Bouguereau


Fronia E. Wissman - 1996
    Wissman offers astute and illuminating insights into the art, career, and family life of this great artist--whose beautiful paintings of a better, purer time an place continue to find favor with contemporary viewers. Over fifty full-color reproductions and several black-and-white illustrations exemplify Bouguereau's precision in creating timeless works of sensual, emotional, and intellectual appeal.

Claude Monet: 1840-1926 (Big Art Series)


Karin Sagner-Düchting - 1990
    Having finally earned the money and gained the respect he sought in his early days as a struggling painter, Monet designed and built the home and gardens in the village on the Seine that would be the site of the famous "Grain Stacks" and "Water Lilies" paintings that would secure his reputation. A good, affordable introductory study of the pioneer of modern art.

Wall and Piece


Banksy - 2005
    Not only did he smuggle his pieces into four of New York City's major art museums, he's also "hung" his work at London's Tate Gallery and adorned Israel's West Bank barrier with satirical images. Banksy's identity remains unknown, but his work is unmistakable with prints selling for as much as $45,000.

Days With My Father


Phillip Toledano - 2010
    Following the death of his mother, photographer Phillip Toledano was shocked to learn of the extent of his father's severe memory loss. He started a blog on which he posted photographs and accompanying reflections on his father's changing state. Through sometimes sad, often funny, and always loving observations, we follow Toledano as he learns to reconcile the elderly man living in a twilight of half memories with the ambitious and handsome young man he occasionally still glimpses. Days With My Father is an honest and moving reflection about coming to terms with an aging parent.

Discoveries: Henri Cartier-Bresson


Clément Chéroux - 2008
    Early on he adopted the versatile 35mm format and helped develop the popular “street photography” style, influencing generations of photographers that followed. In his own words, he expressed that “the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. . . . It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.” In 1947 Cartier-Bresson founded Magnum Photos with four other photographers. August 22 will be the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Jenny Saville


Gagosian Gallery - 2005
    In 1992, the year she completed her studies at Glasgow School of Art, her graduation exhibition sold out. Most notably, one painting was bought by Charles Saatchi and, since then, her international reputation has grown at a rapid and steady pace.Jenny Saville is described as a "New Old Master" for the technical proficiency of her oversize nudes that have earned her comparisons to Rubens and Lucian Freud and universal praise from critics and art historians alike. For the conceptual underpinnings of her work, she has been hailed as one of the most interesting artists of the last decade. Her work has been shown alongside that of Damien Hirst and the other Young British Artists in the acclaimed and seminal survey of new British art Sensation at the Royal Academy (London, 1997) and the Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York, 2000).This is the only monograph devoted to the critically acclaimed young artist and features all of Jenny Saville's paintings to date-including many previously unpublished. This volume is being published in association with the Gagosian Gallery in London. The power of her brilliant and relentless embodiment of our worst anxieties about our own corporeality and gender is what distinguishes Saville from other paint-obsessed representers of the naked human body. To my eye, no other artist in recent memory has combined empathy and distance with such visual and emotional impact. -Linda Nochlin, Art in America, March 2000

Flowers


Robert Mapplethorpe - 1990
    Some of the 50 flower images in this collection, all in colour, date from the early 1980s, but many of them from the months leading to his death in 1989.

Until Now


Anne Geddes - 1998
    In Until Now, Geddes takes us behind the scenes to find out what she was thinking when she captured these images, her 113 most-favorite photographs. Her text also provides a background to each photograph and helps readers understand how this artist and her subjects work together.Consider, for example, Geddes' comments about the shot she captured in 1991, which she titled "Rebecca": "She didn't want to hold the tulips, and she didn't want to sit on the chair-there were too many other things to be done. How do you get a 14-month-old to sit still' Show her the jelly bean, and then put it down her trousers."From signature photos of newborns to touching interactions between parent and child to enthusiastic poses from older children, this gift-size hardcover edition of Until Now gathers together Geddes' most revealing and compelling work. Whether she's posing babies in the garden or in the studio, Anne Geddes' deep affection for babies and children is obvious in the award-winning images she creates.

