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Art and Photography - General Art books

Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

By L,B Kids. The regular list price is $10.99. Sells new for $4.99. There are some available for $13.17.
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5 comments about Ed Emberley's Big Green Drawing Book (Ed Emberley's Big...).

  1. I have bought several Ed Emberley books for my 4 kids. They are all good. People are always amazed at how well my kids can draw. You can learn to draw, too! Like most activities, drawing is only part natural talent, part practice and part taking lessons. These books provide those lessons.


  2. Way back in the 80's I used to grab this book from our small, quaint library at Steeple Valley Middle School. I renewed the book frequently and would have a mild heart attack when it wasn't available in the library for me to check out.

    Edward Emberley, among other artists, put me on the course to my semi-successful cartooning career. In hopes of passing on the cartooning torch, I'm purchasing these books for my two nieces so they can continue to create vast worlds and numerous creatures on a simple notebook.


  3. I spent hours creating entire worlds based on these books. They are a wonderful introduction to basic drawing skills and are FUN!!!


  4. These books are the greatest. I own all of the Emberly books. They are fun for adults and kids alike. You are never too old or young to learn to draw. This book will make you the most hip doodler in school or at work. Ed makes it really easy!
    This book is from a series of 4 books from Emberly are the easiest books on drawing there are, period. Anyone young or old can learn to draw some great critters and vehicles from these books. ANYONE! All of his Big Color books are great, (They are a series, each named after a color). This one is famous for the easy way it shows you how to draw step by step a great big green dragon, but it is simple when you do it his way. This book includes a number of fun ideas including Frankenstein, sailboat and trees. He even shows you how to make yours unique rather than a copy of his drawings. You can be the doodle hero of your classroom or office after using this book. He does it simply using very simple steps, lines, and basic shapes to start you off. My favorite in the series would be the Purple Book, but they are all good.
    If you want to move up from here and learn the terminology of what you are doing, and really become an accomplished artist, the next step after these are the terrific books by "Jack Hamm". If you just want to have some fun, get this book!


  5. My students love these books. The drawings are simple and easy to follow. Teachers will find it easy to use this book for short directed drawing lessons.


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Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Written by Bente Starcke King. By North Light Books. The regular list price is $28.99. Sells new for $4.73. There are some available for $4.10.
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5 comments about Beautiful Botanicals.

  1. If you want to learn to draw and paint flowers and plants from a botanist point of view, this is probably a great book for you. I have the DVD that can be purchased to go with this book and it is also great. Bente Starke King is an incredible artist with an impressive background in botanical illustration. She begins with teaching about basic form and perspective and then teaches about the use of graphite pencil in botanical drawing and how to depict a 3-D surface using 2 step-by-step demonstrations. Next, the book progresses to Pen and Ink with two stepped demonstrations. Next, you learn ink wash and again, demonstrations are given. Chapter 5 is Transparent Watercolor and 7 step-by-step demonstrations are given. Chapter 6 is Mixed Media, where watercolor is combined with other media such as pen and ink and colored pencils, along with 6 step-by-step demonstrations. The end of the book ties the loose ends by including how to choose a mat, framing,exhibiting,
    copyright, etc..

    This a beautiful book that can teach you a lot about drawing and painting flowers and plants. It is well-designed and written. I like the way Bente King combines the medias and demonstrates how this method enhances the richness and textures. Her DVD is excellent. I would recommend buying both the book and DVD if you want to speed up your progress. She is a wonderful teacher.


  2. This gorgeous, well-written "how to" book for drawing and painting
    beautiful botanicals is a treasure! It is spiral bound so the book won't flip closed on you. It is written by Bente Starcke King, a Botanical Illustrator who teaches at Cornell University. She covers everything from form and perspective, materials that she uses in her demonstrations, and beautiful illustrations.

    She covers, with clear, easy-to-follow instructions, lessons in drawing with graphite pencil, using pen and ink, ink wash, transparent watercolor and mixed media. It's like having an instructor in a book, and you can go at your own pace.

    The most fascinating aspect to me is how she layers watercolors to create her luminous color illustrations. Fabulous.
    Sharyn from Portland, Oregon.


