Galleries Books

I bout this book for my collection, but it appeared very interesting to read. I never expect history book be so fascinating. I recommend to buy it.

I cannot express how much this book has taught me about the Kings and Queens of England. Although I had known about the more famous ones (Elizabeth I, Henry VIII & wives, Victoria) this marvelous book has now revealed the stories of the others to me. Not to mention the beautiful portraits of the royals themselves. The best thing about the book is the author's opinions of the King or Queen just slightly slipped in. Though, like others have said, the book doesn't go into great detail about anyone, you'll learn what really happened in the days of Mary I or Henry VI. The writing is definitely English, and while reading you may require a dictionary lying around. But although the hardcover could probably be classified as a "coffee table book," it's excellent reading, and is probably one of the most well written picture books I've ever read.

For anyone interested in the monarchs of England, this is a great picture book. Although this book does not go into detail of each monarch, it does give a brief description along with a photograph of the monarch. This book is divided into chapters starting with The Anglo-Saxons and Danes to The House of Windsor. Each of the Kings and Queens who reigned during those periods are featured in the perspective chapter. Each chapter also has a genealogy family tree which helps untangle the web of marriages and remarriages.

It is a good picture book to walk the reader through the over 1000 years of the English monarchy.

This is the first time that I have read the work of Mr. William Trevor. If his collection of short stories, "Hill Bachelors", is any indication of the man's talent I will read whatever else has been published. The volume contains 12 stories that all share parallels, however they do not need to be read as a collection, they all can stand-alone.

The stories could be classified as redemptive, however at least one describes a Faustian Bargain. Many of the stories are dark, and others bear results that were never intended. Still others are the results from lack of attention or care, and they are of wreckage both physical and mental. I think it is valid to say they describe the fragility of many relationships, and the ignorance that prevents the forming of contact until a destructive event takes place. It is not a collection of tales that portrays the best in people, but it somehow does not read as oppressively as the storylines would seem to demand.

One story details a horrible crime and uses a snapped rose bush as a metaphor. The same unlikely force cleans up the debris from both, before the mess from either becomes too great. A wedding eve party shows how uncertain the next day's events can be when the smallest of unintended events does or does not take place. My favorite had to do with Priests and Ministers, burned out homes and lost congregations. In this story Mr. Trevor illustrates the senseless behavior of a people, a nation, and the religions they adhere to. He brings together that which should not meet, and the result is what should happen but somehow surprises when it does.

This is a wonderful set of stories that are all complete, however when read together have enough commonality that the Author's message is not so much repeated as it is reinforced as they are read. Marvelous writing, highly recommended.

These twelve new stories from William Trevor are "small gestures," resonating with meaningful nuances, requiring one's full attention. For this reason, it may be worthwhile to read each story twice to fully grasp the meaning from within its depths. Reading these stories will leave you in awe.

This was my first encounter with Trevor's short stories. Truly, he has mastered the form. Born in Ireland in 1928, Trevor now lives in Devon, England. The stories in this collection are drawn from those two countries. They are filled with barking sheepdogs, laborers, misty hills, tulips and bluebells, and rays of sunlight "like arrows in the sky" (p. 144). They are about everyday turning points in life, and lost opportunities. In the first story in the collection, "Three People," Trevor reveals a secret that binds three lonely characters together for fourteen years. In "The Mourning," we follow a lonely, 23-year-old Irish laborer as he carries a bomb through the streets of London. In "Good News," we find a nine-year-old actress "wondering in what way her dreams would be different now, reminding herself that she mustn't cry out in case, being sleepy, she ruined everything" (p. 62). A "melancholy" 51-year-old mother misses her children in "A Friend of the Trade." When she and her husband attempt to drop an "unpresentable" friend, she discovers "empty love is not absurd" (p. 106).

This is a collection of well-crafted short stories that has inspired me to read more William Trevor.

