Book Description

Reviews (1)

For Inquiring "New Investigators" to "Seasoned Pros"
What this version lacks is poster-sized illustrations...other than that, you'll find it here. While much time is spent on in-depth detail of information and explanation ranging from historical context and relevance, to the present day continuation of many of the ancient beliefs/practices, the inquiring reader won't have to worry about "treading water" here due to the well-defined, logical layout of the work. Rather than bounce from here to there and back again, the read and "look" is more like an entertaining, well-mapped history book; great lay out, fun, and informative. ;) ... Read more

Amazon.com

Should art museums be designed to surprise and delight or to instruct and uplift? Should the museum building be a temple of art or an entertainment complex? Architectural historian Victoria Newhouse considers these and other questions about museums in her book Towards a New Museum. Newhouse examines dozens of art museums built during the 1980s and 1990s and describes how the buildings fit into the history of ideas about the proper function of museums. Some museums are like cabinets of curiosities, a hodgepodge of items the collector assembles to delight viewers. Other designers of museums strive to provide a neutral environment that does not distract viewers from the art. However, some architects believe that hanging paintings on white walls in galleries separates the art from its context. Architects and artists have grappled with these ideas and created some stunning and outlandish museums in recent years. Newhouse describes the sinuous, titanium-coated new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the fractured forms of the Fredrick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. She writes about the artist Donald Judd, who bought most of Marfa, Texas, and made it a museum. These are bold and sometimes beautiful museums. Newhouse wisely includes plenty of good pictures and diagrams of each building.

In different segments of the book, Newhouse discusses: private museums, museums that function as temples of art, museums devoted to one artist, and museums designed by artists. She also devotes a chapter to the unfortunate impact of museum politics on design. This chapter, "Wings That Don't Fly," illustrates some of the more vivid design disasters in recent history, including the "toilet tank" addition to the Guggenheim in New York. Art historians, architects, and people who are connected to museums will find this book an instructive, thoughtful overview of what's going on with museums today. --Jill Marquis ... Read more

Reviews (2)

disappointing
This book is ok if you want a coffee-table type, once-over- lightly look at some new museums. If you want the kind of serious consideration or analysis that seems promised by the contents/chapter titles, look elsewhere. A waste of $ for my purposes.

An articulate overview of recent museum design
Victoria Newhouse's book on recent museum design is fascinating--I have been to many of the projects she includes (there are lots and lots of them), and her descriptions and analyses of them never fail to strike me as remarkably insightful. I don't always agree with her comments or her selection of projects (Frank Stella should stick to painting), but as a whole the book is both a wide-ranging compendium of current designs for the visual arts, and an informed treatise with a strong point of view. Far from being an advocate of universal space, Newhouse keeps returning to her central theme: how well does a particular design serve its particular contents? In answering that question, she displays an unusual comprehension of sophisticated issues in both the architectural and artistic arenas. Newhouse has visited much and looked hard; she has also apparently done a lot of research, talked to many of the clients, architects, and curators, and gives one not only the obvious facts but often the inside story. Then she calls it as she sees it, cogently summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of each project's suitability as a container for art. This is required reading for anyone seriously interested in or involved with problems of museum and gallery design. ... Read more

Book Description

In the late 19th century, women wore bustles, corsets, and ankle-length petticoats under skirts that swept the ground. By the 1930s, some of the same women were wearing trousers, short skirts, and simple draped dresses. Nowhere is this extraordinary transition more beautifully and extensively documented than in the wardrobe of Queen Maud of Norway, the granddaughter of England's Queen Victoria. One of the best-dressed women of her age, she took every opportunity to indulge her passion for clothes.

