Museums & Collections Books - Page 6

Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury

Elizabeth Armstrong

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Miles Davis's seminal recording, known as "Birth of the Cool", is the starting point for this colorful, multi-disciplinary journey through 1950s West Coast America. 1950s West Coast style exuded "cool": from the smooth, hypnotic strains of a Miles Davis riff through Richard Neutra's elegant, modernist residences to the hard-edged paintings of Helen Lundeberg and Karl Benjamin. This richly illustrated volume casts a fresh eye on Fifties West Coast style with illuminating commentary from a variety of perspectives. Designed to echo the period it celebrates, this catalog explores modernist innovations in art, architecture, design, film and music. Prominent cultural critics write on an array of topics: Thomas Hine about the culture of cool; Elizabeth Smith on domestic aspects of the period's architecture; Francis Colpitt on hard-edged abstract painting; Dave Hickey on jazz, and Bruce Jenkins on the crossover between animation and experimental film. The result is a multi-faceted exploration of the 1950s West Coast.

Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt

Paul Arnett, William Arnett, Bernard Herman, Maggi Gordon, Diane Mott, Dilys Blum, Lauren Whitley, Amei Wallach, Joanne Cubbs

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Architecture of a Quilt is a facinating and amazing book. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I am really enjoying reading and looking at the pictures of the quilts in this book. I have met several of the ladies and decendants of the Gee' Bend Quilters and find their stories so interesting. The quilts definitely do define the quilters, their strengths and weaknesses, their ups and downs. I recomend this book to anyone who holds quilts near and dear to their hearts.

Editorial Review:

In 2002, Gee’s Bend burst into international prominence through the success of Tinwood’s Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibition and book, which revealed an important and previously invisible art tradition from the African American South. Critics and popular audiences alike marveled at these quilts that combined the best of contemporary design with a deeply rooted ethnic heritage and compelling human stories about the women. Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt is a major book and museum exhibition that will premiere at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), in June 2006 before traveling to seven American museums through 2008. The book's 330 color illustrations and insightful text bring home the exciting experience to readers while displaying all the cultural heritage and craftsmanship that have gone into these remarkable quilts.

Guidebook for the Scientific Traveler: Visiting Astronomy and Space Exploration Sites Across America (Scientific Traveler) (Scientific Traveler) (Scientific Traveler) (Scientific Traveler)

Duane S. Nickell

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Editorial Review:

Finding all the fascinating scientific sites to visit throughout America can be a daunting task. This guidebook does all the work for you. The first in a series of travel books that will celebrate science and technology in America, Astronomy and Space Exploration describes astronomy and space-related museums and attractions that conventional travel guides tend to ignore. So, gas up the car, grab some snacks for the road, and get started on the voyage. Written in clear, easy-to-read language, Astronomy and Space Exploration lists more than 50 of the most important and intriguing astronomical and space-related sites in the United States. The book encompasses both popular and obscure places of interest, all of which are open to the public. Grouping the attractions by theme such as Native American astronomy, optical and radio telescopes, NASA and space exploration, and space rocks Duane S. Nickell provides a scientific and historical overview of each theme followed by detailed descriptions of the related sites within that theme. With over 40 illustrations, the book gives readers a visual understanding of what they will experience at most of the sites. For those readers who want to use the book as a trip planner, Nickell also includes a state-by-state listing of the attractions and identifies must-see exhibits at many of the space museums featured. Travelers and armchair tourists alike will be entertained by the illustrations and scientific descriptions of these out of this world attractions.

The Family of Man

Edward Steichen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Perhaps the best photographic book ever published 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I first found this book at Foyle's in London, about 35 years ago, and it struck me. Since then, I bought five copies of the Family of Man, but no one remained in my home, because ever I felt the need to give this book to someone I loved or trusted.
What is making this book so precious to me?
First the idea itself of collecting pictures from the whole world (remember, when Steichen launched his project, the Cold War and the related hysteria was at its peak). This to demonstrate that all the human beings have to pass through the same events in their life: birth, growth, education, emotions, work, love, children, reflection, death. This apparently trivial concept leads to a conclusion by far less trivial: we all do belong to one family, our species, the humans (by the way, this thinking had not so great success in the past, nor the present seems to be more benevolent).
The Family of Man is exactly the visual demonstration of such a concept, by comparing the same events as viewed from different geographic and cultural perspectives, by means of photos from renowned or unknown photographers (of course, the pictures from the US are prevailing in numbers for logistics and statistical reasons: it was by far more simple for an US photographer to even simply receive the news of the Steichen project than for a photographer in Rwanda or in the USSR).
Steichen and his assistants made an impressive selection, shortlisting 503 pictures from the over 2 million they received. By the way, Steichen was a photographer, and his selection also considered the aesthetic side of the question: most of the pictures selected simply are wonderful.
The result is this book. I think no one on this planet can miss it, because The Family of Man is representative of a large part of our culture and on our very nature.
To give an example, in my opinion this book is at the same emotional and rational level as Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Divine Comedy, Melville's Moby Dick, primo Levi's If this is a Man, or the ancient Greek lyrics, to quote some comparisons.
I hope it will continue to be published; we, the humans, desperately need it.