  3. Whomever thought of the spiral binding inside the traditional binding should be knighted. That was a stroke of genius. If I am trying a new technique, I usually scan and copy a page but with this book, I just leave it open.

    Bente's book would be useless (as well constructed as it is,) if it weren't for her terrific explanations. She shows the same painting in different stages, tells the reader where she or he can take short cuts and is over-all a great book for the beginning or advanced student.


  4. As someone who is just beginning in botanical illustration, I could not find a better instructional book. The author teaches you what materials to buy, what typse of paper to use, and leads you step-by-step through a number of lessons covering several different types of media.

    I could not believe how well my first efforts turned out! I've looked through a lot of drawing books, and this is by far the best I've come across if you are interested in botanical drawing.


  5. It is a beautiful book with easy to follow instructions arranged in a very organized way to help a student progress step by step. The spiral binding inside the traditional binding cover also makes it really easy to actually use this manual. It stays open flat on your table for easy reference while not looking cheap when standing in a bookcase. This book is actually worth buying and keeping. Unlike a lot of others, it doesn't disappoint and is truly informative rather than just being another pretty flower book.


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Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Written by Sally Roth. By Rodale Books. The regular list price is $19.95. Sells new for $8.98. There are some available for $4.88.
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5 comments about The Backyard Bird Feeder's Bible: The A-to-Z Guide To Feeders, Seed Mixes, Projects, And Treats (Rodale Organic Gardening Book).

  1. Here's my experience so you can discover if you are on my level or SUPERIOR to me when it comes to knowledge about bird feeding. This year we put up a super duper, no attractions spared, bird feeding center.

    Did we ever get a show! We had finches, wrens, cardinals and all sorts of birds appear. We had thistle feeders and those for birds who preferred sunflower seeds. However, we also discovered that the birds inhaled food, simply seemed to suck it in like some industrial strength vacuum cleaner, small in size and...well, I wish I had a vacuum cleaner that quick and efficient! Another sign that nature trumps technology much of the time.

    But....we were going into hock trying to keep those birds fed. So I bought this book partly because of the section on how to keep them fed and still afford to retire someday.

    It was very helpful and now we're happy and the birds are happy. For those of you who feel just fine spending money on bird seed and not finding less costly methods of feeding the adorable little gluttons, you'll find a huge array of info in this one about how to choose feeders, which mixes work best and even how to deal with cicadas.

    You can get an idea of the book's topics by using the "Search Inside the Book" feature. Of course, some things can't be taught by a book, as I learned when a bird alit on my shoulder while filling a feeder, a small gift.

    But if you want info about how to attract birds, create the ideal feeders and find the mix seed mixes as well as projects you can make yourself, this IS the book to get. You can read more about it and other items on my profile page on Amazon.


  2. My boyfriend loves this and so do I. It has shed a new light on an old sport.


  3. Whatever you want to know about birds, just look up the word and there is tons of information on the subject. Fast and easy!



  4. I barely got to look at the thing!

    I made the mistake of allowing my young nephew to glance through it a few days ago. The next thing I know he takes it home with him and won't bring it back to me. (Well, he 'would' because he's that kind of guy... but I think I am going to allow him to keep it.)

    Apparently this book had the remarkable effect of sparking in him a sudden interest in the hobby of attracting and feeding birds.

    Actually, all summer long we have been visited at our little place in the country by birds of all sorts and we have been feeding them everyday so they wouldn't get bored and go away, but my nephew didn't have any interest in them... that is, not until I let him look at this book.

    As I said, I did not really get to look at this book, but let's base my 5 star review on the enthusiasm it sparked in him. He says it is a great book because the information within is very interesting and very in-depth. He also loves the plentiful beautiful pictures which helps keep him attracted all the more to the subject matter.

    I am very pleased that a child growing up in today's sterile electronically-obsessed society can still find something very natural and positive to invest his time and interest in. Aren't you?


  5. This one is just filled with excellent ideas. After years of birding you would think there would be no new ideas...wrong! I picked up quite a lot from this book. It is well organized, easy to use and easy to read and understand. I am glad I received it as a gift and recommend you get a copy if this is where your interests are. Overall, recommend this one highly.


