Book Description

Foreword by Manuel J. Borja-Villel.
11.75 x 12.5 in.
1283 illustrations ... Read more

Book Description

Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, a series of 69 black-and-white photographs created between 1977 and 1980, is widely seen as one of the most original and influential achievements in recent art. Witty, provocative and searching, this lively catalogue of female roles inspired by the movies crystallizes widespread concerns in our culture, examining the ways we shape our personal identities and the role of the mass media in our lives. ~Sherman began making these pictures in 1977 when she was 23 years old. The first six were an experiment: fan-magazine glimpses into the life (or roles) of an imaginary blond actress, played by Sherman herself. The photographs look like movie stills--or perhaps publicity pix--purporting to catch the blond bombshell in unguarded moments at home. The protagonist is shown preening in the kitchen and lounging in the bedroom. Onto something big, Sherman tried other characters in other roles: the chic starlet at her seaside hideaway, the luscious librarian, the domesticated sex kitten, the hot-blooded woman of the people, the ice-cold sophisticate and a can-can line of other stereotypes. She eventually completed the series in 1980. She stopped, she has explained, when she ran out of clichés.~Other artists had drawn upon popular culture but Sherman's strategy was new. For her the pop-culture image was not a subject (as it had been for Walker Evans) or raw material (as it had been for Andy Warhol) but a whole artistic vocabulary, ready-made. Her film stills look and function just like the real ones--those 8 x 10 glossies designed to lure us into a drama we find all the more compelling because we know it isn't real. In the Untitled Film Stills there are no Cleopatras, no ladies on trains, no women of a certain age. There are, of course, no men. The 69 solitary heroines map a particular constellation of fictional femininity that took hold in postwar America--the period of Sherman's youth and the starting point for our contemporary mythology. In finding a form for her own sensibility, Sherman touched a sensitive nerve in the culture at large. Although most of the characters are invented, we sense right away that we already know them. That twinge of instant recognition is what makes the series tick and it arises from Cindy Sherman's uncanny poise. There is no wink at the viewer, no open irony, no camp.~In 1995, The Museum of Modern Art purchased the series from the artist, preserving the work in its entirety. This book marks the first time that the complete series will be published as a unified work, with Sherman herself arranging the pictures in sequence. She's good enough to be a real actress.--Andy Warhol~The still must tease with the promise of a story the viewer of it itches to be told.--Arthur Danto Essays by Peter Galassi and Cindy Sherman. Hardcover, 9.5 x 11.25 in./164 pgs / 0 color 0 BW69 duotone 0 ~ Item D20150 ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Cindy Sherman: Film Stills
Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, a series of 69 black-and-white photographs created between 1977 and 1980, is widely seen as one of the most original and influential achievements in recent art. ... Read more

Book Description

Bruce Nauman's art has ranged across a variety of media that includes drawings, sculpture, performance, photography, neon, film, video, holograms, texts, and large-scale mixed media installations. This book features a comprehensive catalogue raisonne with illustrated entries for more than five hundred works, including films, videos, performances, and photographic pieces. ... Read more

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Reviews (11)

A Beautiful Book, Highly Recommended
I found this book to be a wonderful experience. Sally Mann has shown so many different 12-year-olds in her hometown of Lexington, Va, and she has captured their stories and what makes each girl so unique. I loved this book and found that some of the photographs, especially "Doll House" reminded me of myself "At Twelve".

Wonderful
I give Sally Mann a thumbs up for capturing her beautiful children when they were young, being what they are: beloved children. How fast we grow and turn into adults!
As I studied each page my memory was jogged several times of my childhood in southern Georgia. Humid sunny days and muggy rainy evenings; I couldn't wait to strip what little bit of cloths I wore and play outside in the rain or in the woods. I never gave it a second thought being nude. And apparently neither did my parents. Needless to say Sally Mann and her beloved childern are dear to my heart. Thanks for bring back so many innocent fond memories.
I recommend this book if you have an open mind and love children for what they are.

At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women
At Twelve is Sally Mann's revealing, collective portrait of twelve-year-old girls on the verge of adulthood. The way many of these reviews are written (i.e. like revealing) you think your getting something for the money but you're not. There is no nudity in this book (except for one picture of a 2 or 3 year old). I strongly recommend you stay away from this trash and stick with the David Hamiltion books.

Solidly beautiful pictures
Maybe I missed something. The pictures are beautiful, and they are supposed to be an attempt to capture the essence of young women on the cusp of becoming adults. What I got was pictures of young women-- missed the whole "becoming" thing. I could just be thick, but this one just passed me by devoid of any emotion.

Exploitative!!
This is not new ground. Mann is better than this. She could be a "contender," by taking a different route than she has - the exploitation of her own children in the nude. Not recommended!!! ... Read more

Book Description

A magnificent selection of drawings by one of the greatest artists of the seventeenth century

For the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), drawing was a fundamental activity. Ranging from delightful renderings of children and elegant portraits of noblemen and women to vigorous animal studies and beautiful landscapes, Rubens’s drawings are renowned for their superb quality and variety.

This exquisite book presents—in beautiful full-color reproductions—more than one hundred of the finest and most representative of Rubens’s drawings, from private and public collections around the world. Essays by Anne-Marie Logan and Michiel C. Plomp provide overviews of Rubens’s career as a draftsman and of the dispersal of his drawings among collectors after his death. The authors discuss the various functions of Rubens’s drawings as preparatory studies for paintings, sculpture, architecture, prints, and book illustrations. The volume also includes a sampling of the artist’s early anatomical studies and copies after antique sculpture as well as several sheets by other artists that Rubens retouched, restored, or reworked.

This publication accompanies an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (January 14 to April 3, 2005)—the most comprehensive exhibition of Rubens’s drawings ever held in the United States.

Anne-Marie Logan is Guest Research Curator and Michiel C. Plomp is Associate Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.


