Book Description

English wunderkind Genesis P-Orridge, the artist who founded Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, is a musician, an occultist, and a postmodern religious leader living in exile. In Painful but Fabulous, P-Orridge explicates his multiple identities and incarnations — from performance artist and creator of cyberfuturistic artworks to industrial music maker and icon of the body modification movement. Color and black-and-white photos are included. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

the real 'st.jerome' would disapprove, but...
This book is purported elsewhere to include a vinyl 7" one side spoken word, the other several locked-grooves for mixing--The friend of mine that has that record said he REALLY digs it. I don't see details of the 7" in the 'product details' above, but... I'm told that it is supposed to be included. Otherwise, I generally think this is more for the die-hard fans of GPO/PTV than for the curious. The overall look and feel of the book is kind of lo-fi in the format of the Re:Search books, which is ok, because it makes this more affordable for its seekers and won't lose Soft Skull Press much money (or at least I hope not, bcs "they'rre grrite"), but ultimately the color illustrations are kind of lacking for something that's trying to present GPO as an accomplished artist, and this doesn't really acheive the presentation required of a proper art-monograph. (of course, this review doesn't meet the criteria of a proper review either, so forget me) die-hards will require this, and those interested in knowing the genesis ov Genesis P-Orridge should start with the Wreckers of Civilization: History of Coum and TG book which is much more exhuastively historical of Gen's earlier period, and ... well... perhaps I should go and review that one elsewhere. Oh yeah, I think Gen would want me to sign off with something like ASSUME POWER FOCUS, TAKE CARE & CONTROL! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

The literary works of August Strindberg are admired throughout theworld, but few people outside his native Scandinavia are aware of his accomplishmentsas a painter and photographer. This book, written by eminent authorities on Scandinavianart, is the first to bring Strindberg's dramatic and highly original artistic works to anEnglish-speaking audience.The book begins by examining Strindberg's paintings,photographs, drawings, and decorated manuscripts and by discussing the importance ofpictorial arts to other areas of Strindberg's oeuvre. It then focuses on Strindberg'sphotography, relates the experimental photographs he took during the 1890s to thenatural philosophy he developed during the same period, describes his relations to artisticcircles in Paris, and examines his influence on the Swedish painter Carl Larsson. Richlyillustrated in full color, the book sheds new light on the achievements of this innovativeand deeply troubled genius. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Who knew?
This book is a revelation. It shows that the genius of Strindberg extends beyond the literary and makes itself evident in the visual as well. The paintings in this book are amazing; landscapes made over a hundred years ago that are heavily impastoed and luminous- the quality is almost sculptural- and border on pure abstraction. It's difficult to compare them to anyone else's work (though they do have a quality that recalls Turner in a darker mode). These are paintings that would thrill you if you walked into a contemporary gallery. The book also has a generous selection of Strindberg's photographs and photographic experiments. It's a must have for painters and lovers of modern art. ... Read more

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Reviews (9)

A fire starter
These letters speak the truth of van Gogh. This book opens a window of knowledge on a man so misunderstood to the world. At 14, I absolutely am in love with this book. "Dear Theo" has ignited a fire in my soul, a burning desire to study art and the men behind the works.

Interesting and revealing
Vincent Van Gogh was a great painter, but not a writer. So these letters are of interest in terms of history and painting. The life of Van Gogh is better exposed here than it would have been in a "real" autobiography, because Theo, his younger brother, was the only real friend Vincent ever had. He was his supporter, admirer and listener, and in fact Vincent had an emotional dependence on his brother. People interested in the process of artistic creation and creativity will find this book of enormous value and interest, since Van Gogh speaks a lot about that process in himself, one of the greatest painters of all time. But it is true, as one reviewer said, that these letters include, each and every one, eternal whining and begging from Vincent to his brother. He was, of course, always out of money and, as a genius really disconnected from the common world, unable to make a living by conventional activities. So he depended almost entirely on Theo. I would like to insist in that, although by no means a literary accomplishment, these letters are worth reading, since they expose naked the soul of a great artist and an extremely sensitive man, certainly a tortured and twisted soul.

here's your unadulterated chance to see just how screwed...
here's your unadulterated chance to see just how screwed up van gogh was. letter after letter after letter sitting on the pity pot writing to his younger brother whining for money, crying for assistance, guilting his brother into supporting his art...his art habit...his art addiction. ya know, after reading this book my perspective on van gogh changed. he struck me as an ultra-martyr (in the icky sense of the word), so big into self-pity. now, having since read a little more of his history - screwy parents, etc. - i have some more compassion for the guy and for why he was so screwed up, but these letters are honestly nothing short of tedious. one after the other, whining for money, then waxing eloquent about his art, which actually struck me often as quite manipulative - like he was justifying his existence and his productivity to theo.

anyway, i still think van gogh is a wonderful artist, but what a messed up life - can't miss that from these letters. but god, i wish they'd been even more edited. and one other thing - irving stone (the editor) thinks van gogh is one of the world's greatest writers and philosophers of all times, in addition to being the honcho primo artist. well, as for philosopher, sorry irving, no. the guy was miserable and depressed and lonely, and seemed to philosophize in his letters to just keep contact with the world, but his philosophy gets under my skin.

