Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2006

Art & Architecture, Fine Arts Top

Francis Bacon was so inspired by the Picasso exhibit in 1927 at the Paul Rosenberg gallery in Paris that he decided to dedicate himself to painting. From that point onward, he established and maintained a multifaceted relationship with Picasso's work. The visual, thematic, and philosophical.phpects of the virtual dialogue that ensued between the two artists centered around what Bacon called "the brutality of fact" that linked his work to that of Picasso. Bacon-Picasso examines the work of the two artists through their common themes: the crucifixion, the kiss, the scream, and the studio portrait/self-portrait. The juxtaposition of paintings clearly demonstrates the ways in which Bacon appropriated Picasso's work into his own art. This volume, co-published with the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, draws from prestigious international collections including the Tate Gallery, London, Musée National Picasso and Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, Moderna Museet (Stockholm), and Fondation Beyeler, Basel.

Paul Gauguin was introduced into the Impressionist circle by Camille Pissarro and contributed major works to five of the eight Impressionist exhibitions between 1879 and 1886. During these years he transformed himself from a banker-stockbroker into a professional artist and from a family man into a solitary searcher for artistic, moral, and spiritual truths. Yet this vital period of Gauguin’s life has usually been dismissed as an awkward prelude to his brilliant career as an anti-Impressionist. This handsomely illustrated book reconsiders Gauguin’s apprenticeship as an Impressionist and reassesses his contributions to the movement through the extraordinarily subtle and beautiful paintings, sculpture, and ceramic works he created during the years before 1887. Richard R. Brettell and Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark argue that Gauguin’s Impressionist paintings compare in quality to those of Sisley, Morisot, or Cassatt and that as a sculptor he was second only to Degas. His sculptures and ceramics were even more searching and radical than his early paintings and are crucial to the understanding of his development. Gauguin grappled with the thorniest issues debated by the French avant-garde, the authors contend, and no member of the Impressionist group created works as enigmatic or as wideranging, both artistically and emotionally.

"If I were not a Jew . . . I wouldn't have been an artist, or I would be a different artist altogether." -Marc Chagall, Leaves from My Notebook. Marc Chagall is one of the most popular artists of the 20th century, famous for his poetic, surreal images that represent a topsy-turvy world, combining fantasy and spirituality with a modernist style. This volume serves as a guide to the iconography of Chagall's best-loved work—in which he frequently included Jewish symbolism and folklore, sometimes overtly, sometimes in hidden, quite meaningful ways—offering insight into Chagall's Jewish roots and succinct interpretations of his major paintings, from his early masterpieces made in Russia and in Paris to his Yiddish art theater paintings. Harshav illuminates Chagall's most famous paintings of the Jewish shtetl, or provincial Russian town, and highlights the recognizable trademarks of his art, such as the "fiddler on the roof." It also interprets in detail Chagall's theater murals and his beautiful stained-glass windows at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Although Chagall is not known only as a Jewish artist, his background was the prism through which he saw the world and served as the language of his universally loved art.

The life of landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church (1826– 1900) encompassed an expansive period in United States history, when the nation’s commercial, diplomatic, cultural, and scientific achievements blossomed. This lavishly illustrated book—the only comprehensive study of the artist available—describes Church’s life and career and details the ways in which the artist played a part in America’s development during the nineteenth century. John K. Howat, a distinguished scholar of American landscape painting, discusses the many talents of Frederic Church while also explaining the rich complexities of his major works. One of Thomas Cole’s illustrious pupils at an early age, Church became a key figure associated withnbsp; the Hudson River School. His adventurous international travels and the paintings that resulted from his expeditions brought him far-reaching attention, and his pictures often commanded record-breaking sums. Church’s friendships and interests—religion, history, literature, music, architecture, agriculture, and science—as well as his skills as a crafty entrepreneur are explored. Beautiful reproductions of Church’s extraordinary home Olana, which one can visit today in eastern New York, are also featured. For admirers of the Hudson River School, American landscape painting, and the history of nineteenth-century America, Frederic Church is an invaluable book to own.