Style and Splendour showcases some of Queen Maud's most spectacular garments. Using photographs of her magnificent clothes and accessories, most made by the foremost designers of her day and now preserved in Oslo, the book tells the story of the evolution of women's fashion from the 1890s to the 1930s. AUTHOR BIO: Anne Kjellberg is curator of Queen Maud's collection at the National Museum of Art/Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Oslo. Susan North is curator in the Department of Furniture, Textiles and Dress at the V&A and author of Historical Fashion in Detail. ... Read more

Book Description

Lavishly illustrated, these meticulously researched volumes guide the reader through two of the world's finest art museums. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great anthology of art
Wonderfully developed piece of art! This book describes not only many major pieces in the museum but also gives an extensive history of the museum itself. Many great photographs of beautiful, historic holdings of the museum. This book brings back fond memories of walking through the halls of the Louvre! The major drawback to the book is its weight, but the Louvre does contain a large portion of the history of European art. Great with its companion book. RG ... Read more

Book Description

William Spratling revolutionized silver jewelry design in Mexico. Arriving in Taxco in 1929, by 1940 he had over 100 silversmiths producing his enormously popular silver creations. Important figures of the North American literary and art establishment, among them John dos Passos, William Faulkner, and Georgia O'Keeffe, purchased his designs and sang his praises. Out of Spratling's workshop emerged many of Mexico's finest silver designers, including Héctor Aguilar, Antonio Castillo and his brothers Jorge and Justo, Salvador Terán, and Antonio Pineda. Today their striking jewelry and hollowware in silver-often set with precious stones and pre-Columbian artifacts-are prized collectibles.

This book tells the story of the legendary designer and of seven decades of the silversmith's art in Mexico. With its elegant photographs and an invaluable appendix of hallmarks, this volume-which accompanies a traveling exhibition that will draw new attention to Spratling's silver designs-will appeal to collectors, dealers, scholars, and everyone who enjoys beautiful jewelry. ... Read more

Book Description

In this stunning book, Alexandra Bonfante-Warren has chosen representative masterpieces from each of the Louvre's seven departments - Egyptian Antiquities, Oriental Antiquities, Greek and Roman Antiquities, Decorative Arts, Sculpture, Paintings, and Drawings - and made them available to armchair visitors in 300 color plate reproductions. Here are tomb paintings and sarcophagi from the Valley of the Kings, devotional altarpieces expressing the religious fervor of the Middle Ages, and masterpieces by Giotto, Raphael, Leonardo, Rembrandt, Rubens, Delacroix, David, Vermeer, and Ingres. The Louvre also contains photos and historical drawings of the architectural development of the fortress-turned-palace-turned- museum, as well as an engaging account of French history that helped form one of the most spectacular collections in the world. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent Resource!
This 320 page book is the next best thing to actually being at this museum in person. The full color photographs of the artwork is stunning. Every piece is accompanied by a short description describing it's significance.
The book is divided by style (e.g. "oriental antiquities", "paintings", "European sculpture", "decorative arts") and includes an extensive bibliography. Definately worth the purchase! ... Read more

Book Description

"An authoritative reference work that lists more than 200 selected museums in countries from Afghanistan to Zaire. . . . This set responds to the need for a work that offers serious researchers scholarly articles on the history and collections of the world's major museums." Choice "This volume will be of great use to scholars for the valuable and frequently difficult to obtain information it provides, including facts about museum libraries and the availability of slides and photographs. Not only will it be a wonderful reference tool for researchers, but it also makes fascinating reading for the armchair traveler. Highly recommended." Library Journal ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Design of the ages
this books contains a huge amount of objects that are familiar to us in our daily lives and rituals.These objects are a greater part of our lives than we may think, and this book tells us how these objects shape us. A great addition to my collection strongly reccomend it to students of the design fields or anyone interested in making. ... Read more

Book Description

Kara Walker (b. 1969) has emerged as one of her generation's most important artists. Best known for her provocative black paper cutout silhouettes, she confronts stereotypes, sex, violence, and power relationships through Civil War-era parodies, narratives, and a mastery of craft and installation.