G. Merritt

In several of Trevor's sparsely worded stories we find characters who give too much of themselves. "The Virgin's Gift", "Good News" and "The Mourning" all tell of those who turn their souls over to others, and are unsettled with the outcomes. I was sad when done, particularly when finishing "Good News", because I knew that the characters had been disappointed or were about to be.

I was drawn to the character of Clione in "A Friend in the Trade" - she was decisive enough to know that she was the object of unstated affections, but not strong enough to confront her admirer frankly. She was so powerful in her humor and her work, but she had long accepted her status quo, so she did not know how to be single-minded in adversity. She acted like a shallow school girl in telling her husband of their friend's affections, but she became more complex in that telling. I wonder about her still - I wanted to know more about her after the story was told.

Good stories, these. Minimalist short stories are my preference - they allow me to imagine, to dream, and to pretend.

The plain title does not begin to do justice to the richness and diversity of the contents. The numerous lightly sepia-toned photographs, many full-page and one a panoramic fold-out, are especially handsome as well as informative as to Indian buildings, royalty and their traditional wear, ordinary Indians, ruins, and landscapes and nature scenes. But even with these, the book is more than only a distinctive album of vintage photos of India. Essays by art historians and critics go into various aspects of the project engaged in by native Indians and colonial British to record India in all its diversity and foreignness with the new device of the camera, as if to preserve India before it would be touched by the machinery and pace of the modern world.

Different native and colonial photographers were attracted to different aspects of India during the decades covered. Some concentrated on pictures of different ethnic groups; some on portraits of royalty; while others recorded the British administrative and military presence. With essays on several of the leading photographers, the book is also a survey of the field of photographic work done in India in the mid to late 1800s and into the early 1900s. Thus, "India Through the Lens" can be appreciated both for its exceptional, engaging photographs and as a introduction to the subject of photography in India.

A visual reference of museum quality for researchers, or just people interested in this country.

This book accompanies an exhibition of photography collection of India for the period 1840-1911. These images are produced more than hundred years ago, during the early ages after photography was invented. Indian and foreigner found photography as magic, when using their camera to capture the surrounding environment to image. It covers powerful images about landscapes, people, architecture, etc from India.

the collection of these rare pictures of the time of british raj in india is gorgeous. reading this book is like visiting a museum. brilliant job done

Excellent resource guide for planning your trip. Read it to see the fascinating and interesting places available to visit in London, that most guidebooks don't even mention. Took this book with me on an eight-day trip. Reviewed it every evening before going to sleep to see what we could squeeze in the following day. An indispensable book for visiting London.

This guide provides an excellent overview of art and history throughout London and as a result, I discovered museums I doubt I would have found otherwise. It's really treasure for any visitor to London who is interested in art.

This is the only guide I have found of its kind for London, and it is superbly done. Not only does it profile all the obvious, big-name museums, but also details dozens of smaller ones like the Guildhall Clock Museum, the Museum of Garden History, and the British Red Cross Museum and Archives (to name a few). As with all Insight Guides the photography is first-rate, and the larger format of this guide makes it even more accessible than their standard travel guides. The collaborative style in which this book was written really works - it feels fresh and engaging throughout. I bought this book with the intention of doing research on the Tate Modern and Victoria and Albert Museums, and discovered more than a dozen smaller venues I had never even heard of before. My recommendation is that this is a must for art-lovers and museumgoers, and for anyone interested in discovering obscure of London they may otherwise overlook. If you are going to London to look at art, take this book and a comfortable pair of shoes!!

This book presents the "Space of Akari and Stone" display of Noguchi's work. That 1980 showing staged about a dozen of Noguchi's understated stone sculptures with over a hundred of his paper lamps, all in an architectural space backed by other of his works. The book's format is a photographic stroll through the display, stopping at works and viewpoints of interest.

