Galleries Books

Worth it for the photos alone. The writer shares with us his life long love of aviation. He explores the history of aviation in a fashion that will please the expert as well as the curious.

He uses the Smithsonian collection to make points about the hsitory of aviation. The book is not limited to a description about the collection, th e history is augmented with photos and anecdotes. A great book for enthusiasts, history buffs, fans of photography and readers in general

A good history of flight coupled with excellent photographs. Recommended.

Before committing a couple of days to museum hopping while in Boston, a word to the wise: this book is a must for understanding the scope of the collection of Amercian Decorative Arts - everything that makes the MFA one of the best museums in America. But more important than that, this is a compendium of examples of some of the finest art. The reproductions are excellent with all of the data needed to give a brisk brush up on not only the work illustrated but the timeframe incidentals that make the MFA such a user friendly museum. Whether for the personal library or for the perfect gift for art lovers, this guide (MFA Highlights series ) is highly recommended.

Co-written by Gerald W.R. Ward, Nonie Gadsded, and Kelly L'Ecuyer, American Decorative Arts features over 100 carefully selected masterpieces of furniture, silver, glass, ceramics, base metals, basketry and sculpture from one of the world's preeminent collections; The Museum of Fine Arts. With an intricate layout, American Decorative Arts is presented in an encyclopedic, with features inclusive of significant pieces from a wide geographic area and all time periods. Strongly recommended for appreciators of the high-arts, as well as academic and public library reference collections.

For those who like figure painting in oriental style, this book is a must, for it contains a well-selected array of wonderful painting, which should appeal both to the connoisseur as well as new comers to the art form. The layout and printing, which is so important for a book of this type, are exmplary.

Highly recommended.

This can be an excellent gift for people who admires Chinese Art. It's a very well produced book with wonderful photos and appropriate explanations.

Andrea Zittel is a remarkable artist and this book is proof of it. It looks effortless, the way she explores her world and turns reality into art and art into reality. Her art combines the abstract with the concrete, the uniform with unique, the wise with the simple truth. It is not critical space, it is critical living (where a living is a space too).

This is a high quality print art book, is well edited, with the artist's career and thoughts organized into chapters, somewhat chronologically. Zittel is only in her late 30s and is super prolific so this book is really like an early mid life summary and not a true retrospective.

Zittel's lists of ideas are handy. When I am feeling down about the messiness, the lack of space, urban decay, and my relative poverty, I just need to look at one of her lists to get cheered up (e.g., matte surfaces hide dirt, how much space does one need, anyway?) She has such a sense of humor about stuff that most people get too serious about (today, everyone wants more space, more clothes, more variety.... Zittel makes you laugh and question, why? And to recognize that too much choice, too much stuff becomes oppressive).

I predict that Zittel will be as recognized one day as a Knoll, a Perriand, a Schindler-type epoch-maker, a messiah, a visionary for modernist design. Under the terms of our mass consumer culture, she cannot become really popular, but she has the right critical outsider attitude, and with such a happy, cheerful twist. I wish Target or some mass market producer would adopt some of her ideas and sell them to the masses (the bowl-in-the-table, the carpets made to look like furniture, the "uniform" outfit, the A-Z living unit, etc.).

Zittel has the vision to improve the average person's life through simple changes, and even allow people to spend less money for fewer, but better designed, "re-thought" products.

amazing art I was very happy with this book. I thought it might have some color in it but I was not that let down by it. The black and whites are great.

Angel Lust is one of the newer Gallery Girls series from SQP. The first volume premiered two years ago and fans have eagerly been awaiting the second volume. Well the wait is over as Angel Lust Vol. 2 is out with another 64 pages of the beautiful, winged creatures of men's dreams, presented with the usual array of artistic talent that all SQP books are known for. The book featured color front and back covers by Pelaez and Cesar Britez respectively.

Now, not all these Angels are the stuff of dreams...some are the stuff of nightmares such as Luis Buci's horrific rendering of a dark angel crawling from the pit and surrounded a horde of demonic followers. German Ponce offers a mysterious blonde angels whose wings have been clipped as her feathers flutter all about her. Perla Perlucki can always be counted on to provide some comic relief to any Gallery Girls book, this time showing an angry cherub telling on an angel whom he caught reading dirty magazines.

Gonzalo Flores gets the honor of doing a two-page centerfold showing a lovely nude angel lying on a pedestal, soaking in the days from Heaven. Danilo Guida provides a triumphant angel, holding a sword of flame and burning the demonic beasts who whither before her.