Enlightening, tragic and inspiring.
The book provides an excellent cross-section of letters painting a vivid picture of Van Gogh's life. It is not an all-in-one biography, though, in that Van Gogh makes references to work that only curators and art historians can picture. It would have been nice to have a black and white thumbnail of the finished paintings as Van Gogh wrote of them.

Essential reading for lovers of art...
"Dear Theo" should be mandatory reading for all students of fine art today, as no modern artist injected a level of passion into their work equal to that of Van Gogh in 1880 through 1890. This volume is a sort of highlight reel of Vincent's comments on his life and art to his beloved brother Theo. I recommend "The Complete Van Gogh" published by Taschen to accompany "Dear Theo", as there are no visual examples of Vincent's art aside from the cover included in this book. No one who appreciates fine art will be sorry to invest in either publication. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

French Tart
Another great little book in the Universe of Fashion series! Christian Lacroix is one of the more "avantgarde" designers and apart from his "Notebook", there is nothing else available about him so it is great to be able to see some of Lacroix's bright and witty clothes here. A fabulous introduction to one of fashion's "alternatives"! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

FANTASTIC
If you enjoy reading about the way this family business has evolved, about the Bulgari history, style, standards, techniques and also appreciate lovely photos, then it's really worth getting.
Well written and designed !!

A Wonderful Book!
If you collect jewelry or jewelry books, this is a must for your library. Out of the forty or so books I have on jewelry, this is my favorite. As one might expect, there is page after page of breathtaking pictures of exquisite jewelry. However, this book offers so much more. Many of the jewelry pieces are shown next to the sketches that inspired them. A section of the book entitled 'From the Idea to the Finished Product', proceeds to discuss and show some of the labor-intensive steps involved in making these works of art. The text equally is well written. It provides a history of the company and its designers as well as a look at the evolution of the company's style.

This is a First Rate Book
By far the best book on the art and science of jewelry design and marketing I have ever read. The photographs are beautifully presented, and the text is excellent. Produced with cooperation of the Bulgari family, it tells the tale how two Greek brothers founded one of the great jewelry houses of the world, and how their children and grandchildren continue the development of the creative and financial side of the business. A fascinating inside look at the the Bulgari family and their achievements in the world of jewelry design.

"BVLGARI" - an apprieciation
This book presents to anyone with an intrest in jewellery with insight into one of the great jewellery manufactures and designers. It presents the reader with insight to Bulgari's design philosophy, some of their "little secrets", and an excellent cross referencing between text and the many beautiful pictures of their jewels. One great feature of the book is the photographs of the reverse side of the jewels illustrating that the workmanship extends to those areas where few people see, but separates the true artisans' from the pretenders.

Lots of pictures!
A great big book with lots of pictures and history of the Bulgari jewelry house. I found it interesting, and worth looking at if you have an specific interest in jewelry. Probably most worth buying if you are a jewelry collector or historian. ... Read more

Book Description

Hailed by Architectural Digest as one of the top 100 designers and architects today, Bill Stubbs has designed penthouses, vacation retreats, and country mansions around the globe from Acapulco to Moscow. In this lively, irreverent memoir, Stubbs recounts the extraordinary, exasperating, and often hilarious adventures in his stellar career.

Illustrated with more than 150 color photographs of the spaces Stubbs has transformed, the book details the activities and thought processes that went into some of his most spectacular projects. These include the metamorphosis of an abandoned country dacha into a baronial mansion in the Ukraine, the renovation of a 100-year-old schoolhouse into stylish apartments for senior citizens in Newport, Rhode Island, and the project that inspired the book's title, a Houston penthouse designed around the color red, which caused his impulsive client to fire him over the phone. (Of course, when the client saw the finished apartment, he loved it-to the point that Stubbs had trouble convincing him to abandon the color in subsequent renovations.) This entertaining volume is a rarity, a design book that people will actually read. AUTHOR BIO: William W. Stubbs, founder and head of his own Houston-based firm, designs interior spaces, both commercial and residential, all over the world. He has been named to "The AD 100," Architectural Digest's list of the world's top designers and architects. He lives in Houston, Texas. ... Read more

