5 comments about Drawing With an Open Mind: Reflections from a Drawing Teacher.

1. THIS BOOK IS MOST EXCELLENT ESPECIALLY IF USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH ANTHONY RYDER'S BOOK. I'VE BEEN DRAWING ALL MY LIFE, AND NOW I FEEL I'VE JUST BEGUN MY JOURNEY TO BECOME AN EXCELLENT DRAUGHTSMAN!!! BRAVO, TED! BRAVO, TONY!



2. If you were stripped of every luxury of life, and had to exile yourself to an abandoned island with only the essentials for human existence, you'd think of things like food, water, and shelter. Likewise, if I ever had to get rid of every book in my how-to art library except for the ones that I would absolutely shrivel up and blow away without, this book would remain on my shelf along with Richard Schmid's "Alla Prima" and "Life Drawing in Charcoal" by Douglas Graves. These three are my food, water and shelter for surviving as a serious art student.

   This book puts a greater emphasis on the artist's focus and state of mind than it does on technique.. Sound a little "Zen-like?" It is, in a lot of ways, but "you will draw what the mind sees" until you learn to draw what the eye sees. "The problem," Jacobs writes, "is not that we don't see well enough but that we do not draw what we see. We draw what we think." This is coming from a man whose drawings look like the masterpieces of da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Better listen to him.

   While developing your mental-visual muscles, Jacobs goes into symmetry, balance, and light. But only after opening your eyes to what you see before you so your art won't be contaminated from an image file in your brain.

   Each topic is broken down into bite-sized segments--you can literally read a topic and digest it in 5 minutes or less. Or, if you want to sit down for the full meal, read and absorb several topics, review some you've read before, and skip ahead to some other stuff you found in the index. Then go draw. You'll be flexing art muscles you never knew you had. And you will be very pleased with your results.




3. I DON'T KNOW WHAT BOOKS YOU HAVE READ ON DRAWING BEFORE BUT THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON DRAWING EVER WRITTEN. ANOTHER EXCELLENT BOOK IS BY HIS FORMER STUDENT ANTHONY RYDER ENTITLED THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO FIGURE DRAWING. EACH IS INCREDIBLY DETAILED IN ITS DESCRIPTIONS ON TECHNIQUE AS WELL AS THE LEVEL OF ATTENTION AND CARE REQUIRED TO CREATE BEAUTIFUL DRAWINGS. IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO HAVE A CAREER IN REPRESENTATIONAL ART YOU HAVE GOT TO READ AT LEAST ONE OF, IF NOT BOTH THESE BOOKS. OTHERWISE YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY "MORE MONEY" FOR A GUIDE TO DRAWING BY MARCUS MANDELOWITZ WHICH SAYS THE SAME THINGS, IT JUST TAKES LONGER TO SAY THEM AND MAKES YOU PAY MORE FOR IT. ANY OTHER BOOK IS PROBOBLY NOT WORTH BUYING.



4. Jacobs' book focuses mostly on figure drawing, and not drawing in general. He makes a number of points that are highly useful for someone who wants to draw well, such as empasizing the need to avoid imposing symbolic forms (circles, tubes, etc.) on figure drawings. As part of that emphasis he stresses some practical points, including the need for the artist to notice that there are no true parallel lines or concave forms in the human body. Unfortunatley he is a bit too long-winded and mystical-sounding when he makes these points, and I found myself having to re-read many of his passages to figure out what he meant, or else simply saying, "Huh?" This book would probably be better to use after you've read one by Jacobs' former student, Anthony Ryder, called "The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing," which is one of my favorite how-to art books. Ryder covers much of the same ground as Jacobs, but is much clearer and has more practical detail. However, as a previous reviewer noted, Jacobs' drawings included in the book are quite impressive and inspiring by themselves. (Many of Ryder's drawings in his book are remarkably similar in style to those done by Jacobs- you can definitely tell where he learned to draw.)



5. This book has several simply marvelous sketches by the artist, many of which you'll wish were available as prints. While perhaps not as instuctive in teaching you how to draw as it might be (the author focuses more on mind-set then techniques), the drawings will inspire you to improve.

1 comments about Bookworm: The Art of Rosamond Purcell.

1. The beauty of decay is sometimes surreal and mysterious. A musthave for booklovers and photographers.

4 comments about Minimalism: Origins.

