1 comments about Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life.

1. It took me 30 years to come back to this subject, which was the logical conclusion to where art was and still is heading. His reactions are still fresh and current. He will always amaze me.

2 comments about John Freely's Istanbul.

1. Great overview of this fascinating city. Freely is the expert on Istanbul and he brings the culture and history to life.



2. We bought this together with the D-K Guide to Istanbul Istanbul (Eyewitness Travel Guides) prior to visiting the city, and found them to be an excellent combination. Freely, an American who came to Istanbul in 1960, taught Physics at the Roberts Academy, later the University of the Bosphorus, but his real accomplishment has been to write a fine series of books about the city he loves so much. Devoting one chapter to each of the seven hills of the city, Freely does a great job of discussing their history, art and architecture.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   A third guide worth considering is the Knopf guide. Knopf Guide: Istanbul (Knopf Guides Istanbul and Northwest Turkey) Less structured, it is far more broad-ranging and cotains some delightful surprises.

2 comments about Living with Art.

1. I was suppose to receive my book no later than september 7th and I just received it on sept 17th. also the bag was torn the c.d. with the book is gone and there is no packageing slip. I had never had this type of experience I am very disappointed



2. This book is excellent for the beginner, intermediate and advanced art enthusiast. It crosses over all cultures and eras and connects them all using unique and interesting themes. It also covers the basic design elements and visual fundamentals and can be used again and again for any art class: drawing, painting, sculpture, art appreciation.

4 comments about The Fine Artist's Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion: Innovative Techniques to Build Your Career as an Artist.

1. I am a artist and bought this book to get more information on better ways to market and promote my work. This books offers very useful advice that is easy to understand and follow. If you are looking for ways to promote yourself and market your work this is a must read.



2. As I am married to an artist, I can well appreciate the immense difficulties artists face when they are endeavoring to sell their art- work.
   It is with this in mind that I decided to read and review Julius Vitali's updated edition of The Fine Artist's Guide To Marketing And Self Promotion.

   Vitali's question in his introduction- how do fine artists create a reputation and career that will ultimately allow commercial galleries to sell their work- sets the tone of this extremely informative book.
   We often hear the common complaint of artists that they have been rejected so many times that they might as well throw in the towel and forget about selling their work. A simple reply to the artist would be to persist and don't be discouraged. However, unfortunately this is not enough.
   They must realize, as Vitali points out, there are other factors contributing to making an artist known, such as knowing about publicity, marketing, a clear and articulated aesthetic vision, networking, timeliness, and yes, a certain amount of luck.

   Vitali deals with all of these elements in his eleven chapters that clearly point the artist in the right direction. In addition, the reader is also provided with brief profiles of thirteen successful artists, who have implemented to a lesser or greater degree many of Vitali's guidelines. When I was growing up my parents always told me that you learn from the best not the worst. In other words, find out why certain individuals are successful and learn from them. This is basically Vitali's motive for including these thirteen profiles, wherein the reader may be able to implement some of what worked for these artists.

   There is also no shortage of interesting advice scattered throughout the book. As examples, did you know that making personal contact with magazines and newspapers is the most effective way to achieve success with these publications; be careful if you exhibit in the same area and repeatedly send media releases, this may turn off reports and reviewers; that more people listen to radio than ever before and this is an excellent opportunity to be known.

   In addition to receiving some excellent tips as to how to market and sell yourself, the author provides timely resources pertaining to grants for individuals and special projects, corporate support for the arts, exhibiting your art professionally in a variety of venues, assembling a résumé, portfolio, and letters of recommendation.
   A useful appendix at the back of the book deals with digital resources, Internet security and other related Internet topics, useful software, printers, ink and paper, and publishing.

   Julius Vitali is a well- known international artist who has exhibited all over the globe, and his work appears in numerous public and private collections.
   Artists who will devote the time to thoroughly read and probably re-read chapters that are most appropriate to their situation have the most to gain from Vitali's advice.

   Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com




3. My copy of "The Fine Artist's Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion" by Julius Vitali could not have arrived at a better time. I needed to approach numerous manufacturers to evaluate state-of-the-art video equipment for my own book project. The chapter on corporate support for the arts provided the right combination of factual information and inspiration that let me know I could anticipate a 75% favorable response to a request for product support.

   This book prepares beginners for a life of living off one's own wits as an artist.It contains reasonably priced, low and high tech ways to promote your art on your own. It's required reading for anyone seriously planning on making a career in the arts. Art professors would do their students a big favor by making this book a required text.

   Julius Vitali encourages artists to think of themselves as small business entrepreneurs, like painters of the Renaissance who ran their studios as businesses. In this revised edition, there are important chapters on running a home business efficiently, using media to get your work into the public eye, Internet marketing and making a career in Europe. Other chapters contain helpful strategies for exhibiting, grant writing, assembling a résumé and portfolio. I've been making a living as an artist for more than 25 years and this book taught me a lot of new strategies and unorthodox methods for marketing and self-promotion. It contains realistic information that could only be acquired from successful daily practice. Why start from scratch when you can get this type of help?

   Making a career in the arts takes an aggressive approach to selling. Julius Vitali shows it can be done and how anyone can do it with straightforward, no-nonsense advice.




