Best of
Art-Design

1994

Egon Schiele, 1890-1918: The Midnight Soul of the Artist


Reinhard Steiner - 1994
    After a short flirtation with Klimt's style, Schiele soon questioned the aesthetic orientation to the beautiful surface of the Viennese Art Nouveau with his rough and not easily accessible paintings. Many contemporaries found his expressive nudes and self-portraits, with their strange movements and morbid colours, to be ugly and even morally objectionable - criticism which culminated in criminalizing the painter as "obscene" and resulted in 1912 in an indictment and short jail sentence. However, not even his harshest critics could dispute however the artist's extraordinary drawing talent.

Fuck You Heroes: Glen E. Friedman Photographs, 1976-1991


Glen E. Friedman - 1994
    Friedman's uncompromising look at the radicals of youth culture in the extreme worlds of skateboarding, punk and rap. From day one behind his camera, Friedman has had an unerring ability to be in the right place ahead of everybody else. He was a teenaged photographer for 'Thrasher' and 'Skateboarder' magazines, he created the seminal one-hit punk fanzine 'My Rules', worked with Black Flag and Suicidal Tendencies in their early days, wrote for Maximum Rock & Roll, did street promotion for Def Jam's west coast office and shot sleeve photos for everyone from Minor Threat to Public Enemy. This book presents the photographic distillation of Glen's ethic: it's about the perfect shots of the people who live by the touchstones of intensity and integrity.

Vermeer, 1632-1675: Veiled Emotions


Norbert Schneider - 1994
    Most of his pictures, all of which are reproduced in this text, show women about their daily business. Vermeer records the tasks and duties of women, the imperatives of virtue under which their lives were lived, and the dreams that provided the substance of their contrasting counter-world.

Chroma


Derek Jarman - 1994
    From the explosions of image and color in In The Shadow of the Sun, The Last of England, The Garden and Wittgenstein, to the somber blacks of his collages and tar paintings, Jarman has consistently used color in unprecedented ways, making his ideas on the subject of interest to filmmakers, film audiences, artists and students alike. Blue, his most personal and innovative film, consists of a compelling soundtrack accompanied by a monochrome blue image and is, among other things, a comment on Jarman's diminishing eyesight due to AIDS. In his signature style, a lyrical combination of classical theory, anecdote, and poetry, Jarman takes the reader through the spectrum, introducing each color as an embodiment of an emotion, evoking memories or dreams. He explains the use of color in Medieval painting through the Renaissance to the modernists and draws on the great color theorists from Pliny to Leonardo. He writes too about the meanings of color in literature, science, philosophy, psychology, religion and alchemy. Read either as a work on color, or a distillation of Jarman's artistic vision, Chroma presents an exciting perspective on the subject.

Beguiled by the Wild: The Art of Charley Harper


Charley Harper - 1994
    Charley Harper (1922 2007), with his masterly use of simple geometric shapes, patterns, and vivid colors, distilled the essence of each bird, bug, otter, raccoon, or elephant he painted to its most important details. He called his style of painting "minimal realism. . . . Instead of trying to put everything in when I paint, I try to leave everything out. . . . I reduce the subject to the simplest possible visual terms without losing identity, thereby enhancing identity." Harper's approach to depicting the natural world is both sophisticated and fun. This edition of Beguiled by the Wild comprises all of Harper's serigraphs produced from 1968 to 2007. The original text by Roger Caras and Charley Harper is joined by a new commentary from the artist's son, Brett Harper.

The Art of Lisbeth Zwerger


Lisbeth Zwerger - 1994
    Language:Chinese.The Art of Lisbeth Zwerger

Power of Feminist Art


Norma Broude - 1994
    . . . Until Power, feminist art has been conspicuously absent from standard academic narratives. . . . Now, no critic or historian, conservative or not, can argue that feminist art is insignificant.--Elizabeth Hess, Village Voice. 270 illustrations, 118 in full color.

This Rimy River: Vaughan Oliver and V23-Graphic Works 1988-1994


Vaughan Oliver - 1994
    This Rimy River is a catalog of an exhibition held at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles in 1994. Long out of print, it has been sought after by designers and collectors who have followed the work of V23.Most admired for his collaborative energy and imagination, Oliver set the stage for a graphic revolution in the eighties and nineties. His impact was left on the post-punk music industry and influenced a generation of designers exploring the possibilities of type and print.The book is produced in very high caliber, the process of production being an important element of the design. Those who have worked with Vaughan Oliver and V23 as collaborators or clients describe their recollections of the V23 design experience in probing commentary alongside the works shown.

