Cultural Arts Books

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in ethnographic description and cultural interpretation. Glassie convincingly argues why the study of material culture challenges the received wisdom of the academy. More importantly, he applies his theory to the practice of completing an incredibly rich and lush reading of folk arts and vernacular architecture. This book provides a rich, interesting, and accessible model for learning to study cultural expressions -- be they Turkish carpets, Japanese ceramics, Appalachian face jugs, Gothic-revival houses, and an array of nifty objects. Glassie is also providing an exciting way to challenge the fragmentation of knowledge and the disconnected view of humankind that has been an unfortunate legacy of postmodernist cultural study.

Following an intriguing introduction, this book provides useful ways to study material culture. One chapter explains how material culture provides resources for studying history. This idea is key to the study of archaeology, and Glassie demonstrates how to study objects to examine the recent past. There is an vibrant chapter on the role of material culture in the life of a repairer of fine carpets who becomes a carpet seller in Philadelphia. Two of the strongest chapters deal with pottery and vernacular architecture. He provides fascinating insights into art by comparing various pottery traditions as diverse as Appalachian face jugs to Hindu religious art in Bangaldesh. The chapter on vernacular architecture is a tour de force that provides an overview of relationships between American history and architecture as well as useful ways to examine the built environment.

My wife recently gave me this book as a gift. She saw it on a closeout table at a local bookseller and thought I might enjoy it, since I have been a lifelong fan of science-fiction and comic books. It is a series of articles from Professor of Art and Art History at Stanford University, Scott Bukatman, that discuss technology in science fiction movies, comic books, television, etc. and how these actually help to prepare us all for the future, new technology, and expanding urbanism that we might otherwise fear or misunderstand.

Bukatman argues that the swooping camera movements in the early virtual-reality fantasy film Tron, for example, act so as to embody the viewer in its alienating new spaces, to give us "a place in this computerized world, a place defined almost solely in terms of spatial penetration and kinetic achievement." He proposes that the purpose of much science fiction, paradoxically, is to provide the comforting illusion that we always know where we are.

His final chapter is the best: a reading of superheroes in their various urban environments that is studded with great imagry. Bukatman draws an analogy between the 1811 imposition of Manhattan's grid street system and the rectangular layout of traditional comic strips. The strange fact that superheroes always live in big cities persuades him that the liberating sight of Superman flying, Spider-Man swinging or Batman leaping through the skylines is again an attempt to domesticate the dehumanized concrete sprawl. Superman, Bukatman says, "represented, in 1938, a kind of Corbusierian ideal. Superman has X-ray vision: walls become permeable, transparent. Through his benign, controlled authority, Superman renders the city open, modernist and democratic; he furthers a sense that Le Corbusier described in 1925, namely, that 'Everything is known to us'."

I really enjoyed this book and the various ideas and philosophical theroies about the place of scinece-fiction writing and movies, as well as comic book fantasy in our modern world.

Highly recommended for fans of the genres.

I have been studying film history for over 30 years and never have I been privy to a more avant garde and well supported book. Bukatman certainly knows his material, and takes the genre of science fiction to a new high. Kudos, Bukatman!

This summary is about Maya's African American poets and her life. It describes her wanting to become a famous writer. This book also talks about racism in her life She went through a lot in her life at an early age.

Maya Angelou has been a vivid cultural presence as an autobiographer, poet, and performer. In "Maya Angelou: Greeting the Morning," Sarah E. King has written a fine biography of this remarkable individual. Directed towards younger readers, King's book combines a straightforward text with many photographs of Angelou's life and times.

"Maya" begins with Angelou's birth in 1928 and ends with her historic delivery of her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the 1993 inauguration of United States President Bill Clinton. Along the way, we learn how the girl born as "Marguerite Johnson" got the distinctive name by which she is known today. King also handles the subject of childhood sexual abuse, of which Angelou is a survivor, with honesty and sensitivity.

Angelou's is a fascinating life story. King documents her early family life, her own life as a mother, her career in the entertainment industry, her contributions to the civil rights movement, and her experiences in Africa. We also learn of her emergence as a well-known writer with "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," the first volume of Angelou's wonderful multi-part autobiography.

Hopefully, young readers who are fascinated by this biography will want to explore Angelou's own writings. Sarah King has written a good resource for young people who are interested in autobiography, women's studies, and African-American writers.

