Artists Books

Just like the picture. My brother really liked it for his birthday. Good gift for those creative kids.

My daughter loves to draw and gets tired of drawing stick men. This book is very good at helping her break down the parts of a drawing into something she can understand and has kept her busy for hours. That alone is worth the price of the book.

Not as well received by a 10 year old.

This books starts out with easy drawings and gets increasingly difficult. Nice book.

Charles Dana Gibson, I think, can be credited for single-handedly creating in our minds the ideal of Victorian womanhood in the Americas. His "Gibson Girl" was the pin-up of its day (if that's not too vulgar), stoic, immaculately dressed, and a formidible match for her man. I've enjoyed his work for a long time, and was happy to find thsi volume. In it, you will find a wealth of Gibson's "GIbson Girl"-related illustrations, as well as a selection of illustrations that are more satirical in nature, dealing with members of America's social classes around the turn of the century.

What is most amazing - beside Gibson's excellent command of line and his beautiful, sensitive renderings - is his eye for irony. GIbson's illustrations - almost all of them accompanied by a witty caption - seems to have been something of a wit, and never failed to make a poignant pun on his subject. Some of his commentaries on the poor situations of the working class are actually quite scathing - unexpected from an illustrator I always associated with the "upper strata" of society. This book is not simply a gallery of work by a master - it is also an education.

What keeps this book, for me, from receiving five stars, is that some of my favorite of his cartoons have not been included. I saw a similar volume published in the 1970s that had a selection of similar size, but different illustrations, and I wish tha that would be published as well. However, at any rate, this is excellent and well worth the money for any fan of illustration. Enjoy!

This is a great book for anyone who likes the fashons of the late 1800's, Gibson girl, or just well drawn pictures! Gibson was a great artist, and you can tell from his captions he had a sense of humor. Every page in the book is filled with beautiful, clear, large sized drawings of Gibson Girl and her friends. I was delighted with my copy!! It even includes Gibson's "comic" book, "The Education of Mr. Pipp", and a brief but interesting biography of Mr. Gibson.

Awesome. I thought this would just be a few sketches of his ladies, but it's LOTS of his renderings of all kinds of different subjects. He's one of the most amazing talents I've ever seen.

The two leading American illustrators of women at the dividing point of the 19th and 20th centuries were Charles Dana Gibson and Harrison Fisher. I find that I have always liked Gibson much better than Fisher, because Fisher seems to lack a sense of humor while Gibson's work is informed by a sharp, dry, sometimes sardonic wit as he eyes the fads and follies of the high society of the 1890's and early 1900's (of which he himself was a part by virtue of his marriage to one of the Langhorne sisters). As the previous reviewer has mentioned, the highlight of this particular collection is the inclusion of the bulk of the drawings from his famous "The Education of Mr. Pipp", which combines Gibson's trademark humor with not one, but two, beautiful Gibson girls. (Considering that Gibson, earlier in his career, had issued vituperative denunciations of mercenary marital alliances between Eurotrash nobles and American women - most notably in his famous "America's Tribute" - it is particularly humorous that one of Mr. Pipp's daughters is snagged by a Scottish laird who is as clean-cut and upstanding as any American Gibson man!) As I mentioned in my review of Steven Warshaw's "The Gibson Girl", "The Gibson Girl and Her America" is best appreciated as part of a comprehensive collection including both aforementioned books plus Woody Gelman's "The Best of Charles Dana Gibson" and Fairfax Downey's 1936 biography (containing over 100 Gibson drawings) "Portrait of an Era as Drawn by C.D. Gibson". (Actually, the Gibson completist really needs to get - if he or she can find it! - the 1906/1907 2-volume behemoth "The Gibson Book", a compilation of 11 of the artist's volumes with a total of over 800 drawings.) Failing that, this book is a splendid introduction to the work of one of the true icons of America's popular culture.

Like another reviewer, I find it hard to put this book down.
It is frankly and beautifully written in a way that puts the reader in the back of the Rolls Royce with Abby Rockefeller and behind the desk with Edith in her Greenwich village gallery.

I am only half way through the book and am savoring it thoroughly for the ride that it is taking me on: I feel like I walked the construction site of Rockefeller Center,toured Radio City Music before the first Rockette,
and participated in persuading Mayor LaGuardia to put a subway stop at Rock Center....

Fascinating and excellent read.

Fascinating bio and first rate discussion of the strange intersection of high-art and commerece. Shows how much artists owe to the people who support and believe in them.

