Private Books

The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book

Frank Warren

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Subjects -> Entertainment -> Pop Culture -> Art
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> Motivational

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Post Secrets 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book - its just fascinating what people put out there for others to read!

WE ALL LOVE SECRETS 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

THIS IS AN EASY READ AND WE CAN ALL FIND A LITTLE BIT OF OURSELVES IN THIS SERIES OF SECRETS BOOKS

Love it. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have bought all the Postsecret books and visit the site every Sunday. I absolutely love all these books. It's truly amazing how so many of my secrets are others peoples secrets as well.

Editorial Review:

Postsecret.com founder Frank Warren is back with an irresistible addition to his bestselling PostSecret series. For The Secret Lives of Men and Women, Warren has selected a never-before-seen collection of postcards bearing the explosive confessions and captivating revelations of men and women everywhere. Created using photographs, collages, illustrations, and more, the handmade cards offer a compelling dialogue on some of today’s most provocative topics—from marriage and infidelity, to parenting, office politics, repressed fantasies, and even abortion—daring us to consider how well we really know our friends, family, even ourselves.

Fashion (Taschen 25th Anniversary)

Amazon Price: $37.79 List Price: $59.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Taschen Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $33.75

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
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.

Alberto Vargas: Works from the Max Vargas Collection

Reid Stewart Austin

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> Themes

Customer Reviews:
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.

Soviet Posters: The Sergo Grigorian Collection

Maria Lafont

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> Regional -> European

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

comprehensive retrospective of Soviet Union propaganda and art posters 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

With the majority of peasants illiterate when the Communists seized power in the Russian Revolution in the early 1900s, the communications system including the press primitive, posters soon took a prominent place in spreading the ideas and ideals of Communism and focusing the far-flung, heterogeneous population on central institutions such as the army. The poster never lost its prominent position in the Soviet Union. While the subject matter of the many posters was limited by government authorities to accepted propaganda themes and perspectives, considerable latitude and even considerable innovation were allowed and even encouraged. Suprematicism championed by the modernist Kasimir Malevich "created a new artistic alphabet, based on the languages of color and energy. Vladimir Mayakovsky and Alexander Rodchenko were two Russian artists who pored their skills and visions into poster art in lieu of other hospitable mediums in the totalitarian state. El Lisitzky introduced the style 'constructivism" in the 1920, followed by photomontage done by Gustav Klutsis and others in the early 1930s. Lafont, who was born in Moscow and is the author of "Pillaging Cambodia - Illicit Traffic in Khmer Art," cites such influential Soviet artists, whose influence spread outside of Russia, and follows the changing course of the Soviet poster according to changing artistic ideas, historical circumstances, and emphasis on certain propaganda in the Introduction.

In groupings of a few years to as much as a decade or more roughly defining historical periods of the Soviet Union, two hundred and fifty posters are pictured in full-page size with details of some shown on facing pages. Translations of their exhortations and in some cases longer message or text are found in the notes following the extensive gallery. But for 14, all are from the collection of Grigorian, a Russian lawyer who is working to establish a museum for Soviet posters. This collection of his plus ranging widely over styles, subjects, and periods of the statist posters of the former Soviet Union makes an outstanding retrospective.

Editorial Review:

This massive book of Soviet propaganda posters, many rare and never before published, is at once a revealing historical document and a sublime example of graphic art at its best.

Dating from 1917 to the beginning of the Cold War, the posters in this book feature the work of such major Russian ground-breaking avant-garde designers as El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko as well as extraordinary works by anonymous artists. Presented in full color, the 250 posters gathered here range in themes from warnings about the dangers of alcohol abuse and the creeping Nazi menace to illustrations of utopian harmony and the Soviet industrial machine. A brief illustrated introduction offers a chronological overview of the period that produced such eloquent art, which has long been a major source of inspiration to artists and designers.

