Artists, Architects & Photographers Books - Page 2

Chanel and Her World

Edmonde Charles-Roux

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

Editorial Review:

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971) is a fashion icon unlike any other. She invented modern clothing for women: at the height of the Belle Époque, she stripped women of their corsets and feathers, bobbed their hair, put them in bathing suits, and sent them out to get tanned in the sun. She introduced slacks, costume jewelry, and the exquisitely comfortable suit. She made the first couture perfume-No. 5-which remains the most popular scent ever created.

In this beautiful volume, the glorious life of the incomparable Coco Chanel shines again through hundreds of illustrations and the lively prose of Edmonde Charles-Roux, her official biographer and close friend. Chanel knew and collaborated with the likes of Picasso, Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Cocteau, Jean Renoir, and Visconti-even as she matched their modernist innovations by liberating women from the prison of 19th-century fashion and introducing a whole new concept of elegance. The staggering collection of photographs amassed by the over decades of friendship with Chanel sheds new light on one of the great stories of the modern age. AUTHOR BIO: Edmonde Charles-Roux began her journalistic career at Elle and ultimately became editor-in-chief of French Vogue. She has published three novels, among them To Forget Palermo (Oublier Palerme), which won the Prix Goncourt in 1966.

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol : (From A to B and Back Again)

Andy Warhol

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

straight from the master 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I used to think that Andy Warhol was not a real artist, only a great self promoter. This book, written in his own words, proved my prejudice to be completely wrong and uncalled for. Much of what we encounter today in popular culture was forecasted in this book by Warhol. If only the best economists could even be 10 percent as right about their forecasts!

Ghostwritten by Bob Colacello and Pat Hackett 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

According to page 208 of the Warhol Biography 'Holy Terror; Andy Warhol Close Up' by Bob Colacello (1990), Warhol delegated the actual writing of the book to Colacello and Pat Hackett. Colacello wrote the first draft and Hackett wrote the version that was published. Warhol's contribution was to set up the deal, offer a few suggestions and one-liners, and read the finished pages before they were sent off to the publisher.

If a silkscreen created by Warhol's assistants (carefully aping his art style) but signed by Warhol is still "authentic," does that mean an autobiography written by Warhol's assistants (carefully aping his speaking style) but credited to Warhol on the cover is still an "authentic" autobiography?

Editorial Review:

The private Andy Warhol talks: about love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, success; about New York and America; and about himself--his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, good times and bad times in the Big Apple, the explosion of his career in the sixties, and life among celebrities.

 

 

Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry

Akiane Kramarik

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ten-year-old prodigy Akiane Kramarik shares her artwork, poetry, and the fascinating story surrounding her talent.
Growing up in a home with an atheistic mother and a non-participating Catholic father did not stop four-year-old Akiane Kramarik from finding God. This girl's dreams began a conversation in the home that has eventually brought them all to Christianity and the world's attention. Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry is a collection of the best of Akiane's full-color paintings and poetry created from ages 4 to 10, along with details of her family and the amazing stories that surround each unique artwork. Already a media professional, Akiane has been interviewed on programs such as Oprah, World News Tonight, Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN, and Schuller's Hour of Power. Akiane will be one of twenty visual artists participating in the October "Listen" event raising money for the world's needy children. Today Akiane's art is available online at www.artakiane.com.

Leonardo's Notebooks

Leonardo da Vinci

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Saw the book at the museum. Bought it from my phone. 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is not so much a review of the book itself, but more of my experience buying the book from my phone.

I visited the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at The Tech Museum in San Jose California. On my way out, I stopped by the museum store and came across this book. After scanning through the book, I decided to buy it. But the price tag of $40 was too rich for me. So - for the first time - I decided to try Amazon from my phone. Sure enough, the book was selling for $26. So I proceeded to place the order. The process was straight forward and took less time than it would have taken to stand in line and pay for the book at the store! I'll be getting the book in a few days.

Amazon... two thumbs up on your mobile site. There's nothing like comparative shopping while in the store and buying right there and then at a better price.

Editorial Review:

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) possessed arguably the greatest mind the world has ever known. Artist, draftsman, inventor, and philosopher, his contributions to modern society are profound and wide-reaching. Throughout his life, Leonardo kept dozens of notebooks, elegant studies on topics ranging from architecture to botany to philosophy—indeed nearly anything of which the human imagination could conceive.

