Printmaking Books - Page 5

Los Caprichos

Francisco Goya

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Goya sets the bar 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This book is phenomenal. The only thing I could say against it is it's a bit small, but I believe the images are actual size, so of course there's not much to be done. A good hardcover edition would show these off very well. These Dover art books are a great, cheap way to get access to images like these if you can't commit to a fine edition or, should you be so fortunate, one of the original prints themselves.

Goya one-upped Surrealism, Expressionism, and much more, a hundred years before the fact. These prints take you on a dream journey through some startlingly original imagery that scrutinizes human social engagement with an unsparing eye. Cynical would be too soft a word for some of the images, but somehow it's hard to disagree with Goya's positions. You feel like people were often that empty in Spanish society of the time. And what about today?

As for the formal side, the etchings are technically inventive, uninhibited, masterful, confident, and often understated. Goya is content to let a few lines and a dark mass of aquatint evoke a whole interior, alleyway, or landscape.

In a way, these prints also relate to Edward Gorey, Tim Burton, and many more. In fifty years you'll be able to rack up a new breed of descendents. Their influence, I'm sure, will be timeless.

Editorial Review:

Considered Goya's most brilliant work, this collection combines corrosive satire and exquisite technique to depict 18th-century Spain as a nation of grotesque monsters sprung up in the absence of reason. 80 plates, Prado manuscript included.

Japanese Woodblock Printing (PH)

Rebecca Salter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The how-to of Japanese prints 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Although names like Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro aren't as widely known as the names of Western artists, some of their imagery (such as Hokusai's "Great Wave") is very familiar. If you've ever wondered how such delicacy, complexity, and expression rise up from a block of wood and a knife, you've come to the right place.

Salter has studied extensively under Japanese masters, and presents their classic techniques in clear, enjoyable words and images. What surprised me most - and probably should not have - is the way that Japanese woodcut parallels Western technique, but intersects it at so very few points. Every part of the craft, wood, tools, papers, and inks, coordinate with all the others in subtle ways. It's really not possible to extract just one feature of the art and fit it into the Western printshop, or to add individual pieces of Western technique to the Japanese craft. As a result, Salter describes everything, even the non-Western sharpening stones for the cutting tools, in great detail.

Since printmaking is a visual art, this is a visual book. Although the text is readable and thorough, Salter liberally salts the text with photos. Many show samples of the finished prints, demonstrating the effect of each technique, but most illustrate the tools and techniques of the printmaker. Even the layout of the printmaker's bench gets its own diagrams, showing how it optimizes the master printer's comfort and efficiency.

If you love prints, and Japanese prints in particular, you'll eventually want to know more about how they're made. I doubt that I could use this as my only text for making Japanese-style prints. Still, this beautiful and well-made book presents the best description I've seen on Japanese technique. I recommend it highly.

//wiredweird

Editorial Review:

Of all the traditional arts and crafts of Japan, woodblock prints are probably the most widely known in the West. This work highlights the history of the Japanese woodblock, discusses the materials, tools and papers available and shows how to uses them in step-by-step projects.

An Essay on Typography

Eric Gill

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

Typography and Other Apparently Related Issues 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This multi-faceted book is a gem. It was written in a period when Industrialism was increasingly establishing itself over Craftsmanship. Gill starts by analyzing the clash between these two worlds, then goes on to situate typography in this melee. Most of the book concerns Gill's views on correct typography, some of which seem quirky. Gill is unique: his forward style and searing insight are inspiring and refreshing, even after six decades. The last section of the book is Gill's proposal to convert written English into phonetic writing, avoiding spelling/pronunciation inconsistencies and increasing efficiency. It makes great sense - typical Gill

Editorial Review:

An Essay on Typography was first published in 1931, instantly recognized as a classic, and has long been unavailable. It represents Gill at his best opinionated, fustian, and consistently humane. It is his only major work on typography and remains indispensable for anyone interested in the art of letter forms and the presentation of graphic information.

This manifesto, however, is not only about letters their form, fit, and function but also about man's role in an industrial society. As Gill wrote later, it was his chief object "to describe two worlds that of industrialism and that of the human workman & to define their limits."

His thinking about type is still provocative. Here are the seeds of modern advertising unjustified lines, tight word and letter spacing, ample leading. Here, too, is vintage Gill, as polemical as he is practical, as much concerned about the soul of man as the work of man; as much obsessed by the ends as by the means.

Masterpieces of Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e from the Victoria and Albert Museum

Rupert Faulkner

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

Editorial Review:

Ever since Japan opened its doors to the West in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Westerners have been fascinated by the exquisite art forms that flourished during the previous two hundred years of self-imposed isolation. Among the most intriguing were the bold yet refined paintings and prints known as ukiyo-e, which portrayed the popular pursuits of the time with extraordinary power. Such was the appeal of this unique art in the West that tens of thousands of superb prints eventually found their way into museum collections around the world.
The present volume highlights over 130 outstanding examples from the vast holdings of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Strikingly original and sumptuously colored, the ukiyo-e in these pages recapture the spirit of the period in which they were created. Here can be found the glamorous courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, the flamboyant vigor of kabuki theater, and the diversities of the Japanese landscape.
The prints form a breathtaking panorama of the world of ukiyo-e from its inception to its final flowering at the end of the nineteenth century. Complementary texts by Rupert Faulkner and Richard Lane illuminate the craft of woodblock print making and explore the emergence of such versatile geniuses as Hokusai and Hiroshige.
The lasting appeal of Japanese woodblock prints may be rooted in the richness of their imagery and the power of their innovation, or perhaps in their uncanny ability to convey the special vitality of Edo Japan. Whatever the case, this lavish volume seeks not only to pay homage to the Japanese artists and craftsmen who took the woodblock print to unprecedented heights, but also to show the range of this astonishingly versatile art form.