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Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Written by Hal Foster. By The MIT Press. The regular list price is $30.00. Sells new for $18.81. There are some available for $14.00.
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5 comments about The Return of the Real: Art and Theory at the End of the Century (October Books).

  1. Granted, I'm not a Phd. in art history, so I can't claim how much of Foster's thinking is his own and how much he "borrows," but these essays, all interrelated and commenting on each other, carefully dissect postwar art, culture, politics, theory. I've read these essays four or five times and come away with a different insight on art each time. The definite highlight for me was the essay on traumatic realism (which ranges from the opposing simulacral and ideological readings of Warhol, to the tearing of the screen in Cindy Sherman, to the abject in art, to the opposing needs to deconstruct the subject and also reaffirm the subject in racial/sexual/cultural discourse.) Whew! It's a daring essay and is the rosetta stone, I think, of the entire book. His insight on the loss of critical distance (which accounts for why the Left and Right sound so much alike these days)needs to be heeded. Long live all the October writers!


  2. A quite interesting book about visual arts since '1960 written by the author and editor of "Anti-Aesthetics".@Especially the analysis of the recent relationship between Art and Anthropology/Ethnography is unique and suggestive.


  3. The book is full of productive suggestions for writing on contemporary visual arts. For a foreign reader, it provides a cogent overview of different moments in recent art; a fine sampling of commentary on theoretical writing, and valuable insight into current art criticism in the U.S. "The Return of the Real", meaning by that the Lacanian "Real", is a thought-provoking, stimulating idea that runs through the book and has refreshed my own critical work. I am indebted to this book.


  4. Foster is a good synthesizer on contemporary art, but ... when you read the footnotes, it feels like he's doin a lot of borrowing from other, less known work. And he never really discusses about the art he mentions, it's all allusions and side comments. And photos of pieces he never even mentions in the text. Still, it's about the best book-lentgh work I can think of on this, and some of the essays are killer.


  5. It's a little conplex but appliavle to many kinds of contemporary art theories.


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Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Written by Mary Caroline Richards. By Wesleyan. The regular list price is $19.95. Sells new for $12.40. There are some available for $3.27.
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5 comments about Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person.

  1. I'm way over 13 and it was over 30 years ago that I lost my book- Centering in Pottery, Poetry and the Person. I've been tettering ever since. Years ago this book helped me to focus on constructing my artistic talents.
    Blessings
    Marian Hayes
    Chicago


  2. "Have you ever read CENTERING?" a friend asked me. "That book changed my life," she explained, with a knowing smile, "and I'll even loan you my copy." M. C. Richards was a potter, teacher, and poet, and her 1962 book is "a story of transformation" (p. 4). In his Foreward to the 25th Anniversay Edition of M.C.'s "truly subversive book" (p. ix), Matthew Fox writes, "I consider this book one of the great works of American philosophy: it is so cosmological, so feminist (without once using that term), so original, so full of wisdom, so post Cartesian, so nondualistic, so moral, and so fully a part of the mystical tradition of the West that one wonders from what source it arrived in our world . . . This is a prophetic and mystical book. Such books are dangerous. They are the kind dictators burn, churches tend to ignore, and consumer cultures leave on the shelf. For they have the power to awaken, to stir, to disturb, and to transform" (pp. vii-viii).

    After forty years, CENTERING remains as relevant as ever. The good news is that it's still in print. M. C. observes that, in our society, "ordinary education and social training seem to impoverish the capacity for free initiative and artistic imagination. We talk indepedence, but we enact conformity . . . Brains are washed (when they are not clogged), wills are standardized, that is to say immobilized. Someone within cries for help. There must be more to life than all these learned acts, all this highly conditioned consumption. A person wants to do something of his own, to feel his own being alive and unique. He wants out of bondage. He wants in to the promised land" (p. 43).

