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Virtu Art Books

Art General etc - Old Masters to Futurism

Living the Artist's Life:
A Guide to Growing, Persevering, and Succeeding in the Art World
Paperback
Publisher:
Hillstead Publishing, LLC

Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism and Postmodernism
The book's flexible structure and extensive cross-referencing allow readers to plot their own course through the book and to follow any one of the many narratives that unfold through the century, whether that be the history of a medium such as photography or painting, the development of art in a particular country, the influence of a movement such as Surrealism or feminism, or the emergence of a stylistic or conceptual category like abstraction or minimalism. Boxes give further background information on some of the important figures and issues surrounding the art. In their perceptive introductions, the four authors set out and explain the different methods of art history at work in the book, providing the reader with the conceptual tools to further his or her own study. Two roundtable discussions - one at mid-century, the other at the close of the book - consider some of the questions raised by the preceding decades and look ahead to the art of the future. A glossary of terms and concepts completes this extraordinary volume

Frida Kahlo: The Paintings
Review: Through very detailed and researched information, Hayden Herrera, takes us on a journey of Frida Kahlo's paintings and life. This book shows almost every painting by Frida Kahlo; in a very good quality photographed, page sized image. The author describes the paintings according to what was happening at that moment of Frida's life, and goes on to explain the meaning of all the objects included in her art. It also contains some sketches illustrating what would finally be paintings, and many photographs of Frida Kahlo relating to the painting being discussed. This is one of the best books I have read about Frida Kahlo. Expect a great analysis of her work

Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas
Material new to this expanded edition includes texts on African art, on the Bauhaus and on the re-emergent avant-gardes of the period after the Second World War. Post-modernist debates are amplified by texts on gender, on installation and performance art, and on the increasing globalization of culture

Matisse, His Art and His Textiles: The Fabric of Dreams
Matisse's ancestors had been weavers for generations: textiles, a key to his visual imagination, were in his blood. Although he was to outgrow every other influence, textiles retained their power for him throughout his life. His studio in Nice was a treasure house of exotic Persian carpets, delicate Arab embroideries, richly hued African #wall hangings, and any number of colourful cushions, curtains, costumes, patterned screens and backcloths. This sumptuously illustrated book - the catalogue of a ground breaking exhibition at the Musee Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambresis; the Royal Academy of Arts, London; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - explores for the first time Matisse's relationship with the textiles that surrounded him from his earliest days. Charting how the fabrics he painted became the very fabric of his painting, specialist authors examine the ways in which Matisse used what he called his 'working library' of textiles to furnish, order and compose some of the twentieth century's most pioneering works of art

Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters
David Hockney's brilliant Secret Knowledge is the fruit of his practical and historical investigation into how artists from the 15th century onward produced such vividly realistic drawings and paintings. Hockney's conclusions are simple but devastating. He argues that, "from the early 15th century many Western artists used optics--by which I mean mirrors and lenses (or a combination of the two)--to create living projections". The results are extraordinary. Secret Knowledge carefully explains how Masaccio, Van Eyck, Holbein, Caravaggio, Vermeer and Ingres all used optical aids, as it carefully takes apart the paintings and recreates the instruments and techniques used by artists from as early as the 1430s.

How to Read Paintings (Chambers Arts Library S.)
This is an insight into the creative and technical processes involved in the creation of a painting, and should allow readers to get more from visits to galleries and museums. Composition, subject matter, use of colour, the human figure and different artistic styles are all treated and exemplified by colour illustrations of some of the most famous paintings of all time

From Expressionism to Post-Modernism: Styles and Movements in 20th-Century Western Art (Grove Dictionary of Art)
The Grove Art series, focusing on the most important periods and areas of art history, is derived from the critically acclaimed and award-winning The Grove Dictionary of Art. First published in 1996 in 34 volumes, The Dictionary has quickly established itself as the leading reference work on the visual arts, used by schools, universities, museums, and public libraries throughout the world. With articles written by leading scholars in each field, The Dictionary has frequently been praised for its breadth of coverage, accuracy, authority, and accessibility

A Dictionary of Twentieth-century Art
Fantastic book. As a general reader, I could find all the subjects and biographies I was looking for. Written very well, really a pleasure to read in. Yet another fantastic book in the Oxford Paperback dictionary series

Photorealism at the Millennium
The third volume in his series on the subject, Louis K. Meisel's "Photorealism at the Millennium" documents the movement's evolution through the 1990s. More than 600 colour images, including such distinctive works as Tom Blackwell's "Odalisque Express", Richard Estes's "Spring Afternoon, Madison Square, New York" and Ralph Going's "Duke Diner" represent the decade. Ron Kleemann, Richard McLean, David Parrish, John Salt - every major Photorealist and many of Meisel's discoveries are featured. Begun in the early 1970s, this series is Meisel's ongoing chronicle of an entire contemporary movement, and the essay written by Linda Chase, included in this volume, places the paintings in context