The first image looks into the exhibit's entryway. Dichotomies already emerge. Bright paper illuminates dark stone. Architectural angles contrast with natural irregularities, along a continuum of shape from geometric to organic. An upright work in stone dominates that first room of the display, like a sentinel guarding the entrance. Dichotomies continue within that piece: rugged outlines contrast with a few shaped surfaces at its ends. The other works in stone are fabricated in similar ways - a few polished or tool-marked surfaces in human geometries, amid the fractal geometries of natural surfaces.

Noguchi's lamps predominate later along our tour. As with his works in stone, they combine geometric frames with natural irregularities of wrinkled paper and wandering reeds that support the shapes. And what shapes! Tubby and humorous or long and elegant, each presents a peaceful compromise between human intent and the will of the material itself. Then, beyond form and substance, each Akari functions as a cage in which light itself is captured.

No book can capture the spatial sense of the sculpture, or the kinesthetics of walking through an exhibit and around the works exhibited. When the photos are as gorgeous and inviting as these, that lack is almost maddening - I want to reach into the page and touch the pieces. Still, it's better to see the flat image of Noguchi's 3D work than never to experience it at all.

//wiredweird

This book is a beautiful treasure itself with full-sized gorgeous photos elegantly recording his 1985 exhibit "Space of AKARI & Stone".

I am doing a study on the Noguchi Akari lamps right now. Every where I looked I could not find any good pictures of them. Most books all but completely skip over them. This book is almost only Akari Lamps, but It also contains photos of his stone sculptures. If you are looking for a good read, this is not for you as it contains very little written pages. If you are looking for beautiful full size photos of his lamps and stone, this is one of a kind.

Beautiful drawings, reproductions, and book design. (I bought my copy directly through the gallery for far less than the prices here.)

I saw her retrospective when it came to Alabama a few years ago. It was the best show I have ever seen. It blew me away. Transcendental and sensual and alive. Up there with Rothko, Bonnard, late Picasso.

I am sure that this book will decrease in price, but if you are a lover of Joan's work, some of you won't wait. The book includes, oil, pastel and charcoal works on paper. All of the work is abstract and alive.

However, for those beginning to view Mitchell's work, you might look at this other book first. It has more of her large oils, which she is best known for. In addition, it contains more images and is cheaper.

The Paintings of Joan Mitchell (Whitney Museum of American Art) (Paperback)
by Jane Livingston (Author)

Since I wrote this review, the book of Joan Mitchell's Works on Paper has gone up to a ridiculous price. I do not know why.

This is a very handsome book - of great interest for architectural buffs or historians. It pairs two great architects - Robert Venturi and Irving Gill - in a unique, engaging, and informative way. The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (in La Jolla, California)is one of the finest small museums in the country, well worth a visit to see outstanding architecture as well as cutting-edge contemporary art.

This is an outstanding book for anyone interested in the work of two great architects - Robert Venturi and Irving Gill. The combination of their work at the museum in La Jolla is masterful, and this book gives a fascinating look into the museum's history and Venturi's thought processes as he sought to restore the historic "Scripps House" while expanding and modernizing the Museum of Contemporary Art. A great find - makes me want to visit La Jolla and see it for myself!

Buy this book even if you've never been to the La Jolla museum it describes. If you've been to the museum, it's worth buying to give you pause to reflect on what you've seen. This book offers both the history and theory behind Venturi's reshaping of a wonderful museum in an attractive location. Those of us who remember the museum in the old days have got to be impressed with what Venturi has done. Although this text is all too brief, it provides the illumination needed to appreciate more fully this California classic.

On page eleven of this intriguing book there is a sort of disclaimer that says: The fact a mugshot was taken does not establish that a crime was committed or that the subject of the photograph is guilty or innocent of any wrongdoing.

So not all the folk who appear on these pages are denizens of the underworld but most who do no doubt found out that the vine of crime yields bitter fruit, or words to that effect. You only have to read the list of priors on the cards to assume that nearly all those that do appear are guilty of something in their past.