4. The marketing and promotional tips offered in this book are practical and geared toward the profesional artist. Artists who seek a career in the world of fine art and developing a reputation are strongly encouraged to read this book. The advice is both easy to understand and will prepare the artist for the real world, not small-time futility.

2 comments about Amy Sillman: Works on Paper.

1. This book is really a work of art itself. I love the work of Amy Sillman and though I can't afford one of her works, this book is as close as one can get. You can really experience the work up close and the different qualities of the paper and comments by Koestenbaum are pure poetry! Its truly a dedication to a great woman artist.
   If you are an art lover, you need to experience this artist!!!



2. I was at the Whitney Museum this week and came across this book, which I've been planning on buying already--being a big fan of Sillman's work. Besides her art talents, the book in itself is a piece of art. It's not your regular white pages with a picture in the middle, it's done very creatively. It's not on the top of my wish list pile.

No comments about The Florida Water Story: From Raindrops to the Sea.

1 comments about Challenging Graph Art.

1. Order came on time and in the condition stated/

4 comments about The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Companion Guide and History.

1. I bought and read this book prior to my visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum so that when I was there I knew a little about the pieces in her collection. The book is a great source of information about the rooms and the art but it also covers the life of Isabella Gardner. I recommend buying the book ahead so that you know which pieces of art you really want to concentrate on.
   
   The book has color photos of up close shots of the art and photos of the various rooms so that you can see the art in its setting.
   
   It is arranged by floor (there are three) and then by room and finally by the individual piece, making it very easy to use and it is a great size for carrying with you through the museum.
   
   The history in the book is excellent and gives a great overview of Isabella's life and pursuit of art.



2. This small museum guide available at ISGM bookshop in great quantity but difficult to find elsewhere (amazon has it)is a delight to read. Differently from other museum guides it dosen't only deal with the works exposed in Isabella Stewart Gardner's home Fenway Court, but it also briefly reviews this brillant and eccentric woman's life and so brings us even closer to her.
   The visit to the ISGM is a great experience because what we see is not a museum but a person's house, a house used for receiving, entertaining, exposing unusual things and precious objects, a house for praying and reading, and meditating, a house full of lifetimes memories and loved masterpieces. Illustrating the intermingling of Mrs. Gardner's life and her masterpiece was not easy. Mr. Goldfarb, director of the Museum is at the height of this task and with a few well done strokes draws Isabella's portrait and at the same time describes in great detail not only the works of art contained in the mansion but also their history, the way they came into the collection and many interesting news on their artists.
   The book is well illustrated with expecial focus on the disposition of the pieces and the complete description of all the rooms of the house.
   A useful tool for ISGM visit but also a book that is enjoyable before, after and also without the visit.



3. Having been to the ISGM (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) before reading either "Mrs. Jack" or this book, if planning a trip to the museum I highly recommend you read at least one of these books. The museum is truly magnificent, however my only criticism is that the administration of the museum cannot seem to decide if they have a "house museum" (like the Newport mansions) or an art museum. There is precious little information posted within the meusum to tell you what it is you're looking at - the guidebooks available at the museum woefully inadequate. After reading Mrs. Jack I realize that much of this may have been stipulated by Isabella herself - she expected you to know what it was you were seeing without cheats like descriptions. Art for art's sake. It did not matter if Rembrandt painted a canvas - you either like it or you don't - merely wanting to see it because it's a priceless Rembrandt is too bourgeois for Isabella to have considered. In her day, in her level of society, you could still buy a Rembrandt or a Vermeer, 100 years later this is a lot harder to do, making these paintings more rare to us than her. She knew John Singer Sargent personally, so having your portrait painted by him was probably less of a big deal than we see it as today - anyone in her level of society could hire him, so to her - what was the big deal? 100 years more time has made it a big deal to us.



4. More than a few of my well-traveled friends have raved about The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston as their favorite museum in all the world. And why not? Wait until you see it--you'll feel right at home.
   
   Imagine creating for yourself a life that is perfectly delicious. Imagine creating for the world a home museum experience unequaled in all the world. The Hyde Museum in Glens Falls, NY, held that honor for me until I learned the story and saw the pictural views of Fenway Court Isabella Gardner created as her home, which after her death in 1924 was changed to be called The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
   
   Most museum books have wonderful pictures without so rich a story of a strong, courageous woman of impeccable, impassioned taste. No one could have created Fenway Court except Isabella Gardner. Few have created such a wonderful life for themselves and left such an amazing legacy. And, she also managed to maintain her beauty and figure. And what a negotiator she was to gain possession of a piece of art she felt Fenway must own.
   
   I feel empowered to have learned her story.

1 comments about Dialogues in Public Art.

1. Although Finkelpearl is simply wrong about the web and his setting up of an antithetical relationship between the city and its suburbs is, well, dated... his book is really one of the best collection of contemporary public art interviews and ideas out there. Finkelpearl's hands-on involvement with NYC public art programs gives him a level-headed, understated, and pragmatic interview style which avoids too much theoretical diddling and agenda-pumping. Smart, clear, well organized... anybody interested in contemporary public art should own this book.

No comments about Medici: Story of a European Dynasty.