Mysterious Spirits, Strange Beasts, Earthly Delights features artifacts from one of the most compelling periods in China's early history, the Warring States and Qin-Han eras. They comprise a seven-century span (4th century BCE-3rd century CE) remarkable for artifacts of wide-ranging subject matter. Among them are found both imaginative creatures of the supernatural world and realistic images of many objects and artifacts of daily life in the secular world. Here are figures of mythical beasts, dogs, courtly attendants, musicians with their instruments, a chef trimming fish, horsemen, an elaborate watchtower, a pigpen, fanciful trees, game players, wine vessels, and ordinary plates. Some originally offorded luxurious and opulent comforts for the living, or protection and blessing for the deceased. Asian art scholars Donald Jenkins and Jay Xu provide absorbing and lucid overviews of the period and a fascinating discussion of each object. The book offers insights into the interests, concerns, and aesthetic values of the ancient Chinese people.

The latter years of Matisse's career made up what he described as his "second life." This catalogue is devoted to the work that came out of this period and provides a greater understanding of the artist with the inclusion of his correspondence with the writer Andre Rouveyre. It begins with a serious operation that Matisse underwent in 1941 and ends with his death in 1954, a period of 13 years during which there was an extraordinary resurgence in his creative output. Rouveyre was a novelist and artist dreaded for his cruel portraits and was an old friend of Matisse's from his days as a student. These letters, almost 1200 of them, provide unprecedented insight into Matisse's creative process and artistic.phpirations at a time when he was redefining his modes of expression. Many are adorned with drawings and decorations, and for the first time this catalogue relates these letters to works produced, or in production, at the time they were written: oils on canvas, drawings, illustrated books, tapestries, stained-glass window maquettes, and large and small gouache cut-outs.

No old master or modern artist begins to match the variety of landscapes Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/9–1682) depicted during the course of his career, nor his grandeur of conception and skill in portraying natural phenomena. His themes span identifiable towns, cities, and castles; rural scenes, both cultivated and wild; seascapes and shore scenes; rivers, bridges, and sluices; rushing torrents and Scandinavian waterfalls. In this beautifully illustrated book, Seymour Slive demonstrates Ruisdael’s unrivaled range and quality through a vivid evocation of his career not only as a painter, but also as a draftsman and etcher. Slive discusses the artist’s clientele, early collectors and critics, as well as his influence on another preeminent landscapist, John Constable.

Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) was the most popular woodblock artist of his day. Customers lined up on the day of publication for his prints of historical characters and beautiful women. His career, which introduced subtle psychological observation to the artistic and representational world of ukiyo-e, straddled the tumultuous late Edo and early Meiji periods. Yoshitoshi was fascinated by the supernatural, and some of his best work concerns ghosts, monsters, and charming animal transmutations. Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales presents two series that focus on his depictions of the weird and magical world of the transformed. The first dates from the beginning and the second from the end of the artist's abbreviated career, encapsulating his artistic development. One Hundred Tales of Japan and China (Wakan hyaku monogatari) of 1865 is based on a game in which people told short scary ghost tales in a darkened room, extinguishing a candle as each tale ended. New Forms of 36 Strange Things (Shinken sanjurokkaisen) of 1889-92 tells stories from Japan's rich heritage of legends in a more serene and objective manner. The book opens with an illustrated study of Japanese ghost prints and analysis of Yoshitoshi's changing treatments of the genre. This is Yoshitoshi at his most whimsical and imaginative.

Samuel Palmer (1805-1881) ranks among the most important British landscape painters of the Romantic era. He is an artist who gave us a new way of seeing, painting familiar landscape scenes in a way that had never been done before. Subsequently his rich forms and vivid colors have inspired many other artists. This book, which accompanies the first major retrospective of his work in nearly 80 years, unites 170 of Palmer's finest watercolors, drawings, etchings and oils from public and private collections in the UK, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and the United States. It highlights the artist's celebrated early work, executed in a visionary style inspired by William Blake, and re-examines Palmer's vibrant middle-period Italian studies and masterful late watercolors and etchings. Samuel Palmer was active during the great flowering of British landscape painting in the first half of the nineteenth century. This important publication will allow a twenty-first century audience to rediscover his beautiful, moving and popular works.

