5 comments about History of Art in Africa, A (2nd Edition).

1. The good thing about this collection is that it includes art and architecture from not only all regions of the continent, but also of the African diaspora from the 16th Century onward.
   
   The other good thing is that it includes architectural works, such as those of Great Zimbabwe, Lalibela, and Djenne.
   
   The bad point of this book is that the selections are limited. For example, the art of the Nok (the oldest African art outside of the Nile Valley)includes only a few pieces.
   
   The worst thing about this collection is that nearly all of the photos are in black and white. It's difficult to appreciate art of such a vibrant nature (with the exception of photography) without colour.



2. I bought this book for an African Art class that i was taking. This book is overly informative and captivating. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about African Art!



3. The item is in good condition. Arrival took a little longer than anticipated.



4. I simply wish that I had this book and/or Dr. Poynor's courses in West African and Central African Art prior to living in Central Africa. Now that I had these courses, I find that this book is less a formal text and more a comprehensive guide to understanding the art forms created in the various regions of Africa by the peoples and cultures. This book is a must for anyone who has a true interest in following this facinating subject. I especially recommend this book to anyone planning to visit or live anywhere in Africa, particularly the Sub-saharan regions.

   It brings to all, the reality of such a facinating and prevously skimmed subject, without interjecting personal belief or opinion. All facts in the book are well researched and presented.




5. I took an african arts class with Poynor and he used this book and the slide images. This was a wonderful tool. I usually HATE reading art books but this one read like a recreational book. GREAT illustrations! If u would like to learn more about the culture this is definately the book to get.

5 comments about The Big Book of Painting Nature in Watercolor (Practical Art Books).

1. This book is helpful in understanding how to develop a painting, but the author's color mixtures are surprisingly awful. Well over half the paintings in this book show us EXTREMELY dull and chalky skies and landscapes. The author appears to have no understanding that watercolor paints have different qualities--nonstaining, staining, and opaque. Mixing and glazing these colors without understanding these differences result in the mud paintings throughout most of this book. If you compare these paintings to other watercolor books, such as those by Dobie, Carbonnetti, Nechis, Speckman, and many others, you'll see a huge difference. Jim Kosvanec's "Transparent Watercolor Wheel" [this is a book, not just a color wheel] is extremely helful in bringing out the most in watercolor.



2. This book provided step by step progessions and explanations that were easy to follow. Great for beginner or intermediate painter.



3. Great book for learing to paint. Good examples and explanations for techniques. I recommend it.



4. By profession I am a scientist, but I have always had an interest in the visual arts. Only in the last few years have I had much time to devote to such endeavors and even then it has been rather catch as catch can. My main interest in art is in the capture of natural images (I took scientific illustration in college), but I appreciate the fact that art and stark realism may express somewhat different truths about the subject. As a rank amateur in watercolor art I also appreciate deeply such roadmap-like guide books as Ferdinand Petrie's "The Big Book of Painting Nature in Watercolor." At first the title turned me off, but in perusing a copy (and later acquiring it) I found it to be an excellent guide to capturing the essence of a natural scene in one of the most difficult of all media- watercolor (only pen and ink may be more demanding from my experience!)
   
   The coupling of Petrie's step by step paintings and the exquisite photographs of John Shaw has produced a book that is both visually beautiful and informative. Using the techniques described and with one's own reference photos in hand (or under an open sky direct from nature) a novice painter can slowly gain the knowledge and skill necessary to succeed in producing credible paintings.
   
   A while back a scientist colleague of mine asked me why make a painting or drawing when you can photograph any subject with clarity. As a person who takes my own reference photos and enjoys doing so I can say he has a point, but reality does not necessarily come only from an exact replication of a scene. In the process of painting from nature (or from a reference photograph) you often notice more complex details, even in apparently simple subjects, then you would ordinarily notice in a photograph by itself. Petrie has emphasized the observation of these complex details and their interpretation in watercolor. If nothing else the instructions that point the artist toward this close observation of complexity in nature are worth the price of the book.



5. This book is one to read through to learn -- not just do the practice paintings. Being a newbie to watercolor, this book has really helped me to view nature through a different set of eyes. He helps you see the "what do I want this picture to focus on" instead of microdetailing every possible detail in view. I am now finding myself looking at nature figuring out the details and what would I want to paint as the focus. I think this book goes very well with Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Watercolor by Marian Appellof -- good pair with minimal redundancy.

