3 comments about Charming Handmade Clay Crafts: Decorative Techniques & Projects.

1. I am very dissapointed with my book. The condition is ok, but it is an old library book with stickers and stamps throughout.



2. This book is so complete. I have wanted to work in clay for some time but was a bit intimidated by the process. The clear and colorful photos of all steps with text that includes every detail makes this book perfect for me. I was impressed by the sheer creativity and number of projects that can be made just by handbuilding. I am wildly inspired. The whole book is so juicy!



3. I found this book packed with inspiration. Explains projects thoroughly and has lots of pictures as well. The projects are cute and fun to make. I think is a great book for a beginner.

1 comments about Hopi Pottery Symbols.

1. In researching for another book, Patterson found reference to an unpublished manuscript of the Keams Collection. With much searching he found the text at the National Archives and the illustrations at the Smithsonian. After reassociating this material, this important primary information was finally published. Contains excellent information about the meaning of Hopi symbols.

1 comments about Writings/Interviews.

1. I have been a fan of Richard Serra's from the moment I first viewed the torqued elipses. I looked for his work and information about him all over the place, all of which sparked my interest. I saw this book and I was incredibly curious to read what an artist who does so much head work has to say, and whether it would be clear and understandable. I was so pleased to find that Serra was incredibly open, direct, honest, well-expressed, with an even humorous turn-of-phrase at times, which was refreshing. I highly recommend the essays and interviews 'Extended Notes From Sight Point Road,' 'About Drawing: An Interview,' and 'An Opinionated Museum Goer.' I personally found myself agreeing with much of what Serra said and wrote, in fact, to my surprise, he was able to articulate many of my thoughts better than I ever had. A great, influential man, and I highly recommend this book by and about him.

1 comments about Celebrating Moore: Works from the Collection of the Henry Moore Foundation.

1. This beautifully presented hardback book, contains refined images of sculptures in substancial materials that will last a life. I suggest everyone should purchase this book as a tribute to Henry's life and the skill he displayed.

1 comments about Decorative Ironwork of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

1. The book is entirely a sourcebook of illustrations with no text. The illustrations are wonderful however, and highly detailed. Also, a good, well rounded collection of different types, formats and designs. I gave it three stars because I felt that I would have enjoyed knowing where the ironwork pieces illustrated are, their dates and what the use was. All in all, a good visual reference.

1 comments about The Sculptural Idea, Fourth Edition.

1. One of the best and most comprehensive sculpture books out there. I used an earlier edition of this book years ago for research. I liked it so much I considered not returning it to the library! Instead I bought this edition when I saw it.

2 comments about Encountering Eva Hesse.

1. Griselda Pollock and Vanessa Corby have written a scholarly work including a compilation of instructive essays on the life and work of German born sculptor, Eva Hesse. Hesse, tragically dead from brain cancer at 34, began her life of art work with feet firmly planted in classical training and went on to pioneer new ground for artists and women alike. Encountering Eva Hesse is comprised of nice chapters, six of which are contributions by Hesse's contemporaries and admirers. These sections serve to shed light on some of the mechanisms by which art is born and the ways in which one artist affects another. They scrutinize many interesting facets of the art world, entertaining ideas about things like the difference between opinion and critique, what makes an experience "female" vs. human, and (of particular interest) how to understand works of art as revolutionary without the need to like the work itself.
   
   Pollack and Corby do a good job putting together information about Eva Hesse. They provide the reader a history of Hesse's life and work in a somewhat bland and unremarkable manner, except where they appear to allow the glorification of her early death. In the process of this non-descript homage I feel the editors leave to chance any thoughts of Hesse's work in biographical terms - something I feel is more than a little significant. She was, after all, a German-born Jew whose work would have been vilified by the Nazis - had she been allowed to live. Additionally, her most noteworthy work came about during some fourteen months of residency in Germany, a place she had been forced to flee as a child. Despite the emergence of this collection as a relevant methods and technique discussion, I think the artist's biographical experience is accorded too little time. Anne Middleton Wagner does a wonderful job of providing commentary on Eva Hesse - along with Lee Krasner and Georgia O'Keefe - and infuses her work with the appropriate investigation into artists translating and negotiating the world as creatives who are also female.



2. Leaving an extensive body of work in varied media and an unfinished, seeming boundless career when she died in 1970 at the age of 34 from over-exposure to the toxic materials she used in her art, Eva Hesse was rendered into an almost legendary figure representing the risks and promise of art coming about in the culturally fertile period of the 1960s. Born in Germany, she emigrated as a girl to the U.S. with her family; and did most of her art work in New York City. Containing numerous samples of all kinds of Hesse's work, the book with its nine writings from individuals who knew Hesse and her work well, including an interview with Hesse's one-time collaborator Doug Johns, is mainly an expansive reflection on her as a person and artist. The writers variously recount and discuss her techniques, and consider her place in modern art. The assorted remembrances and thoughts combine for an attempt "to apply these newer critical concepts to her work" (referring to new critical theory which has been developed for dealing more appropriately with postmodern and women's art in the decades since Hesse died). In an informal way through remembrances, knowledgeable though limited comments on the art including pertinent of pertinent remarks by Hesse, and loosely organized chapters--rather than systematic or scholarly investigation, for example--the book brings comprehension of Hesse forward without proffering a definitive view.

1 comments about Swiss Carvings: The Art of the 'Black Forest' 1820-1940.

1. This book is the first serious study of this genre. The authors have put together a bonanza of information including not only serious academic research but the most amazing photos. Bears on skis, majestic eagles, faithful hounds, and amazing sculpture, leap out of the pages...The authors point out that this whole ouvre has long been ignored and needs to be re-classified for what it really is, a serious, 19th/early 20th century art form. The chapter on international exhibitions, for example, puts a completely different perspective on Black Forest. The book is thoroughly readable and also refreshingly unpretentious.

No comments about The Funeral Effigies of Westminster Abbey.

No comments about Beginning Sculpture.