Photorealism
Hardcover
Publisher:
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Photorealism Since 1980
The documentation of the important contemporary art movement of photorealism, covering the years 1980 to the present. The visual imagery in the book ranges from Charles Bell's luminous pinball machines to Chuck Close's mesmerizing portraits to Richard Estes' complex panoramas

Minimalism Designsource
Minimalism Designsource covers the last years of the 1990s and the first years of the twenty-first century and looks at the origins of the term minimalism and how a phenomenon like Minimal Art which originated in the United Status in the 1960s in the fields of painting and sculpture has filtered into other sectors of society. Minimalism is now used in fashion, music, decoration, as well as architecture, and it has come to define the result of the use of pure and simple lines, the reduction of language elements and, as far as architecture is concerned, the investigation of the treatment of space and of building possibilities. Architects featured include John Pawson, David Chipperfield, Shigeru Ban, Claudio Silvestrin, Satoshi Okada, Pool Architecture or Aranda, Pidem y Vilalta. This is the first in a new series of DESIGNSOURCE of full - colour books on design and architecture-featuring 750 colour photos on 650 pages

Minimalism (Movements in Modern Art S.)
Many people have difficulty in appreciating Carl Andre's "Equivalent VIII", consisting of 120 bricks, as a work of art. This publication shows not only how "the bricks" are indeed sculpture, but that minimalist works such as this present some of the most interesting and imaginative work of the 1960s. Minimalism emerged and developed as a reaction against the emotiveness of abstract expressionism. Although most of the artists involved did not regard themselves as part of a group, there are certain key factors which define minimalist work: it is abstract, three-dimensional, modular, serial, geometric, preconceived in design and industrial in execution. This introduction examines the implications of these characteristics, looking in particular at the work of key artists: Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt. It also focuses on the different emphases in each artist's work. The book also looks at the varied types of criticism and interpretation to which minimalism has been subject over the years. It ends by discussing how minimalism, which has influenced almost every subsequent art movement, has continuing relevance for artists today

The Sculptural Imagination: Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist
A study of the sculptural imagination. Alex Potts explores the special qualities of sculpture as a free-standing, three-dimensional entity, and he considers the distinctive demands sculpture places on the viewer. The book begins with the 18th century and proceeds to the end of the 20th

Minimalist Interiors (Evergreen S.)
Paperback
Publisher:
Taschen

Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties
Hardcover:
Meyer's writing is intelligent, informed and subtle.
The book is well produced and generously illustrated

Futurism (World of Art Library)
Noisy, violent and aggressive, Italian Futurism proclaimed the bankruptcy of an artistic culture that clung to the forms and values of the past. The movement was launched in 1909 by F.T. Marinetti, who was both a poet and a publicist of genius. A group of spectacular talents in all the arts, among them Carlo Carra, Umberto Boccioni, Luigi Russolo, Giacoma Balla, Gino Severini and Antonio Sant'Elia, set out to revolutionize the whole field of human culture. It was a young man's movement, not meant to last, and its work of disruption and re-creation was overtaken by war and Fascism

The Cutting Edge of Modernity: Linocuts of the Grosvenor School
This volume offers an overview of the principle artists of the movement and discusses how they varied in their treatment of subject matter and technical approach. The process of linocutting is examined, including the various papers and inks that were employed. The comprehensive notes for collectors, which include a list of the prints made by artists, should be valuable for collectors and print enthusiasts alike. Illustrated in colour throughout with over 50 illustrations of these prints, "The Cutting Edge of Modernity" is a book for all those with an interest in printmaking and 20th-century British art

Futurism
The Futurist movement was launched in 1909 through the Italian artist Marinetti's famous manifesto, which rejected the naturalistic and historical ideals of the past and proposed a radical philosophy intent on the future and progress. Under their founder's banner, the Futurists Boccioni, Balla, Carra, and Russolo developed a revolutionary ideology of the avant-garde that in the course of the next 30 years was to unite hundreds of creators all over the world. This book tells the story of this influential movement whose aim, using every artistic expression (painting, literature, music, cinema, dance, decorative arts), was to create a total art. Futurism leads the reader through the different aesthetic periods, ranging from early 'plastic dynamism' to aeropainting in the Thirties. Furthermore, the author clarifies the relationship between Futurism and the Italian fascist regime, which has long been an object of controversy

The Futurist Moment:
Avant-Garde, Avant-Guerre, and the Language of Rupture
This examination of the flourishing of Futurist aesthetics in European art and literature
of the twentieth century, offers considerations of futurist work from Russia to Italy.