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) believed that drawing was “the root of everything.” A self-taught artist, he succeeded, between 1881 and 1890, in developing an inimitable graphic style. This book traces the artist’s successive triumphs as a draftsman, first in the Netherlands and later in France, highlighting the diversity of his technical invention and the striking continuity of his vision. Given the pivotal role drawings played in Van Gogh’s artistic conception and the rich dialectic they enjoyed with his oil paintings, a small selection of related canvases by the artist is also featured. This beautiful book presents approximately 120 works in charcoal, ink, graphite, watercolor, and diluted oils. The authors explore enduring questions that surround Van Gogh’s drawings, including their manufacture, artistic precedents, and contribution to Modernism. In addition, the text discusses the significance of the artist’s drawing practice to his development as a painter. The essays and entries feature the most current research on Van Gogh’s drawings and provide fresh interpretations of the motivating influences that shaped the artist’s contributions to the history of drawing. nbsp;

Architectural Theory: Vitruvius to 1870 is a landmark anthology that surveys the development of the field of architecture from its earliest days to the year 1870. The first truly comprehensive anthology that brings together the classic essays in the field, the volume chronicles the major developments and trends in architecture from Vitruvius to Gottfried Semper. Classicism, Neoclassicism, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Gothic form the backbone of this unprecedented anthology, along with special consideration of major themes such as industry, ornament, style, and tectonics. Bringing together and making available in one place the major statements that have literally constructed architecture as a field-in English, German, French, and Italian-Architectural Theory: Vitruvius to 1870 (along with the forthcoming second volume, covering 1870 to 2000) is an indispensable reference for anyone-student or scholar-involved in the study of architecture.

What explains the layout of the cathedral and its close? What ideas and beliefs shaped this familiar landscape? Through this pioneering study of the development of Norwich cathedral close (one of the most important buildings in medieval England) from its foundation in 1096 up to c.1700, the author looks at changes in cathedral landscape, both sacred and social. Using evidence from history, archaeology and other disciplines, Professor Gilchrist reconstructs both the landscape and buildings of the close, and the transformations in their use and meaning over time. Much emphasis is placed on the layout and the ways in which buildings and spaces were used and perceived by different groups. Patterns observed at Norwich are then placed in the context of other cathedral priories, allowing a broader picture to emerge of the development of the English cathedral landscape over six centuries. ROBERTA GILCHRIST is professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading and President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology. From 1993 to 2005 she was Archaeologist to Norwich Cathedral. She has published extensively on medieval monasticism and social archaeology.

Hailed as one of the greatest minds of our times, Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) is known as an American visionary. Designer, architect, engineer, inventor, and philosopher, he was undeniably one of the key innovators of the 20th century.This volume provides a visually rich and complete overview of Fuller's design and architectural production, situating Fuller's projects in their historical context. The book features never-before-published material from the Fuller archives that were recently donated to Stanford University.Michael John Gorman's essay offers an in-depth analysis of Fuller's work-focusing more attention on his innovative architectural projects than to other.phpects of Fuller's "design science"-as well as an interesting perspective on post-war American society and architectural culture. Chapters include concepts of Fuller's philosophy, his manifesto for mass-produced housing, the role of mobile shelter in transforming behavior, geodesic domes, and Fuller's early experiments. Fuller's achievements, astonishing design, and production are fully documented using original and often unknown archival materials.

This lavishly illustrated collection features designers and projects that push the boundaries of art and architecture. Architecture: Art explores the disparate ways in which contemporary artists and architects handle the blurring lines between their disciplines. Contemporary art often oversteps the limits of its traditional concepts and modes of presentation, increasingly moving into virtual and actual spaces. Similarly, many of today's architects depart from the principles of classical modernism and historical models to integrate artistic concepts into the design and construction of their buildings. The book highlights the most exciting examples of these interdisciplinary activities, from Zaha Hadid's Guggenheim Museum in Taichung, Taiwan to Richard Meier's Jubilee Church in Rome, Italy, and from Hiroshi Sugimoto's Go'o Shrine to Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipses. Profiles of the featured artists and architects are included, along with an introductory essay elucidating the historical foundations from which architecture and art have coevolved to the present day.

