No comments about Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art.

2 comments about Los Caprichos.

1. This book is phenomenal. The only thing I could say against it is it's a bit small, but I believe the images are actual size, so of course there's not much to be done. A good hardcover edition would show these off very well. These Dover art books are a great, cheap way to get access to images like these if you can't commit to a fine edition or, should you be so fortunate, one of the original prints themselves.
   
   Goya one-upped Surrealism, Expressionism, and much more, a hundred years before the fact. These prints take you on a dream journey through some startlingly original imagery that scrutinizes human social engagement with an unsparing eye. Cynical would be too soft a word for some of the images, but somehow it's hard to disagree with Goya's positions. You feel like people were often that empty in Spanish society of the time. And what about today?
   
   As for the formal side, the etchings are technically inventive, uninhibited, masterful, confident, and often understated. Goya is content to let a few lines and a dark mass of aquatint evoke a whole interior, alleyway, or landscape.
   
   In a way, these prints also relate to Edward Gorey, Tim Burton, and many more. In fifty years you'll be able to rack up a new breed of descendents. Their influence, I'm sure, will be timeless.



2. Goya aparently did this book to show how silly the superstitions of the common people were, and still are.

3 comments about Hiroshi Sugimoto.

1. I first saw this book at the de Young Museum in San Francisco during a major exhibition of Sugimoto's work there during the summer of 2007. I love photography and have been building up a library of photo books for years. Sugimoto is one of my favorite artists and I was really looking forward to having a book of his work (there are so few that have been published that are available).
   
   I think the book is a really good survey of Sugimoto, but I have to say that I was extremely perplexed and disappointed by the decision of the publisher and the artist to publish the work in such a small format. If you've ever seen any of Sugimoto's prints, they are on the order of 4 feet by 5 feet and larger. Their size is important to the presence of the work and highlights the incredible detail that can be captured by a committed artist using very large format cameras. The prints reproduced in the book are just too small to be able to capture any of this impact.
   
   This really drops the rating for me. if it had been twice or three times the dimensions as published it would have just been big enough.



2. If you have never seen Sugimoto's work and you have an interest in conceptual art and photography, you are in for a treat. As he says, his work is all about time and what better way to show time than through a photograph. Beautifully produced, this book hints at the depth of the original large format images that can now be seen at a retrospective at San Francisco's de Young museum.
   
   The book begins with his portraits in a wax museum and dioramas from New York's Museum of Natural History. All of his photographs are made with large format camera and the detail is exquisite. Conceptually, the camera gazes upon reproduction figures that are perhaps better than life itself, arranged like sculpture. The meaning of these objects (and places) becomes a recurring theme in his work that ultimately questions the medium itself. Real fiction.
   
   The highlight of the book in my estimation are the minimalist sea landscapes that capture light and question time -- they are devoid of a decisive moment. These images are absolutely spellbinding in person and, for a book, the reproduction is very good.
   
   The weakest part are photographs made by Sugimoto of blurred buildings, which take on a toy like scale, again questioning the reality of the original object. The selection of which building is clearly important, but the execution just isn't as exciting or masterful as the other work in this book. This is a very difficult area and very few photographers have pulled it off (try David Armstrong: All Day Every Day also available at Amazon)
   
   Conceptually, the mathematical models, created in the late 1800's and early 1900's are fascinating. The ultra-resolution of the view camera shows the human hand in creation, where slight imperfections cast shadows of scratches made by the makers, as well as students and teachers. The poetry of pure math meets visual realism.
   
   The finale are the photographs of movie theaters, each image exposed for the duration of the movie. The screen is a brilliant white (hinting at the experience of light from a movie), pouring out into the architecture of the theater or the surroundings of the drive-in landscaping. One of my favorites, from Union City, California, shows traces of light in the sky from passing aircraft -- a Zen-like experience of the passing of time that hints at an ancient haiku about the traces left by geese on snow.



3. I recently discovered Sugimoto's pictures browsing the web. This book is beautifully produced and plate after plate demands not only an aesthetic response from the viewer but also a decidedly intellectual and conceptual one (maybe that's the same thing!). It's rare to find art that is simultaneously so beautiful and so profound.

No comments about The International Art Markets: The Essential Guide for Collectors and Investors.

