Exhibition Catalogs Books

Wall and Piece

Banksy

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Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The collected works of Britain’s most wanted artist.

Artistic genius, political activist, painter and decorator, mythic legend or notorious graffiti artist? The work of Banksy is unmistakable (except maybe when it’s squatting in the New York’s Metropolitan Museum or Museum of Modern Art.) Banksy is responsible for decorating the streets, walls, bridges and zoos of towns and cites throughout the world.

Witty and subversive, his stencils show monkeys with weapons of mass destruction, policeman with smiley faces, rats with drills and umbrellas. If you look hard enough you’ll find your own. His statements, incitements, ironies and epigrams are by turns intelligent and witty comments on everything from the monarchy and capitalism to the war in Iraq and farm animals.

His identity remains unknown, but his work is prolific. And now for the first time, he’s putting together the best of his work—old and new—in a fully illustrated color volume.

Banksy, real name unknown, was born in Bristol, England.

Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before

Alastair Fothergill

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Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A visual odyssey that will change the way we see our planet, this remarkable book, companion to the acclaimed Discovery Channel/ BBC series, is an enduring and awe-inspiring record of one of the most ambitious natural history projects ever undertaken. Using the latest aerial surveillance, state-of-the-art cameras, and high definition technology, the creators of Planet Earth have assembled more than 400 stunning photographs of wondrous natural landscapes from around the globe, including incredible footage of the rarely spotted, almost mythical creatures that live in these habitats. Many of the images reveal inaccessible places that few have seen and record animal behavior that has never been filmed or photographed before. With the help of this highly advanced technology and the world's premier wildlife photographers, the book takes us on a spectacular journey from the world's greatest rivers and impressive gorges, to its mightiest mountains, hidden caves and caverns, and vast deserts. Planet Earth captures breathtaking sequences of predators and their prey, lush vistas of forests viewed from the tops of towering trees, the oceans and their mysterious creatures viewed from beneath the surface, and much more--in a magnificent adventure that brings unknown wonders of the natural world into our living rooms.
Copub: BBC Worldwide Americas

Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum

Richard Fortey

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Night at the museum with a personal tour guide 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Behind-the-scenes look at London's Natural History Museum is an interesting peak at the "coalface"--Fortey's term for the daily work occurring beyond and below the public galleries--of museum science. Fortey describes the main work of the Museum, and its sister institutions in other countries, as systematic taxonomy--the attempt to exhaustively categorize and collect reference examples of each species of plant, animal, and mineral.

In an era of hard-to-obtain research grants and declining public funding, Fortey defends this work as valuable for several reasons:

--the need to find and identify species before they are destroyed by climate change, environmental destruction, or over-harvesting.

--potential beneficial uses of unknown species for the biosphere, for example expanded use of natural predators as environmentally-safe pesticides.

--helping future scientific endeavors by placing each species in its proper place in the taxonomy.

--and ultimately, the pure aesthetic satisfaction of knowing everything we can know about the world in which we live and upon which we are dependent.

Fortey spends time walking the reader virtually through the hidden corridors of each section of the Museum and using the discussion of the physical surroundings to talk in layman's terms about the science and the history of the science. Black-and-white photos in the pages with the text and color plates in the center of the book illustrate the surroundings and the collection as Fortey describes them.

But most interesting are the people who work behind the scenes. The current and past scientists, curators, clerks, Keepers, Directors, and Trustees are a diverse, intelligent, and intensely fascinating lot. After describing some of the more legendary polymaths who seemed as if they would scarcely have time to indulge in their many interests, Fortey asks in wonderment: "Are we lesser people today, or do we expect less of ourselves?"

Of course the Museum also has its share of misfits, misanthropes, recluses, shysters, and just plain crazy people deep in the hallways behind the public galleries, and Fortey seems to take special glee in describing them, many of whom he knew personally from his 30-plus years in the corridors. He writes with an understated, decidedly British wit and language. I'm guessing I missed some of his best jokes as they glanced off my tin American ear, but unless you get the opportunity to tour the hallways (which he compares to the phantasmagorical and never-ending castle in the The Gormenghast Novels) with Fortey in person, this book will be your personal tour guide.

Giorgio Morandi 1890-1964: Nothing Is More Abstract Than Reality

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Much more than just a still-life 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This is the catalogue for the current Morandi exhibition at the Met in NYC. It basically follows a strict chronology after two introductory essays, one attempting a reassessment of the artist's oeuvre in the light of the many studies that have been carried out in recent years and of his influence on contemporary art (no longer limited to abstraction)and the other dwelling on the visual sources that inspired the painter (Cézanne obviously, but also the Douanier Rousseau, Corot, Chardin to name but a few). These two essays are particularly interesting in that they provide in-depth information on the technique and working process of the artist and also on the somewhat paradoxical recognition of Morandi as a great master in the 1950's, at a time when abstraction was the dominant trend.

The book is then divided into five distinct periods, first displaying wonderful commented illustrations of the works pertaining to each period, and then followed by various essays (on the debatable influence of Piero della Francesca, on Morandi's etchings, on the critical reception and the market in Europe and the Americas, on debunking the myth of a reclused closed-off artist, on Morandi's famous saying that "nothing is more abstract than reality"). The book ends with a short text by Umberto Eco describing his discovery of Morandi's art, followed by transcripts of interviews of the artist.

This is probably the best artbook I have ordered this year (and I have ordered many!). The text is riveting, the illustrations (more than a hundred still-lifes and a dozen landscapes, all in full color) could not be better and some close-ups even give you the impression of holding the actual painting in your own hands (when I go through my library of some 800 artbooks, I have to disagree with the other reviewer of this book: the illustrations are outstanding).

Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

This volume showcases 116 masterpieces arranged into the four major themes that characterize Giorgio Morandi’s work: self portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and flowers. The collection represents all the various expressive techniques used by Morandi over the years, including paint, etching, drawing and watercolor.The volume is the catalog of an outstanding exhibition organized by the Metropolitan Museum in New York and by the Museo d’Arte Moderna in Bologna. The exhibition will be open in New York from September 16 to December 14, 2008 and in Bologna from January 22 to April 12, 2009.The exhibition and the catalog also contain a number of photographs of Morandi’s studio and quotes from his admirers, as well as the memorable 1958 interview with Edouard Roditi.

Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion

Al Seckel

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Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Astonishing creations by masters of the art, such as Escher, Dali, and Archimbolo; amazing visual trickery; and an illuminating foreword by the Pulitzer Prize--winning author Douglas R. Hofstadter make this 320-page, breathtaking collection the definitive book of optical illusions.

Rings of seahorses that seem to rotate on the page. Butterflies that transform right before your eyes into two warriors with their horses. A mosaic portrait of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau made from seashells. These dazzling and often playful artistic creations manipulate perspective so cleverly that they simply outwit our brains: we can’t just take a quick glance and turn away. They compel us to look once, twice, and over and over again, as we try to figure out exactly how the delightful trickery manages to fool our perceptions so completely. Of course, first and foremost, every piece is beautiful on the surface, but each one offers us so much more. Some, including Sandro del Prete’s charming “Window Gazing,” construct illusionary worlds where normal conceptions of up, down, forward, and back simply have no meaning anymore. Others, such as Jos De Mey’s sly “Ceci n’est pas un Magritte,” create visual puns on earlier work. From Escher’s famous and elaborate “Waterfall” to Shigeo Fukuda’s “Mary Poppins,” where a heap of bottles, glasses, shakers, and openers somehow turn into the image of a Belle Epoque woman when the spotlight hits them, these works of genius will provide endless enjoyment and food for thought.

The Polaroid Book: Selections from the Polaroid Collections of Photography (Taschen's 25th Anniversary Special Editions)

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

What a SEXY book!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

WOW... words can't even begin to describe how much I love this book! It's about time they released a book like this! And the wrapper of this book is genius! It looks like a gigantic box of Polaroid film... I didn't even want to remove the cover at first... I fondled it for awhile and then I slowly peeled it off and curled up on the couch for an hour or two and looked at all the pretty pictures.
This book is highly recommended for any Polaroid enthusiast! And if you want to see some great 'roids on the net- check out Polanoid.net!

Do not miss the opportunity to own this treasure! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a classic which sold out its first printing. BUY THIS NOW! You will have, preserved on your bookshelf the essence of what Edwin Land envisioned over 65 years ago distilled in one BEAUTIFUL volume. How can the Petters Group (who now owns Polaroid) dare to banish such a beautiful art form from humanity? That's right, Polaroid has stopped making instant film and the supply may barely run through the end of this year, and all expire by the end of next year. THIS IS A CRIME AGAINST ART AND HUMANITY!! Buy the book, then go to savepolaroid.com and join us all to save this incredible art form. JUST LOOK AT THE PAGES OF THIS INCREDIBLE VOLUME!!! You will be amazed!