1. Very unusual volume: stark cover; Table of Contents consisting of "Paint," "Sound," "Space" and "End" with chapters named A-Z; no Preface--though quite extensive Bibliography. Symmetrical structure--about 135 pp. each on music and art, with the central "Sound" flanked by shorter sections on painting and sculpture, flanked in turn by an engagingly lucid intro and suggestive conclusion: the resonant last words of the book are "no one, by definition, knows."
   
   "Paint" is organized by artist while "Sound" is mainly chronological, since Strickland argues for musical lineage from Young to Riley to Reich to Glass, while his heterodox view of Minimalist painters, most Abstract Expressionists in any other book, presents Newman, Reinhardt et al. as working independently and at philosophical odds with one another. Strickland's sympathy is clearly with Reinhardt's anti-manifestos and against Newman's high-flown theorizing, though he praises his art.
   
   In fact the author seems to have an ingrained suspicion of theorizing in general. An excellent cultural historian, he is not a philosopher, unless maybe a Sceptic confronting the conventional wisdom of art critics. As a music prof, he gets A+ for chutzpah with his "Emperor's New Clothes" approach to mainstream art critics and the commerce of the art world, which he describes on p. 2 as a "futures market." By the time he gets to the sculpture, Strickland's scepticism extends to the artists themselves. That section leads to a conclusion verging on a retraction in its ambivalent review of the Minimalist enterprise.
   
   His views and often droll style are refreshing. His formal dissections of the painting are more detailed than those of the music--establishing his bona fides?--and I'd like some more of the structural analysis he devotes to the transitional Glass Quartet, and more repros of the art and scores--but downloads are generally easy to find, so no big deal. I'd even like some more philosophy, e.g., a discussion of the work in terms of Jamesonian postmodern depthlessness. Since Strickland dismisses the very term postmodernism as "vulgarity" by p. 3 (along with Glass' commercials on "the boob-tube," ersatz-Minimalist advertising and "well-heeled culturophages") you get the feeling that's not on his agenda any more than campaigning for Mr. Congeniality. There are fine books by other music profs dealing mainly with their subject (Potter musicologically, Fink sociologically), but this remains far and away the most comprehensive survey of the artistic/musical movement as a whole, and you can't ask for everything...from A to Z?.



2. Mr.Stricklands' essays are very insightful with regard to the rise of minimalist music. I was intrigued enough about Terry Riley after reading about him that I went to his website and purchased "In C". I am a fan of Reich, Glass, Young, and Adams, but had somehow let Mr. Riley slip through the cracks. The 25th Anniversary reissue of "In C" is well worth the effort. It was very refreshing to read about these people, and Mr.Strickland shed some new light on a sometimes confusing era. The same cannot be said for his handling of the minimalist painters. His essays were often repetitive, and he seemed to be struggling to find metaphor behind every zip and brush-stroke. I am not a fan of minimalist sculpture, and so recuse myself from entering into a discussion about the third, and last, section of his book.



3. In Strickland's previous book, American Composers, he demonstrated a broad knowledge of various musics (he had written extensively, for example, on Glenn Gould and John Coltrane)in lively conversations with leading composers. His book on Minimalism is primarily first-rate cultural history, with more technical and formal analysis, curiously, in the sections of art than in the central section on music. His style is fluid and often witty, occasionally turgid only in some of the more technical passages, perhaps inevitably.
   
   One thing missing in the book is reproductions of the art and music (there is one at the head of each section), possibly because Strickland seems to be trying to create a Minimalist work of art himself here--from the bare buff cover (in the hardback; the revised paperback edition includes the ISBN code, laudatory reviews and a synopsis on the back cover) to the naming of chapters by letters and sections by a single word ("Paint, Sound," "Space" and "End"). There is nothing minimal about the documentation, however, for the book relies on an abundance of primary sources.
   
   The section on painting is probably the most controversial. Strickland has lengthy chapters on Barnett Newman, Ellsworth Kelly, Ad Reinhardt et al. in redefining Minimalism as a movement developing WITHIN Abstract Expressionism. Many of the 60s painters normally identified as FOUNDING the movement he treats as academizing the movement. His viewpoint is equally debatable and thought-provoking, defended on empirical rather than conceptual grounds.
   
   The section on Minimalist music is the liveliest as Strickland traces in remarkable detail its development from LaMonte Young through Terry Riley to Steve Reich to Philip Glass. His attribution of a chain of influence seems just, though the last composer has discounted it in favor of acknowledging Indian music as the central influence on his early work. Strickland discusses the influence of that music and Indonesian music, earlier classical music (from Leoninus and Bach to Debussy to Webern) and jazz (Coltrane is referred to again and again by the composers and the author).
   