Art Making, Collections, and Obsessions: An Intimate Exploration of the Mixed-Media Work and Collections of 35 Artists

Lynne Perrella

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A glimpse into the personal collections and work of 35 major artists.

This large format, full-color, inspirational book is about how artists use their collections to make artwork. The gallery-style format allows readers to see what artists collect, and the resulting spectacular artwork they make from it. The book will feature the collections and the artwork of thirty-five major mixed-media artists. The artwork will include journals, assemblages, altered books, as well as jewelry pieces, and detailed descriptions of the materials and techniques used, plus tips and insights into using unusual materials and collections.

Mixed-media artists are naturally collectors. They are fascinated by the stuff of life, and they are always looking for the right elements to add to their collages and journals. This book offers a juicy combination -- sort of a walk through an artist-filled flea market, and a gallery of the pieces created using these collections with tips and insights on collecting and creating, and how they go hand in hand.

Features a lineup of 35 contributing artists including:

• Lynn Whipple
• Graceann Warn
• Gail Rieke
• Beryl Taylor
• Keith LoBue
• Michael DeMeng
• Nina Bagley
• Susan Lenart-Kazmer
• and more

Art Making, Collections, and Obsessions features a beautiful collection of inspirational artwork. You'll enjoy artist's tips, creative ideas, and advice on working with unusual materials for collage.

Gustav Klimt: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A rich survey of the life and work of one of the most intriguing artists of the twentieth century.

Published in conjunction with an exciting exhibition at the Neue Galerie New York, opening in autumn 2007, this beautifully produced book features more than one hundred color plates in a generous layout that allows close viewing of the artist's paintings and drawings. Admirers of Klimt will discover fascinating essays by leading scholars, many containing new research and fresh insights. The essays' subjects include Klimt's earliest patrons; his studios; the role of photography in his erotic work; profiles of the most important women in the artist's life; his relationship with Gustav Mahler and Auguste Rodin; his never-before-published 1917 notebook; and an interview by Neue Galerie director Renée Price with Maria Altmann, heir to the five paintings stolen by the Nazis that were recently returned to her by the Austrian government. Perfect for casual perusing or serious study, this lavish exploration of Klimt's life and art, and the influence of Klimt on popular culture, is certain to find a wide audience.

Paul Klee: Selected by Genius, 1917-33

Ernst-Gerhard Guse, Christian Rumelin, Victoria Salley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Beautiful, and a bargain! 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the most beautiful and in-depth studies on the art of Paul Klee I have ever seen. The essays give wonderfully in-depth background on Klee's creative process, based on the study of the works that he kept for his personal collection. In many of these works we find the archetypes that informed most of his very personal and highly expressive iconography. The works in the exhibition, 80 works, are all top-quality Klee, and offer a well-rounded selection of works created during his most prolific and creative period (1917-1933). But there are also works included up to 1939, as well. Prestel has really outdone themselves in this incredibly splendid publication. The design, printing, and quality of manufacturing are all first-rate, and the price is astonishingly low...even the Amazon list price is a bargain, and this superior volume is discounted even more. Anyone with an interest in 20th Century art will absolutely want to own this gorgeous book, and if you are a fan of the work of Klee, as I am, you will find it an indispensible addition to your library.

Editorial Review:

Paul Klee is widely seen as one of the most original artists of the 20th century. Together with Feininger, Kandinsky and Jawlensky, he founded the Blue Four group, and had a decisive influence on artists such as Miro and Delaunay. Produced in close cooperation with the Klee Foundation in Bern, this catalogue gathers together the artist's outstanding masterpieces from the years 1917 to 1933, generally regarded as his most productive period.

The Irish Game: A True Story of Crime and Art

Matthew Hart

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Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Ireland -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Ireland -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the annals of art theft, no case has matched—for sheer criminal panache—the heist at Ireland’s Russborough House in 1986.