    Wisdom arrives through a childlike sense of wonder, or through "centering," as M. C. calls it. "Within us lives a merciful being," she observes, "who helps us to our feet however many times we fall" (p. 8). "Wisdom is not the product of mental effort," she tells us. Rather, it is a state of "total being, in which capacities for knowledge and for love, for survival and for death, for imagination, inspiration, intuition, for all the fabulous functioning of this human being who we are, come into a center with their forces, come into an experience of meaning that can voice itself as wise action" (p. 15). She encourages us to "ride our lives like natural beasts, like tempests, like the bounce of a ball or the slightest ambiguous hovering of ash, the drift of scent: let us stick to those currents that can carry us, membering them with our souls. Our world personifies us, we know ourselves by it" (p. 7). "I sense this," she writes; "we must be steady enough in ourselves, to be open and to let the winds of life blow through us, to be our breath, our inspiration; to breathe with them, mobile and soft in the limberness of our bodies, in our agility, our ability, as it were, to dance, and yet to stand upright, to be intact, to be persons" (p. 12). CENTERING is a "sensual, sexual, trusting" book "full of surprises" (p. xv) you'll want to share with your friends.

    G. Merritt



  3. I've read this several times since it was first published in the 60's MC Richards has a lot of insight and some very good things to say to teachers.


  4. This book is a classic! I came across it in the '70's and now, again, when I am old enough to understand the depth of Mary Caroline Richard's wisdom. She truly knows what life-generating relationships are about. The best news about this book is that it is still in print.


  5. Innumerable poets, potters, artists & teachers have been touched by Mary Caroline Richards. Ever attentive to the whole person, Richards shows that a truly liberating creativity arises out of compassion, an attentive stillness of soul, self-acceptance & a delight in creative "accidents." For Richards, the words "teacher" and "student" are interchangeable. She gently reminds us that she is talking about life, no matter what she seems to be saying. Richards is one of the most important teachers grown in America. If you want to know why, read "Centering."


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Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

By Vanguard. The regular list price is $24.95. Sells new for $14.28. There are some available for $23.83.
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5 comments about Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos.

  1. First of all...Like so many reviewers before me have said; almost every boy that grew up in the '50s & '60s anxiously collected our 35 cents every month so we could go to the local candy store & buy the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. This magazine became our bible & 4E Ackerman became our surrogate father. More than 45 years have passed; but I can still remember those magnificent covers as though it were yesterday. Basil Gogos painted the cover of the Gorgo issue which had a blue background & also the Vincent Price issue which had a white background,etc. This Book displays all of Basil Gogos outstanding cover art which graced the cover of FM for so many years. Don't take my word for it...ask Stephen King, Rick Baker, George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, John Landis, Rob Zombie & a host of others..This book is an absolute delight for the senses & like fine art is meant to be treasured,


  2. this book is great.Very happy to included this one in my collection.Already have a tattoo planed of bride of frankenstein.


  3. I'm in agreement with another reviewer that mentioned the book could have been better written. That being said, it is well worth the price for all the fantastic paintings and drawings. A must for every fan of horror and sci-fi art.


  4. Even without text, this book would've earned 4 stars, just for the impressiveness of Gogos' work. Within this book are large, crystal-clear repros of his most famous monster cover paintings, as well as samples of his illustration work.
    The only setback for this book is its lack of depth in the text. It seems that whoever was sent to interview Basil didn't ask too many questions, didn't want to really know too much about him except for his general acheivements, and didn't ask him for a demonstration of how he works. Among all of the great pics, some candid ones of the artist would've been nice, most notably a pic of his studio.
    Still, the images are so rich in color and character. Worth it!


  5. If you were fortunate to have been born between 1950 and 1970 or so, you're lucky to be a part of a wonderful fraternity. Like me, you are a "monster kid". Monster Kids are the generation that grew up with Shock Theater and campy horror movie hosts, old Aurora model kits, classic Universal horror films on 8MM, and...a fantastic magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland. Famous Monsters was edited by legendary collector and Sci-Fi sage Forrest Ackerman and one of the great attractions throughout the years were the magnificent magazine covers painted by Basil Gogos. From Vanguard Productions comes "The Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos." Basil Gogos has rightfully been called, "The World's Most Famous Monster Artist." His bold, expresionistic use of color is what caught the eye of little ghouls like myself and my friends. Edited by Kerry Gammill and J. David Spurlock and with an introduction by Rob Zombie, the book provides a dazzling display of Gogos' art not only from Famous Monsters, but from many other magazines, books, and films.