Leonardo’s Notebooks collects a variety of the most fascinating of these studies and compiles them into one monumental volume that demystifies his insights and clearly illustrates his ideas, experiments, and observations with hundreds of his original sketches, line drawings, and paintings. Topics include Anatomy and the Movement of the Human Figure; Botany and Landscape; Engineering and Military Engineering; Physical Sciences; Aerodynamics and Flight; Geography—and more.

The Judgment of Paris: Manet, Meissonier and the Birth of Impressionism

Ross King

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

While the Civil War raged in America, another very different revolution was beginning to take shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris: The artists who would make Impressionism the most popular art form in history were showing their first paintings amidst scorn and derision from the French artistic establishment. Indeed, no artistic movement has ever been, at its inception, quite so controversial. The drama of its birth, played out on canvas, would at times resemble a battlefield; and, as Ross King reveals, Impressionism would reorder both history and culture as it resonated around the world.

The Judgment of Paris chronicles the dramatic decade between two famous exhibitions—the scandalous Salon des Refuses in 1863 and the first Impressionist showing in 1874—set against the rise and dramatic fall of Napoleon III and the Second Empire after the Franco-Prussian War. A tale of many artists, it revolves around the lives of two, described as “the two poles of art”—Ernest Meissonier, the most famous and successful painter of the 19th century, hailed for his precision and devotion to history; and Edouard Manet, reviled in his time, who nonetheless heralded the most radical change in the history of art since the Renaissance. Out of the fascinating story of their parallel lives, illuminated by their legendary supporters and critics—Zola, Delacroix, Courbet, Baudelaire, Whistler, Monet, Hugo, Degas, and many more—Ross King shows that their contest was not just about Art, it was about competing visions of a rapidly changing world.

With a novelist’s skill and the insight of an historian, King recalls a seminal period when Paris was the artistic center of the world, and a revolutionary movement had the power to electrify and divide a nation.

Kirby: King of Comics

Mark Evanier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Evanier's heartfel tribute to Kirby succeeds on every level 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

There has been so much written on Jack Kirby's work; so many tributes in the past, that I was not prepared to be bowled-over by this one. But then Mark Evanier--who knew and worked for Kirby--is not your average "fan." He's a guy whose own creative credits (Groo, Garfield, etc., etc...) are so impressive that I should slap myself for not realizing that any book he'd do on Kirby would be a sensation. Aside from the lavish reproduction quality and the generously-sized book itself, I'd say that the selection of images impressed me most mightily. Kirby's output was so phenomenal, how do you boil it down to the essentials? And yet, given the space limitations, I think Evanier has done it. His selections not only hit Kirby's high-points, but manage to carry along the biographical narrative. I was also glad that Evanier had sidebars on many of Kirby's inking collaborators whose work became so essential to our enjoyment of Kirby. And of course Evanier gave us probably the most accurate telling of the difficult Stan Lee/Jack Kirby relationship (about which Stan must bear his shame to his grave). If I may be so bold as to inject a moral into the Kirby story, it's probably that creators must take control of their creations--as people like Will Eisner and Walt Disney did-- and not become dependent on publishers, virtually none of whom ever seem to be willing to pay creators their due. Thanks for this ultimate Jack Kirby homage, Mark!

Editorial Review:

Jack Kirby created or co-created some of comic books’ most popular characters including Captain America, The X-Men, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, Darkseid, and The New Gods. More significantly, he created much of the visual language for fantasy and adventure comics. There were comics before Kirby, but for the most part their page layout, graphics, and visual dynamic aped what was being done in syndicated newspaper strips. Almost everything that was different about comic books began in the forties on the drawing table of Jack Kirby. This is his story by one who knew him well—the authorized celebration of the one and only “King of Comics” and his groundbreaking work.

“I don’t think it’s any accident that . . . the entire Marvel universe and the entire DC universe are all pinned or rooted on Kirby’s concepts.” —Michael Chabon

The Art of Looking Sideways

Alan Fletcher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The ultimate guide to visual awareness. Compiled over decades by one of today's most brilliant graphic designers, this is a panoply of curious facts, visual puns, anecdotes, serious science, insights, images, jokes, memories and reflections, with 700 illustrations and quotes from over 1000+ writers.

The Art of Looking Sideways is a primer in visual intelligence, an exploration of the workings of the eye, the hand, the brain and the imagination. It is an inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes, memories all concerned with the interplay between the verbal and the visual, and the limitless resources of the human mind. Loosely arranged in 72 'chapters', all this material is presented in a wonderfully inventive series of pages that are themselves masterly demonstrations of the expressive use of type, space, colour and imagery.

