His distinctive and original posters and his decorative panels in le style Mucha became almost synonymous with French Art Nouveau. The admirer and iconographer of Sarah Bernhardt, he was also well known as the creator of familiar advertisements and as a book illustrator. Yet there was much more to Mucha’s achievement than this. At the height of his career as a decorative artist, he became convinced that art should serve ideas, he became chief artistic and cultural adviser to the interwar Czech government, and he completed a major and controversial fresco cycle, the Slav Epic, as well as portraits and large symbolic paintings.This book—the first full-scale treatment of Mucha’s entire oeuvre—includes discussions and reproductions of paintings, posters, panneaux decoratifs, pastels, drawings, and illustrations from throughout his career. In addition, the authors provide essays on Mucha’s Paris years; his association with Sarah Bernhardt; the importance of American patronage on his later work; his graphic and painterly techniques; and the problems connected with the conservation of the large canvases. This lavishly illustrated book is the catalogue for an exhibition of Mucha’s work that will tour the United States, beginning in San Diego in 1998.Published in association with Art Services International, Washington, D.C.

    Throughout Europe and America, artists and intellectuals banded together to portray women as static and unindividuated beings who functioned solely in a sexual and reproductive capacity, thus formulating many of the anti-feminine platitudes that today still constrain women's potential. Bram Dijkstra's Idols of Perversity explores the nature and development of turn-of-the-century misogyny in the works of hundreds of writers, artists, and scientists, including Zola, Strindberg, Wedekind, Henry James, Rossetti, Renoir, Moreau, Klimt, Darwin, and Spencer. Dijkstra demonstrates that the most prejudicial aspects of Evolutionary Theory helped to justify this wave of anti-feminine sentiment. The theory claimed that the female of the species could not participate in the great evolutionary process that would guide the intellectual male to his ultimate, predestined role as a disembodied spiritual essence. Darwinists argued that women hindered this process by their willingness to lure men back to a sham paradise of erotic materialism. To protect the male's continued evolution, artists and intellectuals produced a flood of pseudo-scientific tracts, novels, and paintings which warned the world's males of the evils lying beneath the surface elegance of woman's tempting skin. Reproducing hundreds of pictures from the period and including in-depth discussions of such key works as Dracula and Venus in Furs, this fascinating book not only exposes the crucial links between misogyny then and now, but also connects it to the racism and anti-semitism that led to catastrophic genocidal delusions in the first half of the twentieth century. Crossing the conventional boundaries of art history, sociology, the history of scientific theory, and literary analysis, Dijkstra unveils a startling view of a grim and largely one-sided war on women still being fought today.

    

    Never before has a book so thoroughly represented that variety: 110 lavish color plates and more than 200 halftones convey the brilliance of his portraits, the exuberance of his watercolors, the stately pomp of his murals. It is perhaps the watercolors that are most exciting to contemporary eyes — bold, spontaneous, and vividly hued, they have a breathtaking immediacy.Born in Florence in 1856 to American parents, Sargent spent a nomadic childhood before going to Paris to study painting. He learned quickly and by the 1880s had begun the steady climb to fame that ultimately placed him at the center of his world, with a circle of friends and rivals that included Henry James, Claude Monet, and James McNeill Whistler. When Sargent died in 1925, a childhood companion wrote in her memorial that "the summing up of a would-be biographer must, I think be: He painted." It is the strikingly beautiful results of that lifelong devotion to his art that glow throughout the pages of this incomparable book.

    Laboriously written by hand and often sumptuously decorated, they have always been highly valued and remain as brilliant, fascinating and popular as ever.Christopher de Hamel vividly describes the circumstances in which such books were created - from the earliest monastic Gospel Books to the most lavish Books of Hours. For the second edition of this book, the text has been revised and updated and the whole volume completely redesigned with a striking wealth of new colour illustrations.

    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.

    1,243 illustrations, 736 in color. 111 line drawings. 12 maps.

    This extraordinary coffee table style book presents the finest carving examples by the most renowned carousel artists. The rarest horses and most unique menagerie animals were selected from America's premier private collections and antique operating carousels. Painted Ponies contains useful guides, charts, and directories for collectors, carvers, artists, and enthusiasts. This book contains over 650 color photographs, 256 pages, 9"x11.5", deluxe hardcover edition.

    Yorkshire by birth, resident of St Ives, Cornwall, for more than 30 years, scholarship student at the Royal College of Art at the age of 16, mother of triplets, Honorary Doctor of Letters of five universities, Cornish bard, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and world-famous sculptor: such was Barbara Hepworth, whose life always revolved around the demands of her creative work.

    Gives information on the history of photographic processes and identifying types of prints. Also includes a section on storage, display, and how to control deterioration. Includes a 9-3/4 x 24" Care and identifi-cation Flowchart (G-2SA), which characterizes 13 different photographic and photomechanical processes.

    In the last months of his life he funnelled his waning energy into a series of remarkable still lifes - 16 small paintings of flowers - which are brought together in this book. An essay by Andrew Forge pays tribute to the artist's struggle and his legacy, and Robert Gordon's selections from Manet's letters add poignancy to this last glow of a brilliant artistic flame.

    It focuses on critical analysis of the subject through a workbook section and self-quizzes along with prompts to explore the chapter's images and topics through the ArtStudy 2.0 CD-ROM, Web Site, and WebTutor? supplements.

    Van Gogh in Saint-Remy and Auvers, by Pickvance, Ronald

    Initially the futuristic designs were outrageous, and detractors labeled these structures the Googie School of Architecture after a particularly outlandish coffee shop in Los Angeles. Googie would seem far from outlandish today as those once controversial design elements have become commonplace in both commercial and residential architecture. Author Alan Hess traces the evolution of these early post war designs in a lively yet learned essay profusely illustrated with both color and black-and-white photography. "Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture" is a nostalgic trip back to the Fifties and a look forward at the architectural future.