... Read more

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Book Description

Reviews (7)

Superb
It is incumbent upon the reader of this book to have read Dante's DIVINE COMEDY at least once. If there is no familiarity with that masterpiece before-hand, little will be gained by browsing thru these wonderful pages.

For those who are intimate with Dante, this present book is a can't miss. As an illustrated guide thru hell, purgatory and heaven, the plates will recall to the mind of the reader the sundry circles, punishments, torments and rewards depicted in the poem.

For all who love the COMEDY, this is your chance to allow Dore to help you visualize your journey thru the cosmic afterlife with the likes of our friends, Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the poet. As an added bonus, there are tercets depicting the scenes drawn by Dore on every page.

After getting this edition, I'm now interested in getting his illustrations of Milton's PARADISE LOST as well. For those who browse thru these pages, I would HIGHLY recommend listening to Loreena McKennitt's song DANTE's PRAYER while you do so. It is off of her album THE BOOK OF SECRETS (ASIN: B000002NHN), also available @ Amazon.com.

Gustave Dore's superb engravings for Dante's classic work
I have a horrible confession to make: I much prefer to look at Gustave Dore's fantastic and grotesque scenes depicting Dante's "Divine Comedy" with just appropriate lines from the Longfellow translation then have to deal with all those tercets. Even worse, I think these 135 illustrations from the 1861 edition comprise Dore's best body of work, even better than his famous Bible illustrations completed five years later, mainly because I think Dore's style is better suited to the depths of Hell and the realms of Purgatory, rather than the stories of the Bible. Clearly Dore found his kindred soul mate in Dante and even though he did classic engravings to illustrate everything from "Don Quixote" to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," this is his monumental achievement. Many admirers like the plates depicting the souls writhing in the fiery torments of Hell, but my favorite has to do with the lower level of hell where Dante and Virgil encounter the souls frozen in ice (Canto XXXII). This Dover edition is relatively inexpensive, which means the paper quality is geared towards economy rather than reproduction, but I think that it a satisfactory tradeoff, all things considered.

wow!
Excellent artwork that comes to life very well. I really felt Dante in Dore's works.

Great illustrations!
If you are interested in Dore's work or Dante's Divine Comedy, get this! A great supplement to the book.

The Truth
And they talk about heaven on earth.

This is The Inferno Baby. ... Read more

Book Description

"Crewdson is at the forefront of a movement in contemporary photography that hasabandoned realism in pursuit of pure cinematic fantasy." —The New York TimesMagazine

Twilight: in that zone between the certainty of day and fear of the dark, GregoryCrewdson sets his eerie, enigmatic photographs. A woman floats in her flooded livingroom, a cow appears to have fallen from the sky onto a front lawn, a gang of teenagers,seemingly hypnotized, pile up household objects for a bonfire. Created as elaboratelystaged tableaux, this series of images suggests the bizarre yet beautiful surrealities behinddeceptively familiar suburban facades. Scheduled to accompany three simultaneous gallery exhibitions in Spring 2002 and asubsequent retrospective at Mass MoCA, this book chronicles the completion of theTwilight series, which Crewdson began in 1998. Including both production stills and the40 finished images, all infull color, it also features an essay by Rick Moody, a novelist equally renowned forexposing the underbelly of small-town, middle-class America. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Beautiful and Wonderful Photographs by Crewdson
This exciting collection of photographs by Gregory Crewdson finally arrives! It is so wonderful to have these images together in a gorgeous book to bring home to my own living room. I have always enjoyed Crewdson's brilliantly detailed and beautifully cinematic images that evoke wonder and awe. There are excellent photographs in this collection. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates contemporary art.

fascinating photos and read
This book is an incredible documentation of community-based art. The artist, Gregory Crewdson, worked over years to unite a small town in the hills of Massachusetts to create art.
It's inspiring to find out that the people of the town (Lee) not only donate their houses for photo shoots, but they also block off streets and are subjects of the photographs.
The photos in the book are accompanied by text written by Rick Moody. The text is interesting, touching on the psychological forces compelling Crewdson to create art--but the real treat is in the photographs themselves.
The work is produced far away from the mainstream art world of Chelsea, yet it has made a great impression there.

Elephantine and Shallow
The photographs in this book are big, glossy, cinematic...and ultimately dull and derivative. Yet those who hold this type of photography as an example of what is wrong with all contemporary art perhaps fail to understand that there is a good deal of photography mining the same themes, but with much more verve and far less self-conscious pretension. One can find mystery and surrealistic undercurrents in the most mundane of contemporary settings...one can depict such settings as dystopian...but there are photographers like Philip Lorca di Corcia and Paul Graham who have done so in recent monographs with execution that is ostensibly simpler, yet riskier and far more bracing in its results.

Crewdson is a talented professional whose influence in the contemporary photography world and in academia is significant, but in this book he commits so many sins it's tough to know where to start in pinpointing what makes this book so leaden. Ultimately, it's the sheer overstatement in presentation that seems to turn the images into white elephant art (to borrow a term from film critic Manny Farber)...an overstated style that evokes the dreadful excesses of the film American Beauty and David Lynch's most self-indulgent moments.

And since Crewdson works in the realm of still images and not in film or video, he doesn't have the benefit of motion, nuanced characters or any reasonable narrative (unlike a show like Six Feet Under, for example) to keep the images from landing with a huge thud. Though there are some "Recurring Themes" in the images (which seem to involve pregnancy and mounds of flowers), whatever narrative or mystery these may imply is simply not worth considering while being assaulted with the sheer excess of everything. The expressions on the faces of the many mannequins in the book have all the subtlety of silent movie acting, except silent movies (and silent movie actors) on the whole are far more poetic in their projection than the sorry models Crewdson chooses to present to the viewer. Crewdson's dramatic lighting of his stillborn subjects only accentuates the shallowness of his concepts.

If you have a friend that loves the scene from the film "American Beauty" where Annette Benning listens to self-help tapes at an ear-deafening volume, if they consider this a solid critique of contemporary American life, Crewdson's equally vacuous volume will make the perfect coffee-table gift. To those looking for more craft, more subtlety, more depth, diCorcia's "A Storybook Life" or Paul Graham's "American Night", or even work from Crewdson's female disciples from Yale like Justine Kurland (to name just a few) -- these explore similar themes with far more rewarding results.

Amazing
Crewdson uses elements of documentary photography and cinema to give authority and narrative to intricately and flawlessly constructed, amazingly artificial scenes. To criticize these photographs for being "forced" or lacking sincerity is like criticising a race car driver for driving too fast. The amount of effort and detail that went into constructing these realities is the entire point of this book. A photograph doesn't have to refer to something that is "real" in order to be valuable, compelling, and beautiful in its own right. This is an excellent, highly recomended book.

How disappointing
There are artists whose images evoke a sincerity that is missing from most of these images. These photographs seem forced, overly contrived, pretentious, and redundant.
Look at what the photographer George Tice can do with light and the landscape. A photographer, an idea, and a camera. How simple, how sincere. ... Read more

Book Description

Hailed by readers and critics across the country, this engrossing biography of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her own experiences: her childhood near Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution; a devastating accident at age eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children; her tempestuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera and intermittent love affairs with men as diverse as Isamu Noguchi and Leon Trotsky; her association with the Communist Party; her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture; and her dramatic love of spectacle.

Here is the tumultuous life of an extraordinary twentieth-century woman -- with illustrations as rich and haunting as her legend.

Reviews (21)

The Best Book on Frida Kahlo
One cannot live in the modern world without regularly encountering self-portrait images of the beautiful and tragic Frida Kahlo. Whether on coffee mugs, t-shirts, posters, or Mexican artifacts, Frida's exquisite face with its darkly joined eyebrows and beribboned hair is immediately familiar to most observers, even if they do not know who she was. Yet Frida Kahlo's popularity in the twentieth century can be wholly attributed to her brilliance. Unlike the work of most modern artists, almost all of her 200 paintings depict realist, surrealist, and primitive self-portraits symbolizing the concerns and agonies of her life. Hayden Herrera's fine biography is still, seventeen years after its publication, the champion text on one of the most important, original, and phenomenal painters of our time.

Frida was born in 1910 (the year the Mexican Revolution began)to a Mexican mother and German father in the same cobalt blue house in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico City, where she later worked and shared her life with the great muralist Diego Rivera. Ironically, it is the house where her life also ended. Today it is a museum, open to the public and still festooned with her beautiful collections of retablos, pottery, and Mexican folk art. Frida's life was consumed by pain as a result of suffering polio at age 6 and a bus/trolley collision as a teenager when, thrown from the bus, she was gored by a steel rail. Frida spent most years of her life bedridden and in body casts (which she also painted)after some 30 surgeries meant to alleviate her suffering. Throughout her life,and even while prone in a bed with a mirrored canopy, she painted herself because of the focus created by chronic pain and said, "I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone." Her self-portraits suggest deep meanings as her face is always encircled with images derived from her physical and psychological life. The paintings are vibrant and, typical of many of her women contemporaries' works, tiny.

Hayden Herrera's book presents a comprehensive life study of the great artist, incorporating photographs, diaries, letters, painting reproductions, eye witness accounts, and local history and politics in the most readable, enjoyable, intelligent work available. An art historian, Ms. Herrera is thoroughly knowledgeable and writes beautifully, as well. One will be as engrossed by this book as by any great novel. Her work convincingly recreates the scenes from Frida's life and populates them with important contemporaries Frida knew and loved, including Andre Breton, Leon Trotsky, Tina Modotti, Pablo Picasso, and, of course, her own Diego Rivera who called her the greatest painter of our time.

There isn't a more engaging biography available about Frida Kahlo (in second place is Herrera's other text, Frida Kahlo:The Paintings), and one need not be an art student to be enthralled by this work. Ms. Herrera's compassionate, energetic account will capture anyone who wonders just what Frida Kahlo was like--her inspirations, occupations, and truly vivacious approach to her one very painful and amazingly productive life.

Thanks to this book, I discovered Frida!
It was thanks to this wonderful book that I discovered Frida Kahlo, who is now my heroine. I have read many books about her, but this is absolutely the best one. It made me laugh - and weep, too, because I could really feel Frida`s pain in my own body...
Today I am probably Sweden`s biggest Frida - fan, and I drive everybody crazy talking about her all the time! Thanks to her, I have started to paint and draw a lot, I dare to wear crazy clothes - and I dare to be my self.
Thank you, Hayden Herrera, for writing such a great book...

Complete and Complex Like Frida
Hayden Herrera has written an excellent portrait of the great artist Frida Kahlo, complete in thought and tender in describing a woman well lived.

Frida Kahlo is the ultimate survivor and represents women for their strength, tenderness, fierceness and suffering compassion. She lived during a time when women had few rights, especially Mexican women, she faced the dreadfulness of the Mexican Revolution in her early years, a bout with polio, a horrible bus accident that attempted to cripple her for life, an often unfaithful husband, criticism of her dreams, activism, accused Communism and many exciting adventures in life. She lived a true artistic life and her paintings represent the complicated nature of her inner soul. She loved hard and fought often, for her rights, her dreams and her man. While bed-ridden and suffering in the severest of agony she taught herself to paint, her body encased in a huge white cast, she painted to survive and reached the other end with a unique perspective on art. Her life and home were surrounded with color, a rainbow that never needed the promise of something golden at the end. She danced her own rhythm and never stopped walking her own path. This is a woman to be admired!

Herrera does an excellent job as the biographer of this phenomenally complicated woman. Her research is thorough and her suggestions entirely believable. You will be transported back in time into the life of a controversial woman who deserves every ounce of recognition that Herrera has given us.

A thorough rendering of an artist's life
This biography is a complete, engaging 440-page effort of sheer reportage. Herrera, an art historian and curator, has also written a book on Kahlo's art, and books on Mary Frank and Matisse, and you can see evidence of her thoroughness on every page. The book traces Kahlo's life by setting up the lives of her parents (her father was an Austrian immigrant to Mexico) all the way to her death and funeral with great detail. As Herrera follows the path of Kahlo's life, she includes letters to and from Kahlo, Kahlo's journal excerpts (illustrations, words and poems) and explicates Kahlo's art as it becomes relevant to the storyline of her life, either because paintings were done around the time of narrative points or because they illustrate incidents or themes in Kahlo's life. There are two color-plate sections and two black-and-white photo/painting sections to which the reader may refer.

Frida's life is certainly compelling, and Herrera doesn't need to resort to emotional language or hyperbole to make her interesting -- and, thankfully, she doesn't. The narrative is quite matter-of-fact, and illustrated with the subjects' own words, one feels that one can get to know Frida, and her husband, Diego Rivera, pretty well, for being somewhat removed from them (at least I feel that way living in the twenty-first century in Arkansas). The book incorporates the commonly known facts of Frida's life -- her devastating tram accident as a high-schooler in which she was impaled on a shaft of metal handrail, her turbulent and deep connection with and TWO subsequent marriages to Diego Rivera, her Mexicanista loyalties and sensibilities, her affair with Trotsky, her personal flamboyance and her great talent -- with the over-arching idea of Frida's alegría -- or happiness, joy -- in the face of her many hardships. As one of her friends said, Frida was a woman who "lived dying." Her many health problems and her problematic and sometimes painful relationship with Rivera were great obstacles to her, but her flamboyant alegría appears throughout her life as a constant, a will to enjoy, to overcome.

I think what the book offers most is Frida's personality, explicated as carefully and well as the paintings, and the effort helps inform the viewer's assessment and response to her work. Using Kahlo's own words often, Herrera allows Frida to tell us herself her reactions to incidents, events, her successes, her health problems.

She writes to her dear friend and medical adviser, Dr. Eloesser, in the United States when she is struggling with the decision to amputate her increasingly problematic foot: "My dearest Doctorcito: [The doctors] are driving me crazy and making me desperate. What should I do? It is as if I am being turned into an idiot and I am very tired of this f---ing foot and I would like to be painting and not worrying about so many problems. But, it can't be helped, I have to be miserable until the situation is resolved..."

This passage is emblematic of Kahlo, mixing her crass language with her charming endearments to her friends, her concern for her health and her resignation to the situation, "it can't be helped..." She often curses, refers to her reader as "kid" and to money as "dough," in English.

Herrera points out points at which Kahlo is not completely forthcoming with truthful details, for instance her age, the length of time she spent hospitalized at various stages, and her changing view on whether she was a Surrealist painter or not. She also illustrates Kahlo's changes in terms of the political situation of the international Communist party, her views about Trotsky, and her public vs. private comments on Diego's never-ending philandering.

In a book on Kahlo, these life details are relevant to her art because her art is confessional and personal. She's a "Sylvia Plath" of painting and mines her life and emotions for subjects until the end. Not long before she died, she had resolved her priorities, telling a friend, "I only want three things in life: to live with Diego, to continue painting, and to belong to the Communist party."

The people around her were deeply important to Frida Kahlo, and to the end of her life, she adored her friends, wrote winning and charming, caring notes to them, and wanted them around her at the end. Her love of others plays itself out in her political beliefs; she toured the world as an artist, but she drew her subjects and methods from Mexicanista traditions, and popular as well as pre-Columbian culture. Her personal illustrations are appealing because of that understanding of others, and Herrera's sound biography renders Kahlo's work and life even more poignant and remarkable. It's a good book. I recommend it.

(I do wish that this book had Frida Kahlo's own art or a photo of her on the cover, rather than a photo of Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo.)

Frida Kahlo is Alive and Well
The greatest compliment one could offer a biographer is that she has brought to life her subject with honesty and insight. Well, I offer this compliment to Hayden Herrera. It is supreme understatement for me to observe that the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, was a complex person filled with great contradictions. Yet, through liberal use of Frida's letters coupled with Herrera's own insightful analysis of her painting, "Frida" brings this great artist to life for us to bask in her brilliance, energy and strength. "Frida" is one of the most remarkable, illuminating and fulfilling biographies I have ever read. I highly recommend this magnificent book. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Frida Kahlo's diary, like her art, is painted in breathtakingly vivid colors. It covers her tumultuous last decade and encompasses love letters, political musings on Communism, and resplendent paintings. The paintings, peopled with mythic figures, self-portraits, and monsters, articulate Kahlo's fantastic visions. One drawing melds a procession of crying faces onto an intertwined couple surrounded by body parts, only to dissolve into a mass of roots and dendrites.

In the introduction, Carlos Fuentes writes, "...a streetcar crashed into the fragile bus she was riding, broke her spinal column, her collarbone, her ribs, her pelvis.... The impact of the crash left Frida naked and bloodied, but covered with gold dust." Her paintings depict her bodily experience, from anguish to sensuality. Kahlo said, "I never painted dreams, I painted my own reality." This visionary ability earned her a place among the surrealists.