Editorial Review:

Hailed as the most successful exhibition of photography ever assembled, The Family of Man opened at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in January 1955. This book, the permanent embodiment of Edward Steichen's monumental exhibition, reproduces all of the 503 images that Steichen described as "a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world. Photographs made in all parts of the world, of the gamut of life from birth to death." A classic and inspiring work, The Family of Man has been in print for more than forty years. The New York Times once wrote that it "symbolizes the universality of human emotions." First produced by a magazine publisher and sold by the hundreds of thousands on newsstands and in airport shops, The Family of Man has been in more recent years published by the Museum. It has been continuously in print since 1955; the present Thirtieth Anniversary Edition was prepared from original photographs with all new duotone plates in 1986.

Smithsonian Baseball: Inside the World's Finest Private Collections

Stephen Wong

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Ultimate Coffee-Table Book 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This beautiful book belongs in every baseball enthusiast's library, but it would be a mistake to keep it on the shelves. Author Stephen Wong has partnered with the Smithsonian to publish the most stunning book on baseball on the market. It deserves to be on your coffee table not only because of its wonderful photographs but also due to the wonderfully rich way he presents the history of the game. Wong gained remarkable access to the sport's foremost collectors, combing through hundreds of images and memorabilia items. The payoff is tremendous for anyone with an interest in baseball or, for that matter, in American history and culture. Readers will learn the essential facts about the game, and the fascinating tidbits, such as the origins of the curve ball. They then get to see remarkable shots, some most unusual - from folk art statues to Don Larsen's enshrined shoes from his perfect game to the bricks of former stadiums. In fact, this book should be placed in the Hall of Fame!

Editorial Review:

Among the national treasures you'll find:

• The only known photographic image of baseball's first organized team, the New York Knickerbockers, circa 1846.
• Original copy of the first written rules of modern baseball.
• One of the earliest known color advertising posters promoting the very first set of baseball cards, released in 1887.
• Scorecard from the inaugural World Series in 1903.
• Shoeless Joe Jackson's rookie-era game-used bat.
• Game-worn jerseys of Ty Cobb, Dizzy Dean, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and Ted Williams.

Vermeer: The Complete Works

Arthur K. Wheelock, Johannes Vermeer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

ISBN: 0894682199 is a better choice 4 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

ISBN: 0894682199 is a better choice, because it was highly prized and awarded like no other book about Vermeer. Colors here are rendered not very accurately. This book, like others by Harry N Abrams, tends to show the light background in the upper left hand corner of the "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" painting as light blue. In fact, that background is multicolored in a kind of pinkish summary tone. Similar problems have other pictures, though all Vermeer's paintings are reproduced as plates.

Completely inadequate 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Completely inadequate. Many of the reproductions are too dark, and important details can't be seen. In many pictures there are small white dots, obviously the result of poor printing. In the magnificent "Servant Handing Her Lady a Letter," the dyes have dripped so badly that the reproduction might as well be a comic book. Abrams should be miles above this level of quality. The photo editor, Uta Hoffman, should have an eye exam.

Editorial Review:

Following the blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., this book presents the complete works of the great Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). Oversize, full-page color plates of each of Vermeer's 35 known masterpieces capture the luminosity and the remarkable originality of the paintings and make this the next best thing to actually having attended the sold-out show. 68 illustrations, including 44 in full color.

Alberto Vargas: Works from the Max Vargas Collection

Reid Stewart Austin

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Outstanding artwork 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The Max Vargas Collection is an excellent collection of his finest commercial works. The illistrations and the commentary offers excellent backgroung on his life and body of work. The only thing I found wanting was the large collection of Vargas art that invariably made it onto the noses of many warbirds in WW2 and Korea. There's little refernece to this.