This book, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College and the Williams College Museum of Art, presents a comprehensive overview of Walker's work, beginning with her first cut-paper wall installation, Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994). Other highlights include the 1996 series of twenty-four watercolor drawings, Brown Follies, which is reproduced in full as an artist's book within the book, and installation views of many of Walker's exhibitions. Recent drawings and projections are also featured. Throughout the book are a selection of the Walker's writings reproduced as they were created typed on index cards. These writings reveal a rarely seen side of the artist, whose words are as provocative as her installations and drawings. The essays discuss Walker's place in art history, formal and narrative readings of her work, her relation to culture at large, and issues of race, sexuality, and representation addressed in her work.

Copublished with the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College and Williams College Museum of Art. ... Read more

Book Description

For four and a half decades, Etta and Claribel Cone roamed artists’ studios and art galleries in Europe, building one of the largest, most important art collections in the world. At one time, these two independently wealthy Jewish women from Baltimore received offers from virtually every prominent art museum in the world, all anxious to house their hitherto private assemblage of modern art. In 1949, they awarded all their holdings to the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 2002, that collection was valued at nearly $1 billion, making them two of the most philanthropic art collectors of our age.

Yet, for complex reasons, the story of the Cone sisters has never been fully or accurately told. Gertrude Stein suggested in her writings that the mousy Etta and the regal Claribel had little artistic sense of their own, buying only what she and Leo Stein advised them to buy. For most of those 45 years, though, the savvy Cone sisters knew exactly what they were doing, and why. But they thought it undignified in life or death to call much attention to themselves, always emphasizing that the art, not its collecting, mattered most.

Mary Gabriel, an art-minded journalist and women’s historian, has, at long last, brought the little-known sisters to life, and shone the spotlight on their remarkable achievements.

That these two upright, Victorian women led the way in purchasing the scandalous, erotic art of Matisse, Picasso, and others, is itself one of the most fascinating yet incongruous aspects of their story. Etta and Claribel Cone supported the 20th century's revolutionary artists from their impoverished beginnings -- when Henri Matisse, for example, was reviled by critics as a "wild beast," and Pablo Picasso scratched out a living in a hovel. By contributing to the livelihood of avant-garde artists in whom they deeply believed, the sisters helped coax out, then preserved some of the greatest art of the modern era.

Though it intimately portrays two powerful, influential, ahead-of-their-time women, The Art of Acquiring is more than a tale of two sisters, more than an important addition to art history, and more than a major contribution to the study of women's history. Because it reproduces some of the more famous and important art of Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Dégas, and others, The Art of Acquiring enables readers to practically step through the canvas and live in the shocking paintings these two unsung sisters purchased, then gave to the world-at-large.

Finally, a lovely, absorbing biography of the neglected Cone sisters! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A work of art!
Pay no attention to the ho-hum title -- this is one delightful read. The book illuminates two sisters who had been virtually written out of art history. The author richly embroiders the travels of Claribel and Etta Cone and details how they came to amass one of the world's more comprehsive collections of 20th century art. This painstakingly and lovingly researched book is a masterpiece! ... Read more

Book Description

The first comprehensive overview of an important genre of American art, Souls Grown Deep explores the visual-arts genius of the black South. This first work in a multivolume study introduces 40 African-American self-taught artists, who, without significant formal training, often employ the most unpretentious and unlikely materials. Like blues and jazz artists, they create powerful statements amplifying the call for freedom and vision. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A set of books that tells an incredible story
This book is a marvel in both production quality and content. If ever a set of books deserved the "tome" designation, this set wins big. They opened my eyes to a world I hoped existed but feared did not. I have long appreciated and understood the contributions of African Americans in the arts, but often wondered why the visual arts traditions hadn't reached the heights that the music (blues, jazz, gospel, hip hop, R&B, Rock n' Roll), literary, athletic, fashion, theater, etc.. reached? I have also always been dismayed that many of the great African Americans have had to leave the south, and often this country, to receive recognition at all. It is an old story that is far to common. These books tell a different story. The art work is of the highest caliber, and often created with the humblest of materials?found wood, roots, house paint, discarded materials?yet the artists find ways to make the most glorious objects. It was certainly a revelation to see work that would rival what I see in the many museums in town, made by men and women who don't seem to have any regard, or perhaps knowledge, of these institutions. Work made for themselves, their families, or their communities enjoyment and education. The true meaning of art. It would be impossible for me to say which book I prefer. Both were so eye opening. Now that I have both, I can't imagine not having either. I hope that these volumes will find their way into the libraries and schools across America, for they tell a story that has long been unkown, which is unfortunate. Or, I fear, ignored, which is tragic. Kudos to both, and I hope that there will be a Volume 3. I must add that if you are interested in the "real" American story, history, art (of any kind), then these books are a must read (and look). And as a lover and collector of Twentieth Century art, I realize I have not been, up until now, told the WHOLE truth.