5 comments about 500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists Celebrate the Human Form (A Lark Ceramics Book).

1. I love this series from Lark! It provides me with lots of inspiration and it is a wonderful tool to learn new artists and their work. I have almost the whole series!



2. I've been wanting to get into ceramics for a while and this book was just the thing to get my creative juices flowing. It has many (500 actually) beautiful pieces to admire, with such a wide selection of styles. I love that it has a both beautiful and grotesque figures revealing so many artistic view points. It's definitely not a "how to" book, with just enough info to get a basic idea of how each piece was created but the beautiful photographs and wide variety of sculptures makes it well worth purchasing.



3. without being able to review the illustrations in the book, I was unable to make good use of the models for my beginning sculpting projects. The cover picture seemed somewhat simple, but the many complex figures contained in the book were too difficult to be models for my limited ability.



4. I am thrilled to own this book. I review it regularly for inspiration and ideas for glazes and forms.



5. My low score for this book is primarily, but not exclusively, a low score for the judging. I find it difficult to believe that almost no work in the classical tradition was submitted. The work in these pages contained almost no work of a traditional figurative nature. Both in galleries in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as at art shows/faires, there is plenty of traditional figurative work being done now in clay and bronze. I can only conclude that the judges hold a strong bias for non-traditional work.
   
   There is also an alarming gap between what I will term "high end art" and mediocre. It's pretty obvious who the former are (e.g., Violet Frey, Beth Cavener Stichter); there are all too many in the latter category.
   
   It may be that your "call" for art went out to a limited audience (to university art departments and art schools, perhaps?) and failed to capture the attention of more professional artists.

No comments about Posters for the People: The Art of the WPA.

1 comments about Edgar Degas: Paintings That Dance: Paintings That Dance (Smart About Art).

1. As a teacher looking to add to her biography collection, this series is a dream come true. It's written in a style that is attractive and holds a child's attention. There is a mixture of real art pieces and drawings done by the book's illustrator. It's a painless way of learning new information. I highly recommend all books in this series for any 3-5 grade teacher.

4 comments about The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978.

1. There has been very little written on the snapshot, particulary as it relates to the development of photovision. Sara Greenough has put together an excellent exhibit on the subject. This catalogue only goes into the 1970s. Now she has to carry the snapshot into the digital world.



2. 
   Sir John F. Herschel gets credit for coining the word "snapshot" in 1860; "The possibility of taking a photograph, as it were by a snap-shot -- of securing a picture in a tenth of a second of time." (He also coined "photography" itself, and was the first to apply "negative" and "positives" to photography.) Given his wide ranging interests, I'm sure he would have loved this book as much as I do.
   
   The editors divide 1888 to 1978 into four periods. The first is discussed in Diane Waggoner's essay, "Photographic Amusements." Eastman Kodak was dominant with the Brownie: "You push the button, we do the rest (or you can do it yourself)."
   
   Sarah Kennel covers 1920-1939 in "Quick, Casual Modern." Their PR folks peppered the roads with "Picture Ahead! Kodak as you go!" Eastman Kodak also tied the permanence of photos to family values: "Kodak began to stress use of the camera to counter the truancy of memory, particularly with regard to family stability."
   
   Sarah Greenough's covers 1940-1959 with "Fun Under the Shade of the Mushroom Cloud." Kodak introduced Kodachrome in 1936 and Kodacolor in 1942. Snapshots were tied to social life. "Life" taught Americans pictorial journalism. Snapping pictures was "modern".
   
   Matthew Witkovsky ends with "When the Earth Was Square." "It is the period when daily life, turned by a nation of consumers into an unending succession of narcissistic photo ops, becomes fodder for media spectacle, creating the lottery-like promise of instant but evanescent celebrity for everyone. ... These are the years when nothing is sacred yet everything is ritualized; when no one and everyone is special, and all things are made potentially interesting in pictures; and when amnesia, which thrives on prosperity, takes, hold, leaving memory to scatter and fade in billions of little prints."
   
   The history is grand and enlightening, of course, but for me the images are key. The book is beautifully printed and bound; there is plenty of white space around each shot. You are free to flip through quickly, or stop and puzzle for lost minutes over a single image.
   
   I have three suggestions for anyone interested in photography. First, read John Updike's wonderful review of this book free online on "The New Yorker" website.
   
