1 comments about The Complete Kake Comics.

1. Wish it were in its original release size and not thick digest form.
   Otherwise a comprehensive collection of Tom's work.

5 comments about The Book as Art: Artists' Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

1. Terrific book that is a keeper. If you can't get to see a portion of these works of art exhibited, at least you can enjoy what is being created out there by this wonderfully photographed and informative book. An added bonus was that it arrived sealed in plastic in mint condition!



2. This book is a wonderful review of the art of books as contemporary sculpture. As a fiber artist-bookmaker-handmade paper maker, I bought a copy for my own library, then gave another copy as a gift to a fellow artist who was interested in using books and book images in art. Inspirational as well as informative. I look forward to seeing the actual exhibition.



3. This is one of those products which is true to its theme from the moment you unwrap it.Being a book about the beauty and creativity of books it has itself to be worthy, which it certainly is. It is a pleasure to hold and to explore, as the design and concept have been carefuly considered.
   The examples chosen are rich and varied and are divided thematically.The problem is that so many of the books are enormously intriguing that one wants to handle them to discover their mysteries. However the descriptions are usually very good and do allow one to at least understand the concept of the creator.If you love books as art, this is a truly wonderful possession.



4. Turning the book making into an art can make a book more attractive and collectible. This book demonstrates a lot of outstanding examples. Readers are completely satisfied by the books in this book.



5. One of the best! This book should be on your bookshelf if you are interested in the books as an art form. I would suggest it for any school or college media center. I would not include it on a list for coffee table books but if you have a serious home library which leans toward the book arts,artist journals and sketchbooks; by all means, put this out on the reading table.
   The next best thing:Visiting the Museum in person!

No comments about The Hellboy Companion (Hellboy (Graphic Novels)).

5 comments about Hiroshige, 100 Views of Edo.

1. This is a stunning book. From the moment you feel its silk cover, undo the ivory-like closures, unwrap the book from its casing, I had the sense that this was something special and breathtaking. The detail and color of the prints are beautiful. You can see into the images that Hiroshige created right down to his technique.
   
   Taschen produces books that are as brilliantly executed from a production point of view as the body of the book is brilliant from a content point of view.



2. Yes, there are cropped images at the start of this huge and beautiful book to add illustrations to the informative introduction, but the main body of this publication is made up of full size, uncropped excellent reproductions of all 118 of the "100 Views". I give it the full 5 stars for the Japanese style binding, single sided printing and silk effect covered portfolio slipcase... and it's uncropped reproductions.



3. The new Hiroshige tome is wonderful. The colors are bright and the images are focused even including the wood grain from the original woodblock. I have a few of the original prints in my collection and am impressed with the quality of the "new" images. I liked it so much that I gave a copy to friends who also value the artist and genre.



4. This book has a nice and interesting manufacturing job with lots of very large pictures. However, the real essence of an art book is the pictures. The large images are all drastically cropped. Lost is the meaning given to the prints by their context and composition. In Asian Art the "empty" space is at least as important as the image. The editor of this volume seemed to think that the objective images are the essence. To magnify these he cropped. Bad taste! Being such a heavy book, this was expensive to return. I would be embarrassed to even have it on my book shelf.



5. Hiroshige is a very well known Japanese artist who worked in the style called, ukiyo-e, wood block prints whose name translates as pictures of the floating world. Floating, fleeting, ephemeral world, the world of transitory pleasures. Just as cherry blossoms last but for a brief time, so are our lifes. Since they are gone so quickly, they must be cherished all the more while they are still here.
   
   This series of 100 shows Edo, which is the city now known as Tokyo. There are lots of pictures that depict the man-made dwellings and buildings of a thriving metropolis, but also, in virtually every print, there is also the natural world. The juxtapostion of the man-made and natural is what fascinates Hiroshige in this collection, and what will also fascinate the viewer. Though Hokusai is a more prolific and iconic artist in this genre, Hiroshige has his fans. This reprint is made from one of the finest complete original set of woodprints belonging to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo.
   