Editorial Review:

This survey features more than 400 works from the Polaroid Collection along with essays by Hitchcock, who illuminates the beginnings and history of the Polaroid Corporation.

The Photographer's Eye

John Szarkowski

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski is a twentieth-century classic--an indispensable introduction to the visual language of photography. Based on a landmark exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1964, and originally published in 1966, the book has long been out of print. It is now available again to a new generation of photographers and lovers of photography in this duotone printing that closely follows the original. Szarkowski's compact text eloquently complements skillfully selected and sequenced groupings of 172 photographs drawn from the entire history and range of the medium. Celebrated works by such masters as Cartier-Bresson, Evans, Steichen, Strand, and Weston are juxtaposed with vernacular documents and even amateur snapshots to analyze the fundamental challenges and opportunities that all photographers have faced. Szarkowski, the legendary curator who worked at the Museum from 1962 to 1991, has published many influential books. But none more radically and succinctly demonstrates why--as U.S. News & World Report put it in 1990--"whether Americans know it or not," his thinking about photography "has become our thinking about photography."

Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933 (Whitney Museum of American Art)

Joan Simon, Brigitte Leal

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1926, Alexander Calder (1898–1976) moved from New York to Paris and began to use time and motion as "materials" for animating line and space. Calder’s years in Paris––an understudied part of the artist’s career––is the focus of this marvelous publication.

 

A team of international scholars discusses Calder’s many innovations of this period, chief among them his abstract, motorized, and mobile works. They analyze the extended cast of Calder’s animated Circus, made in Paris between 1926 and 1931, and include previously unpublished photographs by Brassaï and Kertesz of Calder and this beloved performative sculpture. The essays critically explore the intellectual, cultural, and artistic milieu of Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s and the contexts of Calder’s friendships with Miró, Mondrian, Duchamp, and Man Ray, among others. What emerges in this fascinating book is a nuanced and detailed understanding of how Calder’s distinctive career first took flight.

 

Photography

Barbara London, John Upton, Jim Stone, Ken Kobré, Betsy Brill

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Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Worth over $100? 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I've received and read the book, and enjoy the content. However, compared to many other books in the marketplace, I'm having a hard time comprehending where there is over $100 worth of value. It seems that everytime something is written by an academic and presented as a textbook, regardless of the content or quality, that the price is jacked up by 3 to 4 times what it is really worth. I'd suggest looking for a used version of this book unless you really want a pristine copy to show off to others.

Editorial Review:

This best-selling, comprehensive guide to photography—featuring superb instructional illustrations—is the most cutting-edge photography book on the market. It offers extensive coverage of digital imaging—with the latest technological developments, such as Web page design and formatting photos on CD-ROMs. Chapter topics explore the process of getting started, camera, lens, film and light, exposure, processing the negative, mounting and finishing, color, digital camera, digital darkroom, lighting, special techniques, view camera, zone system, seeing photographs, and the history of photography. Step-by-step instructions include a “Lights Out” feature to help learners better identify darkroom techniques. For anyone with a personal or professional interest in photography.

Fashion (Taschen 25th Anniversary)

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Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A fashion history from the 18th to the 20th century Clothes define people. A person's clothing, whether it's a sari, kimono, or business suit, is an essential key to his or her culture, class, personality, or even religion. The Kyoto Costume Institute recognizes the importance of understanding clothing sociologically, historically, and artistically. Founded in 1978, the KCI holds one of the world's most extensive clothing collections and has curated many exhibitions worldwide. With an emphasis on Western women's clothing, the KCI has amassed a wide range of historical garments, underwear, shoes, and fashion accessories dating from the 18th century to the present day. Showcasing a vast selection from the Institute's archives of skilled photographs depicting the clothing expertly displayed and arranged on custom-made mannequins, Fashion History is a fascinating excursion through the last three centuries of clothing trends. The KCI believes that "clothing is an essential manifestation of our very being" and their passion and dedication positively radiate from every page of this book. This special 25th anniversary edition has a chic new format: two volumes packaged in a slipcase.