Book Description

Whistler and His Circle in Venice is a landmark publication, offering a fresh examination of one of the most influential turn-of-the-century artists on the 100th anniversary of his death in 1903.

This stunning new survey focuses on a little-documented period of Whistler's career: his stay in Venice from 1879 to 1880. Arriving in the footsteps of such renowned artists as Canaletto and Turner, whose enthusiasm for representing the city was shared by so many Grand Tourists, Whistler was determined to do more than simply capture its popular views. He wanted to penetrate further - to achieve a greater understanding of the nature of Venice itself.

Whistler and His Circle in Venice explores Whistler's struggle to find a "Venice of the Venetians," through a sumptuous collection of his pastels, etchings, watercolors, and oil paintings. It goes on to examine in detail the significance of Whistler's etchings in terms of his technical and compositional innovations.

As this book reveals, Whistler's new approach to Venice was profoundly significant, challenging and redefining the ways in which others viewed the city. It also traces the remarkable breadth of his influence, on numerous artists in the US and Europe, including Walter Sickert, and most notably on American artist John Singer Sargent, whose lifelong association with Whistler-begun during this stay in Venice-receives a new and in-depth appraisal. Whistler's impact on pictorial photography - and especially on one of the great American masters, Alfred Stieglitz - is explored here for the first time.

Whistler and His Circle in Venice offers new insight into the career of one of the period's most important figures. Packed with Whistler's beautiful evocations of one of the best-loved cities in the world, this book will appeal as much to lovers of Venice as to those fascinated by Whistler himself. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A VOLUME TO BE TREASURED
Second only to visiting Washington's famed Corcoran Gallery to view the magnificent exhibit of the same title is this lush volume published in association with Corcoran's show. With some 150 full color illustrations readers see Venice through Whistler's eyes.

It was Degas who supposedly said to the artist, "Whistler, if you were not a genius you would be the most ridiculous man in Paris." Genius he was - not only witnessed in his paintings but also in his influence on fellow artists: Rossetti, Sargent, and the photographers Edward Steichen and Alfred Steiglitz.

During his tenure (1879 - 1880) in one of the world's loveliest cities Whistler did not choose to paint the most popular scenes, such as those immortalized by Canaletto or Turner but he sought to capture the "Venice of the Venetians." In effect, what his work there has done is enable others to see the city of the canals from entirely different perspectives. It is his gift to the world.

With its sumptuous illustrations and enlightening text "Whistler and His Circle in Venice" is a boon for those interested in the artist and those who love the city itself.

- Gail Cooke ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Capturing Warhol
Nobody has understood the work of Andy Warhol like Gidal. It is not filled with gossip about Andy doing this and Andy saying that like 90% of all Warhol-books. This is about his art, and it's damn good!

must-read!
At the end of a century where the primitive has finally begun to be understood as complex, and the complex has been revealed quite often to be primitive, Gidal's searing analysis soars above the all-too-common self-adulatory art criticism. Gidal truly understands art and 20th century culture (as Warhol did!), and his book deserves repeated reading. ... Read more

Book Description

Vermeer ’s World By Irene Netta

Jan Vermeer (1632 –1675) is widely acknowledged as one of the most important painters of the 17th century. His paintings of genre scenes and landscapes are famous throughout the world for their exquisite use of light. Vermeer ’s World gives a fascinating insight into the life and works of the Dutch artist. With its reproductions of the 35 paintings known to be authentic, the book also functions as a catalogue of the artist ’s work. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Wisdom,Beauty always wins over Strength,Brute Force.
How can a work of art last so long? It is that art is stronger than evil. ... Read more

Book Description

Dune collects, for the first time, the sand dune photographs of both Edward and Brett Weston, two giant names in modern photography. Previously, their remarkable dune photographs--dramatic abstractions of light and shadow and sensuous shape--were featured as samples in overview publications on the artists, just a picture here and there. This lush volume brings together father and son in a personal, unique fashion, showcasing the photographs each made in the same locations. Adding depth is an original essay by Brett Weston's longtime friend, traveling companion and biographer, John Charles Woods. Woods' intimate, forthcoming narrative describes what it was like to accompany the younger Weston into the dunes and what his habits and personality were like. Charis Wilson, Edward Weston's one-time wife, excerpts a passage from her acclaimed book Through Another Lens, in which she tells of a 1936 trip she and her husband made to the dunes of Oceano, California. Also included are correspondence between father and son, and excerpts from Edward Weston's daybooks.