This is by far the best and most beautiful book on the Maya for the general reader that I have come across. I have traveled extensively throughout the Maya Area, and own several books on the subject, including classics such as "A Forest of Kings", "The Blood of Kings", Coe's "The Maya", and Henderson's "The World of the Ancient Maya". However, none of these volumes come close to Grube's massive, lavishly-illustrated tome in terms of spectacular photographs, wealth of topics, and breadth of scholarship.

Edited by N. Grube, a renowned Maya scholar, the book is a collection of articles by several experts on the Maya, each a specialist in some aspect of the civilization. The range of articles is wide enough to form a comprehensive general introduction to the Maya and their achievements. In addition, there are articles that discuss unusual topics covered only briefly, if at all, in the other books. Alongside the usual material on Maya history throughout the Pre-Classic, Classic, and Post-Classic, you will find delightful chapters on the role of caves in Maya religion, intoxication and ecstacy, war and prisoners, court dwarves, the meaning of the Bonampak murals, Puuc architecture, Tikal architecture and its influence, astronomy and mathematics, grave robbers, Maya Gods, cacao, obsidian, the Teotihuacan connection, the Spanish Conquest, and the Maya in the Colonial and Present Eras. Your reading will be greatly enhanced by the dozens of beautiful illustrations, many of them unique to this volume. Where else, for example, will you see large color photographs of the Rio Bec and Tonina ruins, of chicle gathering and looted sites in the Peten jungle?

While "Divine Kings of the Rain Forest" certainly does some justice to the divinity of its subject matter, it is relatively expensive. Moreover, since it is out of print, you might even have to pay more than the list price to obtain a nice copy. However, it will be worth every penny. It is truly a pity that this book is out of print. (Try used book stores in large cities, where you might be fortunate enough to get a good copy at half price, as I did.) This is definitely a volume to display, treasure, and savor repeatedly.

This is the best book I have ever come across on Mayan culture. It is a oversized coffee table volume, some 450 deluxe pages, each of which is covered with maps, illustrations and many, many photographs. Each period in Mayan development is covered in the chapters and the illustrations correspond neatly with the text. The text also does not veer off into the author's own opinions as these books frequently do. The first evidence of humans in the Mayan planes date to around ten thousand b.c., the book starts there and continues to the current Mayans (yes, their descendents alive in the world today, and that, too, is an interesting look). For anyone who thinks that civilization began in the Mediterranean, this book is clear evidence that it began on the other side of the world at the same time, if not earlier. It's a shame that the price and the fact that this book is out of print makes it less accessible to readers. For Mayan historians, this book is a must, but even someone with only a casual interest in the subject would find much of interest here.

Written by Charles Colbert, who teaches in the Fine Arts Department of Boston College, this work is the most recent scholarly contribution concerning the cultural influences of Phrenology. The author demonstrates the contributions of Phrenology to artistic impression, particularly in 19th century American art. Painters and sculptors such as Hiram Powers, William Sidney Mount, Harriet Hosmer, Asher B. Durand, and Thomas Cole, among others, see their works reviewed and phrenologically analysed. The work gives a good insight in the world of American art, much of which is virtually unknown in the Old World. 

Written by Charles Colbert, who teaches in the Fine Arts Department of Boston College, this work is the most recent scholarly contribution concerning the cultural influences of Phrenology. The author demonstrates the contributions of Phrenology to artistic impression, particularly in 19th century American art. Painters and sculptors such as Hiram Powers, William Sidney Mount, Harriet Hosmer, Asher B. Durand, and Thomas Cole, among others, see their works reviewed and phrenologically analysed. The work gives a good insight in the world of American art, much of which is virtually unknown in the Old World. 