    Drawing on the wealth of excavated evidence, and supplemented by literary and inscriptional references, this book tells the story of the Agora from Neolithic to medieval times.

    His work is known throughout the world for its depiction of the black American experience from the Civil War to the civil rights movement and beyond. But Lawrence's paintings are more than a chronicle of this history. He has created a uniquely American vision that affirms the place of all individuals in our society and honors the struggle for independence. Jacob Lawrence has given us powerful, lasting images which, when seen as a whole, constitute a narrative of epic proportions.This major book celebrates the creative genius of Jacob Lawrence. It is the most comprehensive survey ever made of his work and traces his developments as an artists as well as places his work within the tradition of American modernism. In this context it examines for the first time works he has completed since 1974, when he was honored with a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of Art.The paintings reproduced here illustrate a broad array of moods and subjects. Representing each of the artist's significant periods, they range from fond portraits of Harlem street life in the 1930s to angry depictions of racial injustice during the 1960s, from images of people working in harmony to bleak depictions of civilization shattered by nuclear war. Yet together they reveal an essential unity in Lawrence's work. His distinctive cubist-expressionist style and his basic humanist credo remain intact throughout fifty years of changing artistic fashion.The artist's life encompasses a broad spectrum of experience that formed the character of three American generations. He was raised in the Depression, and his first art training was through social programs under FDR's New Deal. In the late 1930s he was employed as a painter by the WPA, then served in the Coast Guard in World War II.From the start of his career, he achieved success and recognition in the competitive world of New York artists and galleries, all the time maintaining a powerful representational style that went counter to prevailing forces of Abstract Expressionism.Ellen Wheat examines Jacob Lawrence's life as an integrated whole. She discusses the cultural and political grounding of 1930s Harlem, effects on artists of the Depression and New Deal, art in New York, all in relations to Lawrence's long-standing commitment to depicting the history of black Americans and to the narrative series format he adopted to convey it. Among other subjects, he has dealt with Toussaint L'Ouverture, Harriet Tubman, the community of Harlem, the American South, Nigeria, civil rights, and John Brown. Wheat also documents and analyzes developments in the artist's technique and style in relation to the work of some of his teachers and peers (Charles Alston, Claude McKay, Romare Bearden) and those who influenced his work (Orozco, Albers, Grosz, Giotto).Throughout these pages Lawrence speaks of his work and development in the first person. The author draws on her numerous interviews with the artist since 1982, as well as other sources. This chronological overview of Lawrence's career is enhanced by over 150 illustrations of his work, 85 in color, and a generous selection of photos that place him in his studio, in the art world at large, and among his friends and colleagues.

    'But', he continues, 'I would suggest that there is an additional quality that should make the art of the Hellenistic age of particular interest to modern audiences: the fact that in background and content it was the product of an age in many ways similar to our own ... The result of the historical conditions (of the age) was an art which, like much modern art, was heterogenous, often cosmopolitan, increasingly individualistic, and frequently elite in its appeal'. This 1986 book is an interpretative history of Greek art during the Hellenistic period - i.e. from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, to the establishment of the Roman Empire at the end of the first century BC - which also explores ways in which that art is an expression of the cultural experience and aspirations of the Hellenistic age.

    Catalogue from the exhibition in Washington DC and San Francisco California in 1986.

    By applying the bright colors of the peasant costumes from her native Russia to the elegant silhouettes that were currently in vogue in Paris, she translated theory into practice and produced a stunning series of clothes for the Jazz Age. Like the contemporary Orphist paintings created by her husband Robert, Sonia Delauney's designs are characterized by their vibrant colors and sharply patterned geometric collages. They were worn by starlets Gloria Swanson and Gaby; her imaginative theater costumes were commissioned by another great advocate of Modernism, Diaghilev, for the Bullet Russes. Indeed, Sonia Delauney's clothing, as exalted in the poetry of Tristan Tzara and Guillaume Apollinaire, epitomized the spirit of the new age.

    A comprehensive survey of the letter form from Roman times to the present day. Special emphasis is given to periods of experiment or retrenchment and the reasons for these changes. Well illustrated. 256 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 8vo..

    Baxandall surveys the main themes of their art criticism and describes how their language conditioned their insights into painting.

    

    That scrutiny is important and overdue, for the period from the 1850s to the 1880s has usually been treated in terms of politics and foreign relations. Yet those decades were also of pivotal importance in Japan's institutional modernization. As the Japanese entered the world order, they experienced a massive introduction of Western-style organizations. Sweeping reforms, without the class violence or the Utopian appeal of revolution, created the foundation for a modern society. The Meiji Restoration introduced a political transformation, but these chapters address the more gradual social transition.Originally published in 1986.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

    Internationally recognized as the leading pioneer of abstract art, the founder of Neo-Plasticism, and the ideological father of the De Stijl movement, Mondrian embodied the spirit of modernism. His unmistakable grids and angular compositions expressed his desire for order and clarity amid the chaos of industrial civilization. This comprehensive collection of his essays, letters, notes, and interviews is arranged chronologically from Mondrian's earliest De Stijl essays up to an interview conducted shortly before his death. The texts are complemented with a chronology, an intimate memoir by his close friend Harry Holtzman, an essay on Mondrian's early writings by Martin S. James, a selective bibliography, and 254 reproductions of Mondrian's paintings, works, by his contemporaries, and photographs of the artist, his family, and friends. The New Art –The New Life is the definitive source for understanding the underlying principles of Mondrian's art and life. Revealed in these writings is the self-denial, discipline, and patience of a man who modified the way we perceive the world.