No comments about Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks.

5 comments about Art:21: Art in the Twenty-First Century 4 (Art in the Twenty-First Century).

1. I am a practicing artist and really enjoyed listening to other artists share themselves and their art in a very intimate and informative format,



2. This book was required for my Contemporary Art class. Great pictures....the accompaning DVD goes into more depth about each artist and provides more info about each artist than does the book.



3. This is an excellent book and an excellent series for anyone who wants to know more about art being creating today. My Art History professor uses this book at the text book for her Contemporary Art class. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in seeing art history in the making.



4. I am a faithful follower of this series, and use the dvds in my contemporary art history class. The companion books make wonderful text to supplement the television series.



5. I have the first two books in the series and hope to spend the rest of my life watching the PBS program and looking and thinking about the artwork presented both on video and in the beautifully crafted texts.

1 comments about Exhibit Design: High Impact Solutions.

1. Exhibit designers have several interesting problems. In many cases the exhibit must be mobil. It travels from trade show to trade show around the country, even around the world. Then it needs to be set up, quite possibly by people who have never seen it before, and at the end of the show the exhibit has to be torn down, usually by people who have been working at the show all day, are tired, don't care where things get put, and are ready to head to a bar.
   
   Here is a book on exhibits by outstanding design companies from around the world. These are not the little ten foot square booths you see around the edges, but the kinds of booths you would expect from Mercedes-Benz.
   
   Actually only about half the book is on business/trade show exhibits. The rest of the book is on more permanent structures such as information booths or museums. All in all, this is an idea book on how to do exhibits that attract attention, show off the company and the products, and create a memorable experience for the visitor.

No comments about The Artist-Gallery Partnership, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Consigning Art.

1 comments about Inside the Studio: Talks With New York Artists.

1. I was required to read this book for a graduate class. That's not a bad thing. I'm very pleased with my purchase. I found it esspecially helpful as a book for examples of how to write about art. The book is a collection of writings about the studio practices of artists living in New York, written by those artists. Many of the section were written in the 80's which is interesting as it lets you peek into the studios of those who since then have changed ways of working. Some artists discuss how and why they got into the arts in the first place, or why they choose to work in certain materials, or what work that they made did they find very unsucessful.
   
   Each artist essentially gets two-three pages and the artisist include: (though this is not a complete list)
   - Judy Pfaff
   - Leon Golub
   - Robert Mappelthorpe
   - Chuck Close
   - Sean Scully
   - Vito Acconci
   - Louise Bourgeois
   - Jim Dine
   - Joel Shapiro
   - Terry Winters
   - Richard Deacon
   - Oliver Herring
   - Tony Cragg
   - Kiki Smith
   - Mark Dion
   - Fred Tomaselli
   
   (this is less than half of the artists)
   
   Overall I would say it is a good insight into the lives of some great artists and thier working practices.

2 comments about The British Museum Book of Chinese Art.

1. THIS BOOK IS INTERESTING BUT NEED TO BE UPTODATED WITH MORE COMMENTS AND MORE RECENT PICTURES AS LAST ESCAVATION IN CHINA HA DETERMINED A KIND OF NEW IDENTIFICATION OF PORCELAIN AND STUDY.



2. The British Museum has a wonderful collection of Chinese art, from the Neolithic to the early years of the 20th century, and this book uses the collection as an introduction to Chinese culture, and to the varied forms of art--bronzes, jades, pottery and porcelains, calligraphy and painting, sculpture, cloisonne, and lacquer work--that the evolving culture has produced for the past 5000 to 6000 years. The book opens with a very good but brief introduction to Chinese history and then surveys the various art forms. The color and black-and-white illustrations are glorious, and good choices have been made about the pieces to show in color (though one always wishes for more, especially in my case of Qing ceramics). The British Museum collection is featured, obviously, but the individual pieces are occasions for very clear and interesting discussions of the type of work each represents; the book in this respect is very much more than a catalog of one collection. I especially appreciate this more general information about various types of Shang bronzes or Qing ceramics, for example, and the detailed information about materials, techniques, and production. Anyone at all interested in Chinese art and culture will value this book, and it's also a book that will excite people who haven't previously been interested. Excellent and beautiful.