Galleries Books

Wonderful, evocative account of old Peking before the mass destruction by the current regime. This book reads like the wonderful Blue Guides of Europe (before Blue Guide recently changed the format and gutted so much of the information). The extent of description is amazing - the Lama Temple's rituals, for example, involving canabalism in pantomine: the monks worked themselves into a frenzy and then tore to shreds a man-like figure made of dough and filled with red liquid jam - mess everywhere!. The authors also recommended that tourists of the day go armed in the temple because of the determined attentions (ahem!) of the monks.

I used this book as a guide in the 90's while living in Hong Kong and visiting Peking - it still had great value despite all the losses (the coverage of the Forbidden City is incredible) I found many interesting out-of-the-way spots I would have missed if I'd relied on my strangely (sadly) poor Blue Guide China. In Search of Peking is one of those books (like Austin Coates' Myself a Mandarin for Hong Kong) that will really make you glad you lived (or visited) in China, despite all the modern concrete.

No point reviewing it in detail. Hartley, Dove, and O'Keefe are three of my favorite 20th C painters, and I was reminded of this book by seeing some of their works in the new De Young Museum in San Francisco. Hartley's stock seems to be rising these days. The Walker Museum in Minneapolis is the best place to get to know him. I had a chance to buy a Hartley canvas some twenty years ago, but I thought it was overpriced. Terrible mistake! It would sell for six to eight times more now. With critical assessments shifting from the who-influenced-whom approach to a more open-eyed confrontation with the paintings per se, Hartley is bound to rise even higher.

The new De Young didn't thrill me at first. It looks a lot like Darth Vader's garage from the outside, and it was built to house an essentially provincial collection. HOWEVER... It's getting a comfortable feeling inside, with excellent viewing angles and light, and the collection includes three wonders: 1)great stuff from Indonesia, well displayed and intelligently labeled. 2)great stuff from Mesoamerica, also well displayed. 3)about four good gallery rooms of 20th C American paintings, including the three mentioned above, and Diebenkorn, Jess, de Kooning, Hopper, TH Benton, etc. I like to jog through Golden Gate Park, stop at the De Young to view just one gallery or even one painting, and then jog out to the Pacific.

The National Gallery of Canada has outdone itself in every way. Kudos to Cazort, Kornell, and Roberts for putting together an astounding book about anatomy in art, a book that is easily comprehensible and not overly bearing. The Drawings and prints reproduced in the book are amazing themselves. The book traces the development of anatomy through the ages. Tough to find a comparable book.

This book is a fascinating analysis of how the World of Art changed with the introduction of the gallery space. It examines the reaction of artists to the confines, both physical and psychological, of the gallery.
I highly recommend this book for any student of art, or artist who wants to broaden their frame of reference with regards to art history and the current trajectory of contemporary art.

A fabulous guidebook for art, nature, science and music lovers. Complete with historical backgrounds of each museum along with samples of collections. Insight Guides had done a great job in providing readers with museums' operation hours/days. It's easy to use maps are useful in locating the numerous museums and galleries. A star that will help you plan a perfect vacation! Don't forget to check out other Insight Guides' museum series for other European cities. You'll love them.

This is one of the most inspiring and special books I have ever owned. Yoko Ono is my absolute idol! This book is like a collection of personal and secret poems... ...to be deciphered under your own terms...

This book is timely and well written. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about how to interpret history.

The Caravan Gallery's first book Welcome to Britain: A Celebration of Real Life presented a rich vein of quirky Britishness revealing the ordinary and mundane in glorious color but unfortunately, I thought, it was all spoilt by the photos being crammed into a very drab looking book. This latest one at last gives the photographs the treatment they deserve: one to a page (eleven pages have four) generous margins, good paper and well printed with 175dpi.

The 125 photos continue the theme of the first book with wry observations of the lifestyle of ordinary folk relaxing and the environment in which they do it. This is certainly not the Britain of the tourist brochure. Fortunately there is not a whiff of royalty, stately homes, the sentimental landscape or anything to do with the Establishment and Authority. The strange thing is that these photos depicting the ordinary actually become rather extraordinary as you turn over the pages and it is a tribute to Williams and Teasdale that they have managed to capture so much without resorting to gimmickry, trendy angles, filters and other dubious photo techniques in order to hype up the content.

There are plenty of photo books depicting 'real' Britain but few that actually show reality. 'Is Britain Great?' fortunately answers that question with humor and honesty.

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

This is a very special volume. Noguchi is one of the greatest American artists ever. Here you have his seminal collection selected by him, illustrated, ... and perhaps most importantly ... presented in his own words.

The full tale of Noguchi's profound American duality is best revealed and amplified in additional volumes. Here is an extraordinary view of the essence.

Unlike the popular children's books about little girls meeting painters in Giverny, this story reflects the recollections of a real person. My mother, author Frances Frieseke recalls her famous father painting "Peace" (now at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC): "Louise, if you jump so every time the cannon booms," gently remonstrated my father, "I will not be able to paint."

Peace, Art Poster by Frederick Carl Frieseke, size 28" x 22"

Frieseke's whimsical watercolor illustrations for the book are very different from his well-known Impressionist oil paintings. They have more in common with his drawings and cartoons.

If you enjoy this book, you will probably also like the illustrated memoirs of his own childhood: Uneventful reminiscences: A childhood in Florida

The book is edited by my brother, Nicholas J. Kilmer, a recognized expert on Frieseke and co-author of Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist