Best of
Art

1952

The Decisive Moment: Photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson


Henri Cartier-Bresson - 1952
    Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the “decisive moment” ― a split second that reveals the larger truth of a situation ― shaped modern street photography and set the stage for hundreds of photojournalists to bring the world into living rooms through magazines.

The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt


Lotte H. Eisner - 1952
    From The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari onwards the principal films of this period were characterized by two influences: literary Expressionism, and the innovations of the theatre directors of this period, in particular Max Reinhardt. This book demonstrates the connection between German Romanticism and the cinema through Expressionist writings. It discusses the influence of the theatre: the handling of crowds; the use of different levels, and of selective lighting on a predominately dark stage; the reliance on formalized gesture; the innovation of the intimate theatre. Against this background the principal films of the period are examined in detail. The author explains the key critical concepts of the time, and surveys not only the work of the great directors, such as Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau, but also the contribution of their writers, cameramen, and designers. As The Times Literary Supplement wrote, 'Mme. Eisner is first and foremost a film critic, and one of the best in the world. She has all the necessary gifts.' And it described the original French edition of this book as 'one of the very few classics of writing on the film and arguably the best book on the cinema yet written.'

The Book of Kells: Selected Plates in Full Color


Anonymous - 1952
    . . . You will make out intricacies, so delicate and subtle, so exact and compact, so full of knots and links, with colours so fresh and vivid, that you might say that all this was the work of an angel, and not of a man." — Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hiberniae, ca. 1185.Gerald of Wales wrote his ecstatic description of what is most probably the Book of Kells 800 years ago, some 300 years after the work appeared. It remains the best description; he felt and conveyed the Book's power, the mystery that made it even then unique among early medieval manuscripts. While clearly subject to international influence (Celtic, British, Norman; possibly Italian, Byzantine, and Coptic), the Book of Kells' painters and scribes illumined their work with a purely idiosyncratic beauty. The Book of Kells is more an icon than a typical evangelistary; indeed, the Saint Jerome text of the gospels is frequently corrupt or carelessly rendered, so intent were the artists on their ornament and iconography. One may still see the glorious ornament on display at Trinity College, Dublin; a more accessible version is this, newly reproduced from a rare facsimile edition. Thirty-two full-page, full-color plates have been selected and painstakingly printed to retain the ineffable handpainted impression of the original leaves. All the full-page decorations, portraits, and illustrations are included, as well as a representative sampling of the textual leaves, in their graceful Insular (half-uncial) calligraphy, interspersed and initialed with an imaginative, fanciful, and even humorous bestiary of lions, lambs, eagles, otters, cats, dragons, birds, fish, and snakes; strange men are seen in the cross-armed Osiris position, entwined in lion's tails, snakes, vines, and peacock feathers. The interlacing and spiraling follow the Insular tradition; in botanical ornament the Book stands apart from that school. The illustrations include vital specimens of Western art: the first image of the Virgin and Child in a Western manuscript, and numerous early representations of the Apocalyptic visionary symbols of the Evangelists; symbols that lost their eeriness in later, diluted form, but that in the Book of Kells, according to one scholar, "retain their wild, unearthly quality. They are perhaps the most striking element in the decoration of the Book." Perusers of this Book, casual and serious students of art, religion, or Western culture, will echo Giraldus, who wrote: "For my part, the oftener I see the book, and the more carefully I study it, the more I am lost in ever fresh amazement, and I see more and more wonders in the book."

Natural Light Photography (#4, Basic Photography Series)


Ansel Adams - 1952
    Originally there were 5 volumes: by the time of this 4th Edition (strictly, 4th reprint) there were 6 volumes in the series. However a note suggests this is a revised edition with important changes to terminology used throughout the book.

The Art Of Rosaleen Norton


Rosaleen Norton - 1952
    The original 1952 edition was banned in the USA on the grounds of obscenity, and had a restricted circulation in Australia, with a court ruling that some of the plates had to be 'blacked out' before copies could legally be sold. This edition reproduces all the material in the original, along with new introductions and additional colour plates.

Duveen: The Story of the Most Spectacular Art Dealer of All Time


S.N. Behrman - 1952
    Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, and William Randolph Hearst. In a series of articles originally published in The New Yorker, playwright S.N. Behrman evokes the larger-than-life Duveen and reveals the wheeling and dealing, subterfuge, and spirited drama behind the sale of nearly—but not quite—priceless Rembrandts, Vermeers, Turners, and Bellinis.

Art of Hand-Lettering Its Mastery and Practice


Helm Wotzkow - 1952
    While leading the student step=by-step from beginning-level to advanced problems,he charges the text with so many suggestions and tips learned from long experience that even professional letterers will find useful new ideas on almost every page.

The practice of printing: Letterpress and offset


Ralph Weiss Polk - 1952
    

Rumor and Reflection


Bernard Berenson - 1952
    Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone