His four-year painting odyssey resulted in a suite of magnificent compilations, all minutely detailed, masterfully rendered, and slightly surreal. Each image contains dozens, if not hundreds, of items all starting with the same letter.The Ultimate Alphabet: Complete Edition brings two best-selling volumes together in this deluxe slipcase edition. One volume presents the paintings with introductory text by the artist; the other offers numbered drawings and alphabetical lists of words. Accompanied by the key, you’ll delight in identifying all that Wilks has drawn—7,819 objects at last count!

    NA

    From the 1890s through the present day, various forms of spirituality have influenced artists and inspired many important transitions from representational art to abstraction. Mystical and speculative philosophies with origins in both eastern and western cultures, as well as other utopian ideas, have been at the heart of the groundbreaking work of Paul Gauguin, Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Joseph Beuys. Published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this collection of essays by over a dozen distinguished art historians reveals the many aspects of this profound undercurrent of abstract art. Other Details: 523 illustrations, 122 in full color 436 pages 10 1/2 x 10 1/2" Published 1995 Author Biography: Maurice Tuchman is senior curator of 20th-century art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

    From these, we have chosen several absolutely fabulous volumes, in the oversize coffee-table book tradition, that are sure to dazzle any gift recipient.

    Included are all the manual methods and also the mechanical processes that constitute the vast majority of printed images around us. In all, some ninety different techniques are described, both monochrome and color. Essential aspects of printing history and the printmaking craft receive full coverage, and examples are given of the features that reveal the type of print, such as varieties of line and tone. Of particular interest are the many illustrations of enlarged details showing the different appearance of various techniques under strong magnification. The one great change during the past twenty years has been the high-quality inkjet and laser prints that are now part of everyday life. How can one tell whether an attractive image is valuable in its own right or merely an appealing reproduction? As cheap printing becomes more sophisticated, it inevitably becomes harder to identify correctly an image of this kind. Bamber Gascoigne's new observations in this area, added for this revised edition, will prove invaluable. 275 illustrations, 40 in color.

    Traces the development of Homer as a watercolorist, shows a selection of his landscapes, seascapes, and portraits, and discusses his distinctive style and techniques.