Reviews (2)

Kandinsky's Life and Art
This is a marvelous book in two respects. First, the discussion of Kandinsky's life and art is clear, authoritative without intrusive detail, and lively. Second, the color reproductions of Kandinsky's work are well-chosen and expertly reproduced; they are placed in the text in places proximate to the discussion of Kandinsky's changing approaches to art. I found it stunning that the publisher could pack so many color prints into such a compact book at a reasonable price.
Readers interested in Kandinsky's ground-breaking treatise, On the Spiritual in Art, will be grateful for the author's compelling, lucid presentation of its ideas.

Lost world
They have destroied everything , have redused to black square and have gone out... You can like Kandinsky or not.His mysteries reflect Russia , epoch of silver century .You can feel the puls of time. Deep penetrating in one's heart of hearts,skill to see in fine its livng connect with epoch,with people,that all fascinate a notprejudice reader of this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Born in 1869, Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens opened his own office in London when he was only 20 years old and began his career with a series of opulent country houses. The architect of such important commissions as the British Embassy in Washington D.C., in 1925, and the plan for New Delhi, the new capital of British India, in 1912, Lutyens continued throughout his career to design houses in which the vernacular manner adopted by Philip Webb and Norman Shaw in the previous century was developed with originality and wit and with remarkable formal control. As an upholder of the classical language of architecture, Lutyen’s achievement was not always appreciated by a younger generation of architects inspired by the modern movement, but the sheer beauty of materials and construction and the inventive handling of historical styles offered by Lutyen’s houses makes his contribution to early-20th-century domestic architecture on a par with that of his contemporaries Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Gavin Stamp, an expert on the architecture of Lutyens, presents 22 houses illustrated with exquisite duotone photographs culled from the archives of the great British magazine Country Life. Most of the photographs date from before World War I and show the houses as their architect intended they should look and performing as they were designed to perform, before the kitchens were modernized, the gardens simplified, and the interiors compromised to accord with modern tastes. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

a tasteful gift box
This sturdy box makes a lovely gift, and one that will be useful long after the blank note cards have been used. It contains 10 cards that consist of 5 designs: 2 are paintings, one a self-portrait in bright colors with birds on her shoulders, and "Two Nudes in the Jungle", in earth tones. 3 are photographs; a portrait of her at age 24, another is the color photo that graces the box cover, and the third a marvelous black and white study of Frida with Diego Rivera, and this is the only card that is not repeated in the enclosed booklet. The envelopes are also nice and come in terra-cotta and deep yellow, and the cards are tied with a ribbon and a little milagro (amulet) of a hand.

There is a pocket on the inside of the box cover, that holds a 48 page booklet, which is interesting for its small size; it is filled with photographs, a handful of paintings and sketches, along with some words from her diary, and a short but concise biography.
This makes an excellent gift for a Frida Kahlo fan, or any art lover who likes to write notes.

A woman of courage and strength...
This has been a staple gift that I always keep in my mind when trying to get a present for a woman of courage and strength. It's an elegant box of cards/book that I discovered in the 1990's and my box (now devoid of the cards) has served as a safety box for important things.

A great gift for an art "aficionado"
This makes a very nice gift for the art lover who has everything. The presentation is exquisite and captures the very essence of Frida Kalho. Inside the book-shaped box, one will find an excellent booklet retracing her life,somewhat in the style of her journal, with lots of collage-like effects. The ratio of text to image is oustanding. Along with the booklet is a set of stationery featuring pictures of Frida Kalho and reproductions of some of her paintings tied with a ribon, holding a "milagro" or Mexican charm. This last detail, along with the red and gold Mexican folk border around the box really spell out care, quality and a will to depict as accurately as possible the profile of one of the most intriguing artists of the century.

Extremely pleased with this purchase of concise history .
This is a concise history of Frida Kahlo and her life. You can put her intriguing artwork along side of her life stories. Very good bargin. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Modern Art: A Wealth of Primary Sources
This book is as thorough of a collection of writings by an individual as you will ever find. Including every major treatise, essay, and book by Kandisky, it goes a few steps further with every Kandisky poem (English and German translations) and play. Moreover, the book includes innumerable pamphlets and the like from the earlier late-Expressionist exhibits; also incorporated are several corrspondances between Kandinsky and contemporaries, particularly atonal composer Arnold Schoenburg--illuminating how each other's theories were mutually related and held a reciprocal influence. A little known fact, Schoenburg himself was a non-objective painter--photos of his works are among these pages, as well! Before each section is a contextual introduction to that particular writing. And much much more.

Indispensable
An obligatory text for any visual, aural, or literary artist, and a necessity for any true understanding of the nature of artistic creation. ... Read more

Book Description

Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence includes essays by eight distinguished art historians examining the ways in which Jacob Lawrence's art speaks so powerfully to different audiences. It is the first multi-author, in-depth probe of the artist's entire career: the nature of his work, his education, the critical climate in which he worked, and his use of materials and techniques. It reproduces, in full color, more than 200 works, most of which have not been published in color, or at all, in other books on the artist. An extensive chronology, collating events in his life with his public reception--including selected exhibitions, publications, honors, and awards--is illustrated with family photographs.

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) spent his childhood in New York City, attending classes at the Harlem Community Art Center and the American Artists School, and later working for the Federal Art Project. While still in his twenties Lawrence exhibited his paintings at major museums across the country, including the Phillips Collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he became the first African American artist represented in the permanent collection. He lived, painted, and taught in New York City until 1971, when he moved to Seattle to join the faculty of the University of Washington. He was the recipient of numerous awards including the National Medal of Arts.

The paperback edition of Over the Line is published in conjunction with a major exhibition opening at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, on May 26, 2001, and traveling to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

What a great book; what a great artist!!!
Jacob Lawrence, who died a year ago at age 82, was one of the great American artists of the 20th century -- or any century for that matter. I had the privilege recently of viewing "The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence" at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and was extremely impressed. If you can't make it to the Phillips Collection, this book is the next best thing, with more than 200 full color reproductions of Lawrence's work.

And what a powerful body of work it is, mainly -- but not only -- on the African-American experience. Themes include: slavery; escape via the Underground Railroad; heros and heroines like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman (plus Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L'Ouverture); black migration to the North; continued persecution (lynchings, Jim Crow) well into the 20th century; the Harlem Renaissance; and more. Lawrence's style is simple (but NOT simplistic!), urgent, and direct, using inexpensive materials (cheap store-bought poster paints on hardboard -- whatever Lawrence could afford), which give new meaning to the expression, "less is more!" You get the feeling in looking at these paintings that Lawrence HAD to paint, to bear witness, and to let the world know the situation of his people.

"Over the Line" is a valuable book for many reasons. For one thing, my understanding is that these paintings, sketches, etc. have never before been published in color, or at all, in any other books on Lawrence. "Over the Line" also give you information on Lawrence's life, which was very interesting in its own right. Finally, these painting are simply a joy to look at, over and over, which this book will allow you to do. I strongly recommend that you get a hold of it! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

The most comprehensive collection of the photographer's work ever published.

Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime begins with her portraits from the early years, when she was a fashionable studio photographer, and moves into the classic images that established Lange as the preeminent documentary artist of her time: the Depression bread lines and demonstrations, the blighted farms, the migrating farm families, and the makeshift, desolate tent camps. The book concludes with her photographs from the final years, when Lange traveled the globe, finally turning the lens on her children and grandchildren and the familiar objects of her daily life.

In a penetrating critical biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Coles offers an incisive study of Lange's life and work.
... Read more

Reviews (2)

Beautiful Photographic Collection
This anthology is a well-packaged, heart-warmingly first-person annoted retrospective of Lange's career. Enlighening glimpses into Lange's personal point-of view are offered here, showcasing her stark Depression-era WPA migration shots alongside her later vignettes of the American western plains and western coastal dwellers captured in their every day routines. Therein lies this collection's strength and weakness: while her Americana movement captured a rural slice of America which later mediums still struggle to duplicate, that subject matter still did not match the sheer horror and power of her WPA work, which captured the raw strength of the human spirit during life-threatening crises. The diversity of this collection makes it an essential introductory volume, however.

Photographs of a Lifetime
I had just recently seen a Lange exhibit when I bought this wonderful book. It starts with an essay on Lange by Robert Coles. Then it moves into her photographs and her own words. Her work is beautiful on its own, but to have the photographs and her philosophy side by side is an enriching experience. The photographs fill the entire book so it's a great read and a nice coffee table book. The images are primarily from her depression photos, but there are also pictures from around the world, her family and her early portraits. I also like that they included photographs of her and her oak trees. Dorothea Lange was a woman with such a unique perspective on life. I feel that this book does an excellent job of presenting her work. ... Read more

Book Description

Hardcover with dust jacket. 40 color plates. 3 black and white plates. ... Read more

Book Description

Acclaimed in the nineteenth century as "the world’s most famous landscape photographer," William Henry Jackson and his camera presided over the mapping, bounding, and settling of the American West and the larger American landscape. In this lavishly illustrated study, Peter B. Hales investigates the conversion of America’s landscape from myth to scenery and Jackson’s effect on this cultural transformation.