   The best sections may be the first and last, and those are the ones to read for those uninterested in studying the subject in depth. Strickland's interdisciplinary delineation of Minimalist characteristics in "A" is masterly; his discussion of the philosophical implications of the movement in "W" is thoughtful and occasionally poetic.



4. Strickland has situated Minimal Music within a vigorous and complex context here finding useful parallels with the minimalist canons and credos in the visual arts, and the bridges found there I think are many times tenuous and self-congradulatory for it is not a proven affinity, as Badiou might have found in the consistent modality within artistic movements.Within the visual arts that considers itself "minimal" began their gestures toward the search for a "purity",a "spirit" an "unadulterated" concept in the form of reducible shapes and geometries many years prior as with Barnett Newman(working simultaneously within the mileau of the maximal gestures of Jackson Pollock)and Ellsworth Kelly.So there has been a longer shall we say "gestation" period for it in the gaze,not the "ear".Although LaMonte Youngs long-sustained lines from his "Brass Octet" dates from the early Sixties, as other Fluxus expressions of the "minimal" event but that is more Dada in effect. The visual arts scene however was an early enthusiastic supporter to this repetitive music,more so than academia or the established concert venues,until it became popular.
   So the "minimal" in music slowly made pathways into establishment venues,opera,and performance art,and it was well-suited with the post-modern canons of the apolitical passivity(only Fredric Rzewski bridged this gap to the political subject) and today it is commonplace,the fashionable circuits mixed with the strains of expression of the popular avant-garde, obsessed with the market and popular culture, the buzz and being loved.
   Interestingly the structure of this book is divided for this emphasis into Paint, Sound, Space, and Strickland keeps this dialogue intact. So we find such geometrical creations by Donald Judd,identical size boxes descending downward along a wall,or simply cubes of varying shapes or the aluminum,plexi-glass,cubes,boxes situated as for eternity in Marfa Texas, a minimalist shrine in an old Army Base he purchased has no real equivalent in music. Likewise the powerful impersonal spirituality of the florescent lighting schemes of Dan Flavin or the shaped steel plates, and torqued ellipses of Richard Serra or floor covering, and fifty yards long wood planks and floor steel tiles of Carl Andre, not to mention the committed painters as Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, or Bridget Riley. All are here as Sol Le Witt.And again the equivalents in music areless than adequete,it isn't possible to speak of the two fields as sharing a focus.I beleive there are useful equivalents but it is on a case by case basis. I consider the first piece of musical minimalism,around Picasso's time and Stravinsky to be Erik Satie's "Vexations, a 9 Hour work of the same thorny quasi-chromatic phrase for piano solo, repeated incessantly at the same tempo or Cage's "Etudes Australes" a piece of minimalism for its static-ness,even orchestral pieces of Xenakis have a "stasis" dimension to it,that certainly has a more orthodox affinity for the term than the what became therather surface simplicity,the market concoctions of Glass,,Reich and Adams. These diverse kinds of works(that Strickland doesn't mention) are really never viewed from this perspective.
   Strickland however keeps his narrative close to this visual world.But as close as one got to vigorously conceived works when all this began in the Seventies was Philip Glass who went by way of opera and that was a good vigorous start to place the minimalist musical canons within establishment venues,with a great structural pallette in place now to test its scope and longevity/ With text, theatre, peformance art and concept all now were burdened within the minimalist context.As important as these in-roads were Glass hadn't the theoretical ambition to nurture its implications further ,so he found facile route the most exciting and lucretive form for minimalism,now with electronification and augmented decible levels,trying to find affinity with the magnetic force of the rock genre/venue to some degree. He then simply fell prey to opera's complaisant seductions relying on tried and tested forms within opera's clostered structural genres, as duets, trios,intrumental interludes as in "Aknahten", and latter works the one with the simplistic use of the text of Doris Lessing.His works then after the operatic periods simply saw greater exhibitions of minimalist homogenizations of concept,surface flashes, reduced down to its lowest accessible form,without obviously jumping into another genre,as style=lized rock.
   Where is the affinity for innovation and musical experimentalism? so prevalent in Glass's early ensemble Farfisa Organ works. So minimalism in ascendancy was quickly left to the market to consume it, Hollywood,wealth and power were safe havens for its musical language.And film scores abounded as the "Exorcist" in parts. Again Strickland adheres to the visual arts in order to buffer a safe zone within it, and to see where the two meet. They never really do,for music is more a collective experience,"let's groove together" whereas minimalist visual art is never hardly that it is an intense personal experience of contemplation. For these parallels,finding painterly concepts of tone, and gradations of colour distributions are largely useful if you examine the "origins" the original repertoire of minimal music, as lesser known composers as the late Terry Jennings and Tom Johnson. But as time wore on past the Seventies and Eighties minimalism found fewer and fewer similar conceptual and expressive features with the hardcore visual arts and theoretical paradigms of reference. Musical minimalism became homogenized, where even rockers found service in its (now-obvious)percolating rhythmic pulses,as Blondie,Devo,and the Techno studio layering cadres,there is even an "elevator music" minimalist jazz.The "minimal" canon in music became simply a reproducible language crossing borders as an oil-slick approaches distant shores. Strickland here thinks these "migrations" was one of minimalism staying powers, a longevity factor which proves its profound content, when in fact it was part of its dilution and demise into greater forms of homogenizations, and now fodder for least common denominators of expression subjected to it.
   La Monte Young however,is given good space here, a post-Cage artist long a recluse creator,who found pleasure in listening to telephone generators, and motors, the inherent drones embodied in what we simply refer to as a "noise" also found an affinity for Just Intonation and the music of the East(as Reich,Riley,Glass) and mounted hours/days long performance of electronic drones, with Marian Zazeela,at blasted decible levels. He however was never a market icon, (no commercial potential as Frank Zappa would say)but in fact came closest toward finding equivalents to the visual arts conceptual world as Strickland searches for here.He did this in the Nine Hour "Well-Tuned Piano".
   The concept of the long durational length is something that minimal music should have found from its start, not at the end of its demise. Of course the late Morton Feldman has been a rescuing agent here with his 6 Hour "Second String Quartet", the various piano solos "For Bunita Marcus", and "Triadic Memories", and the hours log "For Philip Guston, and "For Christian Wolff", for Flute and Piano are surely masterworks within musical minimalism. Length by itself is not the component that makes minimal music find itself with its visual arts brethren, no in Feldma's latter works you have also the incessant repetition of music materials, sometimes with self-defeating breaks, as in Feldman, where predictable almost Stravinskian moments come to the surface.
   
   I think minimalism ended long ago,it does however still nourishes a pleasure in pure form and space, the "miniature" work is also a form neglected here.We speak now of a "post-minimalism" largely represented by the orchestral works and operas of John Adams. It is still a language that produces a music but why search for an experience already experienced.

No comments about The World's Greatest Erotic Art of Today - Volume 2.

No comments about Winslow Homer Paintings: 24 Cards (Card Books).

5 comments about Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880-1950.

1. Urban history is a very tough subject to find good books on but Fogelson is among the best. His book on how the Downtown came about is excellent. Well written and focusing on a diverse array of downtowns he explores how the department store and subways developed. He talks about the collapse of the "El's" and urban renewal destroyed the downtown. If you have any interest in urban history this is a great book for experts and novices alike. Fogelson writes very clearly and does a wonderful job explaining his topic. Easily five stars.



2. Much of this book describes downtown in its early years of decline (1920-50): as cars and highways mushrooomed, shopping begin to move outside downtown. The solutions to this state of affairs were completely counterproductive: downtown business interests assumed that downtown's problem was too much congestion rather than too little, and so fought for a downtown overrun with parking lots and highways. For example, an official of one downtown business group in Los Angeles wrote in 1940 that freeways "will go a long way in solving the traffic problems and consequently make the trip to downtown Los Angeles pleasant for customers and productive for downtown merchants and office tenants alike, and thereby recentralize businesses and offices in a compact area." (p. 274).
   
   The result: even more suburban sprawl as suburbanites took advantage of easier commutes to move further out, and an even deader downtown as highways and parking lots took the place of shops and offices.
   
   Why did downtown boosters make this mistake? Because in downtown's heyday at the start of the century, downtown really was immensely congested; due to the difficulties of intracity travel, nearly all business was downtown. So like generals fighting the last war, downtown boosters were fixated on the congested downtown of 1900, and trying to apply 1900 solutions to the far less lively downtowns of the late 20th century.



3. It is long but easy to follow and enjoyable. It missed out on mentioning that famous German-Jewish director Fritz Lang visited New York City in the 1920's and got the inspiration for the Metropolis film from the Manhatten Skyline.



4. This is a wonderful book; it is comprehensively researched and offers a detailed history of why US downtowns developed and declined. Anybody who is interested in urban planning and downtown revitalization should read this to see why downtowns were successful for so many years and why they fell; for example, a current trend is to revitalize downtowns by attracting more residents, but 19th century downtowns developed by pushing out residents in favor of commercial growth. I couldn't put this book down; it's absolutely compelling and I would highly recommend it.



5. This is an objective and highly readable history of the decentralization of American cities and the many efforts to stem the decline of downtown. The book's descriptions of the debates and strategies employed to maintain the dominance of downtown in light of suburban growth, the decline of public transit, the construction of urban highways and the rise of outlying shopping centers are intriguing. Some examples: Early subway projects were sometimes opposed as being a fruitless strategy to decrease congestion because they would only lead to more intense development that would bring increased downtown congestion (an argument often heard today regarding highway projects). Highways into downtown were viewed by many as a way to woo suburbanites back downtown, while they turned out to be a major impetus to suburban development. The atom bomb explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki led some planners to advocate for the end of high density settlements as being too risky in the nuclear age. The book doesn't get preachy the way many "planning" books do. It is an objective history that simply tells it like it is.

No comments about Hogarth: The Artist and the City.

1 comments about Art And Psychoanalysis (Icon Editions).

1. Art and Psychoanalysis is a terrific read which combines scholarly commentary and a lively witty tone. Specialists will find plenty of information scattered throughout while the novice will not be overwhelmed by esoteric terms. This book is helped by several brilliant contributions by Bradley Collins to be found in the footnotes. This is one of the best summary type books in a field which is often disappointing.

3 comments about Courtly Dance of the Renaissance: A New Translation and Edition of the Nobilta Di Dame (1600).

1. Julia Sutton is one of the leading Renaissance dance historians, and this work reflects her careful scholarship. However, while "Courtly Dance of the Renaissance" does contain Fabritio Caroso's explanations of steps and choreographies, it is quite difficult to reconstruct dances from these descriptions. There are many ambiguities in the instructions, and since Sutton's goal is to provide an accurate translation rather than an interpretation, she leaves these conundrums intact. Sutton also translates the names of the steps into English, which makes this volume harder to use in conjunction with other Renaissance dance resources, which leave them in Italian. Nevertheless, for those with some grounding in dances of this period, "Courtly Dance of the Renaissance" is a critical source, and the wonderful discussions of etiquette and costume require no prior knowledge to enjoy.



2. This is an actual book from 1600. The ad doesn't quite make that clear. This is not "we look at past history." This IS it as our ancestors would have viewed it.
   
   A person can make sense of this. The steps are taught and there are masses of music sheets.
   
   I am holding the actual material all those elite ladies and gentlemen were taught by.
   
   Wow!
   
   No one especially in America is going to be outdone by the grand people of the past. We're there. I reason it doesn't matter if one is lousy and does it wrong. It's the point of this whole thing. I have read enough to know that "dancing" was about a two year serious undertaking to learn in the past. It'll take about two years one step at a time. This isn't a thin little paper back.
   
   I recommend it but not for the peasants. They can do Darrin's Dance Groves.



3. This book is a wonderful reference tool for anyone interested in historical dancing! Translated and Edited by none other than Julia Sutton, this book explains many of the social dances and practices of the aristocrats. It includes the dance steps, an explanation of how they occur, music, and labnotation. This book is truly a must have for anyone with a serious desire to understand dance practices of the times!

2 comments about Early Georgian Interiors (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in Britis).

1. This is a beautifully realized book on a most deserving subject. The text is highly informative and the images are vivid. The craftmanship of these interiors is astounding. Early Georgian furniture and interior design is so elegant and it does not overwelm, like its contemporary styles like Louis XIV, the woodwork and molding in these homes is just breathtaking. If you have any interest in the Georgian style or just appreciate beautiful interiors then you will love this book.



2. As a classically trained english architect I find myself in a unique position to authoritively review this book. And what a book. That perfect blend of photos (most of them colour), drawings - both plans and renderings, and an informative text. This is a must for anyone interested in early Georgian Interiors, as it comprehensively covers interior architecture, decoration, furniture/artwork, and the general design aesthetic of this era. If only we still had the artisians and cratspeople to still build like this. It is an inspiration to any aspiring classical architect.