This book does not set out to teach lessons, but it is full of wisdom and insights collected from all over the world. Describing himself as a 'visual jackdaw', master designer Alan Fletcher has distilled a lifetime of experience and reflection into a brilliantly witty and inimitable exploration of such subjects as perception, colour, pattern, proportion, paradox, illusion, language, alphabets, words, letters, ideas, creativity, culture, style, aesthetics and value.

The Art of Looking Sideways is the ultimate guide to visual awareness, a magical compilation that will entertain and inspire all those who enjoy the interplay between word and image, and who relish the odd and the unexpected.

Lust for Life

Irving Stone

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Man Amongst Men 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a beautiful novel about a beautiful human being. If you love Van Gogh's paintings (he is my personal favorite of all painters) then by all means, you need to read this wonderful book. In his prose, Stone is able to paint a vivid, vibrant, illuminating portrait of an amazing artist. I was truly blown away and completely consumed from the first chapter on. I actually read this fine story after visiting the Musee d'Orsay (Museum Orsay) in Paris and seeing first hand the magnificent works of this illustrious Impressionist. Of all the great many paintings presented at the Louvre and d'Orsay, it was the Van Gogh's that captivated me more than all the others (which is saying a lot, because the whole place is captivating!). I couldn't believe some of his self-portraits. What really fascinated me the most was the despondency in those steel blue eyes of his. This is what led me to read this story. I wanted to know where all that pain and suffering came from. Irving Stone answered all of my questions and then some. He is a brilliant and insightful writer and I will be looking forward to reading his novel "The Agony and the Ecstasy" which is based on the life of another favorite artist of mine - Michelangelo.

Anyone who is struggling to become an artist needs to read this! Talk about sacrifice and desire and heart and passion... this man Van Gogh was a true original. A man like no other before or since.

"...for by sadness the countenance of the heart is made better."

I can't recommend this one enough.

Editorial Review:

No artist has been more ruthlessly driven by his creative urge, nor more isolated by it from most ordinary sources of human happiness, than Vincent Van Gogh. A painter of genius, his life was an incessant struggle against poverty, discouragement, madness and despair. Lust for Life skilfully captures the exciting atmosphere of the Paris of the Post-Impressionists and reconstructs with great insight the development of Van Gogh's art. The painter is brought to life not only as an artist but as a personality and this account of his violent, vivid and tormented life is a novel of rare compassion and vitality.

Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave

Leonard Todd

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The compelling story of a slave, owned by the author's ancestors, who became one of the singular artists of the nineteenth century.

He is known today, as he was then, only as Dave. His pots and storage jars were everyday items, but because of their beauty and massive size, and because Dave signed and inscribed many with poems, they now fetch six figures at auction. We know of no other slave artist who dared to put his name on his work, a dangerous advertisement of literacy.

Fascinated by the man and by this troubling family history, Leonard Todd moved from Manhattan to Edgefield, South Carolina, where his ancestors had established a thriving pottery industry in the early 1800s. Todd studied each of Dave's poems for biographical clues, which he pieced together with local records and family letters to create this moving and dramatic chronicle of Dave's life—a story of creative triumph in the midst of slavery. Many of Dave's astounding jars are found now in America's finest museums.

Architecture Now! (Icons)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Architectural Review 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The author of this book has done a fine job of showcasing recent modern architectural projects of interest to the general population, as well as to architects and structural engineers working in the profession. I am a structural engineer, and I purchased the book because two of my friends, and one of their projects, are featured in the book. I also happened to work on that paticular project, and was interested in having a published record of the project along with my own project files. The book is well written, has wonderful photographs, and is a fine addition to the genre of "coffee table architecture books". Mr. Jodidio is to be commended for writing this book.

Art, architecture, and more. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a nice little coffee table styled book on architecture and artwork, showcasing about 92 architects and a few of their works. Its small size makes it easy to take along with you wherever you go.

Each architect gets two pages devoted to them, comprising a brief biography highlighting some of their notable works, as well as photos and/or sketches showcasing one or two of their works.

Some of the architects and works featured include Alberto Campo Baeza (Center for innovative technologies in Majorca), Will Bruder (Byrne residence in Arizona), Frank Gehry (Experience Music Project in Seattle), Arata Isokazi (Shizuoka convention and arts center in Shizuoka), Polshek Partnership (the very space age Rose center for earth & science in New York), and Richard Rogers (Law courts in Bordeaux, and Millennium Dome in London).

A good book.

Editorial Review:

This volume presents the best of architecture in the world from 100 contemporary architects.