Yes to Volume 1, No to Volume 2
The first volume of Souls Grown Deep is an essential book for any American folk art collector. Many of the great African American folk artists of the 20th century are covered and all have a short write up and some pictures. The only problem is that some artists get short change with a one paragraph write up (really short) and 2 or 3 small images on a single page. Clementine Hunter for example, gets this treatment. And Mose Tolliver gets much more space than Bill Traylor, possibly because most of the artwork shown is from the author's own folk art collection, but apparently the author doesn't have many Bill Traylor artworks compared to Mose T's. But it's such a large book that it will still be required for any folk art library. Beware, the second volume is just as big but seems like an entire book of filler. There are some interesting artists presented, but overall the quality isn't as high as the first volume. Perhaps because the artists in the 1st volume are already "established"' it's easier to see their place in folk art history whereas the artists in volume 2 are still relatively new. Both books have high production values in paper and binding. My recommendation is definitely buy volume 1, but be careful of volume 2.

Gorgeous-
Gorgeous photos and very high quality printing and paper. The artwork is very interesting and continues to offer surprises further and further into the book. I enjoyed the stories and recollections of the artists which added a personal and human side to the visual splendor. The editors' own energy and passion for the subject matter shines through. This is a rare gift I will go back to time and time again.

A modern day revolution
Combine the literay precision of John Stuart Mill with the passion of W. B. Yeats, pour over the artistic brilliance of Cezanne and Rothko and infuse the philosophical profundity of Kant and Aristotle; the result is the monumental genius of Souls Grown Deep.An epic achievement, William and Paul Arnett's masterpiece transports the reader deep into southern America in which a genre of art is explored that rivals, if not puts to shame, any existing work anywhere in the world.Souls Grown Deep is a necessity for any individual even remotely concerned with understanding the very first thing about art.

Don't miss this book- it is INCREDIBLE
Wow! Wow! A fair review of this amazing book would take up more than the allowed space. Almost 600 pages of spectacular art, insightful and intelligent essays, and very high quality printing on very high qualitypaper. With so many probing essays (Andrew Young, Amiri Baraka, VincentHarding, Jack Lindsey, Paul Arnett, Howard Dodson, Congressman John Lewis,Maude Wahlman, Babatunde Lawal, Roy Sieber, William Arnett, MaxwellAnderson, William Ferris, et al) and beautiful chapters on so many wellknown (and lesser known) artists, Souls Grown Deep will put"vernacular" art on the map, front and center. And it's abouttime. ... Read more

Book Description

Book showcases the Newark Museum's exceptional collection ofcontemporary ceramics created over the last century in large, full-color format. Focuseson the museum's collection of 20th century vessels. It also acts as a companion to atraveling exhibition that will open in February 2003, traveling nationally to multiplevenues across the country. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great Pots, Great Book
This book is beautiful. What a shame the show was only a temporary exhibition at the Newark Museum. It has a fabulous variety of work from artists around the globe. Buy it while you still can!