The title here is just a little bit misleading. Yes Edith was the girl with the gallery, but there were a lot of girls that had galleries. What Edith built was THE Gallery, at least so far as modern American art was concerned. Furthermore she did it from the outside, she was born Russian, coming to America when she was six, and at the young age of 26 founding the Downtown Gallery in Greenwich Village.

There was at the time no American art movement. The few painters of the time had great difficulty selling their work. Edith changed that. Her gallery specialized in the work of these New York locals, combined agressive selling with a devotion to this style that remained for forty four years.

It was largely because of her that there is an American art scene. This book is a fine tribute to her life that has largely been forgotten.

I had a lot of trouble putting aside the book so that I could take care of my normal daily chores and business. It was interesting to me from a variety of points. One of them was the excellent introduction information about how the author first learned of Edith Gegor Halpet and then how surprised she was to discover a treasure trove of available research material including an oral history that included more than 800 transcrbed pages. While I'm not in the gallery business, I do enjoy art and I found the book a very interesting story of how tough a business the marketing of art really is. Halpert's struggles opening and running a gallery have valuable lessons for any small business owner. Some of her sales techniques could be applied to almost any business with great success. The book is a great read and provides glimpses into the world of art, artists, patrons, museums, and the important contributions women have made to the art fields over the years. It's another example of how women have come into their own.

These were purchased as an early gift. Can hardly wait to give them to my special person.

This book with all the others all was so great i loved it from the beging to end. I couldn't put it down.

IT'S HART WARMING SERIES I LOVE! I couldn't put it down. You would love it to.

Thirteen-year-old Rose Forbes loves her life in New York City in 1905. Her wealthy parents give her everything she wants, and she attends an exclusive private school for girls where she has many friends. However, everything changes when her mother becomes a suffragette, campaigning for women's rights. Because of her mother, Rose loses all of her friends. Her parents decide it would be best for the family to start a new life elsewhere, so they move to the small seaside village of Cape Light, Massachusetts. Rose makes new friends in Cape Light, but she worries her mother will once again cause her shame. But Rose soon comes to a new understanding of her mother's views when she begins to train an abused horse and discovers that girls are not allowed in horse races.

Like other books in this series, this book was a charming, old-fashioned historical novel. It will appeal to young girls who like historical fiction or horse stories, with its likable characters and quaint setting, as well as its story of a determined young girl.

Gods and Generals: The Paintings of Mort Kunstler rivals its previous companion book to Gettysburg. Kunstler tells the story leading up to the battle of Gettysburg using his masterful brush to translate history into color paintings. The text and the paintings weave the tale of how America eventually tore itself asunder in the Civil War. Its an excellent collector's piece and great introduction into the Civil War.
I also found Kunstler did not paint as many movie scenes in this book, instead capturing the actual historical looks of these "Gods and Generals" of the Civil War. Any lover of history or military art will appreciate his attention to detail and riviting scenes. Enjoy!

Never have I seen half as much life breathed into the Civil War as in the paintings in this book. It is a visual feast, and I savor every page every time I look at it. The appearances of the soldiers and civilians alike portrayed in this book are accurate, and the colors and poses and emotional expressions are captivating and hauntingly beautiful. This would make a great coffee-table book or a guide for an artist, Civil War buff, or student.

This book is worth 5 stars!! My 8 year old son is just beginning to discover what it means to be born in the south. I want him to have an accurate picture of what the civil war was all about. It is hard to find civil war books with enough pictures to keep him interested. This book has plenty of high quality art for him to see and includes text that we can read together! I highly reccomend it based on those gorgeous paintings.

Mr. Kunstler has provided us with another book of his arrestingly beautiful paintings. Art, of course, is largely a matter of taste and proverbially in the eye of the beholder. Mr. Kunstler, however, even from as objective a standpoint as possible, has no peer as a chronicler of the Civil War. I have been interested in that period of history for about half a century, but it has been Mr. Kunstler's paintings over the past dozen or more years that have brought that war to life for me, and, I am sure, for many others. Although he is a prolific artist, he never compromises with quality, and the quality of his work is unsurpassed.

