Best of
Art-History

1989

Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life


Roxana Robinson - 1989
    "A profoundly human treatment of O'Keeffe and all the people who figured prominently in her life."-- "Los Angeles Times"

Artemisia Gentileschi


Mary D. Garrard - 1989
    This first full-length study of her life and work shows that her powerfully original treatments of mythic-heroic female subjects depart radically from traditional interpretations of the same themes.

The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology


Robert Motherwell - 1989
    Here in their own words and art, the principals of the movement create a composite picture of Dada--its convictions, antics, and spirit. First published in 1951, this treasure trove remains, as Jack Flam states in his foreword to the second edition, "the most comprehensive and important anthology of Dada writings in any language, and a fascinating and very readable book." It contains every major text on the Dada movement, including retrospective studies, personal memoirs, and prime examples. The illustrations range from photos of participants, in characteristic Dadaist attitudes, to facsimiles of their productions.

Pre-Raphaelites in Love


Gay Daly - 1989
    Two photo inserts.

Bay Area Figurative Art: 1950-1965


Caroline A. Jones - 1989
    In 1949 David Park destroyed many of his nonobjective canvases and began a new style of consciously naive figuration. Soon Elmer Bischoff and Richard Diebenkorn joined Park and other painters such as Nathan Oliveira, Theophilus Brown, James Weeks, and Paul Wonner in the move away from abstraction and toward figurative subject matter. When artists such as Bruce McGaw, Manuel Neri, and Joan Brown emerged as a second generation of figurative artists, the momentum grew for a powerful new development in American painting.The achievement of Bay Area Figurative painters and sculptors has become directly relevant to current debates regarding abstraction and representation, as well as to discourses on modernism and postmodernism. Indeed, the historical phenomenon of the movement is an important case study in the evolution of modernism in America, serving as an early example of rupture in the formalist "mainstream."Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-1965 was written to accompany an exhibition of the same name at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Based on extensive archival research and interviews, it is the first study of the movement as a whole and is the broadest and most accurate account of the careers and interactions of ten Bay Area artists who worked in this new style.

The Legend Of Elizabeth Siddal


Jan Marsh - 1989
    Here, Jan Marsh enlarges on the life of one of the subjects of her earlier work, Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, and delineates the true story of Siddal as an artist in her own right.

Leonardo on Painting: An Anthology of Writings by Leonardo da Vinci; With a Selection of Documents Relating to his Career as an Artist


Leonardo da Vinci - 1989
    In this anthology the authors have edited material not only from his so-called Treatise on Painting but also from his surviving manuscripts and from other primary sources, some of which were here translated for the first time. The resulting volume is an invaluable reference work for art historians as well as for anyone interested in the mind and methods of one of the world’s greatest creative geniuses.“Highly readable. . . . Also included are documentary sources and letters illuminating Leonardo’s career; the manuscript sources for all of Leonardo’s statements are fully cited in the notes. The volume is skillfully translated and is illustrated with appropriate examples of drawings and paintings by the artist.”—Choice“Certainly easier to read and . . . more convenient than previous compilations.”—Charles Hope, New York Review of Books“A chaotic assemblage of Leonardo da Vinci’s writings appeared in 1651 as Treatise on Painting. . . . [Kemp] successfully applies . . . order to the chaos.”—ArtNews

Alchemical Mandala: A Survey of the Mandala in the Western Esoteric Traditions


Adam McLean - 1989
    Though various Western traditions possess such contemplative tools, they have not often not been recognized as such, except by those deeply schooled in Western esotericism. Adam McLean remedies this situation by presenting, and analyzing in great depth, over forty beautiful engravings, reproduced as fullpage illustrations, from alchemical, kabbalistic, magical, Rosicrucian and Hermetic sources.This is the first book exclusively dedicated to the mandala tradition in the West and is an extremely valuable sourcework on account of the illustrations and commentaries. Not only is The Alchemical Mandala a comprehensive guide on how to "read" the cosmological and spiritual symbolism of alchemical engravings, it also outlines three ways for working practically with these mandalas in meditation.