Pots of all shapes and all colors, and ranging in design
Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics From Function To Fantasy by Ulysses Grant Dietz (Curator of Decorative Arts, The Newark Museum) is an eye-catching full-sized artbook showcasing studio ceramics ranging from the late 1930s down to the modern day. American, European, Asian, African, and Native American pots of all shapes and all colors, and ranging in design from elegant simplicity, to brilliant color, to intricate fine detail, are pictured on virtually every page by full-color photographs and accompanied by an extensive text commentary. Great Pots is very strongly recommended speciality artbook which would prove a seminal contribution to 20th Century Art History reference collections in general, and informative reading for either amateur or professional potters in particular.

Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy
This is the most beautiful book on studio ceramics ever produced! Not only that, it focuses on a collection that dates back two generations, but which most people have never seen published anywhere else. Of course the pictures and the design of this book make it worthy of any coffee table--but it's far more than that. The photographs are wonderful, but the texts (one long and one short essay) are both readable and informative. Perhaps the most "radical" aspect of this book is its point of view. There is no judgmental hierarchy about whether one potter's work is "more art" than another's. In fact, the author purports not to be talking about art at all. But it is all about art, in spite of those protests to the contrary. It shows how the traditionalist potters of the late 1930s worked their way into being modernists--and how they took their homage to Asia with them on that journey. The great radicals of the late 1950s--Voulkos, Autio, Price--are all given their due, but this break from tradtionalist potting is not seen as something inherently "better," nor is it portrayed as the be-all and end-all of studio ceramic history. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the great Japanese studio potters, and the great Native American studio potters, are given the same sort of respect and careful consideration as the European and American potters that most collectors today are familiar with.

The book is broadly divided into three thematic sections: the Beautiful Pot, the Useful Pot, and the Wise Pot. Each of these is then subdivided, by means of an easily flowing narrative, into about a dozen smaller sections. It is a well-written and lucid account of how the humble pot came to be great art, in spite of the art world and all its prejudice.

For anyone who likes pottery--even the plain old hand-made coffee mug from the local craft fair--this book will tell a great story about why people love to work with clay, and all the ways they come to express themselves with clay. ... Read more

Book Description

This refreshingly direct study addresses 19th-century European art along with the forces that informed it. After introducing historical events and cultural and artistic trends from about 1760 that would exert their influence well into the new century, author Petra ten-Doesschate Chu discusses the advent of Modernism and its many interpretations. She considers the changing relationship between artist and audience; evolving attitudes toward the depiction of nature; and the confrontation of European artists with non-Western art due to expanding trade and travel. An impressive 550 illustrations-200 in full color-illustrate her themes.

Incidents from individual artists' lives enrich the reader's understanding of the art, as do sidebars that focus on specific works, techniques, or historical circumstances. Although painting and sculpture are central in her narrative, Chu also covers a broad scope of visual culture, including architecture, decorative arts, and the burgeoning fields of photography and graphic design. A timeline, glossary, and thorough bibliography, listing not only books but also films related to the period, complete this major achievement. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A treasure trove of art history information
Compiled and written by Petra ten-Doesschate Chu (Professor of Art History, Seton Hall University) Nineteenth-Century European Art is an immense (544 pages), complex, and scholarly coffee-table artbook presenting and studying European art of the 1800's, featuring 550 illustrations (200 in full color) of classic and illuminating works. The reader is treated to an extensive, literate, articulate analysis of the great European artists of the period, including the evolution of their styles, figures, and nudes, the spread of Modernism, and much, much more. Enthusiastically recommended for both community library as well as academic Art History reference collections, Nineteenth-Century European Art is as much fun for the non-specialist general reader to simply browse through, as it is a treasure trove of art history information for the dedicated student. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Over the course of the past 35 years, California-based fine art publisher Crown Point Press hasestablished one of the finest reputations in the printmaking and publishing world. Founded by Kathan Brown, the press is most renownedfor its innovative and experimental uses of the oldest and most traditional printmaking processes: etchingand woodcut. Under Brown's direction, Crown Point's master printmakers have worked on an astonishinglybroad array of projects, including those of John Cage, Tom Marioni, and Pat Steir. The press has alsoprinted and published important minimalist and conceptual graphics, as well as editions by such painterlypainters as Richard Diebenkorn, Francesco Clemente, and Helen Frankenthaler. More than 200 full-color,beautifully reproduced prints in this softcover volume document the entire history and development ofCrown Point, confirming its unique and enduring contribution to the transformation of 20th-centuryprintmaking. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Record of Achievement
Crown Point Press is one of the leading American printer/publishers of original fine prints, emphasizing intaglio (etching) techniques (although at various periods it has also sponsored woodblock projects). This book is a celebration of 35 years (as of 1997) of printing at Crown Point, and consists of three essays, plus the catalogue of the exhibition that followed the acquisition of the Crown Point archive by the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco.

