Mucha is most famous for his Sarah Bernhardt posters and his magnificent decorative panels such as "The Seasons," works that continue to grow in popularity, despite the indifferent quality of most modern reproductions. To graphic artists and commercial designers, Mucha is praised for the innovative stylebooks that pioneered the use of Art Nouveau in commercial packaging, design, and ornament. But the primary element in all of Mucha's artistic endeavors — his evocative, highly original draftsmanship — has never been adequately surveyed.This collection of 70 high-quality illustrations — six in black-and-white and nine in full color — offers the first and only comprehensive survey of Mucha's drawings, and as such, provides a unique insight into the aesthetic qualities that were fundamental to all of the artist's work. Reproduced directly from his original drawings, these works span Mucha's entire career and include sketches for his famous book and magazine illustrations, preliminary sketches for paintings, advertising and packaging art, studies for stylebooks, etc. Famous examples include "The Seasons," full-color drawings for the complete set, plus a preliminary charcoal sketch for "Autumn"; St. Louis World's Fair poster, full-color lithograph and preliminary pencil sketch; Sarah Bernhardt, four works in India ink, pencil, etc.; and "Documents décoratifs" and "Figures décoratives," studies from Mucha's two innovative stylebooks.Naturally, many of these drawing are interesting because they reveal the initial thoughts for famous works but most basically these drawings show that Mucha's draftsmanship — highly admired, even by the cantankerous Whistler — was the brilliant underpinning of his entire craft.

    O'Keeffe and Stieglitz first met in 1916 when she heard that he was giving her drawings their first showing—without her consent. The following year he began his portrait of his future wife in a series that would portray her many aspects. 79 photos.

    Jack Flam provides a biography, a general introduction that addresses the development of Matisse's aesthetic values and theories, and a critical introduction for each text.

    It is also a story so filled with intrigues, accusations, international imbroglios, and lasting scandals that it forever altered the way archaeological expeditions were organized and conducted. Hoving's Tutankhamun focuses on Howard Carter, the archaeologist who persisted for six years in his search in the Valley of the Kings for Tutankhamun's tomb. Other major figures in the discovery include: Carter's patron Lord Carnarvon, who died shortly after entering the tomb, thus kindling rumors of a curse; Carter's rival Pierre Lacau, a French Jesuit who headed the Antiquities Service in Cairo and did everything he could to ruin Carter and deny his claim; the Egyptian authorities determined to keep the artifacts of their national heritage in their country; and Arthur Weigall and other Egyptologists who felt slighted by Carter's refusal to admit experts anywhere near his discovery.

    Schapiro's highly lucid arguments, graceful prose, and extraordinary erudition guide readers through a rich variety of fields and issues: the roles in society of the artist and art, of the critic and criticism; the relationships between patron and artist, psychoanalysis and art, and philosophy and art. Adapting critical methods from such wide-ranging fields as anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, biology, and other sciences, Schapiro appraises fundamental semantic terms such as "organic style, " "pictorial style," "field and vehicle, " and "form and content"; he elucidates eclipsed intent in a well-known text by Freud on Leonardo da Vinci, in another by Heidegger on Vincent van Gogh. He reflects on the critical methodology of Bernard Berenson, and on the social philosophy of art in the writings of both Diderot and the nineteenth century French artist/historian Eugene Fromentin. Throughout all of his writings, Meyer Schapiro provides us with a means of ordering our past that is reasoned and passionate, methodical and inventive. In so doing, he revitalizes our faith in the unsurpassed importance of both critical thinking and creative independence.

    It is a fundamental element in the entire body of Orthodox Tradition. In this two-volume work, Leonid Ouspensky provides the reader with a deep and serious approach to the mystery of the sacred image. He surveys the development of the sacred art of the Christian East from its beginnings in catacomb art through the iconoclastic controversy of the eighth and ninth century. Drawing especially on the Russian Orthodox tradition, the author studies a large number of texts with care and in great detail. He includes an analysis of the flowering of early Russian iconography, tracing its later development and the state of the art today. The 51 black and white photo illustrations, along with the four-panel foldout and six color plates, will enable the reader to appreciate the Orthodox icon with an informed mind and open heart. This is the most comprehensive introduction available to the history and theology of the icon, and is the standard text upon which most modern studies of iconography are based. Volume I, originally published in 1978, has been updated by the author and contains large sections of new material.

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    First published ahead of its time, this book has become a classic.

    

    Volume one of The Arts of Japan presents a comprehensive overview of Japanese art in ancient and medieval times.

    East to the more sophisticated but still incomplete appreciations of the early twentieth century. Mitter's new Preface reflects upon the profound changes in Western interpretations of non-Western societies over the past fifteen years.

    . . Living Statues on Horseback (1890s) . . . Real Roman Hippodrome, Five Continent Menagerie (1890s) . . . Uno, Queen Supreme of the Serpent Kingdom (1894) . . . Dancing Girls, Mounted Guards and Truly Lavish Displays (1903) . . . "Twisting Double Somersault," A Feat Never Before Attempted by the Most Intrepid Aerialists (1904) . . . Desperado's Terrible Leap for Life, A Terrific Descent of 80 Feet Through Space Landing Upon His Chest on a Skid (1909) . . . The Imperial Chinese Circus Stars (1914) . . . An Army of Clowns (1920s) . . . Pallenberg's Wonder Bears (1920s) . . . Gargantua the Great (1938).Originally put in store windows and posted on sheds, barns, buildings, walls and fences, these 18 extremely rare posters, most not previously reproduced, are collected together for the first time. The quality of reproduction is superb: reproduced in full color directly from the originals, these posters have been printed in an extra large format and on coated stock so that every detail is clear. They are an exciting visual history, capturing the pageantry and color that the circus was and is. They are also extremely fine examples of almost 50 years of poster art and American advertising. There are acrobats, elephants, tigers, lions, parades, tents, trains, and many specialized acts: May Wirth, the Riding Rooneys, the Astounding Clarkonians, etc. The posters date from the 1890s to the 1940s, and include one by Norman Bel Geddes. They feature many American circuses: Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey, Sells, Sparks, Hagenbeck-Wallace. The historical introduction and captions are by Charles Philip Fox, Director of Research and Development with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

    This work helps to illuminate the mystery at the heart of this author.

    It includes examples of the Haystacks, Poplars, Morning on the Seine, Japanese Footbridge and Water Lilies series, an account of Monet's life at Giverny and photographs of Monet and his house and garden.

    The great photographs show us, and the delightful text and captions tell us, how San Francisco's Painted Ladies have enjoyed an astonishing renaissance.

    

    This avant-garde movement rebelled against the formalism and tradition of the official Academy of Fine Arts and proclaimed the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. Repin’s most powerful works expressed great psychological depth (Ivan the Terrible and His Son) and exposed tensions within the social order (Barge Haulers on the Volga) of his time.This book invites you to discover the wonderful artworks of this progressive realist painter whose work would eventually define and influence social artistic movements in the future.

    

    Rothko's childhood, his student days at Yale, his early career, and his crucial role in the development of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism are described, and the progression of his work analyzed.