All the photos are from the collection of Mark Michaelson (who also did a handsome job designing the book) which now runs to 10,000 shots from the 1870 to the early 1970s. Considering that the average mugshot is kind of predictable I'm amazed how interesting the book is. Many shots fill a page, sometimes the suspect is holding the board with their ID number, other times it is painted on the image in white paint. Interestingly you'll come across a page or two with cards that cover several years in a criminal's career, each with an age revealing photo and perhaps more relevant, details of a hopeless lack of success in wrongdoing. Pages 172 and 173 graphically reveal, in five cards, the failures of Joseph McGraw from 1931 to 1943 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Page 222 shows John Korkkobecz with a police file at thirteen, fourteen and eighteen.

Some law enforcement departments weren't satisfies with just a face they wanted a head to toe record. New York city, Fresno and Bridgeport are featured in the book doing this. A couple pages near the front show a neat way of getting a face-on and profile in one shot by using a mirror at an angle to the head. It looks really effective so I wonder why the technique never caught on?

The book's design and production is rather impressive. Most of the photos are black and white, some are sepia but the printing is actually four color with a 175-dot screen. This material in the hands of some other publishers would look really tacky but Steidl believe in putting out a quality product whatever the editorial content.

Despite the mundane nature of the contents Least Wanted is a fascinating look at one part of the criminal world so, as they used to say in Hawaii Five-O, "Book 'em Danno".

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

What a fascinating book. Photo after photo of faces and their foibles, unadulerated, in your face. One can't help but wonder the stories behind each, what brought them down, what they did, their innocence or guilt. Young and old, the battered and bruised, some smiling, mugging (!) for the camera, others angry, frightened, defiant, sorrowful, every emotion in between, including a few who appear downright psychotic and the stuff of nightmares. The collection includes some early photos from the 1800s and continues through the 1960s / '70s. Hair and clothing styles change, entire eras are represented along with their mundane minutiae. The only hints supplied about these characters are what's been scribbled or noted upon the original photographs. Tantalizing bits which beg for filling in between the lines. Each and every face is a novel in itself. Scruffy, poignant, offputtingly bona fide.

Friends who stop in and browse this book in my living room never fail to fall in love with it. The photos are well-organized, making them more fascinating to look at than if they'd been randomly selected. An excellent gift, by the way. I highly recommend this one.

After a decade together their ardor had cooled. It was then, in 1900, that Bernhard Berenson (he later dropped the "h" in his first name) and Mary Costelloe married, placing imprimatur on a symbiotic partnering that lasted until her death in 1945. The civil ceremony in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio united an unusual pair. He was a polylingual bon vivant; she spoke grade school Italian, which remained virtually unimproved throughout her 50+ years in Tuscany.

Art historian, critic, and, as he preferred, connoisseur, Berenson was a Lithuanian Jew who established an impressive reputation as an authority on Italian Renaissance painting. "The Drawings of the Florentine Painters" and "The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance" are among his better known works.

A widow with two children and also a writer, Mary was a Philadelphia Quaker who addressed her husband archaically. Reporting to him on their home's refurbishment, she wrote, "So thee sees the main things (except the electricity) are done." When construction went awry: "Thee wd. rage at the way the red fire-place is put up."

For Berenson, she was sometimes a catalyst, often a goad who collaborated with him on his written work, and patiently assisted in endlessly revising his lists of Italian paintings. They shared a penchant for extravagance, acquisition, and a tendency to overlook each other's infidelities.

In A Legacy Of Excellence William Weaver has rendered a graceful drawing of privileged turn-of-the-century life. His perspective is the Villa I Tatti in the vineyard strewn hills between Florence and Fiesole. Once the Berenson's home, it is now the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Recent color pictures as well as archival photographs enhance this well documented history, while exquisite reproductions of Berenson's art collection add to its luster. When first leased by the Berensons, I Tatti was modest compared to its imposing villa neighbors. Previous tenants eschewed modern conveniences; there was only one bath, no electricity or telephone. Mary engaged 40 workmen to begin rudimentary improvements, hoping to provide Bernard with a salubrious atmosphere in which to study and collect. Apparently she succeeded. He amassed photographs and books - his Fototeca eventually held 300,000 items, his library 50,000 volumes. Works by Giotto, Sasseta, and Lorenzo Lotto were included in his art collection.