Masterpieces from the House of Fabergé


Alexander Von Solodkoff - 1989
    This exciting book features some of the best photographs ever made of Faberge objects. Over 350 illustrations, 80 in full color.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti


Alicia Craig Faxon - 1989
    One of Victorian England’s most flamboyant artists, Rossetti painted and wrote with equal passion. This ardor extended to his personal life, and often art and life intermingled as he immortalized his many loves in voluptuous and provocative images. The melodrama of Rossetti’s life, darkened by rumors of suicide, adultery, and addiction, has often overshadowed his striking accomplishments as a painter. This evocative portrayal of his life and his art vividly captures the lush colors, elaborate narratives, and sheer magnetism of his canvases. It also provides a clear and candid account of the artist that carefully untangles fact from myth.Chronicling Rossetti’s career from his early achievements as a founder of the tremendously influential Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to the grandly unorthodox images of his final years, author Alicia Craig Faxon skillfully weaves in quotes from the artist and his contemporaries, bringing to life Rossetti’s charisma and creativity. Family reminiscences from Rossetti’s great-grandniece, Helen Guglielmini, provide an engaging complement to Dr. Faxon’s astute scholarship.

The Man Who Shot Garbo: The Hollywood Photographs of Clarence Sinclair Bull


Clarence Sinclair Bull - 1989
    He was hired by movie mogul Sam Goldwyn in 1920 to photograph publicity stills of the studio's stars. Four years later, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was founded, Bull was appointed as the head of their stills department where he remained throughout his career. During that time he took portraits of the most celebrated Hollywood film stars, however, he is particularly known for his photographs fo Greta Garbo who was almost exclusively photographed by Bull from 1921 to 1941. This book highlights Bull's 40-year career at MGM with nearly 200 of his enduring portraits of filmstars such as Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Vivian Leigh, Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Katherine Hepburn. This monograph presents an array of star portraits as well as a history of Hollywood in its heyday. The book will accompany a major exhibition organized by the National Portrait Gallery in collaboration with the John Kobal Collection and American Express.

The Bayeux Tapestry


Lucien Musset - 1989
    A fragile web of woollen thread on linen, its brilliant colours undimmed after nearly a thousand years, this masterpiece is unique as a complete example of an art form beloved of the aristocracy in the Romanesque era - the historiated' or narrative embroidery. The momentous story it tells is that of one of the turning-points in English and European history, the struggle for the succession to the English throne which culminated in the Battle of Hastings in the fateful year of 1066. The version told is that of the Normans who commissioned it - of Harold's perjury and its dreadful price, death and defeat in battle. Yet the sympathies of the English hands that designed and created it are equally evident. And the Tapestry itself is so close to the events it describes, and portrays them in such vivid detail, as to make it in its own right a historical source of the first order, not only for the political crisis of 1064-66 but also for the social history of eleventh-century life.This book presents a full-colour reproduction of the entire Tapestry, with a detailed commentary alongside each episode, equipping the reader to follow the story blow by blow and this marvellous work of art step by step. In addition, a preliminary study sets the Tapestry in its artistic, cultural and historical context. The late Lucien Musset, Emeritus Professor of the University of Caen, studied the Tapestry of nearby Bayeux for nearly fifty years. This erudite but highly readable survey distils a lifetime's scholarship into a wise and impeccably researched synthesis which enables the modern reader to appreciate what the Tapestry meant in the context of its time, at the start of the last millennium.

The Object of Performance: The American Avant-Garde since 1970


Henry M. Sayre - 1989
    The range of arts discussed here encompasses contemporary dance, photography, oral poetics, performance art, and earthworks. "Sayre has written one of the most intelligent, sensible, and readable accounts of the tenents of Postmodern artmaking published to date."—Jeff Abell, New Art Examiner"No one can read The Object of Performance without gaining a far better idea than before of what has happened to art, and, in some measure, why. . . . I find this book consistently illuminating."—Arthur C. Danto

Yoruba: Nine Centuries Of African Art And Thought


Henry John Drewal - 1989
    This text offers a look at Yoruba civilization. Over 200 photographs illustrate rarely seen objects from museums and private collections.

Paintings in the Musee d'Orsay


Robert Rosenblum - 1989
    The author, an art historian, has selected and arranged the paintings, showing the breadth of the museum's collection.

Frida Kahlo


Salomon Grimberg - 1989
    Salomon Crimberg's "Frida Kahlo includes an insightful biography of this fascinating and complex artist.

Painting Watercolor Portraits That Glow


Jan Kunz - 1989
    In this step-by-step guide, renowned artist Jan Kunz utilizes her mastery of watercolor portraiture to help artists capture the personality and uniqueness of their subjects.

Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism


William Rubin - 1989
    328 color and 99 black-and-white illustrations.

Puzzles about Art: An Aesthetics Casebook


Margaret P. Battin - 1989
    With 25 illustrations as well as concrete examples from legal cases, museum experiences, newspaper articles and various media, including painting, sculpture, photography, music, drama, and film, Puzzles about Art helps students understand specific problems in the visual arts.

Van Gogh and God: A Creative Spiritual Quest


Cliff Edwards - 1989
    Explore the depth of this brilliant and tortured artist's spirituality and find a new Van Gogh -- philosopher of life, unorthodox theologian, and determine seeker for global spirituality.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema


Russell Ash - 1989
    For over sixty years he cleverly gave his audience precisely what they wanted. This book is the definitive study of an artist whose sumptuous and stunningly lit scenes have a freshness and immediacy that ever today, a century after they were first exhibited, still have the power to amaze.64 illustrations, including 40 plates in full color.

376 Decorative Allover Patterns from Historic Tilework and Textiles


Charles Cahier - 1989
    This volume reproduces one such collection ― an extremely rare and valuable portfolio of 376 motifs assembled more than a century ago by two French Jesuit scholars. Relying on historical wall and floor tiles, textile patterns, tapestries, wall hangings, and other designs originating in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and later European and Islamic cultures, Charles Cahier (1807–1882) and Arthur Martin (1802–1856) produced a work of true artistic distinction. Included are a wealth of splendid floral, animal, bird, and geometric patterns, carefully researched and meticulously redrawn for use in a myriad of graphic and artistic projects. Many of the motifs are accompanied by complementary border designs, an often essential accessory. This edition faithfully reproduces the edition published in 1868, titled Suite aux mélanges d'archéologie. It represents an invaluable copyright-free resource embodying the finest designs from historic sources, ready for use by artists, illustrators, craftspeople, and designers working with textiles, wallpapers, interior decoration, and other projects.

Masterworks of Louis Comfort Tiffany


Alastair Duncan - 1989
    Here, the problem is corrected. Stunning illustrations and expert commentary reveal the artist's complete range for the first time. 125 illustrations, 72 in full color.

The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art


Michael Camille - 1989
    By showing that images of idolatry stood for those outside the Church - pagans, Muslims, Jews, heretics, homosexuals - Camille sheds light on how medieval society viewed both alien 'others' and itself. He links the abhorrence of worshipping false gods in images to an 'image-explosion' in the thirteenth century when the Christian Church was filled with cult statues, miracle-working relics, and 'real' representations in the Gothic style. In attempting to bring the Gothic image to life, Camille shows how images can teach us about attitudes and beliefs in a particular society.

Romare Bearden


Myron Schwartzman - 1989
    It includes conversations between the author and artist as well as reminiscences by the artist's friends, family and colleagues.

Gertrude Stein: In Words and Pictures


Renate Stendhal - 1989
    "After an astonishing, playful essay, the book opens into a revelatory combination of quotes, quips and 360 photos of Stein and her wildly brilliant circle."--Elle

Warhol


David Bourdon - 1989
    Prepared during the artist's lifetime and with his co-operation, it is described as an intimate look at the man behind the silkscreened image.

The Hudson River School: The Landscape Art of Bierstadt, Cole, Church, Durand, Heade and Twenty Other Artists


Louise Minks - 1989
    A Book on the Landscape and Vegetation of the Hudson River School area

Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art


Miranda Aldhouse-Green - 1989
    Miranda Green examines iconographic themes in Celtic cult-imagery, and considers how they contribute to our understanding of belief systems before and during the Roman period (around 500 BC - AD 400).

Images of the Ice Age


Paul G. Bahn - 1989
    Authoritative and wide-ranging, it covers not only the magnificent cave art of famous sites such as Lascaux, Altamira, and Chauvet, but also other less well-known sites around the world, art discovered in the open air, and the thousands of incredible pieces of portable art in bone, antler, ivory, and stone produced in the same period. In doing so, the book summarizes all the major worldwide research into Ice Age art both past and present, exploring the controversial history of the art's discovery and acceptance, including the methods used for recording and dating, the faking of decorated objects and caves, and the wide range of theories that have been applied to this artistic corpus. Lavishly illustrated and highly accessible, Images of the Ice Age provides a visual feast and an absorbing synthesis of this crucial aspect of human history, offering a unique opportunity to appreciate universally important works of art, many of which can never be accessible to the public, and which represent the very earliest evidence of artistic expression.

