Roger Dean, a well-known artist with a fairly similar style, was collaborating at the time with Hubert Schaafsma, their first aim being to set themselves up as a publishing company and to produce Roger's first book "Visions". Roger telephoned Patrick shortly after that, suggesting the production of a similar book. The title attempts to join together the two words "mythopoeic" and "ikon". There was no agreement on the pronunciation, so you can say it however you like!

    Stunning photographs, illustrations, and fascinating text showcase Calder's best works in all mediums. A detailed chronology and other documentation, compiled with the assistance of Calder, his family, and close associates, make this an invaluable volume. "A magnificent treasure for Calder fans and scholars." --Library Journal

    

    • 150 color and black-and-white drawings of Islamic patterns. • Explains how these patterns guide the mind from the mundane world of appearances to its underlying reality. For centuries the nature and meaning of Islamic art has been wrongly regarded in the West as mere decoration. In truth, because the portrayal of human and animal forms has always been discouraged on Islamic religious principles that forbid idolatry, the abstract art of Islam represents the sophisticated development of a nonnaturalistic tradition. Through this tradition, Islamic art has maintained its chief aim: the affirmation of unity as expressed in diversity. In this fascinating study the author explores the idea that unlike medieval Christian art, in which the polarization of such forms and patterns was relegated to a background against which to set sacred images, the geometrical patterns of Islamic art can reveal the intrinsic cosmological laws affecting all creation. Their primary function is to guide the mind from the mundane world of appearances toward its underlying reality. Numerous drawings connect the art of Islam to the Pythagorean science of mathematics, and through these images we can see how an Earth-centered view of the cosmos provides renewed significance to those number patterns produced by the orbits of the planets. The author shows the essential philosophical and practical basis of every art creation--whether a tile, carpet, or wall--and how this use of mathematical tessellations affirms the essential unity of all things. An invaluable study for all those interested in sacred art, Islamic Patterns is also a rich source of inspiration for artists and designers.

    Is the earth, which is obviously a fit environment for man and other organic life, a purposefully made creation? Have its climates, its relief, the configuration of its continents influenced the moral and social nature of individuals, and have they had an influence in molding the character and nature of human culture? In his long tenure of the earth, in what manner has man changed it from its hypothetical pristine condition? From the time of the Greeks to our own, answers to these questions have been and are being given so frequently and so continually that we may restate them in the form of general ideas: the idea of a designed earth; the idea of environmental influence; and the idea of man as a geographic agent. These ideas have come from the general thought and experience of men, but the first owes much to mythology, theology, and philosophy; the second, to pharmaceutical lore, medicine, and weather observation; the third, to the plans, activities, and skills of everyday life such as cultivation, carpentry, and weaving. The first two ideas were expressed frequently in antiquity, the third less so, although it was implicit in many discussions which recognized the obvious fact that men through their arts, sciences, and techniques had changed the physical environment about them. This magnum opus of Clarence Glacken explores all of these questions from Ancient Times to the End of the Eighteenth Century.