Book Description

When Lisa Fittipaldi went blind at the age of forty-seven, she descended into a freefall of anger and denial that lasted for two years. In this moving memoir, she paints a vivid picture of the perceptual and emotional darkness that accompanied her vision loss, and her arduous journey back into the sighted world through mastery of the principles of art and color. The challenge of a child's watercolor set, thrown down like a gauntlet by her frustrated husband, opened the door to a new life. Discovering that her ability to master the small world of the canvas enabled her to navigate the wide world she'd lost, she painstakingly taught herself to draw and paint, substituting rigorous study of the principles of art and color theory for her lost vision. Lisa doesn't see color, distance, dimension, or print. Yet she depicts groups of people caught in the activities of daily living in astonishing detail and spectacular color. She has sold over 500 original paintings internationally. Scientists and researchers seek out her insight into vision and perception. "I truly feel that unless blindness had toppled the carefully maintained edifice I called my life, there is no way that I would be the kinder, more fulfilled person I am today," Lisa writes. "I found my life's passion in painting. Blindness took away my sight but gave me clarity of vision. It took blindness to teach me the meaning of love and friendship." ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Well-written, but as typical for Brookhiser, very brief
It is nice to see a new biography on a relatively neglected Founding Father, who has been portrayed (when mentioned at all) in other histories I have read as more or less a light-weight Good-Time Charlie. Clearly a lightweight wouldn't have been entrusted to draft the Constitution, yet Morris has been left in the corner to gather dust for the last two centuries.

So a new biography is certainly welcome. It is a well-written, brisk narrative, and is enjoyable enough to read, but I cannot bring myself to give it 4 stars, and it certainly doesn't merit 5 stars. Simply put, it is just too damned short! Not being well-acquainted with Morris, I would have hoped for a more thorough treatment, but in many ways, Morris' portrait remains half-completed in Brookhiser's hands.

I realize that Brookhiser is attempting to make his series on the Founding Fathers (incidentally, why only Federalists so far?) accessible to the general public, but as another reviewer observed, if you don't already have a good background in this period of history, you may be more confused than enlightened by the sparse detail in Brookhiser's treatment.

In this book's case, one needs to be well-versed in the history of both Revolutionary America AND Revolutionary France. Morris' six years in France (1789-1795; Morris didn't return to the US until late 1798) gave him a unique perspective among the Founding Fathers (Monroe didn't arrive until 1794, nor Marshall until 1797) of watching the French Revolution devolve into the Reign of Terror. In fact, Brookhiser devotes more space in his book to these six years, and if you don't know the difference between a Jacobin, a Girondist or a Montagnard you may be out of luck.

This is not to say that there isn't some good information in this book, especially where Morris' personal life is concerned. The man certainly is not boring. However, from Morris' return to the US in 1798 until his death 1816, it feels as though Brookhiser is rushing towards the finish, trying to wrap up a few loose ends as he goes along. The period from 1798-1816 deals mostly with Morris' family life; even though Morris led the last charges of Federalism in the Senate from 1800-1803, it receives only passing notice from Brookhiser.

A little over 200 pages is just too condensed to be of any real use to anyone. One doesn't need a weighty, 900-page tome to do Morris justice, but would it have killed Brookhiser to have expanded this biography to maybe 350 pages or so?

Why Can't More Biographies Be Like This?
This concise, highly readable biography resurrects Gouverneur Morris, a forgotten Founding Father, who drafted the final version of the Constitution, writing its immortal preamble, and was instrumental in the development of New York into the world's greatest city, planning both the Erie Canal and the street grid of modern Manhattan. Morris was also a notable eccentric, a one-legged Lothario who shared a mistress with Talleyrand, and ultimately married a Southern lady with an unspeakable scandal in her past.

Morris was an elitist and a man of property, like his friend Alexander Hamilton. Less egalitarian than Jefferson, he was more clearsighted than the Virginian in condemning the rankness and hypocrisy of slavery. Another reviewer calls him anti-Catholic, which is untrue. He was quite critical of Catholicism, but defeated a provision in the New York state constitution banning Catholic worship. A champion of liberty of conscience, he was a Deist, like many of the Founders, and sceptical of organized religion in general.

Richard Brookhiser is a conservative commentator and editor at the National Review. However, his historical writings are as fair-minded, sensible, and free from dogma, as his journalism is not. This brief biography reflects its subject: charming, witty, and learned.