    In fact, his first professional sale was not a monster, but rather a cover for a western paperback (reprinted in the book) in 1959. Gogos did numerous covers in many different genres including westerns, war, jungle adventures, spicy adventures, and more. Dozens of examples of his work from this period are included. His first cover for Famous Monsters of Filmland appeared on the cover of issue #9 from November, 1960, depicting Vincent Price from "The House of Usher". For the first time, kids who were used to only knowing them from black & white films now saw their monster heroes in bold color thanks to Gogos. In all, Gogos did 48 covers of Famous Monsters and they are among the most popular issues for collectors. Everyone has their favorite Gogos Famous Monster cover...for me it was his rendition of Boris Karloff as the Mummy from issue # 58. The fine detail of the withered, dead-eyed mummy still mesmerizes me. Issue #56 featuring Gogos painting of Karloff as the Frankenstein's monster for the Karloff tribute issue is another favorite. Basil provides valuable insight to his legions of fans by discussing the various paints, styles, and techniques that he's employed over the years.

    Gogos would eventually move into doing fine art as well as non-monster commercial illustration including work for many years at a New York advertising agency. But much like the victims of those classic monster films, Gogos found he could not, for long, escape his beloved creatures. The 1990's brought a renewed interest in Gogos' monster art and soon he was back doing new paintings for trading card companies, CD cover art for The Misfits and Rob Zombie, and a whole new generation of monster magazines such as Monsterscene, making him more popular than ever. Gogos even did the concept art for a series of U.S. Postage stamps in 1997 that featured the classic monsters. The book features comments and tributes from such luminaries as Sara Karloff, Ken Kelly, Forrest Ackerman, Roger Corman, and Rick Baker. In all there are over 150 color and 50 black & white illustrations in the 160 page book. For monster kids like myself, who are all "grown up" now, Basil Gogos will always have a special place in our hearts. His Famous Monsters of Filmland covers take us back to a simpler time of true chills and thrills and I can think of no other book that would please a monster fan more than "The Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos." Like many of the books from Vanguard Productions, it is available in several different editions: There is a softcover, a hardcover, and a deluxe hardcover that is signed by Basil Gogos and includes a 16 page bonus folio and comes in a slipcase. The Deluxe, signed, slipcased edition was an instant sell-out and is already selling for big bucks on the collector's market. My highest recommendation!

    Reviewed by Tim Janson


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Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Written by Joe Sacco and Christopher Hitchens. By Fantagraphics Books. The regular list price is $19.95. Sells new for $10.59. There are some available for $5.98.
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5 comments about Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995.

  1. First, the bad news: "Safe Area Goradze" is bleak, depressing and unrelentingly sad. It is the true tale of the horrible suffering of the Muslim population of the ever-so-ironically designated "Safe Area" of Goradze, a city in the former country of Yugoslavia during that nation's recent civil war and breakup. The combination of the author's drawings and prose work together to tell the gruesome story of a real life hell on Earth in brutal, unflinching, unblinking detail. It's the graphic novel equivalent of "Schindler's List". If you buy this book, steel yourself. It's not an easy read.

    Nevertheless, I think Joe Sacco is a genius who is to be commended for telling a story that cries out to be told. I'm sure his editors warned him that this story was not one that would be a big seller. The arcane politics of the former Yugoslavia, which Sacco does a masterful job of explaining, don't interest many people. And the subject matter is depressing and gruesome in the extreme. Nevertheless, he wrote and illustrated the graphic novel, and Fantagraphics Books is to be applauded for publishing it. Hopefully, this work will serve as the historical record of the awful torments inflicted upon human beings in a particular time and place, leaving wounds physical and psychic that will take generations to heal.


  2. Having been to Bosnia after the war, its really nice to see this perspective and form of journalism. Joe Sacco's work in this book is brilliant, and this is by far his best work. The feel of life in the country, and the anxiety of life in this period is really well represented. I love the personal face that comes alive here with Joe's various stories from the friends that he has made along his journey.


  3. Joe Sacco, Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 (Fantagraphics, 2002)

    Joe Sacco's spent some time in Gorazde after things calmed down a bit over there-- got to know the people, talked to them a lot, blended in with the scenery. He drew them, related their words, drew the things they saw and experienced day to day. Safe Area Gorazde is the result.