   Second, consider the words of Robert Jackson who put this collection together: as Updike writes: "his afterword to the catalogue manages to cast a pall of reasonableness over his curious passion. He coins the phrase 'a visual trophy' for a medium that 'seeks to preserve an idealized and individualized moment in time.' Attempting to explain the collector's motives, he claims, 'It is the anonymous snapshot's immediacy, inherent honesty, and unstudied freedom from external influence that are the draw. . . . The personal can therefore become impersonal.' Ah, but, then again, 'a collector can have a subjective interest in a snapshot's narrative content as a surrogate for life experiences. Thus the personal remains personal, if you will.'"
   
   Third, buy this book.
   
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008



3. I love this treasure trove of a book. Leafing through it takes me back time and time again to specific photos from family albums over the years. The book is a collaborative work that captures the essence of Americans' love affair with the camera.
   
   The narrative divides the ninety years into four "generations" of the evolution of the snapshot: thirty years of beginnings followed by three twenty-year periods celebrating the interactions of the technical developments and the cultural idiosyncrasies of each era.
   
   While the "plates" of photographs selected from Jackson's collection for exhibition form the book's core, the authors have introduced a sprinkling of "figures" of other photographs--and Kodak ads, in particular--to complete their histories. The Timeline of Technical Milestones at the end is nicely executed.
   
   I've no idea how the authors would characterize the last two decades of the twentieth century, but I'm certain that the first two decades of the twentieth century belong to digital photography. I'd love to read their take on this generation of the American snapshot.



4. I can't speak highly enough of this wonderfully rich book on the grand topic of the American snapshot. The essays are full of revealing information about how big a role the snapshot has played in our culture. The generous sampling of photographs gives us shots that are entirely unique, each in its ow way, and yet they are also familiar, if you are old enough to remember the days of Kodak cameras, especially the Brownie. I found the best review of this great book at www.ronslate.com.

2 comments about Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction.

1. when our female role models self destruct, we witness the media belittle them with glorified humiliation (read: britney spears) or morbid reverence (read: sarah kane).
   
   when we question why our loved ones are anorexic, bulimic, cutting, and otherwise hurting themselves, the conversation is silenced with shrugs or competitive storytelling.
   
   "live through this" shifts that conversation by presenting the experience of an impressive lineup of womyn, who through their stories demonstrate a pattern of finding personal power through self-destructive experiences, then channeling that power into more positive and productive activities.
   
   beyond the stories themselves, the book challenges us to have a different kind of conversation about self-destructive tendencies. beyond medication, shame, and silence there is energy and power that has the potential to build creative, supportive community.
   
   an amazing read!



2. This book doesn't offer answers, it is not a step-by step process for how to heal. Rather it is a collection of experiences... stories about how others have coped, fought and triumphed, using their own strengths and creativity. Just knowing that depression and destruction can be dealt with in ways that are not exclusive to a bottle of pills or weekly visits to a doctor is useful. For anyone who has been on the floor with no idea how to get up, I would recommend this book as proof of life.

5 comments about Art in China (Oxford History of Art).

1. Beautifully illustrated, delightful and extremely informative. This book is a marvelous supplement to the typical art history text books.



2. I like the author's approach to writing an introduction to the arts of China. Instead of trying to touch at least all of the major artists/works from all of the major periods (which in the case of China would mean touching very many things in a very cursory way), the author focuses on the context for which works were produced. Some of them were meant to be "art" from the start, some were not. This offers ample opportunities to examine how some works influenced other later in history. Overall, I think the ideas presented are some of the most gripping I have found in Chinese art history books. The book includes recent discoveries and scholarship and uses Pinyin romanization (two great features - not all recently-published books do).



3. While not the easiest to read, Clunas's book is currently the best short modest-sized introduction to art in China. The title "Art in China" (not "Chinese Art") is intentional, for Clunas is one of the rare Occidental authors on this subject who transcend the limitations of their background and succeed in communicating some of the subtlety and complexity of the subject, so remote from Western tastes, but no less beautiful and profound.

   For example, he points out that while Western art has concentrated on painting, calligraphy is the most esteemed art form in China. Furthermore, from its earliest beginnings, Chinese aesthetics has placed little emphasis on illusionism and perspective, even regarding these as juvenile and distracting from artistic self-expression. (In this respect, the Chinese anticipated "modern art theory" by centuries.) The very term "Chinese Art", he maintains, is a Western invention, since the art work in China was, until recently, never divorced from its political, religious or decorative functions. (That is to say, it was not "museum art" isolated from its context and consciously regarded as art.) Because of these characteristics, art in China has been little appreciated in the West.