The subjects of Mr. Kunstler's paintings are invariably interesting, and he does not like to paint scenes or events that have been done previously by other artists. This book is the companion to, and illustrative of, the events and people of the novel "Gods and Generals" by Jeff Shaara, soon to be made into a motion picture of the same name. It follows four exceptional soldiers through the first two years of the war: Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Winfield S. Hancock, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

In this book, there are many new paintings not yet published elsewhere, but whether you are an old Kunstler aficionado or newly introduced to his work, you will find this book unequaled. The reproductions of the paintings are eye-catching, displaying each painting in vibrant, striking colors, true to Mr. Kunstler's originals. I say above that his paintings are educational, and so they are. I urge you to look closely at every work of art. If you do, you will not only see an astonishing amount of detail, but also learn much about the people, the times, the objects people used, and the war. Again, we have Mr. Kunstler's constant striving for perfection to thank for paintings which are correct in every detail. He is the quintessential perfectionist, who painstakingly researches every detail, no matter how small, to provide his audience with true, as well as beautiful, depictions of people, places, and things. He consults with knowledgeable historians, such as Professor Robertson, who wrote the text for this book, on even such matters as the weather on the particular day that he wants to depict in a painting. All of the accouterments are true, as well as the animals, the uniforms, the weapons, the landscapes, the battlefield situations, the lighting -- everything. Rarely does one find, in one individual such as Mr. Kunstler, artistry to the point of genius coupled with an unceasing demand for perfection in all of the details of his art.

I admit that I am no connoisseur of art and that I can claim no expertise or experience in art. Even someone such as I, however, can at least partially appreciate the artistic techniques used by Mr. Kunstler. His positioning of people, animals, buildings, and other objects to lead the observer's eye to the main subject of the painting, his extraordinary use of light to play on this or that subject in the picture in greater or lesser brilliance in order to accentuate or subordinate that subject, and his use of color, always precise, to delineate bright sunshine or dark shadow, or to emphasize or minimize, are all techniques that even such as I can note and admire. His paintings are so life-like as to defy the observer to differentiate them from photographs. But no photographs could depict such wonderful color and the precise instants in time which Mr. Kunstler so deftly chooses to picture.

Mr. Kunstler has, with every book he has introduced, been able to obtain the very best in historians/commentators to draft the texts. He has obtained the services of, for example, Henry Steele Commager (for the book "The American Spirit: The Paintings of Mort Kunstler"), James I. Robertson, Jr. (for "Jackson and Lee: Legends in Gray," "The Confederate Spirit: Valor, Sacrifice and Honor," and the current work), James M. McPherson (for "Gettysburg"), and Dee Brown (for "Images of the Old West"). Dr. Robertson's text in "Gods and Generals: The Paintings of Mort Kunstler" is, as always, the perfect complement to the paintings. As with Mr. Kunstler's art, so also with Dr. Robertson's narrative, one can learn much, whether one is a novice or an experienced hand.

Thus, whether you are a "Civil War buff" or simply interested in exceptional art and edifying prose, you will enjoy this book (and you would do well to consider obtaining Mr. Kunstler's previous books, named parenthetically above). You cannot go wrong with the team of Kunstler and Robertson.

American is probably the only country in the world that has so much faith, and so much respect, on the greatness of the common folks. This book is a testimony to that faith and respect. The book depicts 47 Americans who happen to share the same name as some of the famous figures in American history and pop culture. These people, in their own language, talked about who they are, where they came from, their hopes and fears. A few expressed their views on politics and the direction the country is going. Each shared his/her core belief, and reflection on what it means to be American. What amazes me is that the core belief of all these people can be summed up in 4 words: Be your own person. This is quintessentially American. Another great feature of this book is that these people came in all racial and ethnic groups, all shapes and sizes. The author and her team have obviously gone the extra miles to mirror the mosaic of the American population. I am tremendously moved by the quiet dignity, optimism, and courage of these people to make a better tomorrow for themselves and the people around them. It is because these qualities in everyday Americans that foreigners like me still believe in the idea of America. This book is tremendous.

This book was given to me as a gift, and I thought it was something I'd just keep on my living room table and flip through every so often. But once I started reading it, I was enthralled. The photographs are stunning, and KK Ottesen's descriptions of these fascinating people and her trip across the country to find them is truly captivating. I've since bought several more books for friends, and they've all expressed to me how much they love this book.

*****
Ms. Ottesen has performed a great deed. With minimal distortion, she has painted a picture of America that is both truthful and reflective.

The authenticity of her subjects comes through loud and clear as you hear their words in the first person. I suppose this is the sort of book that lends itself to reading a piece at a time. I wish you luck; I couldn't put it down.

"Great Americans" is a visual and intellectual hit!

The photographs are beautiful, gracefully capturing the spirit and tone of each "famous" person. The landscapes are equally stunning and help give a setting for the characters.

The real words taken from one-on-one interviews with these 51 individuals are simple, thoughtful, straight forward, provocative, humorous and poignant. Each story is unique and fascinating. There are many memorable moments!

Ms. Ottesen's anecdotes about her visits are equally fascinating, presenting a different perspective into the person's life.

I highly recommend this book -- read a few pages before bedtime; put it on your coffee table and glance at the photos; keep the inspiring stories in your mind.

This is a wonderfully illustrated collection of Gruau's work that cannot be found anywhere else. The colors are breathtaking and the images are larger than life. If you like fashion illustration, you will not be disapointed by Gruau's work. He is in a class by himself. Chic, stylish and unique!

This volume of Gruau's art is astonishingly beautiful. The paper, print and the color are of high quality, There are more than 100 plates, mostly in color, each devoid of text and page numbers. For easy reference there are numbered thumbnails at the back of the book. This man's portrayal of women and fashion is mesmerizing. His economy of line, portrayal of movement and use of color are breathtaking. The expression of emotion on these pages almost "speaks out loud". Although brimming with style and sophistication, to limit Mr. Gruau's art and this book to the category of fashion would be an injustice. This is true art and there is much to be learned from studying these drawings. What a treasure!

This book is absolutely gorgeous and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who loves art and design books. His work is beautiful and it captures the elegance and glamour of the fashion world. His use of line and colour is simple but perfect and it fills each image with life and emotion.

The book itself is well thought-out. The first section is devoted to information about the artist, along with some photographs. The majority of the book is devoted to his work, with each image given an entire page, with no text or even a page number to detract from it. The last section has information on each of the individual pieces in the main section. It even has thumbnails of each piece to save flipping back and forth(handy since there are no page numbers!!) I absolutely love this book!!! It may be expensive, but it's well worth the money.
Enjoy :)

I had never heard of Rene Gruau until I saw the book on display at a local bookstore. As I started to open the book, I figured that the inside couldn't possibly be as beautiful as the cover (see above). I'm happy to say that this big book is awe-inspiringly beautiful from cover to cover. Many times I would turn a page and gasp at the bold design, fluid line, aggressive color and sheer brilliance of composition. I know nothing about fashion, but I know what I like. If you like Mucha, Klimt, Scheile, Petty (not to mention Japanese brush and ink) you'll love this book. Even at that price, it's a bargain!

Easy read and very informative. This book will take you by the hand and help you become a more productive, successful and creative musician.

It provides a better grasp on the marketing aspect in the music industry. i feel less overwhelmed to try and be innovative. With Bob's ideas as a start, the ideas just come flowing after that. His ideas are really helping my business. Ive been able to increase profits in less than a month, and have been able to book several BETTER gigs for the bands I represent. Thanks to him and myspace I just might be the happiest promoter in Los Angeles.

The music business is one of the few industries that truly takes creativity and self-motivation to a whole new level. The Guerrilla Music Marketing Encore Edition is designed to further help us starving musicians and other just-as-hungry industry people set the stage for being the best in areas that our competition is lacking - connecting with our fans and gaining new ones. Read and learn Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians and Bands on a Budget (Revised & Updated) first.

It's a cut-throat world. What are you doing to better your odds? I highly suggest not only reading this book, but also applying everything between the front and back covers of this book to how you do music business. Become the success story. Buy this book.

Guerrilla Music Marketing, Encore Edition: 201 More Self-promotion Ideas, Tips and Tactics for Do-it-yourself Artists

and this one too:

Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians and Bands on a Budget (Revised & Updated)

I got the original GMM book about ten years ago and it's still on my shelf to reference when working on a promotion. This one is going right next to it. This series is great for bands, musicians, and songwriters who are on a budget and looking for results-oriented marketing tactics that will help you sell more stuff and make more money. You'll get techniques that work in ANY marketing medium, including live shows, postal mail, fax, email, or web. If you're willing to do just a little bit of work in an organized way, or willing to teach others how to do that work for you, you'll see results. This book (and the 1st one) are real bargains. When it comes to your bottom line, most musicians will benefit more from the Guerrilla Music Marketing series than "classic" music business books such as This Business of Music. Why? This game is about marketing... It doesn't matter how good your music is, who your attorney is, or if you know what the difference between performance and mechanical royalty are, if you can't get the word out about what you're doing. Get this book!

I've been saving for this book for so long. It deserved it! It is great. Lovely. The photos are amazing because of their quality. I hadn't time to read the text but I know the writter is a very good one to do it.

Simply great.

I have not much more to add on the other reviews regarding the quality of text and reproductions. It is a real non-exhaustive "catalogue raisonné" of the most relevant Moreau's works (his "St. Sebastian" is mesmerizingly and ominously sublime) plus interesting essays.