The highlight for me is any Gallery Girls editions that feature the work of Spanish artist Arantza who is simply one of the best in the entire world. Her work is so beautiful and so detailed that is simply mesmerizes the reader. She has five outstanding pieces in the book, and each one becomes my new favorite after I see it. Her talent is simply unbelievable!

You can never go wrong with any Gallery Girls book as the quality is always the very best. SQP just keeps harvesting the best pin-up artists in the business.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

This artist/author Toni Carmine Salerno has beautiful & unique artwork. These oracles cards are a great divination tool and the guide book that is included gives additional information about the message of each card. I'm very happy that I purchased them through amazon.com because their price was much lower than buying it directly from the author's website.

Angels, Gods & Goddessess Oracle Cards will give you guidance and help you clarify specific issues in your life. Think of a question, and then pick one or more cards to see what messages the oracle offers you today. Full Color Deck, and includes guidebook.

Exelent book with great ilustrations, simply a must for the people that loves still life paintings.

One of the best books on an under-appreciated 18th century still life artist. The article by Eik Kahn is useful to fine artists and describes various approaches and outlooks from the period. The rest of the book is also well written and researched. It should be in every painter's library.

Antique Combs and Purses by Evelyn Haertig is an absolute joy not only for collectors but history buffs as well. This book is filled with the most beautiful pictures of antique purses and combs. It doesn't stop there though. Ms. Haertig's love for purses and combs shines through in her detailed histories and descriptions which would be perfectly fascinating even without the pictures. This book could stand alone with just the pictures OR just the writing. Luckily for the reader there are both! One of the real standouts are the pictures of the Persian Crown Jewels and a detailed description of their turbulent history. While I have been strictly an antique purse collector, this book has made me want to start collecting antique combs as well. Highly recommended!

If you are a serious purse collector, you really can't live without Mrs. Haerigs' purse book! This huge volume displays extensive full color photos of more purses than you can even imagine. The copy helps fill in some of those gaps in your knowledge and helps you figure out which purses are rare enough to spend the big bucks on! There only a few draw backs. In a couple of places, the wrong picture is reffered to in the text and you have to flip around until you find what is being refered to. Some of the text also seems to wander abit and lose focus. However, these flaws are easily outweighed by the sheer volume of pictures and the fact that the book is written by the pre-eminent authority on purses. Take a deep breath and fork out the greens, you can't become a real collector without this book at hand!!

This book was published on the occasion of a major retrospective of Romare Bearden's work at the National Gallery of Art. The lead essay by curator Ruth Fine deftly navigates Bearden's multifaceted artistic and personal life, a collage inspired by a world of cultural influences from the rural lore of North Carolina to Buddhism.

The breadth of the exhibition is exhaustive and stunning. Much of the art was loaned by private collections, and has rarely been viewed by the public. In addition to reproducing examples of his well-known collages, photostats and watercolors, it includes book illustrations, program covers, paintings in oil and gouache, murals, costume designs, and his only known sculpture. It also compares Bearden's work with some of its possible influences; for example, Bearden's collage "Down Home, Also" (1971) and Picasso's "Sleeping Peasants" (1919) though of course, Bearden always makes the image his own.

In addition to Fine's essay, 244 color plates and 86 black-and-white illustrations, the book offers five additional essays which place Bearden's life and work in the wider history of American society and art. For example, Jacqueline Francis' "Reading Bearden" explores what he read as well as what he wrote.

An indispensable book that finally puts all the pieces together.

To call Romare Bearden a "black artist" is a hopeless exercise in trying to pigeonhole an enormously gifted human being. While supporting himself as a caseworker for the New York City Department of Social Services, Bearden turned out works of jaw-dropping skill and artistic talent. His inspiration ranged from Homer to the Bible to current events, and each was a vivid expression of black life in the Americas. Some of the best examples of his output are represented in this volume. The book is gorgeously illustrated and Ruth Fine's excellent narrative helps us get a deeper insight into one of America's finest artists.

Get this if you love RMS Queen Mary as much as I. According to the publisher's page, there are only 1500 copies. It isn't much of a volume, 11"x 8.5," but is great to have if you are building a collection of ocean liner books. There is a bibliography in the back as well as a list of the artists' births and deaths, with a brief description of the pieces. It is sad to know in fact which art is lost. It would be interesting to know how and when they were lost. Who was in charge? It is nice to see the "Unicorns in Battle" panel without the obnoxious red stain found on it now. No wonder there is missing art. At least there is documentation of this special ship, which was a part of the time when things were made to be authentically beautiful.

Book is primarly about the art/decor created for the ship, including rare images of now lost art no longer on board as well as the more permanent decor. A real art glimpse into the mid to late 30's.