The Art Book


Phaidon Press - 1997
    Each artist is represented by a full-page colour plate of a definitive work, accompanied by explanatory and illuminating information on the image and its creator. Glossaries of artistic movements and technical terms are included, making this a valuable work of reference as well as a feast for the eyes. By breaking with traditional classifications, The Art Book presents a fresh and original approach to art: an unparalleled visual sourcebook and a celebration of our rich and multi-faceted culture.

Alfred Stieglitz: Camera Work - The Complete Photographs 1903-1917


Pam Roberts - 1978
    Around the turn of the 20th century, he founded the Photo-Secession, a progressive movement concerned with advancing the creative possibilities of photography, and by 1903 began publishing Camera Work, an avant-garde magazine devoted to voicing the ideas, both in images and words, of the Photo-Secession. Camera Work was the first photo journal whose focus was visual, rather than technical, and its illustrations were of the highest quality hand-pulled photogravure printed on Japanese tissue. This book brings together all photographs from the journal’s 50 issues.

20th Century Photography: Museum Ludwig Cologne


Marianne Bieger-Thielemann - 1996
    Cologne's Museum Ludwig was the first museum of contemporary art to devote a substantial section to international photography. The L. Fritz Gruber collection, from which this book is drawn, is one of the most important in Germany and one of the most representative anywhere in the world, constituting the core of the museum's holdings. This book provides a fascinating insight into the collection's rich diversity; from conceptual art to abstraction to reportage, all of the major movements and genres are represented via a vast selection of the century's most remarkable photographs. From Ansel Adams to Piet Zwart, over 850 works are presented in alphabetical order by photographer, with descriptive texts and photographers' biographical details.

Brassai: Paris By Night


Brassaï - 1987
    First published in French in 1932, this new edition brings one of Brassa's finest works back into print. The back alleys, metro stations, and bistros he photographed are at turns hauntingly empty or peopled by prostitutes, laborers, thugs, and lovers. "Paris by Night" is a stunning portrait of nighttime in the City of Light, as captured by its most articulate observer. 62 photos.

Bird


Andrew Zuckerman - 2009
    These winged creaturesfrom exotic parrots to everyday sparrows, and endangered penguins to woody owlsare captured with Zuckerman's painstaking perspective against a stark white background to reveal the vivid colors, textures, and personalities of each subject in extraordinary and exquisite detail. The ultimate art book for ornithologists and nature enthusiasts alike, Bird is a volume of sublime beauty.

50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship


Salvador Dalí - 1948
    In this rare and important volume, the painter expresses (in his inimitably eccentric fashion) his ideas of what painting should be, expounds on what is good and bad painting, offers opinions on the merits of Vermeer, Picasso, Cézanne, and other artists, and expresses his thoughts on the history of painting. In a blend of outrageous egotism and unconventional humor, Dalí presents 50 "secrets" for mastering the art of painting: "the secret of sleeping while awake," "the secret of the periods of carnal abstinence and indulgence to be observed by the painter," "the secret of the painter's pointed mustaches," "the secret of learning to paint before knowing how to draw," "the secret of the painter's marriage," "the secret of the reason why a great draughtsman should draw while completely naked," and many other Daliesque prescriptions for artistic success.Illustrated with the artist's own drawings, this volume is a fascinating mixture of serious artistic advice, lively personal anecdotes, and academic craftsmanship. It is, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "in lay-out and clarity of design . . . a remarkable work of art in itself." Especially esteemed for its insights into modern art, 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship is indispensable reading for any student of Surrealism or 20th century painting.

Dear Photograph


Taylor Jones - 2012
    Dear Photograph is digital nostalgia of the highest order—it will make you smile, maybe cry, and go find your old family photos.”—Frank Warren, founder of PostSecret“Dear Photograph is a nostalgia bomb-bursting, brain cell-twisting, heartstring-pulling roller coaster ride into the emotional unknown. Taylor Jones taps into our secret fears, quiet dreams, and loving pasts.”—Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of AwesomeBased on the hugely popular website DearPhotograph.com—the internet phenomenon that was named one of the 50 Best Websites of 2011 by Time.com and selected as the #1 Website of 2011 on CBS TV’s “The Early Show”—Dear Photograph by Taylor Jones is a charming, heartwarming celebration of the memories we all cherish. Including more than 70% of new, never before published photos, Dear Photograph is a gift of love and remembering.