Good biography
To most people who read of the era of the founding fathers, Gouverneur Morris is at best a peripheral character, mentioned in passing while the spotlight featured the bigger names of Washington, Adams, Hamilton, et al. Brookhiser gives us the opportunity to learn about this man and his role in early U.S. history.

Morris was generally a peripheral character in the Revolutionary Era, but he did play a significant role in the drafting of the Constitution. His writing skills put the Constitution into its essentially final form, and the Preamble is almost entirely his creation. Beyond this, however, he was a more minor political player.

A lot of this was by Morris's own choice, since he wasn't all that interested in higher office. He was an interesting enough person, in many ways more human than the semi-immortals with whom he worked with. Relatively easy-going and with a good sense of humor, Morris was also - despite a maimed hand and a missing leg - quite the ladies' man, even having an affair with one French woman who was not only married, but already the mistress to another. When he finally married late in life, he successfully avoided social pressure by choosing a wife with a bit of a reputation.

Brookhiser - a rather politically conservative writer - has a lot of sympathy for the Federalists such as Hamilton and Morris. He, nonetheless, has written a good, objective book, the best of the three of his I read (the other two were on Hamilton and the Adams family). While Morris is rightly accorded a lesser light in history, he does deserve some illumination and Brookhiser's book does the job well.

A Good Biography, but Not One of Brookhiser's Best
Does Richard Brookhiser plan to write a biography for every single Founding Father? Based on the three books of his I've read so far (on George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and now Gouverneur Morris), one can only hope so.

Brookhiser's latest biography is of a somewhat neglected Founding Father, whose greatest accomplishment was his authorship/editorial work of much of the U.S. Constitution. Late in his life, Morris also played an invaluable, but often overlooked role in pushing the U.S. to create a system of canals linking New York State's Atlantic coast with the northern interior of North America. (These canals were, once created, as important for the young country's economic growth in the early nineteenth century as railroads would be for it in the late nineteenth century.)

For a major public figure, Morris led a balanced life. His serious pursuits did not keep him from enjoying women, travel and outings, or a well-told joke. He was a good friend, especially towards those who he felt were unfairly treated by others. As Morris would drift in and out of public service throughout his life, much of the biography focuses on this personal side of the man.

Brookhiser's skill as a biographer is to reveal aspects of his subject's character with just a well-written phrase or two. He does this in a straightforward way without the need for any conceptual baggage (such as Freudianism). Few biographers nowadays are willing to be so concise or risk interpreting their subjects in such a direct manner.

But unlike with two of his previous and better-known subjects (Washington and Hamilton), Brookhiser is perhaps too brief in dealing with Morris's life. Whereas the basic outlines of both Washington and Hamilton's lives are fairly well-known to most readers, and therefore more amenable to Brookhiser's kind of abbreviation, Morris's life is not. As a result, the transitions in Morris's life covered in the book seem to rush by and background information is uneven. This is still a fine work, one I can easily recommend, but it is not as impressive as Brookhiser's earlier biographies.

A good biography of a neglected American figure
Most accounts of the American Founding are filled with tales of prim and proper Puritans or unremarkable commercial men. Not so with Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), a New York aristocrat whose ancestral roots in this country went back to Dutch-controlled New Amsterdam. His family owned much of the Bronx in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Morris had an astonishingly varied career. A friend of George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, and Thomas Paine, Morris was the primary architect of the U.S. Constitution. He was a successful ladies' man, enjoying a succession of lovers before finally marrying in his late 50s. An expatriate in France during the French Revolution, he advised Louis XVI and wrote a constitution for that troubled nation. A senator from New York, he opposed the War of 1812 and advocated the secession of Northern states. Back in New York, while practicing law and tending to business interests, he found time to establish Manhattan's street grids and begin work on the Erie Canal. He started a family in his early 60s. Above all, he enjoyed life.

Observers make much of the fact that as a teenager Morris sustained severe burns to his right arm and later lost part of a leg in a carriage accident, but these are arguably the least interesting things about the man.

The one black mark on an otherwise admirable record was his anti-Catholicism. Brookhiser says little about it apart from arguing that Morris, a deist, wasn't as anti-Catholic as some of his Protestant colleagues. In other words, "Morris could have been worse," the author seems to say.

This is a quick and easy read. Brookhiser writes well. Still, it's not altogether clear why the author, a senior editor at the neoconservative National Review, would want to write about someone like Morris. It's not even clear that in the end the author finds him particularly appealing. Brookhiser's critical remarks about Edmund Burke and John Randolph of Roanoke, both of whom admittedly are more interesting figures, detract from the story and may turn off more conservative-minded readers.