Moreau is the flagship of French symbolist painting. Although he was a secluded artist he had interesting disciples, like Desvallières, in the circle of the so-called "peintres de l'âme" (painters of the soul). For them, he always was a reference, an idol, like his Semeles, Sphinxs and Salomés. Interestingly Moreau never took part in the Salon de la Rose-Croix (lead by "Sar" Péladan) or any other artistic movement. He was a perfect example of the Balzac's hero-painter in the famous novel "The unknown masterpiece": the never ending painting. Moreau's preciousness, craftmanship, genious, exoticism, decadence, mythological poetry, fin-de-siècle illness, all shape a world of his own, yet fanatically worshipped by his gallerists and collectors and, why not, by his contemporary academic popes.

If decadenticism, 19th century artistic atmosphere and fin de siècle appeal to you, this is your book.

The only thing I miss is more of Moreau's writings and letters. Probably you will find them in the books published by his museum-sanctuary in Paris. Remember his famous and evocative sentence: "I just believe what I cannot see".

I had very high hopes when I bought this book, though afraid the text would override the images; however I wasn't disappointed. The sheer quality of the printing is nothing less than remarkable. All the images in this book meet the highest standards of the printer's profession. Books on the symbolist genius Gustave Moreau are extremely hard to come by, so Between Epic and Dream (the book's title) is a rare art book being the only large volume in print at the moment.
The text acompanying the lush pictures is very informative, not only on Moreau's life's work, but there are notes on each item underneath. There is a good balance between text and images and this makes the enjoyment of viewing or reading a particular delight. Moreau's watercolors are beautifully presented and so are the paintings with both large and medium reproductions. There are drawings and studies as well to give this book a usefulness to those who would study Moreau's methods of work.
This book is a great buy at a very reasonable price. You will only need Joris Karl Huysman's novel, Against Nature (describing the painting Salome on the cover), to dream away into sweet decadence.

It's got all the goods: scholarly essays, dossiers on Gustave's most important works, wide historical sweep, accessibility for those who are more casual art-lovers, tons of color plates, good details (for painters like me, looking for something to steal). Moreau was a super-important figure in the decadent years of 19th Century France. Not as well known as, say, Degas or Courbet, his schtick seemed pretty far out. Anticipating Surrealism as well as the the nascent Symbolist movement, Moreau made insanely detailed, obessive, jewel-like paintings whose time is just now arriving. Make your coffee table as swanky and plush as an old New Orleans hotel. Moreau knew how to mix it up but certainly has his own flavor. Super great book.

As Giger fans, this is an excellent follow-up to "Necronomicon", with more gorgeous pictures. Another excellent gift for that special weirdo in your life.

Well as the Biggest Giger fan in the world i could never express the value of each book that he publishes. If your looking for something new, strange,fun,and exotic H.R. Giger is the man to see, with his uniqe style of erotic horror and morbid imaginTION this book has no exception, check it out today. you won't be dissapointed!

Giger's art, like the music of Marilyn Manson, the paintings of Jackson Pollock, and the clothing taste of Cher, tends to provoke extreme reactions in people (the classic "love-hate" relationship). This book, as well as the first Necronomicon volume, delves deep into the subconscious and comes up with fists full of squirming demons and violent yet artful sexual imagery. Some people are so repulsed by these "shadowed" parts of the psyche that they condemn Giger's art in general, while others wallow in the decay and degradation he depicts, believing it to be a mirror of the world they see around them. I personally keep Giger's work next to that of Alex Grey on my bookshelf, representing the dark repressed side of human nature coexisting along with the transcendental, spiritual side. Some may call Giger's art spiritual; I personally find it far too celebratory of the flesh for it to be truly spiritually-themed. If you are considering buying this book, first of all be forewarned: it is graphic and disturbing, but if you're looking at Giger books to begin with you probably already knew that. Also, I find the first Necronomicon volume to be better than this one. But if you are a fan you definitely will not be disappointed. You should probably buy one of Giger's lower-priced retrospectives if you're only going to have one of his books, but the attractively presented Necronomicons are the logical next step if you find yourself wanting more. Giger's work is very yin; just make sure you have some yang on your bookshelf to balance it.

Horrific? Yes, but beautiful none the less. The art in this book offers a great view into Giger's mind. Giger's use of the airbrush is phenomenal, giving his art a very realistic style to it. While flipping the pages, I felt like I was either reliving a nightmare or viewing satan's personal photo album. A truly unique experience.

I highly recommend this book based on its unique and excellently rendered imagery.