Demons, Yarns and Tales: Tapestries by Contemporary ArtistsSarah Kent
Damiani, 2009
886208076X, 9788862080767
106 pages
With the recent recuperation of knitting and embroidery in the work of Ghada Amer, Tracy Emin, Emily Jacir and in the pages of "KnitKnit" magazine and last season's monograph on the tapestries of Dieter Roth and Ingrid Wiener, it comes as a pleasure to see tapestry retrieved as a medium in "Demons, Yarns and Tales," Here, 15 internationally renowned artists explore wall-hanging tapestry, a craft foreign to their habitual practice. Three years in the making, the 14 tapestry projects of "Demons, Yarns and Tales" address a gamut of subjects--from fictive landscapes and architectural abstraction to fashion and flora--while incorporating into these themes the politics of race, gender, international conflict and ecology. In adjusting to this new medium and adapting to unfamiliar textures and surfaces, each artist has found ways to expand the scope of their skills and develop the ongoing themes of their work. This book sees them translate the familiar languages of paint, paper, pencil, ink on canvas, ceramics or wood panel into that of handwoven stitch and silk thread. The participating artists are Ghada Amer & Reza Farkhondeh, assume vivid astro focus, Peter Blake, Jaime Gili, Gary Hume, Francesca Lowe, Beatriz Milhazes, Paul Noble, Grayson Perry, Shahzia Sikander, Fred Tomaselli, Gavin Turk, Julie Verhoeven and Kara Walker.
Hard pressed: 600 years of prints and processDavid Platzker, Elizabeth Wyckoff
Hudson Hill Press, 2000
1555951929, 9781555951924
126 pages
This invaluable publication surveys the history of printmaking, focusing on the effects of technical advances. It examines artists and works that expanded the boundaries of various media, including woodcuts, etchings, engravings, lithographs, mezzotints, screenprints, and more, right up to the digital and photographic processes of today. Two essays and more than 150 illustrations survey the greatest masters of the graphic media, from Durer and Rembrandt through Munch and Picasso to Rauschenberg and Ryman, all of whom share a genius for innovation.
A number of prints are illustrated in different states and versions, demonstrating the properties of each medium and the steps involved in realizing the artist's final goal, as well as introducing aspects of connoisseurship.
Hard Pressed is published in conjunction with a major exhibition, curated by authors David Platzker and Elizabeth Wyckoff, that explores the interactions of artists, printers, and publishers with techniques new and old, from artistic to industrial, through six centuries. This is the inaugural project of International Print Center New York, a nonprofit institution founded in 1995 to promote the greater appreciation and understanding of the fine art print.
The innocentsTaryn Simon, Peter Neufeld, Barry Scheck, Innocence Project
Umbrage Editions, 2003
1884167187, 9781884167188
103 pages
Leading civil rights attorneys Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck of The Innocence Project commissioned photographer Taryn Simon to travel across the United States photographing and interviewing individuals who were convicted of heinous crimes of which they were innocent. Simon photographed these innocents at sites of particular significance to their illegitimate conviction: the scene of the crime, misidentification, arrest, or alibi. Simon's portraits are accompanied by a commentary by Neufeld and Scheck.
Weetzie BatFrancesca Lia Block
HarperCollins, 2004
0060736259, 9780060736255
128 pages
Fifteen years ago Francesca Lia Block made a dazzling entrance into the literary scene with what would become one of the most talked-about books of the decade: Weetzie Bat. This poetic roller coaster swoop has a sleek new design to match its new sister and brother books, Goat Girls and Beautiful Boys. Rediscover the magic of Weetzie Bat, Ms. Blocks sophisticated, slinkster-cool love song to L.A.the book that shattered the standard, captivated readers of all generations, and made Francesca Lia Block one of the most heralded authors of the last decade.
Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance VeniceDavid Rosand, Linda Borean, Frederick Ilchman
MFA Publications, 2009
0878467394, 9780878467396
304 pages
For nearly four decades in the sixteenth century, the careers of Venice's three greatest painters--Titan, Tintoretto and Veronese--overlapped, producing mutual influences and bitter rivalries that changed art history. Venice was then among Europe's richest cities, and its plentiful commissions fostered an exceptionally fertile and innovative climate. In it, the three artists--brilliant, ambitious and fiercely competitive--vied with one another for primacy, employing such new media as oil on canvas, with its unique expressive possibilities, and such new approaches as a personal and identifiable signature style. They also pioneered the use of easel painting, a newly portable format that led to unprecedented fame in their lifetimes. With more than 150 stunning examples by the three masters and their contemporaries, this volume elucidates the technical and aesthetic innovations that helped define the uniquely rich "Venetian style," as well as the social, political and economic context in which it flourished. Essays range from examinations of seminal new techniques to such crucial institutions as state commissions and the patronage system. Most of all, by concentrating on the lives and careers of Venice's three greatest painters, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronesepaints a vibrant human portrait--one brimming with savage rivalry, one-upsmanship, humor and passion.
In Praise of ShadowsWilliam Kentridge, Metin And, Paolo Colombo
Charta, 2009
8881587149, 9788881587148
152 pages
Juxtaposing the work of a selection of international contemporary artists such as William Kentridge, Kara Walker, Lotte Reiniger, Jockum Nordstrom and Nathalie Djurberg with the tradition of European shadow theater--particularly as it is practiced in Turkey and Greece, where it is still very much an active art form--this volume examines the historical use of shadows in art. Shadow theater is an oral tradition, based on folk tales and simple narratives expressed with an economy of means, that operates, in large part, on improvisation. It has served as a source of inspiration for a number of contemporary artists who have paid homage and appropriated the aesthetics of shadow plays in their work. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, which will travel to Istanbul and Athens. This volume includes essays by critic Lewis Hyde, IMMA Director Enrique Juncosa and exhibition curator Paolo Colombo. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