Kahlo's prose delves into the associations between images and words, feelings and thought. Her writings shed welcome light on her active intelligence and provide an outline of the events of her life. This Abradale edition features plates reproducing the pages of the diary, and essays by Carlos Fuentes and Sarah Lowe that place it in the context of Mexican art, politics, and history. It is a magical work that adds to an understanding not only of Kahlo's work, but of her interior world as well.--Madeline Crowley ... Read more

Reviews (6)

If unique is what you seek
I was put off by this book for a few years before I got around to reading it because of the odd nature of Frida's drawings and doodlings, inks spillls morfing into "art" and in general the seemingly difficult text to follow. All this changed upon a recent trip to Mexico, amongst the tranquil backdrop of Mismaloya and unforgetable sunsets in this tropical paradise I was able to whip through this book. The serenity of the place helped me get through Frida's chaos. After reading her own insights and feelings about life I wanted more. Her bizarre life, filled with more theatre and characters than a Fellini film, more physical and mental agony than most humans can endure is one that deserves her own thoughts, although at times they are convoluted. Whether she was under the influence(many of her last years she was doped to mask the pain) or not is irrevelant because the text is spellbinding with illustrations that captivate the imagination, taking the reader along a surrealistic journey as only Frida can. It is a grotesquely beautiful book, rich in imagery , both literally as well as illustrated in the unique style of Frida Kahlo, reflective of the pain and suffering she lived, both self inflicted and her own fate. It is quite simply, Frida in her own words. The book is a handsome collection of thoughts and drawings by one of the greatest Latin American artists of the twentieth century. The author takes the liberty of interpreting each page, giving her perspective concerning the thoughts of Frida in a very helpful manner. The first part of the book is the diary, in writting and print and as colorful and bold as Frida was, whereas the second part is the type written text of the Frida's hallucianatory ramblings and drawings. This proves to a beneficail companion to reading each page, first by Frida followed by the clearer typed "translation" in thesecond part of the book. Without the type written text some sections are nearly impossible to decipher. The various sketches are shown in their embyonic stages and would later become part of her major works are truly amazing. If you are a lover of the works of Frida Kahlo this is a fine book to add to your collection of Kahlo memorabilia. This book is a perfect companion to Hayden Herrera's definitive biography. Incidently, my desire for more of Frida in her own words (this one is in Spanish mostly)was quenched recently by finding a book entitled "Escritura" by Frida Kahlo that is series of poems, letters and notes selected by Raquel Tibol. I highly suggest reading both if you are a Kahlophile.

Intimate and hallucinatory
This very intimate book accomplishes what no bio can: show us inside Kahlo, via her own ramblings and disorganization and odd illustartions and ink spills and lines, and drawings, etc. It is a weird highway to the inner mind of the goddess of 20th century art.

With a movie in the works ..., Kahlo is sure to solidify her position as the top-of-the-art-food-chain Latin American artist of the century (Georgia O'Keefe considered her the best female artist of the 20th century) and make her iconic face even more famous.

Kahlo deserves this position because she painted honestly and brutally. She painted her memorable Jewish-Austrian-Spanish-Mexican face, single eyebrow and slim moustache in stark honesty; she had many lovers of both sexes (when such a course of sex exploits was practically unknown); she grabbed her Mexicanity with a fierce pride and ferocity that would not be in vogue until decades after her death (Kahlo was born in 1907 and died in 1954) and yet during her life she was just the wife of a very famous Mexican muralist and a champagne Communist who partied with the Fords and Rockefellers while marching with the workers down the wide avenues of Mexico City. It is thus ironic that it is Kahlo, whose astonishing life and unique paintings are now the subject of lawsuits between governments and collectors, has taken the limelight from her talented womanizer husband and is rightfully considered one of the best artists of the 20th century, period. This is a nice addition and a must read for Kahlophiles.

Hallucinatory and lovely
This book gives an interesting view of the person who was Frida Kahlo, in her own very personal words and images. It is a bit sad that something so private has been made rather accessible, but it is good for lovers of Kahlo's art. The book is inspiring; it is quite creatively stimulating with the lush, free images and round scrawls in many colours. The introduction by Carlos Fuentes is well-written, and I especially liked his description of seeing Frida Kahlo at a Wagner opera. The essay by Sarah Lowe is likewise good. The reproductions of the diary pages look very good and clear (though since I haven't seen the originals, I'm just assuming they are accurate), the size of the pages is large enough, and the colours are all very vivid. The commentary is in a separate section from the diary reproduction, which is nice because you can look uninterrupted at the diary part, and not have to worry about what it all means. It does make for a lot of flipping back and forth when reading the commentary and referring back to the diary page, even though the page discussed is reproduced in black and white (very small) in the commentary. The commentary is rather sparse, and not all the pages of the diary are discussed. All in all a fascinating read.

A Must Own for Frida Junkies
This is not a book that you read, per se. If you are looking for a biography or autobiography of Kahlo and want to find out about her life and times - this is Not the book.

If you already have a lot of knowledge of Kahlo then this diary is a fantastic addition. It provides you with an insight into her mind, dreams and pain. The beautiful color reproduction of her actual drawing and writing is accompanied by a type-set explanation of her words.

No scholar of Frida Kahlo should be without this amazing, gorgeous portfolio. It is inspiring on many levels.

Graphically rich!
If you are expecting a standard diary, full of descriptions of what happened today, who visited for breakfast, and what Frida had for dinner - then don't order this book. Frida's diary is an amazing combination of text and paintings. She writes random comments with little consideration of form. In fact, many of the things she writes are random lists of words, or letters to loves that are never sent, or even descriptions of fantastic events that never occur outside of her imagination. It's like a huge and colorful experiment in free writing and unconscious expression. Combine these words with the sketches, paintings, and drawing scattered about - sometimes on pages of their own, sometimes in the midst of words that are written around the edges of the artwork - and you have an incredible and extremely unique diary. Personally, I found it inspiring to read and have incorporated many of the elements into my own journal. (If you are looking for a way to break out of writers block, or artists block, I would seriously consider getting a copy of this book and mimicking the technique. It's very freeing and has a way of generating ideas.) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A college Fine Arts Major's dream come true!!
This book covers the structural anatomy with pin-point accuracy. Though this isn't really an anatomy book by title, by examining Prud'hon's structural techniques, one can easily see all of college's artistic anatomy classes in one of his graphics. ... Read more

Book Description

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), an Italian painter and printmaker renowned for his simple yet stunning still lifes, is also famous for his legendary reputation as a recluse, an artist who resided in a world bound by the walls of his Bologna studio. Giorgio Morandi: The Art of Silence dispels this myth and is the first and only study in English to cover Morandi's career in its entirety as well as in the sociopolitical and cultural context of Italian art.