With an income derived largely from commissions on art sales, Berenson was employed by the English art dealer Lord Duveen to give his seal of approval to the Renaissance paintings Duveen sold to monied Americans, notably Frick, Kress, and Mellon.

Weaver, a thorough author as evidenced in Marino Marini, overlooks a significant aspect of Berenson's connoisseurship: the substantial sums he earned in the picture trade later brought Berenson's impartiality into question, resulting in the downgrading of many of his attributions.

Nonetheless, when the villa's 20th century owner, a wealthy English eccentric, died childless, the cash strapped Berensons obtained a loan to purchase the estate only through the intervention of an American friend.

Once they owned the villa, Mary engaged architects to plan further refurbishing, as well as the building of magnificent formal gardens. In years to come I Tatti would be visited by Edith Wharton, Walter Lippman, Yehudi Menuhin, Adlai Stevenson, Gertrude Stein, who, as Mary put it, swam in a nearby artificial lake "clothed only in her own fat," plus a host of that era's literati and glitterati.

Often separated during World War I, Mary stayed at the villa while Bernard worked and romanced in Paris, where he had become friends with Matisse, Gide and Proust.

Postwar unrest in Italy presaged the rise of fascism, which Bernard vehemently and vocally opposed. His stance caused him to be considered untrustworthy by many Italian intellectuals and some influential Americans. Expulsion from Italy seemed probable, but it did not occur.

In late summer of 1944 war again reached Florence. Bernard wrote in his diary, "Our hillside happens to lie between the principal line of German retreat along the Via Bolognese and a side road...We are at the heart of the German rearguard action, and seriously exposed." Miraculously the villa was unharmed by its German occupants.

While Mary wanted the villa and its 75 acres left to her children, Bernard was adamant that their beneficiary be his alma mater, Harvard University. Although Mary persistently derided his dream of "a lay monastery of leisurely culture" as "a wayside inn for loafing scholars," he bequeathed the villa and grounds, his library, and works of art to Harvard.

Initially, the University was somewhat daunted by his demanding bequest. Native Florentines viewed their new neighbors unenthusiastically, dismissing them as more "anglo-beceri" (becero literally meaning boor), as earlier Tuscan based English and American cliques were known. That was to change with the disastrous flooding of 1966.

Members of the national and international art communities selflessly responded when an irreplaceable portion of the world's art history was jeopardized. I Tatti became a focal point of that aid. Art experts performed herculean salvaging tasks - delicate glass negatives from the Uffizi's Gabinetto Fotografico had to be rescued from the muck. It took over a week for the 30,000 slides to be bathed then laid out to dry.

An air-lift of enormous drying-machines organized by Harvard's Renaissance art historian saved countless books and documents from the Biblioteca Nazionale. I Tatti housed as many art experts as possible; others were guests only long enough for a hot bath.

The Center's dedication to minimizing the flood's devastation altered its image in the minds of many Florentines who had previously viewed it with a shrug. Strangers became colleagues and friends. Today, fifteen students are nominated annually to study at I Tatti, while according to a stipulation in Bernard's will, the library is open free of charge "for all students of Italy and other countries." Scholars from dissimilar backgrounds walk together along impeccably raked gravel paths, where they "speak the same language; the language of the Italian Renaissance." Bernard Berenson's dream came true.

As the author of the recently published Geoffrey Scott and the Berenson Circle, I can tell you that this history of the Villa I Tatti is an exceptionally beautiful book about a most fascinating place. William Weaver, the most important of today's translators of Italian fiction and a great stylist, has written an exciting history of a most exciting place. It would make an ideal gift for any Italophile.