In this book Peter B. Hales examines the ways Americans viewed their land, and the ways they acted on their beliefs. A study of how an individual affects and was affected by his culture, this is an engrossing story of the contradictions of American culture, the myths that encompass it and give it meaning, and their transformation over a century.

William Henry Jackson himself is rich material for an authoritative study. Not simply a chronicler, he immersed himself and his photographs in the processes of change that swept America from the 1840s until the 1940s. Official photographer to the Hayden Survey of the American West, early explorer of Yellowstone, and celebrant of the Colorado Rockies, Jackson was instrumental in the mass-marketing of landscape photography at the beginning of the twentieth century. Retired in the 1920s, he was rediscovered by the American Scene enthusiasts of the thirties, and found another career as painter of nostalgic images of America’s Golden Age of frontier freedom.

Illustrated with nearly two hundred reproductions of Jackson’s photographs, this work makes major contributions to our understanding of photography, of the American land, and of American culture in its broadest, richest sense. ... Read more

Book Description

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican artist whose life was nearly as dramatic and fiery as her art. She endured a catastrophic set of physical calamities as a child and young woman, was an active member of the Communist Party, and survived a tempestuous marriage to the artist Diego Rivera. This book includes many photographs of her life alongside her extraordinary paintings, and presents commentary by leading Mexican art historians, stunning reproductions of her most seminal works-some never before reproduced, and nine gatefolds allowing the reader to examine in detail aspects of her larger works. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent primer on the life of a unique genius.
This small, well-organized, and beautifully illustrated book is an unexpectedly thorough and complete reference on the life of Leonardo da Vinci, from his birth in Italy to his death in France.
Chronologically organized and succinctly written, but without being a mere biography, this book presents a well-researched portrait of one of the greatest geniuses of the Renaissance. Often citing historical sources and quoting entries from the artist's own notebooks, the author presents an insightful account of Leonardo's views, research and achievements in both art and science, as well as many firmly accepted anecdotes and little-known facts about his character and personal life.
For those interested in a deeper treatment of the subject, the choice bibliographic reference titled Further Reading, located at the back of the book, will be of particular value.

Compact, comprehensive, with great pictures
I really enjoyed this very good entry-level treatise on L.d.V. In my opinion the emphasis is correctly placed and pictures of great quality (although some are small in size) help the reader grasp the essence of Leonardo's spirit and become familiar with the best-known parts of his work. ... Read more

Book Description

Yves Klein: Air Architecture is not about Leap Into the Void, the 1960 photograph of Yves Klein diving out the second story of a building. Rather, it presents the architectural projects and theories of the French conceptual artist in the context of current tendencies toward immateriality in architecture, design, and art. This volume includes reproductions of drawings and other works from the Yves Klein Archive in Paris, as well as essays offering both historical and contemporary perspectives on the artist's work. This will be the first publication and accompanying exhibition focused solely on this body of Klein's work. Also included are the first English translation of Klein's lecture at the Sorbonne in 1959, along with related writings. Essays articulate the importance of Klein's work on the subject of immateriality and cite the evolution of this idea from the 1950s through today. A visual essay illustrates this evolution with examples of works by late modern and contemporary architects, designers, and artists.

Edited by Peter Noever.~Essays by Beatriz Colomina, Julie Carson, SylvèreLotringer, Peter Noever, François Perrinand Michael Speaks.

Paperback, 8 x 10 in./144 pgs / 60 color and 40 b & w. ... Read more

Book Description

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) is one of the most important 20th-century painters and one of the few Latin American artists to have achieved a global reputation. In the vibrant colors of her native Mexico, she expressed the burdens that weighed upon her soul. Full-color reproductions and thorough text provide a quick yet solid introduction to this master. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

The Life of a Genius Painter In One Book
"Frida Kahlo 1907-1954: Pain And Passion" travels through her life and turbulances through her many paintings she drew throughout her life. This book is more than just her paintings. The auther shares the story of the inspiration of her every paintings. She shares everything in great detail that is highly accurate to Kahlo's living. Every page shows how Kahlo has inspired a generation of artists ranging beyond painting. It's great that the author wrote this book since many are unaware of Kahlo's work. Her words keep Kahlo's art and her life alive. This book is great for those looking to get inspired and to learn about this genius painter. Those wanting more should also watch the movie "Frida", starring Selma Hayak as Frida Kahlo.