Janet Abramowicz, Morandi's former teaching assistant, takes the reader through half a century of Italian art history and its most significant movements-Futurism, Pittura Metafisica, Valori Plastici, Strapaese, Novecento-most of which have received scant attention from English-language scholars. Abramowicz shows how Morandi worked in close proximity to mainstream contemporary European art and tells the story of his relationship to the Fascist politics and patrons of his time, illustrating how his connections to this period were muted after the fall of the regime in post-World War II Italy in an effort to establish the artist as apolitical. Morandi was the only Italian modernist to emerge from Fascism unscathed.

An important new addition to scholarship on twentieth-century Italian art history, this book features many rare and previously unpublished images and will fascinate admirers of Morandi and his transcendent work.

Book Description

The Print is the third and final book in The Ansel Adams Photography Series--the seminal guides fully revised by Ansel Adams shortly before his death in 1984.

The Print, now available in paperback like the other volumes in the series, belongs on every photographer's shelf. It covers the entire printmaking process, from designing and furnishing a darkroom and experimenting with your first print, to mastering advanced techniques such as developer modifications, toning, and bleaching, and burning and dodging. This thorough guide is filled with indispensable darkroom techniques and tips, and amply illustrated with photographs and technical drawings. It is an indispensable tool for mastering the complex art of photographic printmaking. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

This is great book
In this book, Adams said Expression is more important than reality, idea more important than fact, the print more important than its subject. For it is only in the print that such magnificence can be unfailingly orchestrated. Those words made me think that what is good photograph. The book opens with a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit brief, history of photography before getting down to explain printing techniques.

The majority of the text concentrates it's efforts in educating the reader in the art of B&W photography. This book tells readers that what are good prints making techniques. After reading this book you will feel like that your printing skills are very improved. The reader will see many wonderful pictures as examples, that will surely create a better impression as to what type of pictures Adams takes.

This is great book !!!
In this book, Adams said Expression is more important than reality, idea more important than fact, the print more important than its subject. For it is only in the print that such magnificence can be unfailingly orchestrated. Those words made me think that what is good photograph. The book opens with a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit brief, history of photography before getting down to explain printing techniques.

The majority of the text concentrates it's efforts in educating the reader in the art of B&W photography. This book tells readers that what are good prints making techniques. After reading this book you will feel like that your printing skills are very improved. The reader will see many wonderful pictures as examples, that will surely create a better impression as to what type of pictures Adams takes.

This Book is Great !!
In this book, Adams said Expression is more important than reality, idea more important than fact, the print more important than its subject. For it is only in the print that such magnificence can be unfailingly orchestrated. Those words made me think that what is good photograph. The book opens with a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit brief, history of photography before getting down to explain printing techniques.

The majority of the text concentrates it's efforts in educating the reader in the art of B&W photography. This book tells readers that what are good prints making techniques. After reading this book you will feel like that your printing skills are very improved. The reader will see many wonderful pictures as examples, that will surely create a better impression as to what type of pictures Adams takes.

Excellent Book for any Serious B&W Photographer
This is one of a few books in this Ansel Adams series. He discusses a number of aspects of the print, it's limitations, and many techniques that can be used to exploit print characteristics. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is at all serious about B&W photography whether developing your own prints or not.

A must have in the age of digital
This book though dry and technical has plenty of information that is a must have for any aspirinf photographer who wishes to push their black and white print skills furhter. Given that digital camera sales are now out stripping analog cameras will this book still have relevence? ... Read more

Reviews (4)

5K stars, susan is incredible makes great tattoo's
i love her. i have never been so mesmerized by
an artist before. sure georgia o'keeffe, and more
but susan just because my favorite artist in the
past 4 yrs. i have several tattoos from the
goddess cards on my arms, which are connected.
i hope someone else writes a book about her
life, etc. ...

A must-have for any Susan Seddon Boulet afficionado
I've purchased several S.S.B. books in the past because I love her work, but I was frustrated with these books because they were exclusively picture books that revealed nothing about the artist herself or the life she was living.

I was also frustrated by their lack of artistic documentation found in the other S.S.B. books. I wanted to know so much more about Boulet and what inspired the images I was seeing (not to mention the dimensions and what -medium- and technique was being used to create them) and how they progressed over time.

This book -finally- provides all that, and then some. It's well written and beautifully printed with page after page of brilliantly colored and detailed pictures of Boulet's work.
This book ties these fantastic pictures of her work to the storyline of her life so that you can easily follow the progression and draw associations from what was going on in Boulet's life to what was going on with her art.

The reader gets to experience all the phases of Boulet's journey, watching her style and confidence unfold over the years, through her experiments with printmaking to the serendipitous ink spill that led to a crucial stylistic element emerging in her work.

The book never wavers, never flinches away from the reality of the story, even when it wanders into the sad and dark territory of Boulet's eventual decline from breast cancer.
The reader is allowed to explore with the artist the darker territory of the end of her life and view the transcendent imagery that manifested as a result.

There are a few small "irritations" that this book does indulge in, the prevalence for discussing pieces wildly out of order for example, or the fact that Susan's son was mentioned once or twice and then utterly forgotten as a major element in her life (even though she wrote extensively about how important motherhood was to her as a theme). But overall, I have to say that these idiosyncrasies are easy to forgive in light of the richness of the overall feast.