The newly married art historians Bernard and Mary Berenson made their home at the Villa I Tatti near Florence in 1900. In the following years Mary, supervised the rebuilding of the villa and the creation of its elegant gardens. The Berensons pursued their work at I Tatti over a period of nearly six decades, and here they entertained a remarkable circle of friends :art historians ( Kenneth Clark, John Walker, John Pope-Hennessy), writers (Edith Wharton, Alberto Moravia), political thinkers (Walter Lippman, Gaetano Salvermini), musicians (Yehudi Menuhin) and countless other visitors from every part of the world. At I Tatti Bernard Berenson assmbled a choice collection of Renaissance art, including works by Giotto, Sassetta, Domenico Veneziano, and Lorenzo Lotto. He also formed a prodigious art historical research library and photograph collection. When he died in 1959, he bequeathed the house, its contents, and the gardens to Harvard University as a Center for Renaissance Studies. This book documents the colorful life the Berensons led at I Tatti, the rich intellectual atmosphere they fostered there, and the spirit that continues and is nurtured by the Harvard Center. Berenson was associated with the famous art dealer, Baron Joseph DUVEEN (1869-1939) who noticed, early in life, that Europe had plenty of art and America had plenty of money, and his entire astonishing career was the product of that simple observation (S.N. Behrman, Duveen). The American plenty has been well invested in I Tatti, as the superb photographs by David Finn show. William Weaver has lived for many years in Italy, reporting on the Italian cultural world for American and British publications. This book has also a detailed alphabetical index, showing the quality of the research made by the author. Jan A. MORTELMANS.

As an American who lived in London for 15 months, I thought I knew every museum in and around the city. But Ms. Kaplan's beautifully written guide introduced me to several unkown gems. What makes this guidebook so appealing, and unusual, is that in addition to decribing the museum's contents she tells you the story of how the museum came to be. Ms. Kaplan's fascinating anecdotes put the museums and their collections in the appropriate historical and political context making for a more meaningful visit. I also highly recommend her books about Paris and Berlin.

Beautifully illustrated and written, Kaplan reveals the real London -- the London most first-time visitors don't get a chance to see using traditional guide books. I highly recommend it for a more intellectual and quirky view of this eccentric culture and people. This takes you to a world way beyond the norm you never would have seen otherwise. I use her guides for all the cities she chooses to write about --

Rachel Kaplan's delightful guide provides timely support for museums off the beaten track in the wake of the recent move to make many of London's larger and more famous entrance-charging museums, including the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, free of charge. The books provides a wealth of information about the content and appeal of the museums, yet also fuels the readers' desire to see for themselves. The one problem, almost inevitably with this type of volume, lies with the subjectivity of the selection. Some museums, such as the Museum of London, are arguably too well known to merit inclusion, whilst others, including the fascinating Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, are inexplicably absent. Nevertheless, an admirably wide range of museum types is presented, catering to a diverse range of readers. It is useful for numerous demographics, from those looking for a child-orientated outing that involves more than looking at dinosaurs to those who might want an unusual alternative to tours of stately homes.

Despite the Horniman Museum quibble, inclusion of quirky South London venues including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Cuming Museum, the Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum and the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum provides a laudable exception to the prevalent North and West London bias exhibited in virtually all London guides to tourist attractions and events. Whilst the three latter entries are marginal collections that deserve the praise and exposure they receive here, the Dulwich Picture Gallery is a highly significant art collection. This book forms a useful supplement to familiar general publications, such the Rough Guides, which do not have the space to enter into such textual and pictorial detail on individual collections. Kaplan's elegant and deceptively simple prose distils an extraordinary amount of scholarship into a compulsively readable form. It is an uncommon pleasure to read a guidebook marked by such a rigorous intellectual element as well as clear evidence of comprehensive first-hand knowledge and enthusiasm.