Why is Morris important to us? America, especially New York, has changed considerably since Morris's time; some might say it has become decidedly less civilized. We live in an age of mass democracy, globalism, and consumerism where monetary values are held to be supreme, the sole measure of one's worth. The state of once-grand places like the Bronx, as Brookhiser shows in the concluding chapter, is a living symbol of this decline. If Morris was a rare enough individual in his own time, he would be inconceivable in ours. Yet, his rich life represents to modern Americans a model for a better way of living. Take heart from his cheerful fortitude, his aristocratic acceptance of life's vicissitudes, the sheer pleasure he got out of living according to God's plan. As Morris said: "To enjoy is to obey". Life is good. ... Read more

Book Description

How a Bangladeshi-born engineer came to design, among other pioneering building schemes, the world's tallest building.

The engineer of Chicago's John Hancock Center and Sears Tower, Fazlur Khan (1929-1982) pioneered structural systems for high-rise buildings that broadened the palette of forms and expressions available to design professionals today. Examining projects at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, including previously unpublished material, this study of Khan's career provides insight into architectural and engineering practice. 200 illustrations. ... Read more

Book Description

This biography and illustrated guide highlights the work of master designer Koos van den Akker and provides inspiration for bold, unique sewing creations. Chronicling the designer's 30 years in haute couture, this book follows van den Akker from his start in the Paris workrooms of Christian Dior to his rise in the fashion world and the establishment of his own Madison Avenue boutique. Included are demonstrations for duplicating several of his construction and design techniques that offer illustrated sewing instructions and intricate details for home sewers to imitate. The designs, with their richness of texture, generosity of color, and dynamic mix of fabrics, share the full scope of van den Akker's masterful creations. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Disappointing ...
A slim colourful book of some 111 pages. Deceptive in the use of Koos' name and photographs of his work, there are only about 50 pages of techniques that could equally be found in a good fabric collage or a quilting book. ... Read more

Book Description

In a brilliant collaboration between writer and subject, Witold Rybczynski, the bestselling author of Home and City Life, illuminates Frederick Law Olmsted's role as a major cultural figure at the epicenter of nineteenth-century American history.

We know Olmsted through the physical legacy of his stunning landscapes -- among them, New York's Central Park, California's Stanford University campus, and Boston's Back Bay Fens. But Olmsted's contemporaries knew a man of even more extraordinarily diverse talents. Born in 1822, he traveled to China on a merchant ship at the age of twenty-one.He cofounded The Nation magazine and was an early voice against slavery. He managed California's largest gold mine and, during the Civil War, served as the executive secretary to the United States Sanitary Commission, the precursor of the Red Cross.

Rybczynski's passion for his subject and his understanding of Olmsted's immense complexity and accomplishments make his book a triumphant work. In A Clearing in the Distance, the story of a great nineteenth-century American becomes an intellectual adventure. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

An Informative Introduction To An American Innovator
To me, a biography is successful if the author conveys both the subject's accomplishments and the influences that helped to shape these deeds. Rybczynski easily meets these standards in this entertaining, instructive study.

Rybczynski spends a lot of time discussing the significance of Olmsted's major projects, like Prospect Park and Mount Royal. The innovations that Olmsted brought to the field of landscape architecture in these projects are clearly laid out for the reader. However, these discussions were not the main point that I took from the book. Instead, I was enthralled with the discussions of the various jobs and travels that Olmsted undertook throughout his life, particularly in his formative years. Rybczynski does an excellent job of showing that these diverse experiences not only satiated Olmsted's curiosity, but also were essential to the development of Olmsted's views on landscape architecture. It is refreshing to find an example of the belief that a variety of experiences are necessary to bring out new talents, enhance existing skills, and create a well-rounded individual.

I highly recommend A Clearing In The Distance for many reasons. These reasons include a concise writing style and a multi-faceted subject. But, above all, the book brings attention to an individual deserving of such study. It is this quality that makes A Clearing In The Distance a "must-read" for not only admirers of Olmsted's works, but for anyone who is interested in the creative development of an innovator in their field.

a big life in a small book
Witold Rybczynski has made Frederick Law Olmsted's life look a little easier than it must have been. This is largely caused by the laminar flow of Rybczynski's prose. We are swept through the 19th century so smoothly that even the Civil War seems like a mere rock in the stream. I have not read any of the author's other books, but his prose style here seemed to be imitating the sweeping lines in an Olmsted design. In terse introductory paragraphs the broader events of a given historical period are sketched out and then Olmsteds trajectory through them is presented in more, but not great, detail. The result of this approach is to make the reader feel both informed and curious to know more. As other reviewers have remarked and the author points out in his closing chapter, much is available. Olmsted was a pack rat who saved all his correspondence and his legacy was carried on into the middle 20th century by his son Rick, who only retired from practice in 1950.