Celtic Art: From Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells


Ruth Megaw - 1989
    Ranging from the Black Sea to the Baltic and from Anatolia to County Armagh, the Megaws investigate the antecedents of Celtic art, the styles and motifs employed, the relationship of the Celts and their art to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, and the magnificent maturity of Celtic art in Britain and Ireland. They include major discoveries that have been made as the result of highway and rail construction and the results of detailed surveys of known sites, such as the recovery of the remarkable stone sculpture from the Glauberg northwest of Frankfurt. Continuing work at old sites such as the saltmining complex of the Durrnberg just south of Salzburg has produced new treasures, and important finds in Central and Eastern Europe and in the British Isles have necessitated a change in emphasis with regard to questions of origin and development.The wealth of pictorial material includes location maps for each period and numerous new illustrations; the comprehensive bibliography has been updated and expanded.

The Mural Project


Ansel Adams - 1989
    government to take a series of photos of the Western national parks. But World War II intervened, and though Adams completed and delivered a series of signed exhibition prints in August 1942, they were shelved and forgotten--until now.

Hopper's Places


Gail Levin - 1989
    For this new edition, Levin has added documentary photographs and Hopper's paintings of sites in Paris, where he painted for several years as a young man, Charleston, Mexico, and the western U.S. to give a broader view of the range of his work and the power with which he transformed his subjects while still remaining faithful to their essential features.

Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West


Margaret R. Miles - 1989
    Margaret Miles looks at how men have treated women's bodies - in their actions, art and writings, and why, in Christian history, naked female bodies have symbolized shame.

The Hawaiian Quilt


Reiko Mochinaga Brandon - 1989
    Magazine Size Paperback with 132 pages. Curated by Reiko Mochinaga Brandon. A Fabulous Exhibition of 52 Historical and Contemporary Quilts are shown; 17 from the Honolulu Academy of Arts, 11 from the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, 5 from the Mission Houses Museum, 4 from the Queen Emma Summer Palace, and 15 from the Daughters of Hawaii. A History and Color Photograph of each Quilt is represented. An Incredible, High-Quality, and Highly-Collectible Volume!

The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789—1815


Katell Le Bourhis - 1989
    

Still Life


Norbert Schneider - 1989
    HOW DO THE OBJECTS IN A STILL LIFE REFLECT THE CUSTOMS, IDEAS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE TIME? THIS IS ONE OF THE QUESTIONS WHICH NORBERT SCHNEIDER ASKS IN THIS BOOK. THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES AND THE 17TH CENTURY WAS WITHOUT DOUBT THE HEYDAY OF THE STILL LIFE. IT IS AN ART FORM WHICH GIVES US VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO CHANGES OF MENTALITY AND PHILOSOPHY AS WELL AS PEOPLE'S NOTIONS OF DEATH. STILL LIFES CHART THE HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND THEIR ACCEPTANCE AS WELL AS THE GRADUAL REPLACEMENT OF THE MEDIAEVAL CONCEPT OF THE WORLD.

The Carolingians and the Written Word


Rosamond McKitterick - 1989
    It demonstrates that literacy was by no means confined to a clerical élite, but was dispersed in lay society and used for government and administration, as well as for ordinary legal transactions among the peoples of the Frankish kingdom. While employing a huge range of primary material, the author does not confine herself to a functional analysis of the written word in Carolingian northern Europe but goes on to assess the consequences and implications of literacy for the Franks themselves and for the subsequent development of European society after 1000.

Visions Of Space: Artists Journey Through The Cosmos


David A. Hardy - 1989
    are well known. Meanwhile the pre-Hubble, Pre-Apollo, pre-Sputnik artists are receding into the mists as more new artists appear (along with their snazzy up to date computers and expensive software). Visions of Space is a tribute to these original masters: the dreamers who imagined the rings of Saturn at sunset as viewed from one of its moons, the optimists who knew their grandchildren would live in domed habitats on the Moon, the artists who drew Von Braun wheels in orbit around the planets (with the firm belief that mankind would have reached this far by no later than the end of the twentieth century), the adventure minded who saw in their mind's eye the churning clouds of Jupiter seen from a mining colony on a Galilean moon.