Editorial Review:

The storied and turbulent career of glamour artist Alberto Vargas took him from Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies in the 1920s to Hollywood in the 30s to Esquire magazine and the emergence of the "Varga Girl" in the 40s and, ultimately, to a lasting home at Playboy in the 60s and 70s.

This is the first book on the works of Vargas in more than a decade. It is also the first to include a generous selection of his vivid original drawings and his finest work for Playboy magazine. Along with these highly sought-after pictures, the book features early unpublished works, unpublished sketches, the celebrated Legacy Nudes, and more.

The decade-by-decade narrative essay and captions are by Reid Stewart Austin, an art director at Playboy for 20 years, and author of the bestselling Vargas biography written in 1978 in collaboration with the artist.

I'd Rather Be in the Studio!

Alyson B. Stanfield

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

I'd Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion offers practical approaches that help you sell more art and build an art career that lasts. Alyson B. Stanfield, the art-marketing guru behind ArtBizCoach.com, shares self-promotion tools that have enhanced the careers of thousands of artists. You'll learn how to: (1) Introduce yourself as an artist so people want to know more; (2) Nail your artist statement to discover the right words for all of your marketing messages; (3) Expand your mailing list and use it to cultivate collectors; (4) Create marketing materials that outshine the competition; (5) Become a media magnet so buyers come to you; (6) Take advantage of your Web site and blog to build a bigger audience; and much more. It would be great if there were a precise formula for getting your art into galleries, museums and private collections. But every artist's path is different. That's why I'd Rather Be in the Studio! provides easy-to-follow self-promotion practices that help you find your way at any point in your career. Match Internet marketing strategies with sincere personal skills to take charge of your career.

Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan, Lawrence Weschler, Nicholas Baume, Jen Mergel

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Editorial Review:

Artist Tara Donovan uses commonplace consumer materials--toothpicks, tape, pencils, buttons, paper plates, and the like--to create her dazzling sculptural installations. Often biomorphic or topographical in character, her large-scale abstract works utilize systematic arrangements of thousands or even millions of units. Visually evocative and perceptually seductive, her pieces are at once organic and highly structured. Donovan has been recognized for her commitment to process and her ability to discover how the inherent physical characteristics of an object might allow it to be transformed into art.

Published in conjunction with a major solo exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Art/Boston, this book is the first to document Donovan's complete oeuvre, from her beginnings working in ink to her most recent pieces. Among the many works shown are Untitled (Plastic Cups), a 50-by-60-foot landscape of plastic cups; Haze, a 42-foot-long wall of over two million clear plastic drinking straws stacked like wood; and her three 40-inch cubes, one of steel pins, one of toothpicks, and one of shattered glass. An in-depth conversation between Donovan and Lawrence Weschler traces the artist's schooling, early career, and current work.

Audubon's Birds of America: The Audubon Society Baby Elephant Folio (Tiny Folios)

Roger Tory Peterson, Virginia Marie Peterson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Why reorganize a symphony? 4 out of 5 stars.
38 of 50 people found this review helpful.

Let me qualify my remarks by first saying that I have not even seen this version. I have no doubt that the printing is of the highest quality, but I have a serious reservation about the organization of this book. Audubon deliberately mixed his birds in a non-taxonomic order to maintain a freshness and an element of suprise. I recently acquired a large format copy published by Welcome Rain, which follows Audubon's original order. The effect is a delightful romp through nature, full of suprises, drama and movement. He never intended it to be a catalog with all his ducks in a row, it was to be an experience. I have seen an abridged, small format edition of his paintings arranged in the standard, dull taxonomic order of a typical field guide and the effect is nothing like seeing them in the order Audubon intended. Rearranging the plates for convenience of listers diminishes this work, and to a certain extent, is a disservice to the artist. While I am happy to see that his work remains in print and is being reproduced at very high standards, I would hope that it would be viewed as a symphony, not as a random collection of notes needing to be organized alphabetically.

Editorial Review:

All of John James Audubon's brilliant bird engravings are graced by illuminating commentary by Roger Tory Peterson, one of America's best-known ornithologists, in this diminutive, yet lavish volume. 435 engravings. 900 illustrations, over 470 in full color.