    If you're used to either the current spate of war memoirs or the current spate of graphic novels, Safe Area Gorazde will likely seem familiar, yet still somewhat out of place. It is a book that resides comfortably in neither category, but I can't quite call it a successful cross of the two; it's too narrative for graphic noveldom, while being too impressionist to really classify as a war memoir. This is not to say that the book is bad by any means; there is a great deal to be absorbed here, and given the short shrift received by the plight of Gorazde as it was happening in the American press, far more Americans should be absorbing it than already have. Sacco has a gentle, self-deprecating humor, and the kind of ear that turns even the most unpleasant interviewee into a sympathetic character. As well, while most of Sacco's drawings are straightforward-- there are an almost unsettling number of scenes in this book featuring a single character against a monochrome background, as if being interviewed on a talk show (or up against a wall being faced by a firing squad)-- every once in a while one pops out that makes you realize that, yes, there's a war going on in Gorazde as Sacco is conducting these interviews. The scarcity of the out-and-out brutal pictures makes them all the more effective in Sacco's pastiche of desperation, loss, and ever-present gallows humor.

    Good stuff, this. ***


  4. I just finished reading this brilliant work. I was in Eastern Europe in 1991-1993 and saw the refugees coming out of Bosnia. I followed the story as close as I could, even visting a refugee camp. But Sacco's illustrations put me on the ground in the supposed safe zones. The brutality of the supposedly Christian Serbs to Muslim Bosnians is so overwheliming it makes any beheadings in Iraq look like a birthday party in comparison.

    The book also does a nice job giving the history of the war, including the role Clinton played, for those who don't remember the 1990s. Please rread this book. You can do it in a day.


  5. A graphic novel that reveals the history of the Bosnian war and cleansing of Muslims and Crotians by the Serbs.Novel is by Joe Sacco a Journalist and cartoonist. He also has writtin other graphic novels.


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Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Written by Tim Samara. By Rockport Publishers. The regular list price is $30.00. Sells new for $18.00. There are some available for $21.25.
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No comments about Design Evolution: A Handbook of Basic Design Principles Applied in Contemporary Design.




Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Written by Peter Galassi and Jean Clair and Claude Cookman and Robert Delpire and Jean-Noel Jeanneney and Jean Leymarie and Serge Toubiana. By Thames & Hudson. The regular list price is $55.00. Sells new for $28.75. There are some available for $17.62.
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5 comments about Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image & The World: A Retrospective.

  1. I admire and love Henri Cartier-Bresson so much, the master not only in Photography, but also in the history of humanity. I believe in Buddhism so much. And So does Cartier-Bresson.

    Cartier-Bresson spread his humanity and the love of the life to the whole world during not only the past 100 years, but also the years we will have.

    Photography is just a kind of art to normal an artist. To Cartier-Bresson, it is the artless art.

    Regarding this book, it is my first one about Cartier-Bresson, and I decide to buy more after I enjoyed this book.

    If you are new to Cartier-Bresson, buy this one without hesitation. You will fall in love with the master just as I did.

    If you know well about Cartier-Bresson, buy this one also. It is an overview of the master. You can get the information you need just in one book.

    If you are an adorer of Cartier-Bresson, buy this one as a must. Do not need to say why, because it is about Henri Cartier-Bresson.

    All in all, buy this book. Read, feel, and enjoy. Not only the photography, but also the life.


  2. The book is a testimony to the capabilities of Henri Cartier-Bresson as a photographer. With limited equipment, a camera and only one lens, he managed to capture an amazing range of emotions and phenomenon. Cartier-Bresson's work, which is amply documented in this book, also provides an example of "available light" photography.

    My one complaint is the quality of reproduction of the photos is somewhat poor, though I am not sure whether this could have been remedied by the publishers


  3. I put off buying this book as long as I could and eventually I did, having in the meantime manhandled book store copies. It is difficult to get too much HCB and this offers a lot in one package.

    I take minor exception to HCB as elevating photography to art -- he is more often described as someone who turned his hobby into an art form, albeit it was a hobby informed by artisitic sensibility. The incomparable Eastman House in Rochester has examples that go back to the earliest days of photography as art. But the 20th century was crowded with photographic art. HCB's eminence in the PostWar recognition of Photography as Art by such places as MOMA is a given. (he preferred the small a).