   Clunas's probing book should be read slowly-- and re-read. The illuminating text gives a relatively sophisticated and sympathetic account of art in China, unlike many books, which are simply naive, provincial and as full of trivial dates and abstractions as they are lacking in insight. The representative works, drawn from all periods of Chinese history--including modern times--are superb and well chosen, and the pictures are excellent, considering the book's modest size. I especially enjoy the full-page color reproduction of Guo Xi's masterpiece "Early Spring" which equals, if not surpasses, the finest landscape paintings of the Dutch golden age (of course, not in illusionist technique, but in sheer expressive and evocative power as it unveils a mysterious fantastic landscape reflecting an interior, as much as an exterior, reality).

   My only complaint is that there is only one book on "Art in China" in the Oxford History of Art series, while there are at least 30 on Western art in the same series. One book covers Western art for a 25-year span (1920-45), but 5,000 years of high art in China--in painting, jade, ceramics, lacquer, porcelain, calligraphy and sculpture--gets only a single volume! Talk about provincialism! Certainly, this is no fault of Dr. Clunas, whose work seems all the more commendable in the midst of the naive insularity and ethnocentrism with which it has unfortunately been grouped.




4. In researching information regarding Sung Dynasty scrolls and artists, I found this book to be a most generous indeed. The author provides clear, precise information without the clutter of person guesses. He provides a wonderful assortment of pictures and resources. Clear, clean photographs of artifacts providing the reader with primary documentation .This is a MUST for anyone studying the Arts and Artists of early China. Thank you Craig Clunas!



5. This is a challenging work.

   He realizes 5 standpoints. He writes "What is historically called art in China, by whom and when?". Really, I feel it rather reflect unconscious attitude of 20th century collectors and scholars.

   Art in the Tomb /Art at Court/Art in the Temple/Art in the life of the Elite /Art in the Market-Place

   Following recent searching environment of artifacts; lifetime of painters, art-market, patrons, etc., as "Painter's Practice" by J.cahill, Mr. Clunas searched relations of arts-makers and the society. This approach is interesting and very suggestive. It may be the first try among such cheap and popular books about "Arts in China". For such character, I feel it should not be an elementary textbook.

   Calligraphy was more focused than M. Sullivan's book"The Arts of China" in the chapter "Art in the life of the Elite". Short columns explain words and technical terms vividly. It is worth to buy it only for them. Bibliographical essays(231-237 p.) are very useful. Plates and figures are all fine. There is few inadequate item. Fig 83 and 87 shows as we appreciate in museums, i.e. shows its handscroll format. I think the author make effort to show surrounding textile of paintings and the format in some figs.

   As an avocat d'diable, I notice some. The gong of Fig. 49 is not 8th century. Dragons and a beast should be genuine 8th century items. The gong is regarded 12-13th century Japanese artifact. The item of Fig. 82 may not be a representative work by Tang-Yin.

   Both C. Clunas and Michael Sullivan edited catalogues of Sir Alain Barlow Collection(now in Sussex College). (ref. The Barlow Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades: an Introduction, The University of Sussex, 1997/Nov.) Sullivan did in 1963 and 1974. Clunas did in 1997. They might have share common intellectual environment according Oriental Ceramic Society, England.

No comments about Mosaic Magic.

5 comments about Concerning the Spiritual in Art.

1. This book was purchased for a college research project and it was just perfect. It talks of Kandinsky's color theory and how music and color co-exist. The seller was professional and I got the book when it was promised. I would order from this seller again...definately!



2. Kandinsky had risen to positions of influence in other disciplines (political science/economics and law) before directing his considerable intellect to painting. His insights extended into the historic 'meta' trends of the arts and sciences, including the physical sciences, and had his interests been directed more to the history and philosophy of science instead of the history and philosophy of art, he might have written Kuhn's observations regarding paradigm change a half century before Kuhn did: "Here and there are people with eyes which can see, minds which can correlate. They say to themselves: 'If the science of the day before yesterday is rejected by the people of yesterday, and that of yesterday by us of today, is it not possible that what we call science now will be rejected by the men of tomorrow?' And the bravest of them answer, 'It is possible.'"
   