   Other items of interest:
   
   Hiroshige's Journey in the 60-Odd Provinces (Famous Japanese Print Series)
   
   The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido
   
   Hiroshige's Views of Mt. Fuji
   
   Hiroshige
   
   Hokusai and Hiroshige: Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts
   
   Hokusai
   
   Hokusai's Mount Fuji: The Complete Views in Color
   
   Hokusai, First Manga Master
   
   Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty
   
   The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Penguin Classics)

2 comments about Installation Art in the New Millennium: The Empire of the Senses.

1. I needed this book for a class I am taking. It arrived timely and in good condition.



2. As noted by Hal Foster and Jean Baudrillard, now is the era where media used by artists have become 'non-specific' and confusing. This is the postmodern age where purity of medium is not an issue to the artist anymore. Taken over is a more adventurous and eclectic use of media involving as many sensory interactions as possible from the spectators. Thsi is what contemporary Installation is about as reflected from this book.
   
   Concept and context of artwork are in precendence, opening more out-of-the-world possibilities in the making process of artists. It is a challenge to both artists and spectators in enabling more stimulating and shocking experiences from the work.
   
   This book is divided into genre and theme according to aspects of 'escape', 'author and institution', 'exchange and interaction', 'time and narrative' and 'body of the audience'. All are essences of contemporary installation which is always an unexpected sensory experience with new insights.
   
   Work of Meschac Gaba (Museum Shop, 2001), Mark Pvell (Supply and Demand, 2001) and David Bunn (I Feel Better Now, I Feel the Same Way, 1996) are life-like and realistically interesting.
   
   Whereas, surrealistically creative and escapist are Live Forever (2001) by Lee Bul and Believe/Disbelieve by Mischa kuball.
   
   It is definitely a book worth collecting for contemporary Installation and a great update on postmodren art-making.

5 comments about The End of Art.

1. Those who say that Donald Kuspit is a neoconservative reactionary are missing the point of his critical project. His project is far more radical in its aim and scope. Like Adorno (his Doktorvater), Kuspit attempts to understand the historical position of the present as a period of crisis and decline. As a thinker who values the seriousness and purposeviness of modernist art, Kuspit wants not a nostalgic return to the past, but a reevaluation of the aims of the present. In our postmodern amnesia, we have forgotten what once made art important, however marginalized it was. The radical aesthetic project of the early twentieth century avant-gardes has been replaced by the endless reproduction of banality and vapid political ideology masquerading as post-punk minimalism (when it is merely minimal, in effort and effect). While some of us might not agree with Dr. Kuspit, his lonely ideas matter, lest we toss out the baby with the dirty bathwater of modernism.



2. This text is torturous! Kuspit writes in circles, issuing complaints towards modern and postmodern art and denouncing artistic interest in conceptualism, anti-aesthetics, the merge of art and life, and the social system that supports art.
   
   If you want to read about the "End of Art" discourse I would suggest going to Hegel's "Aesthetics" which serves as a primary source to the topic, and then read Eva Geulen's "The End of Art: Readings in a Rumor after Hegel".



3. Donald Kuspit is one of the most annoying characters in the word of art criticism today. Tirades and jeremiads can be hard to take, especially in the sky-is-the-limit, nothing's sacred atmosphere of the moment. Here's someone saying that art is important, and something's wrong, and a lot of people are bound to resent having to hear that. And I'll admit that Kuspit's inflated and sometimes inflammatory prose style might make this book tough going even for those who agree with him. However, if you're somehow not satisfied with art that has about all the emotional depth of Rubik's Cube, and want to know why there's so much of it around these days, here's a good place to start.
   
   I'll only add that though I'm getting pretty fond of the term, "postart," I'm pretty unhappy with this "new old masters" business. It's not a label I'd want applied to my own work, ever, and some of the examples of it that he gives, such as Michael David's version of a Manet painting, are strangely indistinguishable from classic post-mod appropriation. But these and other flaws are minor. Read this book.
   
   By the way, I find very disturbing the above characterization of of this book as "Neo-Con." Can we please get past facile bracketing of artistic and political trends? I'm frankly as little interested in Donald Kuspit's politics as I am in the art critical thinking of Paul Wolfowitz or Ralph Nader.



