No comments about Gourd Crafts: 6 Projects & Patterns.

1 comments about Nude Sculpture: 5,000 Years.

1. Nude Sculpture: 5,000 Years contains the photogaphs of David Finn and an essay on the sculpture and the photographs by Vicki Goldberg.
   
   Photographer Finn found that art critics had found the work of the sculptor Antonio Canova to be academic and cold. I have to admit I also found this to be true, especially of the well know work "Paolina Borghese as Venus" located in the Borghese Palace in Rome. However, Finn shows us another side of Canova in his photographs of "Cupid and Psyche" from the Louvre. This work, when viewed directly from the front, is wonderfully composed with Psyche's upstretched arms circling the head of Cupid, while his arms enfold and support her. However Finn shows us a view from behind the figures where the narrative is not as explicit but the composition just as beautiful as the front view. In this back view, an urn has been overturned which can't be seen from the front view and the loving embraces of the front view become more ambiguous and maybe threatening when seen from behind.
   
   Finn also photographs "The Three Graces" by Canova, located in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Finn narrows the focus to the torsoes and legs of the three maidens, revealing a rhythmic flowing pattern of pure elegance.
   
   The photographs are organized chronologically, starting with a fertility figures that is over 6500 years old, that is highly stylized and almost contemporary in wit and modeling. The works of the Egyptians follow with an incredible naturalistic wooden nude young man from 2200 B.C. that is modeled, posed, and executed with high reality and attention to the natural form rather than to the Egyptian artistic canon. The slim young male body, realistic genitals, relaxes stance, and realistic gripped hand, are superb.
   
   Finn then takes us to the work of the Greeks. Be ready to be amazed at the perfection in his detail of "Riace Warrior A". The backside of this warrior is about as sensual as any work of art I know.
   
   The interpretations of the nude in the Hindu and Buddhist sculptures of India, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Japan range from the highly sensual to the contemplative.
   
   Micelangelo's sculptures have such bulk and presence, as if his first and foremost goal is to fully develop a solid shape, something which can't be easily ignored - which must be dealt with.
   
   Two male nudes by Baccio Bandinelli of "Hercules and Cacus" could not be any more perfect. Benvenuto Cellini's "Perseus", photographed from the side, integrates the nude male into a complex pose and composition. Giambologna's "Rape of a Sabine" is shown just in detail, and the rape imagery is lost as we see the male figure in awe of the female's breast or gently holding her buttocks. This deconstruction of the whole image into details that imply totally different meaning is evident also in Bernini's "Pluto Abducting Persephone" and "Apollo and Daphne" where the male's touch holds the female firm but does not bruise.
   
   Into the 19th century we come to Rodin's "Iris, Messenger of the Gods" a challenging work of art for all viewers in all times. I can hardly describe this work of art for the work seems both floating and contorted as the female figure balances on one foot while holding her other leg into the air, totally exposing her gentials as boldly as the male genitals are sometimes revealed.
   
   A final favorite of mine is "Man" by Gaston Lachaise, a work that seems both comic and heroic as the nude male figure seems struttpuffed up like a rooster and purposefully massive as a god.
   
   Very fine photography.

No comments about Sevres Porcelain at Hillwood (The Hillwood Collection Series).

4 comments about Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide.

1. Selecting 54 outdoor sculptures that are of personal and aesthetic interest, the author takes you on a guided tour of Manhattan starting from the Statue of Liberty in the south all the way north to El Cid by Anna Hyatt Huntington.
   
   An easy read for all, each essay gives a brief introduction into the sculptures stylistic elements. It also compares them to how they could have been different and what that would have done to the artwork's meaning. The author also provides background information on the sculpture and its subject to further enhance our appreciation.
   
   Of course when it comes right down to it, Durante shows us through sculpture great minds at work (artisan and innovator) who have accomplished much in their pursuit of values.



2. Manhattan's streets and parks are packed with historic monuments, and some fifty of them are included in OUTDOOR MONUMENTS OF MANHATTAN: A HISTORICAL GUIDE, which offers up background history, surveys of American sculptors, and analysis of each sculpture, its influences, and its history. A 'must' for any Manhattan resident or library seeking background information on the area's best outdoor monuments to use as either a take-along travel tote or a study.



3. As a native New Yorker, at one time or another I've passed by and gazed at every one of the 54 sculptures listed in this excellent book. What I learned was how great each one is. Several of my favorites are mentioned (Columbus, Washington, Hamilton) as are some less publicized gems, like Verrazzano and Dr. James Marion Sims. By breaking down the categories of About the Sculpture and About the Subject, one can learn so much about these outdoor gems in the city. Dr. Durante's style of writing is very clear and she gives a practical guide in "how to read a sculpture" with an objective basis.
   
   Pick your style of heroism and you'll find it here. Whether it's celebrating a job well done (Washington in Union Square) or charging into the battle of a new project (El Cid up in Harlem) or refusing to submit to defeat in the face of death (Nathan Hale in City Hall Park) you are sure to be uplifted.
   
   Every New Yorker should own this book, as it will give them a chance to fill their lives with inspiration by simply traveling to a location simply mapped out in the book. As for non-New Yorkers, this is yet another reason to come here and enjoy the greatness of this magnificent city.



4. Apart from Ayn Rand's own work in esthetics (The Romantic Manifesto---and several other articles outside of it) and Dr. Leonard Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, Dr. Dianne Durante's Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan is the first published work to apply some of Miss Rand's revolutionary esthetics to works of art. This is a MAJOR achievement.
   
   In order to shape a culture dominated by by a rational philosophy, the Objectivist ethics is THE most important idea to get into the culture. And a number of outstanding philosophers have each, independent of one another, done admirable work in this area.
   
   The second most important idea essential to changing our culture is Miss Rand's esthetics. Dr. Durante opened the door to this with her criticism of the thoroughly reprehensible exhibition in New York's Central Park of Christo's Gates. She stood firm against invective. Now she is offering more details as she applies Miss Rand's esthetics to Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.
   
   Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan is a clever organization of facts and commentary. It is also a welcomed introduction to important ideas that offer the reader rational guidelines to better appreciate and understand art in general and the outdoor monuments of Manhattan in particular.

No comments about Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown and Black Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400.

No comments about Chinese Sculpture.

No comments about The Three Graces.

2 comments about The Lyrical Constructivist: Don Gummer Sculpture.

1. Yes! A long overdue book on a wonderful artist. Fans of Brown's work or those who admire the Bay Area Figurative Painters will definitely want this book to add to their library. John Arthur"s commentary on the history of realism and how Brown fits in historically is insightful, funny, witty, and most importantly readable. This book is a great value. I was very surprised that a book with so many color reproductions would be this well priced. You will be very happy with this addition to your library.



2. With Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Wonner, and other area artists, Theophilus Brown was a member of the group that became known as the San Francisco Bay Area Figurative Movement. Formed in the 1950s, by the 1960s, the Movement had gained national prominence. Brown, like the others and more so than most of them, made a decided turn from the abstract expressionism and pop art dominant at the time. Brown, like the others, did landscapes as well as figures. His city and industrial landscapes have a geometric formality and sharp coloration like those of Diebenkorn; though Brown's retain closer representation. The persons in Brown's portraits are recognizable individuals; while he employs limited cubist techniques and imaginative, unconventional color. As William Inge perceptively described the artist's work in 1967, "[T]he human figure takes its place as a natural part of the landscape, unseparated from it, as in the Matisse interiors. Man is not portraitured against a physical world that serves him as a mere backdrop. He is an integral part of that world." The figures in Brown's paintings always seem a natural part of the overall scene despite their cubist accents and unnatural colors and occasional De Kooningesque electric striations of vivid color.
   
   Even while turning to figure painting and related kinds based on the physical, visible world, Brown's paintings nonetheless display influences from De Kooning, Rothko, and Leger; who taught him in the latter 1940s. The paintings also display influences from Picasso, Braque, and Guston; all of whom Brown knew in his movement from Europe to New York to California.
   
   The "turn to figurative art" denotes the long middle period of Brown's work. In the first stages of his career, the work shows Modernist art's characteristic disinterest of representation in favor of celebration of materials and raw imagination. In the last stages of Brown's career beginning at the opening of the 21st century, he again, in an unplanned and unexpected way, makes modernist art in a style of the day. In the early 2000's, Brown took "colorful little screeds" that were remnants clinging to his palette of acrylics he had been working with and "pinned them to the wall" for assembling into collages. "Like the Proustian sweet, the inherent beauty of these viscous snippets recalled the open-ended, improvisational traits of Willem de Kooning, the gestural physicality of Jackson Pollock" and also traits from Franz Kline and Mark Rothko. Closing with these most recent works of Brown's, the art historian and critic and curator John Arthur completes a comprehensive, multifaceted overview of Brown's career.

4 comments about Origami Flowers (Origami).

1. What struck me most about Origami Flowers was the horrible quality of all photographs in the book. It looks like they were digitized at low resolution and then enlarged way more than possible. Instead of a picture you get several squares in varying shades of gray all arranged together. Darker squares near the center tell you that there would be a flower there if the editor had bothered to make it so.
   
   The actual flower patterns are fine and the diagrams printed OK. The actual diagrams are terrible to follow. I am decent at origami and had trouble figuring out what I was supposed to do. I think they were trying to draw three dimensional diagrams, but had never heard of perspective.
   
   Another problem is that with only indistinct blobs where photos of the finished products should be you have fold the flower before you can see what it will look like. So you can't thumb through and find a design to use.
   
   I have always been a fan of Dover Books. I was shocked. What happened? How could this book ship looking like this?
   
   AVOID THIS BOOK
   BLANK PAPER IS WORTH MORE
   THIS BOOK IS POST CONSUMER WASTE



2. The illustrations are terrible in this book. Even though the book is black and white, the illustrations of completed projects are fuzzy and grainy. They look like a bad fax.

   I found the folding instructions difficult to follow and haven't been able to make any of these flowers. I would consider myself an intermediate folder.

   I have several origami books and this is the worst one, overall. I would not recommend the purchase of this book.




3. This is a horrible book! The illustrations are cryptic and what little written instruction there is is poor. The entire book is in Black and White and makes it difficult to read the folding instructions. If you're looking for a fun and simple time creating origami flowers LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE! This book is only filled with hours of frustration and headaches. I've been trying to fold the flowers in this book for a week and have yet to complete a single one!



4. I was very disappointed with this book. Folding directions weren'twell illustrated. No easily identifiable end result was shown. Veryfew flowers were included. And the layout of the book was difficult to follow. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are highly skilled in Origami to begin with.

No comments about Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas (Texts & Documents).