Everyone to whom I've shown this book, who is at all a fan of S.S.B's, has purchased their own copy and I can't leave it out on the table without people snatching it up and poring over it - I think that says it all.

A Comprehensive Review of the Artist and her Unique Talent
Susan Seddon Boulet - A Retrospective, by Michael Babock, beautifully recounts the life of an internationally-known Bay Area artist, while a well-chosen selection of her paintings and sketches documents the many changes in her style, her use of new techniques and materials and, ultimately,her inner struggle with the concepts of life, death and resurrection as she courageously battles the cancer that ultimately claimed her life in April of 1997.

Boulet, whose body of work numbers in excess of 3,000 pieces painted from 1970 through 1996, began to draw and paint at a very early age. In the 1970's, after her husband died, she began to blossom as an artist, and her work in the 1980's and 90's reflects her growing confidence in her own very personal vision and style.

Boulet was a consummate master at painting multiple layers and levels of detail that only reveal themselves as one looks at a painting over and over again. From the painting "Dreams", with its rich panoply of animals, fishes, and architectural details, to Penelope, with its dark overlay of emotion and reflection, the body of work chosen by the writer to reflect Susan the "person" is a wonderful companion to the thoughtful prose of the text.

Pomegranate Press, the publisher of the Retrospective, allows the author full license to capture Susan fully, as artist, visionary, personal friend, humorist and story-teller. This book, with its emphasis on portraying Boulet's magical touch at bringing the mundane and the spritual into proximity as they relect the human condition as well as the universal "inner landscape", will inspire and comfort those who knew and loved her, and those who loved - and love- her work.

Those who have only seen reproductions of her work through the many calendars and notecards that have been available for years through Pomegranate Press, will be thrilled by the clear, color-accurate reproductions in this book. A "must have" for all the lovers of the magical paintings of Susan Boulet.

One of the best unknown artists of our times
Having just received this book today I haven't had time to read it closely. All I can say in regards to my first look through this book though is "WOW!" I'd rate it far higher than a five-star if that were an option.

Having been a Susan Seddon Boulet fan for a few years, since discovering her calendars published by Pomegranate, I have eagerly awaited new books about her life and artwork. Out of all of them, which are all wonderful, this one is by far the best.

The book is a biography of Susan Seddon Boulet's life from her childhood to her death in 1997. It is much more than that, though. It is filled with full color pictures of her wonderful, fascinating artwork. It also includes excerpts from her journals and diaries and gives the reader a beautiful account of who she was.

Who was she? She is a visionary artist. Her artwork is dreamy and fairy-tale-like in many respects, but that doesn't mean it isn't bold and daring. Her artwork is something you have to experience to believe. It is powerful. It makes you want to know the mind, the person, the soul behind it. This book has it. ... Read more

Amazon.com

When Gianni Versace was shot dead outside his Miami villa on July 15, 1997, few believed that his fashion empire would survive. The chutzpah and flamboyance of Versace the fashion house seemed inseparable from Versace the man. And yet, a year later, Versace remained buoyant, its reputation and market position if anything enhanced by its creator's tragic fate.

This book goes some way toward explaining why. From his first 1980 collection, Versace cannily engaged a great photographer, Richard Avedon, who stylishly wedded his designs to a potent blend of celebrity, beauty, flesh, sex, and humor, which became instantly identifiable as Versace--poised, pansexual, tongue firmly in sculptured cheek. Whether in trademarked group shots of intricately entangled supermodels, Stallone nude and stone-faced, Elton gleeful in drag, or Bon Jovi proudly strutting his buff bod, Avedon equals Versace--to the extent that he can show Kate Moss, without a stitch of Versace (or anything else), and we know that she is thinking Versace. This gorgeous volume collects more than 170 photographs, and gives us, as it justly proclaims: "A glimpse of the impassioned shameful opulent titillating sewmanship of that daredevil magician of art and artifice who was and will always be Gianni Versace." --Alan Stewart ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Nostalgic and somewhat delightful
This is an archive of the advertisments and editorials for Versace. His pictures, like his clothes are refreshing, and surprising. Those who buy this book will encounter some director's cut images. However, "The Naked" lacks the better Versace campigns. Those familiar with Versace photographs will wonder why they did not include the better shots... Some pictures are amazing, yet, some didn't have the luster. And unfortunately, the bad outnumber the good. With the price, it is still a good buy but leaves you craving more. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (8)

ok, worth it cuz its cheap
This book is worth the money 'cuz its so cheap. The reproducions arent really that good, and there are some problems of provenance: the cover drawing attributed to Leonardo, but it is by his master/teacher Verrocchio.

drawing enthusiast, don't buy it
if you are a Da Vinch zealot, you should have it. but, if you need some drawings to study or copy it. don't buy it. the quality of print is not that good, there's a bunch of Da Vinch's memos though...i doubt it's useful for a drawing enthusiast..pretty sure that it's invaluable for people who are studying "Da VinchSTICS".if you are a drwaing enmthusiast you'd better buy da vinch's another drawing books.....

drawing enthusiast...don't buy it
if you are a Da Vinch zealot, you should have it. but, if you need some drawings to study or copy it. don't buy it. the quality of print is not that good, there's a bunch of Da Vinch's memos though...i doubt it's useful for a drawing enthusiast..pretty sure that it's invaluable for people who are studying "Da VinchSTICS".

Excellent insight into Leonardo Da Vinci
Interesting book detailing the life and thoughts of Leonardo Da Vinci. Historical context of the period and biographical information is included. Reading gets a little dry at times. Excellent resource book. Specific topics can be looked up to discover da Vinci's wisdom and insight.