Beware Wet Paint


Alan Fletcher - 1994
    From the initial brief to the often award-winning outcome, here are over 100 of Fletcher's design solutions.Grouped into thematic chapters for instructive reference, the projects demonstrate Fletcher's lithe and lateral jumps, his skills and techniques and his ability to fuse interpretation, aesthetics and function with apparent ease. The commentary shows how each individual graphic idea was developed, giving insights both into the particular project and into the way in which the design process can be manipulated. Designed by Fletcher himself, Beware Wet Paint offers a vibrant description of an artist at work.

Joseph Müller-Brockman, Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design


Lars Müller - 1994
    Josef M�ller-Brockmann's posters have become world famous for their ability to convey information with great visual tension, a sense of drama and an extreme economoy of means. He created a body of work in which timeless principles of visual communication are inscribed. In addition to the posters the image part presents examples of logotypes, appearances and exhibitions as well as numerous lesser-known works in chronological order.

Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House: Writings 1973-1994


Bill Viola - 1994
    This book brings together a selection of essays, notebook entries, drawings, and descriptions of projects that map Viola's personal course through the readings, observations, experiments, and associations that form the groundwork for his art. Each work illustrated is accompanied by a description by the artist, as well as comments on the work's origins from the artist's notebooks.For the last 25 years, Viola has used innovative multimedia technologies to explore the phenomena of sense perception as a language of the body and avenue to self-knowledge, integrating many disciplines and philosophies to reveal contemporary art's relevance to the modern world. His views have deep roots in mysticism, poetry, philosophy, Eastern art, shamanism, Chinese Taoism, Sufism, and Zen Buddhism. Viola's chief concerns today are to draw attention to the upset ecological balance of nature by focusing on the connection between our inner and outer lives, on the conception of the self as part of the whole.Published in association with the Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London.

Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them


Angeles Arrien - 1994
    Indeed, as Angeles Arrien displays in this reissued edition of Signs of Life, shapes have significant psychological and mythological meanings embedded in our minds. Understanding the messages they convey and our attraction to them opens up a door to the secret workings of our inner selves and to a fuller appreciation of the art itself.As in her widely popular The Tarot Handbook, Arrien applies her background as a cultural anthropologist to the import human beings attribute to shapes. Examining her results, she has developed an effective tool to determine the connection between a person's preferences for certain shapes and the same person's inner, subjective states. In the course of using Arrien's book, individuals, parents, teachers, and therapists will experience the universal processes of growth embodied in images and myths.Life, we discover, is art, and through Arrien's fascinating journey in Signs of Life, we gain a new perception of the omnipresent patterns and symbols that surround us.Illustrated throughout with drawings and photographs

Willem de Kooning: Paintings


David Sylvester - 1994
    The book reassesses de Kooning's critical status as one of America's greatest and most influential artists, examines the complexity of his painting techniques, and places him in the context of other artists and art movements of his era. The book serves as the catalogue for a major exhibition of de Kooning's work presented at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London.

Schiele Drawings: 44 Works


Egon Schiele - 1994
    Focusing on the emotional state and hidden personality of his subjects, Schiele produced works that are not only models of psychological penetration but evidence of great technical mastery as well, notably in their impeccable line and superb composition.This volume contains 44 of his finest drawings: portraits, character studies, nudes, and more, all embodying the distinctive, angular expressivity that characterizes Schiele's art. Now these superb works are available in this inexpensive format, painstakingly reproduced to capture every nuance of line, shading, positions, and expression.

To Paint Her Life: Charlotte Salomon in the Nazi Era


Mary Lowenthal Felstiner - 1994
    To Paint Her Life tells the story of Salomon's extraordinary life and death.

Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion


Charlotte Lyons - 1994
    Her engaging characters and scenes remind us of sweeter days gone by - and the possibilty that those times may still exist. Over the last several years, Mary Engelbreit's cards and gift books have gained an enthusiastic and loyal audience who constantly clamor for more.

Age of Innocence


Jeffrey Jones - 1994
    

But Is It Art?: The Spirit of Art as Activism


Nina Felshin - 1994
    Art. Activisim. Criticism and Theory. An anthology that explores the rise of activist public art that agitates for social change. Included are discussions of such leading and controversial artists as: the Guerrilla Girls, Gran Fury, Group Material, Women's Action Coalition, and the Artist and Homeless Collaborative.

The Pop-Up Book: Step-By-Step Instructions for Creating Over 100 Original Paper Projects


Paul Jackson - 1994
    The Pop-Up Book offers a clear and practical guide to the pop-up papercrafts for all levels of artist, from home hobbyists to professional graphic designers and architects.Illustrated with specially comissioned photography, it includes specific projects with easy-to-follow steps, general techniques for greater personal experimentation and creativity, and a gallery of designs created by some of today's best pop-up artists for an inspirational finish.The forms and folds, scores and creases, that Jackson transforms into striking shapes and designs truly deserve acknowledgment.--Booklist