American Circus Posters

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

Amazing! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wow, this book of circus posters is amazing! I love the old circus and needed to find good illustrations for an elaborate tattoo. I can't stop flipping through the pages. Anyone will enjoy this book!

Editorial Review:

Here collected together for the first time are 48 large, full-color, rare posters, 1890s-1940s, superbly reproduced from originals. Printed in extra large format so that even small details can be clearly seen, the posters feature many of the greats of the American circus: acrobats, clowns, Gargantua, etc., from Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey, Sparks, more.

Japanese Prints: The Art Institute of Chicago

James T. Ulak

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great prints, teensy-tiny product. 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I was terribly disappointed in this book, because it is so tiny, and your eyes have to have 1200 dpi scan to really see everything. Why would an art museum such as the Art Institute of Chicago allow such a one-off throw-away book be published? If you want to see anything, you have to purchase another book. Too bad.

Editorial Review:

Another in the Abbeville's Tiny Folios series, this little book is a real gem. The Art Institute of Chicago houses one of the world's most beautiful and comprehensive collections of Japanese woodblock prints in the world. Clarence Buckingham, of the famed Chicago family, donated 12,000 prints alone. The book covers this exquisite collection of work from the 17th to 19th centuries in four sections: Primitives, Courtesans, Actors, and Landscapes. It includes work by well-known masters such as Hiroshige, Hokusia, and Utamaro, as well as lesser-known talents such as Shun'ei, Shunko, and Kiyonaga. While the trim size is small, none of the subtle colors, delicate paper texture, or intricate fabric design is lost.

Picasso Line Drawings and Prints (Dover Art Library)

Pablo Picasso

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

Picasso drawings 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book of Picasso's sketches show the essence of who Picasso really was. They provide a great insight into his style and his sensuality.

Editorial Review:

Forty-four drawings from many periods and styles show master 20th-century draughtsman's incredible line: 1905 circus family, portraits of Diaghilev and Balzac, cubist studies, neo-classical nudes, and mythological scenes. Media include lithograph, drypoint, etching, and pen-and-ink.

Photo Transfer Handbook: Snap it, Print it, Stitch it!

Jean Laury

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Photographs, postcards, magazine clippings, and other printed images can be transferred to fabric relatively easily as is shown in Jean Ray Laury's The Photo Transfer Handbook. Using a laser copier at a copy shop, the image can be photocopied onto heat-transfer paper and then pressed onto the fabric with a household iron, or for an even more permanent application you can bring your fabric along to the copy shop and have the image set with a professional heat press. You can also begin with an image in your computer and use an ink-jet printer to output the image onto special photo-transfer paper (generally available at craft and office-supply stores) and then iron it on or use a home heat press. (Even if you don't have a scanner you may still be able to use this option; for example, if your computer has fax capabilities, scan the picture at a copy shop and fax it to yourself.)

Quilter Jean Ray Laury offers extensive information on both methods and their variations, as well as helpful troubleshooting tips, four step-by-step projects, and a remarkable gallery of quilts by various artists showcasing this technique, in styles ranging from snapshot-cute to art-quilt sophisticated. Aimed primarily at quilters, the advice here should prove equally helpful to anyone who works with fabric, since garments and home-decor items can readily benefit from this interesting approach. --Amy Handy

Beading in the Native American Tradition

David Dean

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Beautifully Beaded Work 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

If you love American Indian beadwork, here's a good book for you. There are chapters on the history of beadwork in America, researching native American beadwork and collecting it.
Other chapters cover lane-stitch beadwork, loom beadwork, applique beadwork, gourd stitch and Comanche brick stitch, uncommon beadwork techniques, beaded edgings and finishing techniques, and patterns. He actually shows how to make different looms (tension loom, box loom, and heddle loom).
I can't vouch for the patterns and ease of following the directions, as my interest was in the historic beadwork. Simply beautiful!
There's a chapter on tools, materials and buying beads.
The color photos show projects and also antique beaded pieces from museums and collections.

Editorial Review:

Full-color photographs illustrate the rich art of Native American beadwork in this combination practical how-to and coffee-table book. A historical perspective explains how and why beadwork is produced and what techniques are popular today. Clear and concise directions show how to produce beadwork in the Native American tradition, including lane stitch, loom, appliqué, gourd stitch, and Comanche brickwork. An illustrated gallery showcases historical and contemporary beadwork. Also included is information on research, tools, and materials.

Hiroshige

Matthi Forrer, Suzuki Juzo, Henry D. Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) holds an assured place in the history of art as one of the greatest masters of the wood-block print. This volume offers an excellent overview of the accomplished artist who, together with Hokusai, was the leading creator of landscape imagery in Japanese printmaking.

If Hokusai is recognized for his bold compositions and clearly defined forms, Hiroshige is the master of the passing moment - the artist of mist, snow, and rain. The immense popularity of Hiroshige's prints meant that they were continually reprinted, wearing down the woodblocks. For this book, every effort has been made to reproduce only the finest early impressions. Each plate is provided with a commentary by Matthi Forrer who, in an introductory essay, examines Hiroshige's life and work, assessing his place in Japanese art and making important revisions to the generally accepted chronology of his oeuvre. Other essays draw attention to aspects of Hiroshige's life and work which have often been overlooked and place Hiroshige and his art in their social and political context. This volume also includes maps, a chronology, a glossary and a bibliography.