Toby Knobel Fluek book is beautifully illustrated. In a simple way, Toby brings the reader into Jewish culture and Sabbath day preparation, Password celebration, and the foods and clothing of these celebrations. Toby focuses on the excitement of kitchen and food preparation: baking bread for the week, preparing Challah, important cooking pots for the passover, subtle humor, eggs, chicken, the potato and its many dishes, and potato pancake. Toby sister was a dress maker for rich patrons. Toby's uncle Mordche bought local eggs and sold them in the city and trudged through the mud all day. Ironing was a laborous task which included filling the iron with ambers from the fire and occassionally rekindling the ambers by waving the iron around about her head. Sabbath candles and pots were given as marriage gifts. The community had men of various religious roles. One role was the reader of the Talmud. The Charoes remind the Jews of their captivity and the milling of cement for bricks. Sedar reminded them of the haste they left their capativity, lying on their side as they recite prayers and sing songs. The clothes and shoes had to be cleaned and polished for the Sabbath. Everyone was dressed clean and proper for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was celebrated with a wonderful feast of delicious food prepared the prior day. On passover, a place for Elijah set, facing East, and the door opened. The Elijah stories excited the imagination of the children. The did not go without candles and pototes were used to hold the candles for those that could not afford an Minohora. Women washed and carried water, plucked chicken feathers in exchange for delcious food. Aaron must wait to marry his love until her older sister marries.The family is imprisoned in a Polish Ghetto. Gentiles sell food to the Jews through the fence at exorbit prices. The polices beat people selling at the fence. Food rationing increases starvation. 10s of thousands of Jews die before concentration camp and survivors eventually deported to the camps. Toby and her mother escape, march behind retreating Russians. The scene reminds me of Ruth and Naomi of the old testament bravely walking as tracers whistle over their heads. Toby and her mother escapes concentration camp and are certain other family members did not survive. PK provides a place for clothes, a hot meal, and sense of civilization. A wonderful book to read at Easter. An amazing story of human courage, determination, and faith in their God. A history of incredible contrasts: joy and sorrow, marriage and death, and faith and despair.

This little book is a real gem of Jewish history, told through one woman's art. The paintings and sketches are arranged in chronological order, with personal explanations of each work. The result is like a scrapbook. Whereas most people today would have an album of photographs, Toby Fluek lost everything in the Holocaust, and was forced to carry her memories in her mind. Years later, she committed them to paper and canvas and now shares them in this book.

Interestingly, her family lived on a farm. One does not usually think of Eastern European Jews as farmers, but, in fact, there were Jews who worked the land. (One of my gentile Polish neighbors here in Minnesota told me that the Jews in his village always had the best vegetables!) While it is true that there were restrictions against Jews owning land, it is also true that there were exceptions to the rules. Toby's father's family had been on this farm for generations. It was this aspect that led me to purchase the book, because I, too, live and work on the land.

"We led a primitive life," she writes, "but we were a close-knit family." The "primitive" side of life is illustrated in her excellent still lifes, which portray arrangements of the common objects used for the Sabbath, festivals, and everyday activities. A basket of eggs for Passover, candles for the Sabbath, a prayer shawl on the table. Meat was served only on the Sabbath or when her father had an animal slaughtered. (Even then, he sold the best cuts of meat.) On weekdays they ate lots of potatoes, beans, and vegetables -- all beautifully painted here. Pots and dishes were passed down from mother to daughter, and nothing was ever discarded. One still life shows a well-worn set of Passover pots stored in a niche in the wall. Another painting is of her mother working in the farmhouse kitchen. She in kneading a week's worth of bread dough in a large wooden tub.

As the story unfolds, we learn that Toby eventually lost everything to the Nazi occupation. This, too, is illustrated through her paintings and drawings. The style here is darker, more ominous. Not something I would hang on my wall (the burning hospital, with the people still in it, is utterly horrifying in its simplicity) but essential to the telling of her story. She shows us Yom Kippur in the forest, hiding outdoors in the rain, crouching in a cellar and hanging her bread on a string to keep the mice from eating it at night. Her father was shot by the Nazis, her brother captured and taken away, presumably to his death. Through it all, her will to live was strong and she survived.

The collection of paintings (94 in all) continues through the liberation of Poland, being a displaced person begging for food, finding a job in a Russian military bakery (where the soldiers looked the other way so she could steal bread to take home). In 1949 she was married and moved to New York, where she lives today. The world she once knew is gone, but the memory lives on in her artwork. The last painting, "Am Yisrael Chai" (The People of Israel Live! shows Jews parying at the Western Wall in freedom.

Michel Delacroix's Paris is a splendid book, his artwork is so very appealing , unique , and unfailingly charming...a joy to behold to the young as well as the old...