    The number of photographs included is for me in this book is an asset, providing a broad look at the stupendous body of work done by HCB during his long career.

    In the 1950s and early 60s, the greatest influence on young photojournalists came from "This Is War" by David Douglas Duncan, published in 1951 and "The Decisive Moment" in 1952, which took its title from HCB's text. The Verve edition used a different title, i.e. "Images à la sauvette" which translates to "pictures on the run."

    Robert Capa suggested to HCB that he call himself a photojournalist and later the two would join in forming Magnum, the first and greatest photo agency. From that came the inaccurate sometime sobriquet of " Father of Photojounalism."

    HCB's work received the earliest important recognition from Americans and his exhibitions and books always received a warm reception. Had he been an American, his political views might have ensnared him in the hysteria of the 50s.His individual perspective was as strong as one might expect from someone who spent three years in a Nazi prison. After the war's bitter experiene, HCB's work became much more humanist.

    In France his acceptance as an artist does not fully reflect the merits of his work. The US has accepted the work of HCB and Eugene Atget at a level that the French art establishment did not -- although he did have support that matters. One reason cited is that HCB objected to the "fetishistic attitude" toward original prints.

    HCB's darkroom work was done by skilled technicians. Berenice Abbot promoted the merit of Atget's work with her own prints from the thousands of negatives she brought back to the US.

    That is a point on which HCB was entirely right. Some earlier vintage prints of his work is not all that good. HCB recognized that for his genre, a skilled darkroom craftsman could both satisfy his esthetic judgments and replicate his work over and over. What he could control was how many "authorized" images there were.

    A gigantic HCB exhiition at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France several years ago was pectacular -- the BNF chosen because it would gladly work with HCB and his wife. That was a rare opportunity that had to be taken. You don't think much about the print, but rather what an eye HCB has for the moment.

    There are certainly photographers who marry their eye to theirr work in the darkroom. HCB did not see it that way.

    This book is perfect for me, but others less familiar with HCB's work might be better off with one of his books on a theme, e.g. Paris, etc.










  4. Fantástico libro de fotografías que recoge muchas de sus épocas como fotógrafo.
    Fotos de Barcelona,Madrid,Valencia,Paris.Berlin....
    Una auténtica maravilla.
    Si te gusta la fotografía,no debes dejar escapar este libro


  5. A great retrospective of his incredible photography. I just got it for Xmas and LOVE it!


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Posted in Art and Photography (Thursday, July 24, 2008)

Written by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Jean Potter. By Gryphon House. The regular list price is $16.95. Sells new for $9.54. There are some available for $8.99.
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Purchase Information

5 comments about Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World.

  1. As a homeschooling mom, I took one look at the copy I got from the library and decided I had to have this book in my collection. Its a great resource. Very creative and unique. Saves me from having to hunt up fun hands on activities for the countries we are studying. I am not an artsy craftsy kind of person and usually find that stuff a waste of time. So something must be really good for me to take notice of. I think theres alot of value to this book. Its a resource to supplement what you are teaching.


  2. The Global Art book barely mentions an Iraqi and Iranian piece of art however it chooses to limit the children's scope from Islamic art. I view this as another biased piece of work that is keen on dividing the world rather than a simple tool for educating children about the world or so called "GLOBAL ART".


  3. A very resourful book. The authors misspell Colombia.


  4. I enjoy all of MaryAnn F. Kohl's books, and this one is a little different than her others as it has a bit more in the way of finished products, though they are all arrived at by discovering and creating. Still, this book works well for those older kids who want a little more "fact" in their art. My favorite chapter revolves around Asian projects, in particular those from Japan.


  5. Thanks for the help! My kids love to be fascinated, as do all kids, and this book makes it easy. I love how the chapters are organized by continents, and how the projects are not so much copying crafts from different countries, but actually incorporate history and inventions and all kinds of things from different countries into simple, easy to do art projects. The chapter on Antarctica is a kick! It's all projects about snow and ice and white paint. My kids love it! Works for all ages, too, from preschool through about age twelve I would think.


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Last updated: Thu Jul 24 04:20:16 EDT 2008