The Irish police knew right away that the mastermind was a Dublin gangster named Martin Cahill. Yet the great plunder —including a Gainsborough, a Goya, two Rubenses, and a Vermeer— remained at large for years. Cahill taunted the police with a string of other crimes, but in the end it was the paintings that brought him low. The challenge of disposing of such famous works forced him to reach outside his familiar world into the international arena, and when he did, his pursuers were waiting.

The movie-perfect sting that broke Cahill uncovered an astonishing maze of banking and drug-dealing connections that redefined the way police view art theft. As if that were not enough, the recovery of the Vermeer—by then worth $200 million—led to a remarkable discovery about the way Vermeer achieved his photographic perspective.

The Irish Game places the great theft in Ireland’s long sad history of violence and follows the thread that led, as a direct result of Cahill’s desperate adventures with the Russborough art, to his assassination by the IRA. With the storytelling skill of a novelist and the instincts of a detective, Matthew Hart follows the twists and turns of this celebrated case, linking it with two other world-famous thefts—of Vermeer’s “The Concert” and other famous paintings at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” at the National Gallery of Norway in Oslo. Sharply observed, fully explored, The Irish Game is a masterpiece in the literature of true crime.

The Writer's Brush: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture by Writers

Donald Friedman

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"The itch to make dark marks on paper is shared by many writers and artists," begins John Updike in his essay in The Writer's Brush, and this stunning collection will amaze lovers of the literary and fine arts alike. Author Donald Friedman has gathered 400 paintings, drawings, and scultpure--many from private collections, never before published--by more than 200 of the world's most famous writers, including 13 Nobel laureates.

The result is astounding. Whether viewing the beautiful landscapes that Hermann Hesse credited with saving his life, the manuscript sketches that Fyodor Dostoevsky made of his characters, or the can-can dancers secretly drawn by Joseph Conrad, readers of The Writer's Brush will gain new insights into the lives and minds of their favorite writers and the nature of the creative process itself.

Accompanying the artwork are fascinating biographies that provide little-known details of the writers' lives in the visual arts and offer the writers' own observations on their art and the relationships they saw between word and image. While written for a broad audience, The Writer's Brush is also an essential reference work, with alphabetical and chronological listings of its subjects and an extensive bibliography.

As Friedman notes in his introduction, for many of the writers anthologized here, a coin toss could have determined whether to spend the day standing in a smock or seated with a pen. The Writer's Brush brings together for the first time--in one unique, affordable volume--both worlds of these writers in the definitive work of the writer-artist.

Splendors of Versailles

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS! CATALOG of rooms, objets, history.... 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

This is the lavishly produced catalog for the impressive one-time, one-venue 1998 show of the same name at the Mississippi Arts Pavilion, in Jackson. The 225-page, 9x12 inch format heavy card-cover tome begins with outside and inside views of the major rooms of Versailles, mostly full-page size, then focuses on shots of the 120+ artifacts and installations included in that ambitious show.

The Mississippi Commission on International Cultural Exchange did a 1996 one-venue show on Russian Imperial Style that broke U.S. exhibition attendance records -- those folks do great work, and this show's catalog reflects it. Printed on heavy gloss paper in superb color, it includes well-selected paintings, tapestries, porcelains, the king's bedchamber installation, and the controversial 10-ton equestrian statue by Bernini.

This is a superb coffee table book, especially for the remarkably low (as of this writing) aftermarket price. I'm not familiar with the other extant Versailles books, but this one looks like a must-add to any enthusiast's collection. It would be in much higher demand -- and fetch higher prices -- if it weren't a show catalog, and hence not as well known as it might be. A royal sleeper!

Editorial Review:

This detailed and richly illustrated, full-color volume offers a view of such treasures from Versailles as magnificent state rooms, royal portraits, fine tapestries, elaborate clocks, and classic furnishings, porcelain, and chinaware. It provides insight into a gilded court life that has long since vanished and reminds us of the enduring value of the arts and fine craftsmanship.