I grew up near New York City and always considered Central Park to be a wonderful place, even in its worst times through the 60s and 70s. I am lucky enough now to live in a city with three Olmsted-designed parks (they were initiated by the old man, but designed and built by his sons). Their maintenance has been spotty, but they are still beautiful places, and I do wonder if they still have the power to civilize.

good enough
Olmsted's life is fascinating and Rybczynski does an adequate job of presenting the highlights, but the writing style is something less than engaging. In addition, the author spends too much time on trivial matters while neglecting more important things. For example, he writes page after page about Olmsted's failures to connect with a romantic mate. Goodness, he wasn't much of looker or a lady schmoozer and this plagued him for years. There, I said it in one sentence. Had the author done likewise we might have learned more about the details of some of Olmsted's projects. If the author wanted to play up relationships to give the reader a fuller appreciation of Olmsted's psychological make-up, he would have done better to delve deeper into the parent-child relationship.

"A garment of beauty around our homes"
Olmsted and Rybcznski seem somehow destined together, and this book is a thoroughly readable and engaging introduction to both of them. If they had been contemporaries, they probably would have somehow connected as friends or collaborators or both. Through his work, Olmsted came to define the American public space as distinct from the English or French styles. Early on he was influenced by farming, the English countryside, naturalism, notables such as Carlyle and Ruskin, and by the American pursuit of happiness: our need for recreation and spectacle. In his works, he combined "economics, nature, aesthetics, moral and intellectual improvement, and salvation." He spoke of throwing "a garment of beauty around our homes."

Author Rybczynski doesn't limit his chronicle to Olmsted the Designer, though. Rather, he devotes ample space to covering Olmsted as a man of letters, Olmsted's brushes with politics and social reform, his travels to the West, his marvelous mind for engineering (everything from pumps to drainage systems and pipes), and his varied and important organizational and administrative accomplishments. Of particular interest are the chapters in the book devoted to the slavery issue and Olmsted's voice in the anti-slavery movement; Olmsted was an idealist who felt that slavery corrupted society. He once leaned once toward joining a group of German settlers in Texas who did not recognize nor condone slavery.

Olmsted is best remembered though as a designer who brought us the seeds of a national park system through a lifetime of projects, public and private: Stanford and Berkeley, Belle Isle (Mi), Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Central Park, park systems in Boston and Chicago, huge projects in Washington, DC, and many more. Olmsted also deserves credit as the creator of the parkway. The reader will find many familiar names mentioned here, evidence that Olmsted was an extraordinary man who lived in extraordinary times. James Hamilton (the son of Alexander), Charles Dana, William Cullen Bryant, Frederic Church, the Vanderbilts, and others all played a role in his life and work.

Turf, trees, and lakes -- or grass, woods, and water -- to put it a different way, are the hallmarks of an Olmsted space. He abhorred clear distinctions and separations, flowerbeds and botanic beauty or decorative gardening. Instead, Olmsted embraced illusion and worked to "accommodate chaos and order." He incorporated science, theory, and art; accident and achievement. Architectural dwellings were minimized or hidden. There was careful composition of groups of trees against expanses of lawn. For us, we should be careful when visiting Olmsted's projects, for in the case of several, he lost interest due to squabbles and bickering with clients. Stanford University certainly stands out in this regard--to what degree is it considered a work of Olmsted's? Worn down by periodic bouts of depression and debt, Olmsted did not live an easy live and died from what is almost stated by the author as Alzheimer's disease. But for those that bear his mark, we can delight in the fact that they continue to survive.

A beautiful book about a remarkable man
This book strikes a lovely balance between describing Olmsted's life and personal history and his creations, parks that span the United States.

You may be surprised to learn, as I was, the vast number of projects he undertook. How Central Park was really his first significant project. How he had to fight political and economic battles to keep it from being ruined. How he was able to truly "get it right" with Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

Through the fascinating descriptions of the landscapes, the author also provides great insight into Olmsted's life. What struck me the most was how Olmsted, as with many of his contemporaries (U.S. Grant, Mark Twain) worried for most of his life about his finances and his career.

