Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press;, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 180 pages. John Gutmann (1905-1998) was one of America's most distinctive photographers. Born in Germany where he trained as an artist and art teacher, he fled the Nazis in 1933 and settled in San Francisco, reinventing himself as a photo-reporter. Gutmann captured images of American culture, celebrating signs of a vibrant democracy, however imperfect. His own status as an outsider--a Jew in Germany, a naturalized citizen in the United States--informed his focus on individuals from the Asian-American, African-American, and gay communities, as well as his photography in India, Burma, and China during World War II. This handsome book acknowledges Gutmann's place in the history of photography. Drawing on his archive of photographs and papers at the Center for Creative Photography, it presents both unfamiliar works and little-known contexts for his imagery, linking his photography to his passionate interest in painting and filmmaking, his collections of non-Western art and artifacts, and his pedagogy. In addition to a major essay by Sally Stein, the volume includes an introduction by Douglas R. Nickel, and an overview of the Gutmann archive by Amy Rule.
Hardcover. Watkins, reprint, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 272 pages. Marco Polo (c.1254-1324) was a Christian merchant from the Venetian Republic who learned about trading while his father and uncle were absent on an extended journey through Asia, which culminated in a visit with the great khan Kublai. In 1269 the brothers returned to Venice and met Marco for the first time. The three of them then embarked on a new journey to Asia and the court of the khan, returning after more than two decades to find Venice at war. Marco was imprisoned in Genoa, whereupon he dictated his romantic-sounding stories to a cellmate. The popularity of his account is a rare example of a success in publishing before the age of printing. Introduction by John Masefield.
Softcover. Tokyo/NY, Kodansha USA, reprint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Softcover with a dust jacket, 152 pages. Highlights over 130 outstanding examples from the vast holdings of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Strikingly original and sumptuously colored, the ukiyo-e in these pages recapture the spirit of the period in which they were created. Here can be found the glamorous courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, the flamboyant vigor of kabuki theater, and the diversities of the Japanese landscape. Clean copy
Hardcover. US, Hachette, 1st, 1980-01-01, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 98 pages. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. In French language. Includes white cardboard mailer sleeve
Hardcover. Bali Indonesia, Koes Artbooks, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 336 pages illustrated in color throughout. Comprehensive guide to Indonesian artists and their works, from the mid-19th century to the present day. The accompanying texts combine essential biographical data of the artists with selective descriptions of their work. Entries for the 305 artists are arranged in chronological order by birth date, showing a mix of various art movements, styles, periods and techniques. Each entry is accompanied by a single image. Clean copy. NOTE: DUE TO SIZE AND WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Hardcover. NY, Rizzoli, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 176 pages illustrated in color. Clean copy.
Softcover. Bali, Indonesia, Yayasan Dharma Seni Museum, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 196 pages, 129 color illustrations. Numerous works in various media depicting bali, the Balinese, and aspects of Balinese culture.
Hardcover. NY, Asia Society, 1st, 1975, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 121 pages, illustrated in b&w, some color. Dust with light edgewear, minor fade to spine. Previous owner's embossed stamp on front fly leaf. Errata pamphlet laid in.
Hardcover. NY, Harper & Brothers, 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 205 pages. Hardcover. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. Decorated endpapers. Some tanning from age to edges, otherwise pages clean. Cover boards bound in blue, marbled cloth, red quarter cloth (some fading at spine, fraying at top and bottom). Binding tight, spine straight. In great shape for its age. Clarke explores a reef and the people of southern Sri Lanka. No dust jacket.
Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. This stimulating and comprehensive collection of original essays on twentieth-century Japan's history and culture provides a unique mix of American and Japanese perspectives on Showa. With an important, substantial Introduction by Carol Gluck, the volume explores the strengths of the Japanese economy, the issue of democracy and Japan's political culture, Japan's achievements in technology and the arts, and its relations with other Asian nations and the United States. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. London, Thames and Hudson, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 144 pages, Color photos by Ara Guller. Sinan was the greatest architect of the Ottoman Golden Age of the sixteenth century when the Ottoman Empire reached its zenith of power and magnificence. His style marks the apogee of Turkish art. Under Sleyman the Magnificent and his succcessor Selmi II, Sinan designed hundreds of buildings: mosques, palaces, tombs, mausolea, hospitals, schools, caravanserai, bridges, aqueducts and baths, many of them presented and analysed in this book. In his greatest works, he adapted Byzantine and Islamic styles to produce something quite new: a centralized organization of absolute space unhindered by pillars or columns and covered by a soaring dome. An architect of genius in a dynamic new empire expanding into both Asia and Europe, he was a true man of the Renaissance. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. Bloomington IN, Indiana University Press, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth stamped with gilt lettering and design. artfully explains the initial spirit and modern understanding of Tamil bhakti poetry. His fluent translations make the poems -- songs of the experience of God -- live for us as they did for their first audience nearly fifteen centuries ago. Clean, bright copy.
Softcover. Hong Kong, Christie's Inc., 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 204 pages, photographs throughout with English and Chinese text. Very slight corner and edge wear, otherwise, very clean and tight copy.
Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 240 pages. Steinberg's high-concept graphic art--epitomized by his oft-imitated cartoon map in which a Manhattan distended with self-importance shoves the continents of North America and Asia to the margins--is enchantingly showcased in this lavishly illustrated retrospective of his work for the New Yorker. Smith, a curator at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar and author of Edward Steichen: The Early Years, surveys six decades of Steinberg's pieces, including all 89 New Yorker covers (in full color), cartoons, wartime sketches from overseas, evocative (but never literal-minded) illustrations for articles, and unpublished items from the artist's portfolio. The material is arranged thematically, examining such recurring motifs as cats, pedestals and rubber-stamped figures and documenting the turn to visual metaphor in Steinberg's later work, where symbolic graphic representations of sound, abstract relationships and existential conundrums replace the usual scenario-with-verbal-punch line cartoon setup. Smith's pithy biographical essay situates Steinberg as a self-conscious modernist who helped develop a distinctive New Yorker visual style, one with "a wry, informal wit... attuned to the jittery optimism of the Atomic Age." Steinberg's cartoons usually made readers think before they laughed, and so will this splendid memorial to a 20th-century artistic landmark.
Hardcover. Santa Monica, CA, Hennessey & Ingalls, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 162 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear to dust jacket. Marston was instrumental in establishing Pasadena as a winter resort and then as a thriving community. He and his firm designed 1000 projects, many of which still survive, including cottages and additions to resort hotels, notable commercial and civic buildings such as the Pacific Asia Museum, and the earliest bungalow court. His residential designs span the range of styles from the Arts and Crafts through English Tudor and Monterey Colonial to, most importantly, Mediterranean Revival. This is an important addition to the literature of California's Golden Age of architecture.
Softcover. Boston, MFA Publications, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 269 pages. Color and b&w reproductions of paintings throughout. A work issued in conjunction with an exhibition held in 1997, providing a survey of the extensive collection of paintings from China, including critical commentary on the work throughout, examining the cultural importance of the pieces discussed. 9 3/4" to 12" tall; interior is clean and unmarked.
Hardcover. Crowood Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 222 pages., color plates. This impressive work encompasses history, anthropology, and an expert exposition of textile arts from this region where textiles may denote group identity and may represent a large portion of a family's wealth. The author draws upon both published information and her own extensive travels in the area, describing practices and techniques that she observed in use in situ. She illustrates cultural and historical patterns in costume, often with the aid of temple paintings, sculpture, and historic photographs to supplement current images. Her descriptions of techniques, for example of weaving, are admirably balanced -- detailed enough to inform while presented with sufficient general information for a non-specialist reader. The illustrative material is good, often her own or her son's photographs, that shows the labor-intensive processes and world-class skills as well as the resulting spectacular museum pieces.
