "art for arts' sake" back then, the concept never even having occurred to these artists because they would have considered it absurd. The same as any scientist or engineer of the day would never have dreamed of a life or world without art. All knowledge and all skills related to one another.

When Leonardo learned to draw and paint, he had to learn how to create pencils and brushes from scratch, to find and understand the properties of the raw materials from which to grind the pigments for his paints, how to work with wood and cloth so as to create a canvass. Those things alone involve the fields of geology, physics, biology (the various types of animal hairs suitable for brushes), carpentry +. The composition of his works required an in depth study of geometry, trigonometry and some degree of calculus; the faithful execution of living subjects a knowledge of anatomy and the physics of light. Each thing lead to another, and Da Vinci followed all of these paths of scientific and artistic discovery - which for him and others of his day were one and the same. This hands-on type of training in all things relevant to his trade - which meant just about all things - is what lead Da Vinci to be interested in so many diverse fields of study. The more dots he connected, the more dots he discovered that needed connecting.

All of this stands in stark contrast to how we educate people today: On career paths to ever more finite fields of specialization, excluding and discarding anything and everything that does not relate to that narrow path. The vast majority of dots are excluded, so it is no wonder why so few people know how to connect them.

So read and imbibe the training of this genius and his contemporaries. Then compare, for example, what Alan Blum said in his provocative and controversial "Closing of the American Mind;" John Ralston Saul's take on our age of the enshrinement of the idiot-savant in "Voltaire's Bastards;" or Robert Hughes' short, enjoyable but nevertheless stinging critique of our times in "Culture of Complaint." Then also consider that in the eighteenth century in the English colonies of North America there existed more or less contemporaneously a Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and so many others. Like with North Italy during the Renaissance, it was no historical accident. If you sat at the dinner table of any of these men, it would be not just normal but expected for you to converse intelligently on topics as diverse as politics, philosophy, economics, history, agriculture, horticulture, architecture, physics, biology, botany. And to recite a few memorized poems, create puns, match wits, play a musical instrument and perhaps compose a piece or two for entertainment. Their training, likewise, was one which taught that all knowledge was important, interrelated and was interesting.

In sum, in my mind Bramly's greatest achievement in this work was to show that Da Vinci's don't just fall out of the sky. They are taught, and they are taught and trained in a very broad, inclusive manner. Would that we could return to the basics of that type of education instead of the super-specialist who excludes all else. Da Vinci's type brought us the wonders of the Renaissance. Our "modern" methodology has brought us the type of individual whose arrogance is inversely proportional to the narrowness of his knowledge, the kind who create meticulously planned and detailed exercises that inevitably become disasters, like Viet Nam, Serbia's "ethnic cleansing" and today's Iraq. Devote an individual's education to a particular species of tree and he'll want to cut down all the others to get to the one he knows the most about. But teach people about forests, and they'll be interested in all the trees - and see how each is important in its own right as well as its importance to the whole. ... Read more

Book Description

The work of photographer Annie Leibovitz has defined celebrity photography for thirty years--her iconic images of musicians, actors, dancers and artists like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, David Byrne, Whoopi Goldberg, the Blues Brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi), Louis Armstrong, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ray Charles, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keith Haring, Mick Jagger, Bette Midler, Patti Smith, Clint Eastwood, and Ella Fitzgerald have defined how we see those figures. "Stardust: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1999" presents images of all of the aforementioned performers as well as other famous figures including Hillary Clinton, Muhammad Ali, Carl Lewis, astronaut Eileen Collins, and Jann Wenner, in work previously published in such magazines as "Rolling Stone", "Vogue", and "Vanity Fair". This volume, published on the occasion of a recent exhibition at New York's International Center for Photography, is as much a tribute to the ever-increasing power of celebrity in contemporary culture as it is a testament to Leibovitz's skill behind the lens. ... Read more