1 comments about Private Skin.

1. This is a wonderful collection of sensitive, and beautiful nudes. Women acting so natural in front of the camera that it sometimes creates a vivifying intimacy that is pure joy. If you're interested in amateur nude photography, this book is a must have.

1 comments about Designs on Prehistoric Hopi Pottery.

1. Reprint of portion of Bureau of Ethnology Report #17, 1895 and #33 (I don't know the date). Not the easiest reading, but important primary resource. Fewkes was not the most meticulous archaeologist, but for his day he was pretty good, and he obtained his information at an early period in the ethological research of the Hopi culture.

1 comments about Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life.

1. While doing research for an essay on the "Search for Postmodernism in a Modernist World," I purchased Ms Rowell's book, curiously titled Objects of Desire. At the very least, it was a questionable investment. However, it is indicative of what is wrong with the world of modern art [or even postmodern art] where pretentious jargon takes the place of actual description, reason or discussion as an excuse for art works that in the end are just boring.
   
   At the time of the book's publication, Ms Rowell was allegedly a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her explanation of Postmodernism gets at the heart of the matter in such a way that I am compelled to quote her at length, in particular her explanation regarding the bridge between pastiche and schizophrenia:
   
   "The possibility of pastiche -- its neutrality and blankness - presupposes that individualism is dead. The copy is impersonal; the model is either indifferent, forgotten, or never existed. High modernism, however, was "predicated on the invention of a personal private style... This means that the modernist aesthetic is in some way a unique personality and individuality, which can be expected to generate its own unique vision of the world, and to forge its own unique, unmistakable style." Yet today, scientists, social scientists, and cultural critics are "exploring the notion that that [sic] kind of individualism and personal identity is a thing of the past; that the old individual or individualist subject is `dead'; and that one might even describe the concept of the unique individual and the theoretical basis of individualism as ideological." Thus the old models of modernism are no longer viable. As we know, schizophrenia is defined as a basic breakdown of relationships - because objects in a perceptual field, for example and between words and their meaning or content, or between words and each other as a continuous fabric of meaning in a linguistic system. As a result, the schizophrenic has no concept of time as linear, interconnected, and sequential, and none either of personal identity as a selection and interrelation of certain specific human potentials at the expense of others. Conversely, because the schizophrenic does not (indeed cannot) search for meaning behind the object, behind the word, or within the unhierarchical unfolding of the field of experience, he or she has an experience of the present and of its objects that is "overwhelmingly vital and `material'... ever more material - or better still, literal - ever more vivid in sensory ways." ... Pashtiching the objects of desire of our traditional landscape, they set a film of meaning (or nonmeaning) between themselves and ourselves. In their deliberate displacement and disconnection from familiar circuits of meaning - whether aesthetic or real - these surrogates or simulacra embody another register of experience, that of the signs and systems of the postmodern world." [Rowell, 194-195]
   
   Is there anything more that can be added after such an erudite analysis? Perhaps there is. However, the analysis does cause one to ask a number of questions. Did anyone buy this book for anything other than the pictures? How does one get a job as a curator in a major museum? And more to the point, was there an editor, or was the editor on vacation when page after page of turgid, incoherent and virtually incomprehensible pseudo-intellectualism made its way to print? Or perhaps this presentation is meant to be a literary representation of Postmodernism, most likely a parody of postmodern Deconstructionist style. One can only hope that this is satire - the world of Dilbert in the "artplace." Dramatic readings of her text have provided considerable entertainment for my friends and family, who found it quite amusing.

3 comments about Beau Men.

1. *Beau Men* is an interesting, small collection of erotic art. If you're a regular reading of gay novels, you'll recognize that some of them have appeared on the covers. Some are details and the others are simple. Nonetheless, they're wonderful to look at. I only wish that there were more.



2. This collection of Beau's work is just plain HOT. The images burn into your mind and permit you to construct a "pre-quel" and a sequel to the image presented to you. USE YOUR IMAGINATION and you have a whole story....HOT, HOT, HOT.



3. This collection of paintings (the first of two books by Beau, a.k.a., Kevin King) is simply stunning! I had the chance to interview Beau for MEN magazine, where many of his paintings appeared, and he is as amazing as his work: Sexy, smart, refined while retaining an edge... erotic and challenging, a must-have for any erotic art collector.

2 comments about Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics: A Close Embrace of the Earth.

1. I had ordered two copies of this book
   One as a birthday gift, and the other for myself
   When they arrived both books had smeared ink on the cover
   I think it was the printing ink used
   Since these were the last two books in stock, they could not be replaced
   
   I feel that whoever ships out books should pull any books with defects, than notify the buyer,
   
   I decided against giving the book as a gift



2. Noguchi is truley a master. The most complete catalog of this artists work in clay. As a ceramic sculpture student, this book has given me a world of new insight ang inspiration. Noguchi has been an influence for me for some time and it is wonderful to have such a wonderful resource. Louise Allison Cort has done a remarkable job and I look forward to future catalogs.

No comments about Inigo Manglano-Ovalle: The Krefeld Suite.

1 comments about Prince Eagle: An Artist's Book.

1. Elizabeth Peyton's work fascinates me. She creates the art I never thought I could get a way with, and she does it beautifully. This collection of photos and drawings focus on one man who supposedly looks like a painting of Napoleon. I suppose he does, but her view of him is what is important.
   
   She looks at him with more than a loving eye. She sees things in him that he obviously doesn't see in himself, and she shows those things to us. We are intimate partners in her adoration, never feeling voyeuristic or inappropriate. This feels natural and right, the way each of us should feel about someone.
   
   The informality of the settings and the casual drawings - often on hotel stationery - give an "of the moment", casual feeling that adds to the intimacy and the mystery. Has she been staring at him as he sleeps? Did she quickly dash off a sketch to remember a certain attitude or expression? This is a truly beautiful collection.

No comments about Stephen Pace.

No comments about Book Illustration and Decoration: A Guide to Research (Art Reference Collection).

No comments about Reading Greek Vases.