Leonardo's Masterworks
This 2-Volume collection published by Dover wonderfully exhibits Leonardo's works with his sketches, designs and ideas. If you ever wondered what Leonardo thought, then these are the books to get. The book is set up with the text in two columns; the left in the original Italian, and the right side in the translated English. In those words are written of Leonardo's philisophical ideas, lives of where he lived and his surroundings, his theories on color, perspective, proportion, architecture, foliage, physiology and so many other things that the Great One was curious about. Througout the book and amidst the text are Leonardos sketches, thumbnail sketches, workings of famous pieces such as the Last Supper, some anatomical drawings - and in those pages you can see Leonardo's handwriting which he tended to write backwards. The value and reference is endless, especially for the artist. This edition is reprinted from the 1833 version originally entitled "Literary Works of Leonardo Da Vinci." This is a 2-volume set, which is sold seperately, but for the price, it is so worth the money. Highly reccomended! ... Read more

From the Publisher

Celebrated throughout the world, fiber artist Mein combines into one textile work weaving, knitting, crochet, trapunto, applique and other methods, sometimes adding paints to her soft scultpures. Included are field studies and pieces from museums and private collections. Distributed by Woodstocker Books division, Arthur Schwartz & Company, Inc. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A perfect experience!
The first time you look at this book, you will want to rush through just to make sure that the images inside match the promise of the cover. Then you will want to find a place where you can linger as long as you please to take in the beauty of each page. The bonus of having design sketches with notes by the artist makes this book absolutely captivating. You do not have to be a "Mein wannabe" but you may well be tempted to try. This book will become your newest favorite book.

Magnificent! Breathtaking!
Annemieke Mein is one the worlds greatest textile artists. Her attention to detail and incredible sense of colour make her work of a standard unsurpassed by others. She creates a world magical and realistic that will open the eyes of any observer. Annemieke has incredible artistic talent and imagination which she has utilised in her works. A heightening experience!

Art of Annemieke Mein: Wildlife Artist in Textiles
This book is absolutely breathtaking! The art alone is worth buying the book for. The ideas this lady generates with her views of nature will get your creative juices flowing so much that before you know it you'll be outside hunting down bugs and drawing them. My dogs get frustrated with me because instead of walking them as I used to I now stop every few feet to look at an insect or the odd-shaped leaf or grass, etc. I would recommend this book as THE greatest art/craft/fiberart book ever and this compliment isn't given lightly. I have many, many beautiful craft books but this one is the BEST! ... Read more

Book Description

Jack Vettriano’s rise to fame has been meteoric. His painting, “The Singing Butler,” recently sold for a record $1,350,000. This sumptuous volume showcases more than 30 new pieces, some unseen earlier work, plus the best of his paintings published in Lovers and Other Strangers and Fallen Angels. ... Read more

Book Description

Text by Bruce McCall. "Exceptional book . . . the best of humor . . . refreshing. Delightful!" is how George Booth describes Sit! in The New York Times Book Review. Working in the dog-as-person-as-art vein of William Wegman (but at the other end of the spectrum), Theirry Poncelet combs flea markets and antique shops for ancestral portraits; restores them brush-stroke by brush-stroke; and then seamlessly paints in a dog's head over the subject's. The resulting tour de force is a fantasy that looks uncaninely real. Selection of the Book-of-the Month Club. ... Read more

Book Description

Based on family letters and documents, lengthy interviews with his widow, Lee Krasner, as well as his psychologists and psychoanalysts, this book explodes the myths surrounding his death in 1956. 12 color and 175 black-and-white photos and reproductions. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

I love this book.
This is one of the most interesting biographies I've read in a long time. I think Pollock is mostly misunderstood. He was a very good painter, but he's a simple guy, looking to be famous to make a few bucks, have a few kids, and remain relatively on the level, but Lee Krasner knew better. Pollock hated "phonies" and felt he had became one after the Look article, etc.. Here you'll find all those wonderful Pollock stories in fine detail. Like him pissing into peggy Guggenhiem's fireplace during a cocktail party. This book will give you the history of that period like no other, and a feel for what it's like to be an ambitious artist in the New York art world. Great supporting cast in Lee Krasner, Clement Greenberg, Peggy Guggenhiem, and all those painters!

Well-Researched
Excellent index and thorough, chronological coverage of events in the life of this important American artist.

It is a huge book but moves fairly quickly, since Pollock's life was really very interesting. Any art history student studying Pollock and the New York abstract expressionist movement will find plenty of insight here. Includes wonderful collection of black and white photos from all phases of the man's life.

Pollock had a tough time dealing with the fame and notoriety foisted upon him as a genius of the New York school, and for many years Pollock has often been dismissed as the phony he himself feared he was. It certainly is refreshing to see Pollock as a whole man (talented, wise, adventurous, flawed, tenacious, alcoholic), not just as an overrated art star. (The recent Kurt Varnadoe book on his art is also excellent in this way). Self doubting artists may find some degree of comfort in this book, actually.

Detailed, unbiased writing. One of the best artist biographies I've ever read.

Commits almost all of the sins of the biographer's craft
The Naifeh/White Smith biography of Jackson Pollock is extensively researched, and it's also (for what it's worth) fairly readable. But it's a pretty bad biography. The writers feel free to let their imaginations run riot, and indulge in weak psychobiographic speculation with little proof or justification, and they seem intent on "reading" Pollock's life as if it were a coherent and pre-written text (the most offensive example of this is at the end, when they seem to suggest Jackson's death, and his attendent criminally negligent killing of Edith Metzger, were somehow part of his artist's journey). I think a major artist like Pollock deserves a better and more responsible biography.

Who cares how many pages it is?
I read this book when it first was published.
This book made me want to see the new movie!
I balked at it's cost but it is the best biography I have ever read.
It is well researched and written.
Things from the book at linger in my memory after all this time?
His hell raising at the Canal Bar,dealing with Peggy Guggenheim, his death and the strange notion that he claimed he would supposedly "know" when a woman had her period.

Read this book, I'm going to again!

Fascinating story of a genius alcoholic
The beginning of this book is hard to get through but once Jack