This is a first rate work, told in a clear and compelling fashion. ... Read more

Book Description

55 interviews with art dealers--from postwar giants like Leo Castelli and Betty Parsons to the art magnates of today--create a well-rounded picture of how the art world operates, how galleries work with artists, how prices are established, what it takes t ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The Art Dealers: The Powers Behind the Scene Tell How the Ar
This book sheds real light into how New York based art dealers from the 1940s to the 1980s lived, worked and thought about art. There are many interesting anecdotes, opinions and brief biographies inside this book filled with short essays about some 25 dealers who hepled shape the world of art as it is still known today.

Formulaic Padding
This is a mere formulaic padding of the prior edition of this book. There are a few new chapters. In some cases, these chapters address dealers who have come into prominence since the 1985 edition. Other dealers given equal attention were added for reasons that shall remain mysterious, as they address players never known or soon to be forgotten. The original chapters related to figures such as Sydney Janis and Leo Castelli have some historical interest. The new chapters tend to be shorter and tend to suffer from a narrow focus on the personal background of the dealer and the editors' apparent effort to prompt the dealers to speak to art world issues that may have been new or compelling in 1985 (e.g., the "new" role of auction houses) but which are certainly capillary today. The upshot is that I learned quite literally nothing about the contemporary art market. ... Read more

Book Description

A patron of art since the 1930s, Peggy Guggenheim, in a candid self-portrait, provides an insider's view of the early days of modern art, with revealing accounts of her eccentric wealthy family, her personal and professional relationships, and often surprising portrayals of the artists themselves. Here is a book that captures a valuable chapter in the history of modern art, as well as the spirit of one of its greatest advocates. 13 photos. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

LOOK, THERE'S A LONG PRIAPUS ON YOUR HORSE!
Here's the story of a woman that knew them all, felt the earth move under her feet with many of them, and bought their art for pretty much nothing. She recognized them when they were starting, and this makes her a Princess. This book is her equivalent to Gore Vidal's "Palimpsest" and Lillian Hellman's "Pentimento". This is one of those books that almost transports you to a long gone era, and makes you wish you could have been there to see it all.

Confessions, Sort Of
Peggy was a trip. She also apparently had no editor, or so it seems, which adds to the air of entitlement and oblique charm that permeates this book. Her accounts are interesting historically, though PG's slant on history is sometimes its own beast. This is a quick read and some of her observations will make you laugh out loud ("I was worried about my virginity--I was twenty-three and I found it burdensome..."), while others are chilling, especially the question of which Jews she deemed worthy of her efforts to help them get to the States. This may be more entertaining than informative, but it's both.

A "must have" book for any art lover!
This is a book you do not want to finish, you constantly wish that as you progress in your reading as the book will unfold in more pages. It does not happen. What a life story, full of art and style. What a charming book, simple and direct. Easy to read but so full of references to the Art of this Century. Peggy lived and tell the life of a brilliant collector not only of art pieces but of emotions and feelings. To me this is one of the best books of the year. It goes on top of DV by Diana Vreeland on my nightstand. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

An Important and Entertaining Memoir
The Reawakening opens in January 1945, when author Primo Levi is released from a Nazi concnetration camp by Russian troops. His health almost ruined, suffering from unbearable knowledge of the crimes committed in the camps, Levi re-enters the world to find that it has been turned upside down by the war. Improbably - he explains in an afterword that it is not in his nature to hate - he finds in himself a capacity to see the world afresh, almost as a child would.

In the rest of the book, we accompany Levi and his companions on a picaresque through postwar Europe and Russia as they try to make their way back to their native Italy. While their sufferings are legion, Levi takes great pleasure in food, in his fellow man, and in nature. In particular, he displays a fine appreciation for the absurdities visited on the refugees by their well-intentioned but inept Russian rescuers.

This book is an entertaining read. Beyond that, it is an important document of the Holocaust. And beyond that, it is an important resource for modern readers who are finding their own way through an often absurd world. Highly recommended.

A Great Work
This is just one of the many brilliant writings of Primo Levi but it tells a tale of Holocaust survival that is often overlooked. Most narratives seem to end at liberation and this one gives us a detailed view of what happened afterwards. This is the book that the movie "The Truce" (which is also the title of this book in Italy)is loosely based on. I don't think the movie did the book justice at all and so I would especially recommend this book to anyone that has seen the movie. Like all of Levi's works it is written in a sparse yet fantastic style and it really is a great follow up to "Survival In Auschwitz".