4. If art is the canary in the mineshaft, this book shows why artists since Dada have been saying You can't fire me -- I quit. Kuspit's passionate about the reduction to banality, but sympathetic to the artists' plight with good insights, even if you still hate their anti-art. Kuspit cares, very much. It may be old-fashioned but that's art: something that matters.



5. Nobody ever has to read more than one Donald Kuspit book, so if you've read anything longer than a 300-word review by the man, don't bother with this exhausted, tedious return to his familiar themes. I feel for the poor editors who struggled with his leaden prose, and this time they seem to have done better than usual. But that doesn't justify the existence of this screed. If you must read angry neocon denunciations of contemporary art, read jed Perl, who at least can write decent prose and has, on occasion, something interesting to say.

5 comments about The Nude Female Figure: A Visual Reference for the Artist.

1. I had a need for a reference of body structure. The book I selected was exactly what I needed. I will keep this book forever and will be able to use it many times. I was very satisfied with this book.



2. This book is a very poor implementation of a good idea. As an artists' visual reference, this book is a waste of time and money.
   
   The quality of the book is very poor. The binding won't allow the book to lay flat. There was debris on many of the plates when the photographs were printed. There are ink smudges on pages. The the ink rubs off of photographs, so even a gentle touch when taking measurements for drawing, can damage the photographs.
   
   The photography is poor quality. Most of the photographs are grainy, dark backgrounds, lack detail. The lighting wasn't in the normal 10 o'clock position, but from strange angles, casting odd shadows, obscuring important details. Several photographs suffer motion blur.
   
   The poses are stiff and unnatural. None of the poses are from different camera angles for full, half, three-quarter drawing.
   
   Some of the models should have taken a shower and a shave before being photographed. Many of the models have dirty feet, dirty fingernails, dry/bad skin, ugly blemishes and scars. One model is unhealthily thin. A few of the models have bunyons, malformed toes, very unattractive extremities. Several of the models had their faces covered with their hands, or unnaturally positioned head/hair. All of the models look extremely insecure and uncomfortable.
   
   This book seems to be nothing more than a cheesy, "Look how many ladies I talked into posing naked, (and how many suckers I conned into buying this useless book)." My money would have been better spent hiring a model and taking my own photographs!



3. this is a great resource book for those artists who do not have the time or money to be able to meet up with a figure drawing group. Also it is good if you do not know of a local group to join.



4. The pictures are well taken and very usefull for art study, to use as models for paintings and other art.



5. Over two hundred color photos by photographer Mark Edward Smith capture women of all types in a range of classic poses, both traditional full-body and with close-ups of hands and feet as well. Accompanying these photos are an organization by type of pose, which allows for a quick visual reference for photographers. Any collection appealing to photographers and artists will find THE NUDE FEMALE FIGURE: A VISUAL REFERENCE FOR THE ARTIST an invaluable reference.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

5 comments about The Figure in Watercolor: Simple, Fast, and Focused (Simple Fast & Focused).

1. I am so very pleaseed with this book . It is one of the most helpful I have ever had . I highly recomend it to anyone interested in painting figures and portraits.



2. This book is a treasure. If I could buy only one book on watercolor painting, this would be the book. Each chapter is a small gem of information simply expressed with wonderful accompanying pictures.
   The watercolors in the book are delicious to look at. You get to experience Mel Stabin's process and philosophy.The approach is clear and simple, wise and deep at the same time. The approach is inspiring and speaks to the deeper places inside us.



3. This is a wonderful book with lovely paintings in it and clear prose to help one improve and try new techniques.



4. An excellent book for those who wish to improve 'figures in transparent watercolor....One of my favorites....Jack, Ohio



5. I agree with another reviewer who finds this otherwise beautiful book light on instructional details. I happen to love Stabin's painting style, and I do find copying his paintings to be very illuminating. I still rate this book highly because much can be gleaned from studying and copying his work, which is fresh, economical, and transparent. Perhaps I would rather recommend it, though, for the more advanced artist.

No comments about New Media Art (Taschen Basic Art Series).

No comments about Art across Time 3/e Hardcover.