Best of
Art

1961

Silence: Lectures and Writings


John Cage - 1961
    Often these writings include mesostics and essays created by subjecting the work of other writers to chance procedures using the I Ching (what Cage called writing through).

The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color


Johannes Itten - 1961
    Subjective feelings and objective color principles are described in detail and clarified by color reproductions.

The Hapless Child


Edward Gorey - 1961
    An undiluted tragedy.

The Elements of Color


Johannes Itten - 1961
    The Art of Color, this book covers subjective feeling and objective color principles in detail. It presents the key to understanding color in ltten's color circle and color contrasts.

The Curious Sofa


Edward Gorey - 1961
    The book is a “pornographic illustrated story about furniture” (according to the cover). According to reviews, there is nothing overtly sexual in the illustrations, although innuendos (and strategically deployed urns and tree branches) abound. The New York Times Book Review described it as “Gorey’s naughty, hilarious travesty of lust.” Gorey has stated that he intended to satirize Story of O.

The Drawings of Heinrich Kley


Heinrich Kley - 1961
    This compilation draws upon his Skizzenbuch I and II (1909–10) to present 200 fantastic images that blend savage humor with brilliant draughtsmanship in sketches of humans, animals, and curious combinations of the two.

A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural


Maurice Bessy - 1961
    A collection of illustrations and photographs describing magic and supernatural occurrences throughout history

Rembrandt


Gladys Schmitt - 1961
    His life, unlike that of most creative artists, was closely intertwined with his work; and the conflicts of family, class, marriage, children and society that run through his turbulent career have become basic themes for Western man over the past three hundred years.

The Gorey Alphabet


Edward Gorey - 1961
    

The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles


John Jacob Niles - 1961
    Ever close to his Kentucky roots, he spent much of his adulthood searching for the most well-loved songs of the southern Appalachia. The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles brings together a wealth of songs with the stories that inspired them, arranged by a gifted performer. This new edition includes all of the melodies, text, commentary, and illustrations of the 1961 ori

Art and Technics


Lewis Mumford - 1961
    Mumford contends that modern man's overemphasis on technics has contributed to the depersonalization and emptiness of much of twentieth-century life. He issues a call for a renewed respect for artistic impulses and achievements. His repeated insistence that technological development take the Human as its measure -- as well as his impassioned plea for humanity to make the most of its "splendid potentialities and promise" and reverse its progress toward anomie and destruction -- is ever more relevant as the new century dawns.

Stanislavsky on the Art of the Stage: translated with an introduction on Stanislavsky's `System' by David Magarshack


Konstantin Stanislavski - 1961
    This volume contains his posthumous work The System and Methods of Creative Art, together with an introductory essay by translator David Magarshack, giving a careful exposition and a critical analysis of his 'system'. Two appendices deal with Stanislavsky's views on stage ethics and melodrama. A comprehensive guide to Stanislavsky's work.

Despite Straight Lines


Josef Albers - 1961
    Although he is perhaps best known for his work with squares of color, Albers spent the latter part of his life experimenting with the possibilities of the straight line in black and white.

Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait: Letters Revealing His Life As a Painter


Vincent van Gogh - 1961
    H. Auden's careful selection of Van Gogh letters creates an impression of the artist as a man consumed not just with the torturous experiences of his brief and painful life but with the drive, ambition, and creative urgency of a man who lived to express himself through painting. Reprinted here for a new generation of readers, this classic is the result of Auden's desire to give voice to a fellow artist's drive to understand his craft.

The Art of Assemblage


William C. Seitz - 1961
    Seitz, curator. Text includes "The Liberation of Words," which discusses the influence of poets Stéphane Mallarmé, Guillaume Apollinaire, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and André Gide on the use of collage in art-making; and "The Liberation of Objects," which discusses the artists instrumental in the development of assemblage. Artists include: Eileen Agar, Arman, Jean Arp, J.T. Baargeld, John Baxter, Bruce Beasley, Lee Bontecou, Georges Braque, George Brecht, Andre Breton, Cesar, John Chamberlain, Jess, Bruce Conner, Joseph Cornell, Arthur Dove, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Marisol Escobar, Juan Gris, Raymond Hains, George Herms, Hannah Höch, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, Meret Oppenheim, Alfonso Ossorio, Eduardo Paolozzi, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Richard Pousette-Dart, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, Marital Raysse, Mimmo Rotella, Kay Sage, Niki de St. Phalle, Lucas Samaras, Kurt Schwitters, David Smith, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, and H.C. Westermann

The Norman Rockwell Album


Joseph P. Ascherl - 1961
    

The Epic of Man


Lincoln Barnett - 1961
    

Quake, Quake, Quake: A Leaden Treasury of English Verse


Paul Dehn - 1961
    Illustrations by Edward Gorey

Orestes or The Art of Smiling


Domenico Gnoli - 1961