Posts by artbooks

Art and Architecture of Ireland: magnificent history of a magnificent history

Sally Salvesen– Ten years ago I was in Dublin working with Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin on the second edition of their book Ireland’s Painters, when Robert Towers, Yale UP’s Irish representative, arranged a meeting with Nicola Figgis of University College Dublin and Brendan Rooney of the National

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Material Transformations in Art of the Maya: Interview with Stephen Houston by David Ebony

David Ebony— The first Maya archeological site I ever visited was Uxmal, on an extended tour of the Yucatán in Mexico in the early 1980s. Exploring the sprawling ruins of ornate buildings covered with refined carvings of figures, animals and glyphs, made over 1000 years ago, proved something of a

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The Twelve Days of Art Books

    On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me A book of global street photography.     On the second day of Christmas, I gave to my true love A book about O’Keeffe and Arthur Dove.     On the third day of Christmas, I gave

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Location, location, location: David Young Kim on traveling Renaissance artists

David Young Kim– Along with the presidents’ names, and birds and flowers of the fifty states (or at least some of them), schoolchildren in classrooms around the United States once recited a rhyme about the so-called “Discovery of America:” “In the year fourteen hundred ninety-two / Columbus sailed the ocean

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Puzzling Through the Wasteland: Vittoria Di Palma on her new book

Vittoria Di Palma– When I was living in London in the early 2000s, I went to an exhibit at the British Library.  I don’t remember much about the show, nor exactly how I got my hands on one of the folders intended for members of the press, but I do

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Wassily Kandinsky and the Abstract

Ivy Sanders Schneider – When you encounter some of Wassily Kandinsky’s early works, it can be hard to remember that this artist – who began his career with bright, folk-art inspired, post-impressionist landscapes – would become one of the first true abstract painters. Although his early style was quite illustrative,

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From the Designer’s Desk: Jean Wilcox

Today’s inspiring edition of From the Designer’s Desk is a project-specific exposition by Jean Wilcox, award-winning designer and principal of Wilcox Design. Jean Wilcox– I walk by a used bookstore every day on my way to work, and I cannot help but scan the window to see if there might

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The artist and the writer: Berlinde De Bruyckere and J.M. Coetzee

Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere is a contemporary sculptor of enormous renown.  Her striking, disquieting, mixed-media pieces are composed of wax, horse hair, wool, wood, and paint, among other substances.  Her forms are reminiscent of bones and flesh, broken tree limbs and tattered rags. There is a beauty to the pieces,

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William Morris: Anarchy and Beauty

“The art or work-pleasure, as one ought to call it…sprung up almost spontaneously, it seems, from a kind of instinct amongst people, no longer driven desperately to painful and terrible over-work, to do the best they could with the work in hand – to make it excellent of its kind;

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Win a copy of Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography

While we’re on the topic of photography, we’d like to draw your attention to yet another standout photography title on our fall list. Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography edited by Peter Barberie with Amanda N. Bock accompanies a celebrated exhibition currently on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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