   Instead, Kandinsky extended the frontiers of painting and authored philosophic writings on the future of art that are among the most important of such works. M.T.H. Sadler, who translated this work into English, was a friend of Kandinsky's and was among his early admirers. The notes he has written in the front of the book (Translator's Introduction) are therefore more helpful than could be the opinions of many other critics, including myself:
   
   "Anyone who has studied Gauguin will be aware of the intense spiritual value of his work. The man is a preacher and a psychologist, universal by his very unorthodoxy, fundamental because he goes deeper than civilization. In his disciples this great element is wanting.
   
   "Kandinsky has supplied the need. He is not only on the track of an art more purely spiritual than was conceived even by Gauguin, but he has achieved the final abandonment of all representative intention. In this way he combines in himself the spiritual and technical tendencies of one great branch of Post-Impressionism.
   
   "The question most generally asked about Kandinsky's art is: 'What is he trying to do?' It is to be hoped that this book will do something towards answering the question. But it will not do everything. This--partly because it is impossible to put into words the whole of Kandinsky's ideal, partly because in his anxiety to state his case, to court criticism, the author has been tempted to formulate more than is wise. His analysis of colours and their effects on the spectator is not the real basis of his art, because, if it were, one could, with the help of a scientific manual, describe one's emotions before his pictures with perfect accuracy. And this is impossible.
   
   "Kandinsky is painting music. That is to say, he has broken down the barrier between music and painting, and has isolated the pure emotion which, for want of a better name, we call the artistic emotion. Anyone who has listened to good music with any enjoyment will admit to an unmistakable but quite indefinable thrill. He will not be able, with sincerity, to say that such a passage gave him such visual impressions, or such a harmony roused in him such emotions. The effect of music is too subtle for words. And the same with this painting of Kandinsky's. Speaking for myself, to stand in front of some of his drawings or pictures gives a keener and more spiritual pleasure than any other kind of painting. But I could not express in the least what gives the pleasure. Presumably the lines and colours have the same effect as harmony and rhythm in music have on the truly musical. That psychology comes in no one can deny."
   
   Some aspects of Kandinsky's color theory are dubious, at best they cannot be universalized, and Kandinsky sees this. But other of his ideas and arguments are widely accepted among artists, even as being self-evident. Stating that "there is no 'must' in art, because art is free," that is, free to address external representations OR "the inner need," to merely chase after material 'objects' OR to wrestle with the mysteriously spiritual, to somehow meld the two visions OR to stay purely to exploration of the spiritual high ground, Kandinsky absolutely rejects the materialistic expectation of an art "explanation" that has been articulated by EO Wilson in his unfortunate daydream 'Consilience' (Wilson knows ants better than he knows humans, and is given to understanding humans to be essentially ant equivalents).
   
   Anyone interested in art history, painting of the past century, or the relationships/correlations/divergences of the various arts (visual, musical, literary), as well as anyone interested in the meaning and purpose of art, or in the philosophy of aesthetics, should read this important book, perhaps more than once.



3. Kandinsky throws his ideas out in a slightly esoteric manner. It make take a few rereads to really grasp the quality of discourse he presents. But, in the end, his commentary shines brightly through his comparisons of music to painting. The spiritual triangle is comparable to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It is important to remember that Kandinsky is not using the term "spiritual" in a religious sense.
   This book is a very good read for anyone feeling slumped in their art making. And for anyone who wants to expose themselves to ways of thinking about art. By the third time I had read the material I had underlined and highlighted almost every line and filled all the margins with notes. The book is fantastic. It is especially good when paired with Hans Hofmann's essay "In Search for the Real." Although the ideas in the two books do not parallel. In fact the lines aren't even on the same page. Kandinksky's critiques of other familiar artists are very interesting too. Names like picasso and Cezanne pop up quite a bit.
   I'll stop rambling now. Read the book, it is very good.



4. Wassilly Kadinsky was a 20th century painter and his CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL IN ART provides a blend of philosophical, spiritual and artistic reflection as it examines the premises and presence of spirituality in art. This new edition is a recommended pick not just for art students of modernism, but for readers of spiritual works: it includes letters between Kadinsky and Sadler, unpublished prose poems, and a fine attention to artistic reflection and analysis.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



5. I enjoyed reading the book. At times it was over my head,but still it was worth the effort!!!!