Harry Mallgrave's comprehensive survey of architectural theory, primarily in Europe and the United States, contextualizes architectural discourse within its social and political atmosphere over three centuries of development. He explores the philosophical and conceptual evolution of its ideas, the relation of theory to the practice of building, and, most importantly, the words of the architects themselves as they contentiously shaped their particular niche of Western civilization over time.

A complete overview of the work of the most important architect in the Middle East today.Rasem Badran's influence is rapidly spreading throughout the developing world. His work involves the full spectrum of the built environment, from urban planning to individual residences. He concentrates on making architecture that meets the social and cultural requirements of the people who use it, as well as being place-specific in response to environmental conditions. Born in Jerusalem in 1945, Badran was educated in Ramallah and then in Germany, which had a profound impact on his approach to design. His well-balanced education, beginning with a traveling apprenticeship with his father and continuing through a fertile and exciting time of experimental architecture in Europe, has allowed him to weave a systematically rational, Western methodology with the intuitive traditions inherent in his own cultural background.Badran designs buildings and environments that stand in stark contrast to self-conscious, anonymous architecture devoid of any reference to people, place, or culture. He offers a humane option to the deliberately commodified, blatantly branded, aesthetically objectified, and environmentally inarticulate architecture that is becoming the norm in the developed world today.

London is one of the world’s greatest cities, and its architecture is a unique heritage.nbsp; The Tower of London is an urban castle unique in Europe, St Paul’s is one of the world’s greatest domed cathedrals, and the squares and crescents of the West End inspired Haussmann’s Paris. nbsp; In London, it is the variety of the streets, buildings, and parks that strikes the visitor. No king or government has ever set its mark here.nbsp;Private ownership has shaped the city, and architects have served a wide variety of clients. London’s Classical era produced an elegant townscape between 1600 and 1830, but medieval, Tudor, and Victorian London were a potpourri of buildings large and small, each makingnbsp;its own design statement. nbsp; In London: An Architectural History Anthony Sutcliffe takes the reader through two thousand years of architecture from the sublime to the mundane. With over 300 color illustrations the book is intended for the general reader and especially those visiting London for the first time.

Renowned for his alluring and provocative photographs of the monuments, interiors, streets, and people of Paris, Eugène Atget (1857–1927) was fascinated with the myriad materials, textures, surfaces, and details of his subjects. Although not well known in his own lifetime, his influential work now appears in almost all the world’s major museums. This book, replete with exquisite reproductions of more than one hundred of Atget’s photographs, features selections from the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s highly prized collection, including at least ten previously unpublished images and two albums in which the photographer stored his own work. Peter Barberie explores the earliest and most compelling accounts of Atget’s photography and recounts the efforts undertaken by photographer Berenice Abbott and art dealer Julien Levy—each with a different perspective on Atget’s work—to bring his photographs to the United States and to promote his legacy. By analyzing how Atget assembled and organized his own albums, Barberie also offers fresh insights into how the photographer may have viewed his own work.

Thomas Struth's Museum Photographs series, first published in 1993, is now available in a new 2 enlarged by recent photographs. It presents large-format color photos taken between 1989 and 2002 in major museums across the world. The subject of these pictures is art-to be more precise: painting-and how it is presented and perceived in the context of the museum architecture. With their interrelated levels of perception, time, and subject matter, these photos prompt the viewer to investigate the very act of seeing and perceiving. The revised and enlarged second 2 of the book adds 26 new pictures, some of them taken in museums, whereas others show the works at their original location in Venetian churches or the Vatican. Three scholarly essays by renowned art historians discuss the complex historical and socio-cultural questions that arise when viewing Struth's Museum Photographs.

While American Jews are commonly considered a homogenous ethnic group, the reality today is far more complex. Conversion, adoption, intermarriage, and immigration have transformed the fabric of Jewish communities, as they have the United States as a nation. This fascinating book explores questions of American Jewish identity and how Jews fit today into larger discourses of race