Impressionist Women


Edward Lucie-Smith - 1989
    This work offers a colourful panorama of such depictions with the narrative tracing the family lives and social groups of the artists.

Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914-1925


Kenneth E. Silver - 1989
    He radically reinterprets masterpieces of modern art, from Matisse and Picasso to Lger and Le Corbusier, demonstrating how their creators all refer, consciously or not, to the Great War and its aftermath. It's impossible to suppose that anybody will ever study the French art of this period without acknowledging dependence on Silver's huge book. In it a genuine historical crisis is studied by minute application to works of art and artistic controversies. It sets high standards.--Frank Kermode, The London Review of Books One of the outstanding books of the past decade and an indispensable addition to the history of twentieth-century art.--Holland Cotter, Art in America Ranks among the small number of works necessary to the understanding of art of this century.--Philippe Dagen, Le Monde

Feminist Art Criticism: An Anthology


Arlene Raven - 1989
    First, they show a diversity of concerns. These include spirituality, sexuality, the representation of women in art, the necessary inter-relationship of theory and action, women as artmakers, ethnicity, language itself, so-called postfeminism and critiques of hte art world, the discipline of art history and the practice of art criticism. Second, the contributors' work has not been either widely disseminated or readily available. Third, the essays, especially arranged as they are (chronologically), demonstrate a continuous feminist discourse in art from the early 1970s through the present, a discourse that is neither monolithic nor intellectually trendy but that rather exhibits many elements, the polemical, Marxist, lyrical, and poststructuralist being only a few."

Art in Latin America: The Modern Era, 1820-1980


Dawn Ades - 1989
    Independence and its Heroes2. Academies and History Painting3.i Traveller-Reporter Artists and the Empirical Tradition in Post-Independence Latin America by Stanton Loomis Catlin3ii. Nature, Science and the Picturesque4. José María Velasco5. Posada and the Popular Graphic Tradition6. Modernism and the Search for Roots7. The Mexican Mural Movement8. The Taller de Gráfica Popular9. Indigenism and Social Realism10. Private Worlds and Public Myths11. Arte Madí /Arte Concreto-Invención12. A Radical Leap by Guy Brett13. History and IdentityNotesManifestosBiographies by Rosemary O'NeillSelect BibliographyPhotographic Credits

Art Nouveau in Fin-de-Siecle France: Politics, Psychology, and Style


Debora L. Silverman - 1989
    It examines the political, economic, social, intellectual and artistic factors, specific to late 19th century France, that interacted in the development of art nouveau.

The Art of Aubrey Beardsley


Catherine Slessor - 1989
    Combining abstraction and reality into disturbing images, Beardsley had a worldwide influence. Here is a collection of hundreds of his illustrations punctuated by text that describes the people and places influencing him the most.

Adolphe-William Bouguereau: A Book of Postcards


NOT A BOOK - 1989
    

The Isenheim Altarpiece: God's Medicine and the Painter's Vision


Andree Hayum - 1989
    She interprets the altarpiece in terms of its hospital context, then explores how this polyptych functions as a system of communication, in relation to contemporary sermons and in response to an emerging print culture. The meaning and motivation behind the direct visual appeal of the Isenheim panels are considered within the liturgy and the sacramental economy.

Carpaccio


Francesco Valcanover - 1989
    Venice at this time had a lively and artistic climate, open to the influences of Flemish painting and Northern European prints and etchings, as well as International Gothic and the new Renaissance style, which the young Carpaccio picked up on during his formative years as an artist. Carpaccio examines Carpaccio's paintings, reproduced in full colour, in the cultural context of Venice in the 15th and 16th century. The San Giorgio degli Schiavoni cycle in studied in depth, with paintings shown in detail.

Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums


Marc Gerstein - 1989
    By pooling all their Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Nelson-Aktins Museum of Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Toledo Museum of Art have gathered a stunning panorama that rivals any collection in the world. Four key artists receive particularly strong representation: there are 13 pieces by Degas, 8 by van Gogh, 12 by Monet, and 10 by Pissarro. But there are also numerous examples by other masters of the movement, including Cassatt, Cézanne, Gaugin, Manet, Morisot, Renoir, Seurat, Sisley, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Each work appears in a full-color reproduction, with an essay by Marc S. Gerstein, an Associate Professor of Art History, exploring in full its history, technique, and iconography.