Nothing can be transmitted to another unless an original problem has been felt, conceived and solved: not a trivial problem of clever decoration or the personal ego, but the recording of the very quintessence and interdependence of all life.--Edward Weston, from America and Photography, 1929

Essays by Kurt Markus, Charis Wilson and John Woods.

Clothbound, 12.75 x 10 in./96 pgs / 0 color 0 BW duotone 60 tritones~ Item D20044 ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Magnificent Book!
Without doubt one of the most magnificent books related to photography ever published. The Westston's photgraphs are out of and well beyong the realm of "pictures" -- the treatment of the photographs and Kust Markus' text and treatment of the Weston's works reverantly rings true and honest, no pretentious drivel here!

Outstanding
What a terrific book on the 2 great masters of 20th century photography. A joy to read and the reproductions of the Dunes are some of the best I have seen in any book on EW or BW. Highly recommended for the collector of Westons and others. A real treasure and I keep on opening it to view such beautiful images. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Art Repros Worth Hanging
The Taschen Posterbooks are of excellent quality. The six Van Gogh's given us here, for a very low price, are a nicely representative group. Primarily the most impressive factor is the accuracy with which the colors are reproduced. Having seen many in person, I am very critical of prints with poor to pathetic truth in color. We like them to the point of hanging all 6 in our home. The images are of the cafe at Arles-night, lane with cypresses, one of the sunflowers, one self-portrait, the bridge at Langlois and of course, the bedroom at Arles.

Regardless the amount of money you have to spend, definitely buy this little jewel as an adjunct. Or if you are tightly budgeted, what a buy! ... Read more

Book Description

This inviting book offers the first comprehensive survey of French genre painting of the eighteenth century, from Watteau’s fêtes galantes to Boilly’s paintings of modern Parisian life. Showcasing 113 works, the book illustrates the variety and the vitality of genre painting throughout the period. Leading English, German, French, and American scholars shed light on the development of genre painting, its interpretation, its collectors, and its enormous appeal. Here are gathered together masterpieces by such eminent artists as Watteau, Lancret, de Troy, Chardin, Boucher, Greuze, Fragonard, Robert, and Boilly. The wide range of their featured works encompasses military scenes, theatrical subjects, hunt pictures, pastorals, domestic life, moral pictures, fishwife subjects, paintings for the boudoir, and panoramas of the Enlightenment in landscapes and townscapes. Each work is thoroughly catalogued, and an appendix lists all genre paintings shown in the eighteenth-century Salons. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Try Thinking of This Like Jane Fonda Joining F.T.A.
I bought this book as a political act, if an attempt to relate on a personal level can be considered political. I was living in Minneapolis at the time and went to a major chain bookstore in the city of Saint Paul to order it, in a reversal of my usual (new wave vs. old hat) stereotypes of those two cities. If anyone considers the cover too shocking to reveal to internet shoppers, be glad that the back cover is not what is shown. Most of the book is about male sexual objects, and the back cover has male thighs forming a V with no attempt to hide what Rilke called "manhood's crest" in a famous poem about an archaic torso of Apollo. (The poem appears in 20 German Poets, translated by Walter Kaufmann, p. 221.) Plate 33 in Andy's "Paintings of the 1970s" has six repetitions of what appears to me to be the display of a fist as a sexual object, given its proximity to what is typical in this book. What helped me most to gain my appreciation for the contents of this book was the text at the beginning, which begins with a direct Andy Warhol quotation, "Sex is So Abstract." Some of the information in the text is extracted from a book by Bob Colacello called "Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close-Up." On the actual quality of the artwork, the text says, "His secret is his profound and enduring aestheticism, . . . burning with a hard, gemlike flame, but veiling this taste in a cool, laconic front of Coke bottles, soup cans," and the bodies in this book. The final page of text before the drawings explains Warhol's use of fingerpainting on Polaroid photographs, which appear to me on Plates 44, 45, and 46 to be the artist's way of searching for erogenous zones. On a political level, Jane Fonda must have thought that F.T.A. shows would be entertaining, as well as conveying a particular message about militaristic thinking. Whoever thought of calling those shows "F.T.A." must have realized that the best communication involves some form of ecstatic flow, which gives people something somewhere between what people are used to and what they would really desire. Art stands up under this kind of scrutiny, while politics might mean getting involved with the kind of people who would like to treat it as unmentionable. This book seems to be about art, but writing helpful reviews may involve a lot more politics than shoppers would want to know. Don't let me tell you where this book doesn't belong.

you need this on your coffee table
sorry that i'm reviewing this. I'm somewhere between the gay and the artist...but it's wonderful to flip through. I didn't pay as much as most and am very happy with about $32.00 ... Read more

Book Description

In this beautiful and engaging book, an art historian and a conservation scientist discuss the techniques Velzquez created in order to realize his artistic vision. Examining thirty works by Velzquez that span his entire career, the authors show how his technical achievement developed over time. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

important, interesting topic - mediocre results
I think the first reviewer has mentioned the important points, but I would highlight some of the conclusions.