Carnival World
Like Survival in Auschwitz and The Periodic Table, The Reawakening is populated with Levi's brilliant language and fascination with character. In Survival, Table and Reawakening, Levi is careful not to force facts into a satisfyingly explanatory story. The Reawakening is a picaresque without the moral center. Levi travels home through a carnival world, a Europe simultaneously stunned and ecstatic, a landscape of displaced characters, Greek villagers in Polish refugee camps, complicit Germans sitting down to the first course of horrific recent history and guilt, cadaverous lager inmates staggering into a world forever altered. It is a world populated with impresarios, rakes, opportunists, suicides, daredevils and rubes. But, more than anything else, The Reawakening is brimming with life; Levi makes his way home eyes forward.

I found myself thinking of two other books while reading Reawakening--Kosinski's The Painted Bird and Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel. Like Kosinski, Levi reminds us that much of rural eastern Europe was cruel and primitive before the Nazi's made a virtue of these qualities. And, like Wolfe's Gant family, the characters in Levi's account are often exuberant to the point of mania.

I think that Levi is one of the great writers and thinkers of our time. In this way, I'm not a reliable critic. Reviewing The Reawakening is akin to reviewing Hamlet for me.

Troubles overcome are good to tell
Published in 1963, "The Reawakening" is a narrative of Primo Levi's tortuous journey back to Turin after liberation from Auschwitz. In fact, it is a follow-up of "Survival in Auschwitz." As stated by Primo Levi, "after Auschwitz, I had an absolute need to write, not only as a moral duty, but as psychological need, to free myself from anguish." Out of 650 Italian Jews who journeyed to Auschwitz, with Primo Levi, only 20 left the camp alive.

Levi assumes the calm, sober language of the witness, with no manifested hate and purpose of revenge, devoid of bitterness. His prose is precise, clear, with no embellishment, lively transmitting his bewilderment of the simple fact that he had survived.

The reader cannot help be amazed by the details recorded in Levi's memory, places, names, characters, personalities, it is as though he wrote everything in locus. His memory was a blessing... but might have also been his tormenter... After a long period of depression, Levi died after falling from a stairwell in his Turin home. The question will always remain whether it was or not suicide. Levi, through his writings, symbolizes the triumph of reasoning and humanity over madness and cruelty.

An amazing journey with Primo Levi
An really good book. I read it immediately after his previous book (Survival in Auschwitz : The Nazi Assault on Humanity) and where the first one is extremely sad and depressing this second one is an incredible insight into the mixture of characters that Levi encounters on his way back from Auschwitz. Although set in a completely ruined Eastern Europe I found the book positive and intriguing to read. His friends the Greek, Cesare, il Moro etc. are all amazing characters to read about and his whole journey through the Russian bureaucracy is just as fascinating to experience as well. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

More than just pictures!
I picked up this book, expecting to find essentially a picture book. However, this book is so much more...and it is lovely.

The book begins with an introduction by Leonard Marcus, the children's book reviewer for Parenting Magazine and a well-known book critic and historian.

Following this is an autobiography with many personal photos. I found the story of Carle's early years interesting: how he was born in the United States but then his parents returned to Germany when he was six. His father was drafted into the German army during World War II and Carle never saw him again for 8 years, when he emerged from a Russian POW camp weighing 80 pounds. Carle was a lackluster student, mainly because his creativity was stifled, but he did have some empathetic art teachers in Germany. In his early 20s he returned to the U.S. where he was promptly drafted into the army!

The next section of this book was by Ann Beneduce, the first editor to publish Carle's work. She first commissioned him to illustrate a cookbook. After that, she decided to publish his first book "1,2,3 to the Zoo" but could find no one in the United States who could satisfactorily produce it, so she had it done in Japan.

Next, Viktor Christen, a German editor, wrote about Carle's vision and what it means to children.

Takeshi Matsumoto, the director of an art museum for picture books in Japan, wrote an essay about Carle's use of color.

The text of a speech, entitled "Where Do Ideas Come From?", given by Carle at the Library of Congress was the next section of this book. He gave this speech to librarians and educators in 1990 at the International Children's Book Day Celebration.

Next was a photo essay on his technique of paper coloring and collaging, which also explained why he colors white tissue paper rather than buying pre-colored papers (they fade with age).

Lastly was a section of illustrations from his books, in chronological order. I found it interesting to see how his art had changed and become much more detailed in 30 years.

Eric Carle's books "do special things" read all about them!
Inspiration is the first word that comes to mind after reading about Eric Carle's successful life as an author and illustrator. This book contains information about his childhood, his books, but most important his art. I especially enjoyed reading the section about where he gets his ideas. What is so special about Eric Carle's books? Many people all over the world could answer that question. My favorite answer is from a little boy named Paul, he said: "One reason I like your books is they do special things." ... Read more

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