Russian Futurism: David Burliuk - The Father of Russian Futurism
The subject of Russian Futurism is familiar only to experts, and based on highly limited material. No other movement appears to have evoked quite the same public response, having, as it does, social roots. Referred to as "the art of the future" by the Russian press in 1908 - a year before the official appearance of the word - this book focuses on the works of some forty-two artistic 'revolutionaries' featuring vibrant examples of their work, which serve to inspire the imagination. The work of David Burliuk - central and original figure in the Russian Futurist movement - is featured alongside more than 200 colour reproductions of paintings by more than forty Futurists. Accompanied by critical and historical essays, a chronicle of events and artists' biographies

Ten Precisionist Artists: Annotated Bibliographies (Art Reference Collection)
A research guide to the Precisionist movement of the 1920s and 1930s and to the ten American artists who were its most important and influential practitioners: George Ault, Peter Blume, Ralston Crawford, Charles Demuth, Preston Dickinson, O. Louis Guglielmi, Louis Lozowick, Morton L. Schamberg, Charles Sheeler, and Niles Spencer. Annotation copyrig

Vermeer's Camera: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Masterpieces
Over 100 years of speculation and controversy surround claims that the great seventeenth-century Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer, used the camera obscura to create some of the most famous images in Western art. This book is an intellectual detective story, meticulously reconstructing the artist's studio, complete with a camera obscura, providing exciting new evidence to support the view that Vermeer did indeed use the camera

The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques: Fifth Edition, Revised and Updated
Review: This book is extremely authoritative and helpful on the technical aspect of all painting media: I've read my copy to bits--it can become very obsessive, wanting to know all about each pigment, where does that oil come from? can you paint this over that? and so on. It has the answer to any question along these lines, and tells you methodically and carefully how to do any painting operation you might reasonably want to do: how to make your own colours in various media, preparing surfaces and so on. Restoration and printing are quite well covered too

The Book of Fine Paper: A Worldwide Guide to Contemporary Papers for Art, Design and Decoration
This is a reference guide to the finest papers available in the world today. It explains how different papers are made, what they are used for and where to find them. Special features of the book include: full descriptions of dozens of different varieties of paper, with details of character, manufacture, usage and where to find them; practicalities - how to store, fold, cut, tear paste, preserve and repair papers; diagrams on papermaking; a guide to sizes and weights, and a glossary of terms; a comprehensive international list of makers, sellers and sources of information; a selection of paper samples, especially mounted so that their weight and texture can be felt. The essence of each type of paper is discussed in detail, concentrating on handmades, but also covering mouldmades and fine machinemades. A section documents paper usage, looking at delicate sheets (for watercolour, drawing, etching, bookmaking and computer output) as well as decorative stock in beautiful and unusual colours, sizes, textures, surfaces and contents. Illustrations display the rich diversity of papers - from shades of white to wild and rough Costa Rican handmades, as well as an extensive range of watermarks.

A Short Guide to Writing About Art
'A Short Guide to Writing About Art', seventh edition, equips students to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculpture, and architecture, and prepares them with the tools they need to present their ideas in effective writing. It addresses matters such as distinguishing between description and analysis, editing and more

Understanding Art
Fichner-Rathus (art, The College of New Jersey) integrates art history with coverage of visual elements, principles of design, and computer arts in this text/CD-ROM for undergraduates, looking at the relevance and beauty of art as well as the media and methods to produce it. This seventh edition includes a CD-ROM with some 400 images, plus video cl

The Informed Eye: Understanding Masterpieces of Western Art
An introduction to the properties, concepts, and meanings of Western art through a series of concise, specific explorations of 32 works of art or groups of related works-paintings, sculptures, and buildings from widely varying cultures and times. Mr Cole explains how art is made, how it functions in society, and how it embodies the ideas and ideals of the cultures in which it was produced. With 128 illustrations, 58 in full color. A judicious, beautifully wrought overview...Cole's brief, incisive, richly informed, jargon-free essays are exemplary.-Paul Barolsky, Commonwealth Professor of Art History, University of Virginia

Art
Hardcover
Publisher:
DK Publishing

Art on the Edge and Over: Searching for Art's Meaning in Contemporary Society 1970s-1990s
AN EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND GUIDE TO AVANT-GARDE ART This book requires no art history background or knowledge of special jargon. It was published for anyone interested in understanding what's going on today in avant-garde art, as well as for people who want to better understand modern culture and adapt more easily to the stresses and changes in their daily lives

Artforms:an Introduction to the Visual Arts,
Revised (with Discoveringart CD-Rom)
Paperback
Publisher:
Prentice Hall

Masters of Deception:
Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion
Hardcover
Publisher:
Sterling Publishing

Sister Wendy's 1000 Masterpieces
This handsome tome is packed to the gills with paintings and while readers might disagree with many of Sister Wendy Beckett's choices (that's half the fun, perhaps), there are still hundreds of unforgettable works of art that nearly any reader can appreciate. Most of the pictures, even those that seem unprepossessing at first glance, are made riveting by Sister Wendy's quirky, personal narratives, in which the simplest of images is suddenly rendered a dramatic focal point. A perfectly ordinary Dutch scene by Hendrick Avercamp--Frozen River of 1620--shows people going about their business on a lively patch of ice where children play and adults chat and work. Sister Wendy seizes on a fishing-hole cut into the ice through which a circle of cold, black water is apparent. "The hole that has been cut in the ice can frighten us when our eye falls into it and this is the only hint of the inherent danger of the scene", she writes ominously. In Anthony van Dyck's magnificent portrait of Charles I of England, she observes of his regal hauteur, "In hindsight we can see the tragedy: That a man so remote from common humanity, so superb in his conceit, must be heading for a fall"

How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist, 5th Ed.: Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul
Caroll Michels is a life long art consultant who has written this book to share her experiences and expertise with the fine art community. Well written and with plenty of helpful references, Michels' book is an excellent addition to any artist's library

Women Artists (Taschen Specials)
Don't think that because there are no male artists in this book that it's any less a comprehensive guide to 20th century art and art movements. And don't expect a quaint, lightweight offering: this hardcover baby weighs in at 576 pages and features more than 90 international artists from the twenties to the turn of the millennium. From painting, sculpture, and photography (of course) to concept art, performance, body art, video, feminist actions, installations, and interactive projects - a great diversity of themes and media are featured. The likes of Marina Abramovic, Laurie Anderson, Vanessa Beecroft, Louise Bourgeois, Sonia Delaunay, Nan Goldin, Barbara Hepworth, Jenny Holzer, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Barbara Kruger, Tamara de Lempicka, Mariko Mori, Yoko Ono, Meret Oppenheim, Elizabeth Peyton, Pipilotti Rist, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Rachel Whiteread (and too many others to name) grace the pages of this tome, each artist represented by six pages of illustrations and photographs covering the various phases of her life and work, including biographical portraits and text

Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism
Modernism was always troubled by its epoch and this tension helped produce some of the most wonderful pieces of modern art. As soon as non-representational art began to dominate the art world the importance of art as critique grew. The critical element inevitably allied itself with those movements that defined an emancipatory project and, in modernism's time, in our time, that project was socialism. With what has been seen as the end of the socialist possibility with the fall of the Russian empire and its Eastern satellite states, and the subsequent confirmation of the bankruptcy of Official Marxism, modernism no longer had a project of realisable utopia to link itself to. Modernism has ended, like Marxism, without reaching its goals. But did they depend on each other? Was the fact that they were coterminous merely a coincidence? How did they interact? What was the nature of their mutual engagement? T.J. Clark's Farewell to an Idea is a beautiful, vital, polemical volume, peppered with stunning reprints, that charts the conversation that these meta-narratives had, investigates the art that was produced, and questions and improves our understanding of what modern art really is

Irish Art Masterpieces
Hardcover
Publisher:
Hugh Lauter Levin Associates

Ireland's Painters (Paul Mellon Centre)
This richly illustrated survey of the history of Irish painting encompasses the entire span from the middle ages to the mid-twentieth century. The book includes both well-known and virtually unknown artists, Irish artists who worked abroad as well as in Ireland, and major foreign artists who came to Ireland and worked there for extended periods. Among the more than 350 works reproduced in full colour are many paintings from notable private collections which have not been exhibited to the public

Great Irish Artists:
From Lavery to Le Brocquy
Hardcover
Publisher:
Clb

Daniel Maclise: An Irish Artist in Victorian London
Maclise, who died in 1870, was brought up in a Scots Presbyterian family in Cork. He moved to London in 1827 and soon entered the Royal Academy Schools of Art. Weston (art history, St. Cloud State U., MN) surveys Maclise's career and friendships, most notably with Charles Dickens. She outlines his ouevre from early illustrative work to huge canvase

Art Is a Way of Knowing: A Guide to Self-Knowledge and Spiritual Fulfillment Through Creativity
Review: Pat's book is well written and full of personal and artistic exercises. She represents an oppertunity for art therapy to move out of the HMO structure and back to peoples every day lives. As an Creative Arts Therapy Masters student this book gave me more insight and hope about the field then anything I was told to read for class

The Art Therapy Sourcebook
The Art Therapy Sourcebook is a guide for people who want to use art as a way of understanding themselves better. It takes the reader on a journey toward understanding the connection between artistic images and human emotions.

The Zen of Photography:
How to Take Pictures with Your Mind's Camera
Paperback
Publisher:
Writer's Club Press