Having collected Delacroix lithographs over the years, I was looking forward to seeing something about his history -- both personal and his works. This book did not disappoint me. Not being one to have "coffee table" books, I surpised myself by placing this one on the coffee table so I could refer to it any time I sat down to relax and reflect. This book brought me back to a wonderful trip to Paris my husband and I took to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It also encouraged us to add another piece of his works to our collection when recently on a business trip to New York.

Joseph Leo Koerner must rank as one of the most able and compelling figures writing in the field of Art History today. As with his previous work on Caspar David Friedrich this work is a masterpiece of interpretative criticism and research. Koerner proceeds always from close readings of individual works, but then sets them at the centre of a nexus of complex philosophical and socio historical questions. He invokes not only the writings of Durer's contemporaries, but such figures as Foucault and Adorno in drawing out the profoundest implications from the works cited. If proof were neeeded that art history can be urgent and disturbing rather than pedantic and arcane, then this book should offer it. As one reaches the end of this book one understands that the complex issues of identity which Durer and his circle grappled with are as vital and disturbing at the turn of the millenium as the were when Durer worked on the brink of the half millenium.

As neither an art historian nor an artist, I don't know how I was lucky enough to find this book. It is an intellecutally and aesthetically enriching experience from start to finish. The author presents Durer in a full historical context, dramatically explaining his importance in time and place. Many illustrations are included, the style is very readable, and the fascination of watching Durer emerge from the pages of the book and the mists of the Middle Ages in Germany, is just terrific! You will learn more than you perhaps thought possible about Durer and you may also wonder, as I did, why I had not appreciated his art more.

This is an excellent book, very helpful for anyone trying to present a message and encourage others to get on board. Highly recommended. Check out the publishers' page for more info. on it.

Move the Message is an absolute must-read for all activists of any degree. THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE BOOK! It is phenomenally well-written, thoughtfully organized and thoroughly complete down to the simplest details. Bellaccomo provides step-by-step procedures for effective presentations, letter writing, press releases, rallying, protesting, etc. Her approach is extremely sensible and positive.

I recommend reading the entire book and then using it as a reference for specific activities. Even the most seasoned presenter will find new, valuable ideas that will bring his or her effectiveness to a higher level. If you are a hard-working activist feeling the burnout and frustration of putting in lots of energy with little apparent payoff, this book is for you. You will find ways to freshen and focus your approach with rewarding results. If you are moved to make a difference but are fearful of being in front of people and negotiating with the opposing side, this book is for you as well because the method to prepare yourself is so easy to follow, with very small, manageable steps.

Move the Message does not eliminate the work that you need to do but it provides a meticulous format to guide you all the way to success. There are numerous examples of actual events that Bellaccomo uses to illustrate her points. Not only are they useful, but they are interesting as well as informative. Many provide inspiration, showing how a well-planned activity can demonstrate the desired result.

There are numerous tips on how to deal with the media, the police, the crowd, team members and those she terms the "power holders." She gives advice on what to do and not do if you are arrested. The book provides instructions on how to use your eyes, hands and feet with explanations why and what the affects will be in different situations. Some of the information may seem obvious but we may not have given much thought to its impact. Bellaccomo makes crystal clear the importance of your appearance.

The author actually follows her own recommendations and is an excellent speaker, communicator and trainer. Inviting Josephine Bellaccomo to give a talk or workshop on effective activism would be a worthwhile venture.

If all of us followed the procedures outlined in Move the Message I truly believe we could move mountains, making a powerful difference to change the world for the better.

You can't find anything better if you're looking for information on the great Mr. Bojangles.

"Mr. Bojangles: The Biography of Bill Robinson" not only serves as a crucial historical document, but also as a vivid portrait of a truly special man. An original in every sense of the word, Bill Robinson created a unique style of tap dancing, along with breaking the racist barriers of his time. This book superbly chronicles (with the help of first-hand source materials and interviews with people who knew him) the life of this incredible artist, entertainer, and humanitarian. You will not only learn what the world was like when Mr. Robinson struggled in his craft, but you will discover the values and convictions that drove him forward. You will be moved by the benevolence of this man's spirit--a spirit that could coin a phrase such as "Everything's Copasetic!" This is a touching and informative biography that informs the evolution of tap AND the human experience.