Abstract Books

A great selection of critical essays about Post-War abstraction, ranging from the introduction of hard-edged abstraction to the post-Post Modern pluralism of the late 90s. Also serves as an interesting study of the academic concerns of the past four decades.

A very useful book and a starting point for art research. This book is
a must for anyone reserching artworks and should be in all serious art collectors' libraries.

This book is a little gem! I'm using this book for a class I'm taking on algebraic specification of data types.
The author uses Guttag's manner of specifying abstract data types, using signatures/functors. Works through validation and verifications, demonstrating how you can garantee that your code is mathematically sound. SML is almost perfect for that.
The powers for abstraction that SML supports shines through the book, showing how this language can be used, at the very least, for rapid, accurate prototyping, if not outright deployment. Nowdays, claiming SML (or its OO variant - OCaml) is "slow"is very much nonsense.
This is a great complement to your SML programming, functional programming skills, or even a nice set of skills to have for general programming, even if you don't deploy functional languages but want to be able to quickly and correctly specify abstract data types.

In 1940's New York, a handful of artists from varied backgrounds began producing work equal to the finest of the European avant garde. Although these artists worked in a wide variety of individual styles, all of them were connected by a similar belief in the ability of art to communicate fundamental truths about human psychology and experience. Drawing on mythological and psychological sources, and inspired by the presence of many members of the exiled European avant garde in New York, this small group of men and women created the first wholly American modernist style, Abstract Expressionism. From the mid-1940's until the ascendancy of Pop Art in the early 1960's, Abstract Expressionism was the most important movement in the Western art world, and one which remains influential even today. While the paintings of the Abstract Expressionists are the movement's best-known works, drawing was a fundamental means of communication for these artists. This book documents a small but exquisite exhibition of drawings held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You will find exemplary works from the "big names" (Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko, Willem de Kooning) reproduced here, along with important drawings by less well-known artists like Theodoros Stamos, Anne Ryan, and Mark Tobey. The diverse selection of works provides a broader overview of Abstract Expressionism than is usually seen in the art world, which has tended over the past few decades to discuss the movement through monographic exhibitions focussing on its most famous practitioners. This handsome volume restores coherency to the Abstract Expressionist story. It seems that art like this - both formally and conceptually serious - has vanished from the contemporary American scene, which has chosen to either follow the Warhol/Duchamp route of easy, jokey satire, or the equally easy road of explicit and didactic politics. This books documents a world where artists were still capable of taking painting in directions which explored the labyrinth of the mind and extended perception into new realms. An inspiring work of art history.

Anyone interested in the history, philosophy, and foundation of Abstract Expressionism will enjoy this anthology of classic writings on the movement---from contemporary critics, the artists themselves, and later historical evaluation.

This is a real resource for those curious about that important time in American influence, and dominance, in avant-garde art.

This is an excellent summation of the dynamic worldwide influence of abstact expressionism. It is well written and carefully edited. I would recommend it for collectors as well as academics and art professionals.

This book is Wm. Seitz's dissertation.It is well researched . One of the important sources is Robert Motherwell. An interesting chart that he wrote is included in the book.Some people will argue with the inclusion of Mark Tobey.He developed isolated from the New york painters. He did exhibit in the same years as the development of A.E. un-folded in New York.He was abstract earlier than many of the painters in this book. He was into Oriental aesthetics earlier than some of the others.He went so far as spending time in a Zen monastery.Motherwell and Reinhardt were both into Eastern art and thought.Seitz wrote the catalogue for the Tobey show at MOMA. Much of the book is devoted to the philosophy and aesthetics of the Abstract Expressionist.It is amply illustrated with the work of Hoffman,Tomlin,Baziotes,Motherwell,DeKooning,Gottleib,Pollock. Franz Kline ,John Marin are listed as sources in the back of the book.It is organized and written on a high academic level. It would easily qualify as THE TEXT on Abstract Expressionism. [...].Other books have appeared on the movement, but in terms of scholarship and depth this book will not be surpassed.You will read it and re-read it.As Motherwell in his chart of influences at the top is Mondrian who he lists as a moral guide.Several of these artists:Reinhard, Rothko,Motherwell underscore an interest in ethics in their writings.The authors Seitz,Ashton, Motherwell attempt to give clarity to a difficult subject.

ABSTRACT JUSTICE: An Ascent Into Hell, by Spencer Preston. The spellbinding political thriller that dramatically altered the course of the "Trial of the Century". "As the leader of the free world lays dying, a plot unfolds to kill his successor-- a black man.

I love this journal. I actually bought it at a discount book store and I loved just the look of it. The bright colors and the polka dot spine really caught my eye.
I've been keeping a journal for a really long time and I'm really happy to say that this one is one of my favorites. This particular journal doesn't really look like a journal which I adore. When it's on my bookshelf it just looks like a regular old book.
It is lined on the inside so it's easy to write, and the lines are not to far apart which is good for someone who writes really small like I do. I like how there is also a bookmark ribbon making it easy to find where you left off.
This is great journal and one that I'm really happy with.

From a physics undergrad: This is one of those wonderful, highly concentrated books that deliver extensive Wisdom in only a few pages of hardcore, to-the-point Theory, without simplifying. If you enjoy being told things in a frank manner and without excessive preambles, even if this means slower reading, this book is for you. The theory is built from scratch, but a lack of general abstract mathematical culture might prove problematic. Not recommended for the unprepared or those greedily seeking immediate applications.