The purpose of this book is to apply the tools of art history and conservation to the practical question of how Velasquez painted his masterpieces. This is a topic of primary interest to practicing painters, and it is an approach that may prove fruitful in the future, but I think is only moderately successful here.

The important contribution of this book is the large number of close up views of a small number of paintings. The image quality is good, though not of the highest quality.

The text and analysis does address the practical question of how the paintings were constructed, but only provides rather shallow results. The ground used, the pigment selection, additions to the canvas - these topics are well covered. But the more involved question of how the paint layers were developed was not really explained. In the end there is little information for someone seeking to understand precisely how these paintings were made.

As the first reviewer mentioned, the art historical background has a sort of "rah rah" quality. For example, referring to The Fable of Arachne: "The expressive potential of color posited in the works of Titian is here [by Velasquez] exploited in ways that this venerated old master could never have conceived."

How many stars should you give to the only book on this very important topic? If you are a painter you have to buy it. I give it three stars, and will keep the book for the illustrations.

Ouch! There's That "G" Word Again...
As other reviewers have mentioned, this book has many wonderful reproductions, including a lot of "extreme close-ups" (if you'll allow me to lift an expression from the movie "Wayne's World"!). The close-ups are great...you can see details of how Velazquez achieved certain effects- such as concentrated spots of pigment to represent the glitter of jewelery, or applying a transparent black "wash" over the white pages in a "book", to give the impression of writing in a book. Additionally, Professor Brown provides a nice biographical sketch of Velazquez in the first 20 pages of the book, and he writes very well indeed. The commentary that accompanies the plates contains a lot of fascinating historical information- we learn a lot about the "court" of Philip IV, the roles of dwarves and jesters, etc. The author goes into the symbolism included in the paintings- for example, the importance of showing the king in control of a horse (which implies he is a good ruler as well as a good horseman). One of the most fascinating plates is the portrait of Mariana of Austria, who was Philip's second wife. Professor Brown explains that Philip's first wife, and his only son, had died and the king needed to remarry and produce a male heir. Unfortunately, Mariana was Philip's niece. As you might expect, the only surviving male heir of their marriage, Charles II, proved incapable of ruling and also of having any children of his own. With his death, the Habsburg dynasty of Spain came to an end. But the physical act of painting the picture also ties into this sad story. Velazquez was a very "economical" painter (some might say lazy). He wasn't very productive, and he also didn't like to waste canvasses that he had worked on! In this case, he had started a canvas of Philip IV. The physical resemblance between Philip and his niece was so great that the artist was able to paint Mariana's face over Philip's. In close-up, Professor Brown even shows how you can see where Velazquez covered up the area on the upper lip which had contained the king's mustache! Many of the plates have similar interesting bits of information contained in the accompanying text. I felt that the book only deserved 4 stars rather than 5 for two reasons- after awhile, some of the technical information becomes boring for the lay reader....too many descriptions of the various pigments used in the "ground" layer of each painting and of the sizes of the additional strips of canvas added to the paintings, for example. The second reason is that Professor Brown is a little too free with the word "genius". He claims that Velazquez was capable of doing things that other major artists weren't able to accomplish. I'm not qualified to say whether or not Velazquez was a genius but, in general, I think the word is overused. The author fails to explain WHY Velazquez was a genius, and what exactly he could do that other important artists couldn't. Still, this is a fine book, with a very nice mixture of beautiful reproductions and lively, informative text.

Ingenius rendering of face and body expressions!
The book consists in essence of two parts: The first 20 pages cover briefly Velazquez's life, career, techniques, and materials. The rest of the book comments on the artist's works.

Concisely, the author discusses the artist's choice on (painting) supports, pigments and colors, and composition and execution, as a prelude for in-depth discussions of the artist's works that follow.

Common art appreciaters will enjoy beautiful paintings (of in general not-very-beautiful people) in which face expressions and body language are deploited ingeniusly by the artist to convey drunkeness, retardation, sovereignty, self-importance, etc...

As for readers who are artists, an in-depth discussion on each painting reveals (with the aid of radiograph) techniques and procedures Velazquez used to create his work. In essence, a majority of Velazquez paintings were prepared with a layer of flake white as foundation. Over the underpainting, the artist applied pigments of different homogeneity and thickness to render desired effects. In addition, close-up pictures of painting details allow readers to understand better the secrets of creating luminosity in the paintings of this painter.

Perhaps as interesting is that mistakes and corrections made by Velazquez in his masterpieces are also unveiled, indicating the fact that although ingenius, the artist did have certain "imperfections" in his art maneuver.

Details, details, and more details
This very fine book on the painter Velazquez is full of historical details, details of the master's painting techniques, and many photographic details of his masterpieces. The several close-up detail reproductions of each painting in the book show the artist's brush strokes and the weave of the canvas as the text describes the pigments used. This extraordinary art book deserves close examination.

Velazquez: the technique of Genius
Please, I would most grateful if you send me information about this publication in Spanish. I am very interested in buying it but I am not still fluent in English. Thank you. ... Read more

Book Description

This title is one in a series presenting four masterpieces by four immortal nineteenth-century French painters.Each miniature book faithfully reproduces its title painting on the front cover, and is packaged in a handsome slipcase that doubles as a picture frame. The frame can stand up on a desk or tabletop or be hung on the wall to display the book cover’s striking painting. Each book’s interior discusses its title painting, describing the artist’s approach to his work, analyzing the picture’s fine points, and showing close-up details from the painting. A final two-page spread presents a timeline capsule biography that listssignificant events in the painter’s life. Van Gogh—Starry Night shows and discusses Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpiece, which is a mystically glowing nighttime landscape, and ranks today as one of the artist's most popular and beloved paintings. ... Read more

Book Description

Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice, here published in a revised and updated edition, explores the visual tradition of one of the most important centers of the Italian Renaissance through a study of three masters--Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto--who dominated and shaped the traditions of Venetian painting in the High and Late Renaissance.David Rosand also explores the formal principles and technical procedures that determined the uniqueness of painting in Venice, above all the development of oil painting on canvas. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Don't be misled by opinionated review!
"Ann Arbor" is way off the mark, and did not read the Tintoretto chapter carefully, as it celebrates the depth of the artist's religious imagery. This book is a classic! Gracefully written, deeply learned yet unassuming, and deserving the most attentive close reading you can spare. The introduction is the best, most concise treatment available anywhere of the outstanding contributions of Venetian Renaissance painting. Rosand is possibly the most distinguished scholar now writing about this marvelous topic. Note that the 3 "artist" chapters are not meant to produce a SURVEY of Venetian painting--each has a different THEME that is traced in the art of the master best suited to it. I've been teaching Venetian Renaissance art at the undergrad and grad level for over 20 years, and I can vouch for the excellence of this book.

Good and bad...
This book would have recieved 5 stars if it wasn't for an apparent misunderstanding of Tintoretto on the part of Prof. Rosand. The first section of the book is oustanding, laying out beutifully such necessary background info/theory as the role of the artist in 16th century Venice and (even better) the aesthtics of the disengo vs. colorito / florence vs. venice controversy. Now for the bad: while it is generally a nice, concise overview of Tintoretto's artistic production, Rosand misses the point in terms of expressive content of his art, debunking the notion that Tintoretto communicates a real, personal passion and piety. He also claims that, contrary to popular scholarship, the Council of Trent had little effect on the outcome of his paintings and "any attempt to link associate specific doctrines may be misleading" (approx. quotation regarding the San Giorgio Maggiore "Last Supper). Despite these questionable views (which he contradicts in other sources, by the way) it is a valuable volume to anyone's personal library.

Great book
I haven't seen the book, but i have a feeling it will be grea ... Read more

Book Description

Andy Warhol (1928-1987), one of the most celebrated artists of the last third of the twentieth century, owes his unique place in the history of visual culture not to the mastery of a single medium but to the exercise of multiple media and roles. A legendary art world figure, he worked as an artist, filmmaker, photographer, collector, author, and designer. Beginning in the 1950s as a commercial artist, he went on to produce work for exhibition in galleries and museums. The range of his efforts soon expanded to the making of films, photography, video, and books. Warhol first came to public notice in the 1960s through works that drew on advertising, brand names, and newspaper stories and headlines. Many of his best-known images, both single and in series, were produced within the context of pop art. Warhol was a major figure in the bridging of the gap between high and low art, and his mode of production in the famous studio known as "The Factory" involved the recognition of art making as one form of enterprise among others. The radical nature of that enterprise has ensured the iconic status of his art and person.

Andy Warhol contains illustrated essays by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Thomas Crow, Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Annette Michelson, and Nan Rosenthal, plus a previously unpublished interview with Warhol by Buchloh. The essays address Warhols relation to and effect on mass culture and the recurrence of disaster and death in his art. ... Read more