Order this book if you understand Spanish.
This is a beautiful book but unfortunately I can't read it because it is printed in Spanish. Amazon had informed me that the English version is not available so I am returning it.

An introduction to Frida
The ambitious Taschen art series excels at giving an artists works in a nutshell, covering the biography of the artist as well as it's best known works. Following the succcesful formula that has brought you more than fifty artists, from Boteticelli to Andy Warhol, this book on Frida Kahlo is a basic primer. This is the perfect book for someone to learn a little something about the Mexican artist and popular icon of the familiar soaring bird eyebrows . The short biography covers the major events of her tumultous life and graphically displays her most well known works accompanied by some black and white photographs of her with husband Diego Rivera and other notables from her era. The organization and brevity of the book make for the basic cliff notes on Frida. Compiled and researched well the result is a tasteful book for the basics. The perfect book for the casual observer to find out if more information is needed to be learned about this fantastic Mexican artist. It is satisfying but if more detailed insight is needed I would recommend two other books. One is the book the editor relies upon heavily by Hayden Herrera which is the defintive book about Frida Kahlo entitled "Frida A Biography of Frida Kahlo." The other I would recommend for further exploration is by Martha Zamorra entitled Frida Kahlo: The Brush of Anguish." Zamorra's hard to find Spanish edition is superb and much better than the edited English version. Nonetheless, the Tashen version is a good quality book full of vibrant color on good paper printed in Germany on stock that will last many years. Recommended for the art student or anyone interested in this most tormented soul who left her mark in art for the world to enjoy.

Profusely illustrated and historically rich
This beautiful Taschen volume by Andre Kettenmann takes the reader through the tormented life of this famous Mexican painter, just as famous for her own artwork as for being the wife of Mexican artist, Diego Rivera. Her works, from the surrealist to the more naif, all of them sexually charged and driven by her life's tragedys and happy moments, are discussed along with the times of her life when she painted them, allowing everyone to take a peek into Frida's soul some 50+ years after her departure from this planet.

An excellent "basic".
Benedikt Taschen succeeded in producing a concise yet highly informative biography, which is an excellent departure point for people discovering Frida Kahlo's universe. Art and Spanish students alike will enjoy all the references to other written works, which will make their research easier. Let's not forget an excellent choice of pictures which supplement the photographic reproductions of the artist's work.The commentaries are equally useful. This book is an excellent basic to have in your bookcase and a great introduction to Frida Kahlo. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

Excellent
Excellent printing, great selection of works with close-ups of most. I use mine as a painting reference when I can't get to the Met. If you are a painter and like Sargent or Valasquez, then you should own this book.

FOR ART HISTORIANS AND AFICIONADOS
His dramatic use of light - often placing the source of illumination within the picture - enchants, conveying a sense of serenity, calm.

The works of La Tour, apotheoses of seventeenth century French classicism, are unified in remarkable composition by warm, rich colors and placement of light. His body of paintings, rendered with brilliant luminosity, are unforgettable. So is this magnificent monograph by College de France professor and specialist in seventeenth century art, Jacques Thuillier.

A lushly beautiful volume, Georges De La Tour, holds over 300 stunning illustrations and a comprehensive catalogue of works. Both art historians and aficionados will delight in the flawlessly reproduced full-color double-page illustrations that remind one of the artist's deft touch and draftsman's skill.

A tribute to La Tour is long overdue, but worth the wait when the end reward is this work of impeccable scholarship and illustration. ... Read more

Book Description

Think of an Ellsworth Kelly: an abstract consideration of the relationship between figure and ground; a conscious questioning of the conditions that underlie perception; an exploration of the relationship of painting and wall, sculpture and space, viewer and work. Now think of Ellsworth Kelly: a man, born in the 1920s in New York state, who has been recording his own appearance in ink and graphite over the years, capturing himself as his attitudes changed, his self-perception changed, his face and body aged. Collected here are five decades of Kelly's self-portraits, drawn between 1944 and 1992. The artist sketches himself in all variety of poses: bust, standing, sitting, clothed, nude, laughing, serious, self-possessed. The style of drawing changes as frequently, from line drawing to cubist to comic to naturalistic. Taken together, they present a marvelous portrait of the artist as a man. Essay by Harry Cooper. Clothbound, 6.5 x 9 in./120 pgs / 53 color 0 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20368 ... Read more