Hardcover. New Delhi, privately printed/Pasang Wangdu, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 282 pages., profusely illustrated throughout in color and black and white painting schematics. Parallel text in English and Tibetan. Private printing. Ribbon marker, clean copy. NOTE: DUE TO SIZE AND WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Hardcover. New York, Universe Publishing, 2nd printing, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Non paginated. Hardcover. Six pages of pop-ups in excellent condition, each page has several smaller pop-ups laid in. Bright cover boards & bright illustrations throughout by illustrator, Anton Radevsky. A magnificent journey through the history of architecture. Featuring amazing three-dimensional replications of famous buildings from ancient to modern times, The Architecture Pop-Up Book showcases artwork, photographs, pop-ups, and detailed text of the ancient Egyptian pyramids; the great constructions of Greece and Rome, such as the Parthenon and the Colosseum; majestic Asian wonders, including the Taj Mahal; Gothic and Neoclassical masterpieces, such as Notre Dame and the Florence Duomo; and the work of such important modern architects as Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Frank Gehry. From a brilliantly elaborate Gothic cathedral nave to a telescoping Chrysler Building skyscraper, the talent and imagination of architects and builders from all eras and from all over the world are displayed and compared here.Clean, unmarked & tight copy.
Hardcover. NY, Pantheon, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 320 pages illustrated in color by Liew. "Liew's graphic novel is a fascinating look at a cartoonist's growth over time and how his creative output reflects the culture around him, and Liew tells Chye's story in a way that only comic books can....A beautifully multidimensional portrait of the cartoonist, beginning with Chye's personal interpretation o the past before showing comics and sketches that provide further insight....The color palettes, the paper quality, the incorporation of photographs and sketches, they all combine with the text to provide a complex view of Charlie Chan Hock Chye that has a strong sense of history behind it." A 2017 Eisner Award Winner for Best Writer/Artist, Best US Edition of International Material--Asia, and Best Publication DesignWinner of the Singapore Literature Prize 2016A New York Times bestsellerAn Economist Book of the Year 2016An NPR Graphic Novel Pick for 2016A Washington Post Best Graphic Novel of 2016A New York Post Best Books of 2016A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016
Softcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 317 pages, b&w illustrations. Translated from the Dutch by Diane Webb. "Rembrandt, Hals and Vermeer are still household names, even though they died over three hundred years ago. In their lifetimes they witnessed the extraordinary consolidation of the newly independent Dutch Republic and its emergence as one of the richest nations on earth. As one contemporary wrote in 1673: the Dutch were 'the envy of some, the fear of others, and the wonder of all their neighbours'. During the Dutch Golden Age, the arts blossomed and the country became a haven of religious tolerance. However, despite being self-proclaimed champions of freedom, the Dutch conquered communities in America, Africa and Asia and were heavily involved in both slavery and the slave trade on three continents." Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY/Beijing, Chambers Fine Arts, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover copy in black boards with the artists' name embossed in darker black on the front cover, in a bright red dust jacket, with some edge-wear. This is the most complete catalog of Lu Shengzhong's works to date. The catalog was prepared to accompany the exhibition at the University at Albany Art Museum. Text In English and Chinese. Essays by a dozen scholars. Biographical sketch. 34 page illustrated chronology, records Lu Shengzhong's artworks from 1980 to 2005. Illustrated throughout in color, some black & white, vintage photographs. 11" high X 8" wide, 155 pages.
Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 300 pages. In this lavishly produced volume, journalist Gaudriault accompanies photographer Rancinan to Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States to interview 23 masters of contemporary photography, paying homage to fashion photographers and photojournalists, traditional chroniclers of their times and conceptual artists. Rancinan's photographs record each encounter in portraits that encapsulate each subject's relationship with his shared discipline. Readers follow paparazzo Ron Galella fending off the camera; Martin Parr, the sardonic chronicler of middle-class British life, having tea in a cafe; Rankin, the creator of the hip magazine Dazed and Confused, hopping into a trashcan filled with his own cast-off images. Gaudriault's short essays quote liberally from her interviews and provide both biographical information and incisive commentary. Several of the older photographers strike an elegiac tone and confess to finding themselves at the end of the eras that gave birth to their visions, but optimism reigns among younger practitioners: David LaChapelle is reinventing himself in Hawaii; Rankin is bearing witness to an age that is still young; and Oliviero Toscani, the radical combination of journalist and marketer behind the Benetton campaigns, describes billboards as the church frescoes of today.