The first essay is a history of Crown Point Press, and particularly of the unique vision and direction given to the Press by its founder and first printer, Kathan Brown. Although occasionally tedious (as when it lapses into lists of the artists who worked at the Press during a particular period), this essay provides interesting discussions of Brown's evolving philosophy, her interactions with artists belonging to various art movements, the different goals of the artists, and so on. You also get a small glipse into the economics of print publishing.

The second and third essays were what I found most interesting. Karin Breuer shows how the working proofs contained in the Press's archive document the artist at work, and the very different working methods that can be effective for different artists. Steven Nash discusses the interrelationships between an artist's work in printmaking and his or her work in other media.

Two-thirds of the book is the exhibition catalogue, which shows the truly amazing breadth and quality of the work done at Crown Point over the years. Although Brown has had a particular affinity for Minimalist and Conceptual art, she has invited interesting artists across a wide spectrum of "isms" to work at the Press, and the list of participating artists reads like a "who's who" of American art in the second half of the 20th Century. Particularly significant artists at Crown Point have included Richard Diebenkorn, John Cage, Wayne Thiebaud and Sol LeWitt, all of whom are well represented in the catalogue.

This is certainly not a "how to" book, and it is probably still too soon to be able to look back and really say "yes, this artist or movement was significant," or "this Press made a difference in American art," or even "this is the lasting contribution made by the post-WWII resurgence in printmaking." This book provides an important record, however, of 35 years at one of the most important American printer/publishers, and as such makes it easier to think about these questions and begin to glimpse answers. ... Read more

Book Description

Lucid, authoritative, written with verve by two respected American scholars, this generously illustrated work provides an introduction to more than 7,000 years of Chinese art—from the pottery-making and jade-carving cultures of the Neolithic Age to contemporary Chinese artists working in video,installation, and performance media.

By placing the arts in context—in active engagement with societies, economies, and wider fields of culture—the authors of this much-needed general survey introduce a dynamic and continually evolving tradition rather than a sequence of isolated museum masterpieces. Although the story of Chinese art unfolds chronologically, the authors introduce relevant themes for each era that will deepen the reader’s understanding of and appreciation for what they describe as arguably “the most abundantly productive, continuous artistic culture in the history of the world.” ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A great survey on Chinese art!
This is a great book for a serious survey of Chinese art and also for common readers interested in Chinese art and culture. The first six chapters by Robert Thorp deal with the period between the Neolithic and the Tang, and the rest of four chapters by Richard Vinograd cover from the Song to the 20th century. Both scholars offer succint yet comprehensive historical and cultural backgrounds, and also the images are discussed in terms of important concepts and themes in Chinese art, rather than traditional categories of architecture, sculpture, painting, and decorative arts. This approach works effectively in avoiding any imposition of the art historical concepts derived from European tradition, and also enable readers to be fully engaged in the subject. When comparing with other survey books on Chinese art, it takes a middle path between the traditional style of _Arts of China_ by Michael Sullivan and an intense and provoking style of _Art in China_ by Craig Clunas. ... Read more

Book Description

Why do people go to museums and what do they learn there? What roles can museums serve in a learning community? How can museums facilitate more effective learning experiences? John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking investigate these questions in Learning from Museums. Synthesizing theories and research from a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, education, anthropology, neuroscience and museum research, Falk and Dierking explain the nature and process of learning as it occurs within the museum context and provides advice on how museums can create better learning environments. ... Read more

Book Description

These lavish volumes feature highlights of five of the collections in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Each volume contains between seventy-five and one hundred objects, handsomely reproduced in full color and described by members of the curatorial staff. ... Read more

Book Description

At Home with Art is about art lovers, their passion for art, and their seemingly unquenchable desire to bring home the works that have captured their hearts. Whether the artworks are Picassos or posters, these people want to acquire and live with the art they love. "I wake up in the morning and exercise where I can look at it," says John Robson about one of the paintings in his San Francisco townhouse. How these art lovers integrate their finds
into their living spaces, juxtaposing their paintings and sculpture with the artifacts of everyday life -- furniture, rugs, books, lamps, objets d'art -- is vividly illustrated here in more than fifty homes inhabited by people for whom living with art is as essential as breathing.

These homes are not mini-museums with art to be admired from a respectful distance. Nor have they been designed by interior decorators whose goal is to harmonize the upholstery with the pictures. Each home has been chosen for its very personal and inspired expression of art and decor, revealing a deep, even spiritual, relationship between the pictures on the walls and the people who place them there. From airy lofts and old farmhouses to sleek city apartments and cozy traditional houses, all are made special by the paintings and sculptures within.

A wide variety of people appear in these pages, from the president of MoMA to a young man in love with poster art, to the writer who has artist friends, to the young woman who inherited pieces from her mother, to the actress whose art travels with her wherever she goes. The kinds of art that speak to them and that they are impelled to acquire range from old masters to outsider art, from folk art to contemporary art, to prints, drawings, photographs, and sculpture. We learn about what sparked their interest in a particular genre, how they make their selections, how they meld them into their homes, and what living with their art means to them.

Though looking at these interiors proves there are no fixed rules about displaying a work of art, special sections on framing, hanging, lighting, and caring for art, from oil paintings to delicate works on paper, provide technical assistance. A directory includes framers, dealers, auction houses, and restorers in major American cities and in London.

Above all, At Home with Art shows that there are all kinds of art to be loved and cherished, however grand or simple, and that living surrounded by art's beauty can bring boundless personal satisfaction. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An invitation into the homes of collectors.
This book is inspiring because it shows us the homes of many collectors of paintings.It is well written, but there are not enough new ideas that can be incorporated by the reader. Some of the collectors have little idea on how to display their paintings in a way that is pleasing and justifies the works. Many of the dispalys are cluttered and clautrophobic. Yet, there are some splendid homes that incorporate paintings spectacularly. The article on Dorothy and Herbert Vogel is very moving. These extra-ordinary people deserve a book just on them.

A unique and personal view of collecting
This is an extraordinary book. Clearly not intended as a scholarly exercise, the authors take us up close and personal with outstanding collectors and their art. These are people I would be unlikely ever to meet, and their personal views and how they are expressed through the works they surround themselves with provide a glimpse into the collecting mind. Many of the homes are wealthy, though some are artists who have accumulated works from their friends. The photos are spectacular, and give many ideas of how art can be integrated into one's home.

At Home With Art Not Your Home
Diving into this book, as an avid art collector, one might expect to learn how different people work with the art they possess. This book though is really for those who are stricly ardent and almost excessive collectors who like to jam pack their residences with works galore. What is missing from this text is a careful presentation of how many different types of people display their art. There is too much focus on furniture, collecting passions and interest, and not enough focus on ideas. Overall, I found this book to be somewhat mono-dimensional in the concepts portrayed of how others live with their art. More a picture of what the authors had preconceived than a search for the spectrum of ideas. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

evocative picture of the kremlin
Yet another wonderful collection of paintings from the french punlishing house. This volume details the Kremlin in the 19th Century, it wonderfully captures the power and history that this ensemble of chuches and palaces epitimises. A great collectio, one stronlgly recommended for anyone with an interest in Moscow, Russia, Architecture, Art and Imperial Russia. In particular for those who have been fortunate enough to visit this most incredible place. ... Read more