art biography

Hardcover. Boston, New Harvest, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 174 pages. Hardcover. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Hoban has written an insightful book into what may have made Lucian Freud the great painter he came to be. From his early days in Germany with his grandfather, Sigmund Freud, to his subsequent life in London, where his family moved before the war, we see Lucian Freud gradually developing from an intense adolescent who often resorted to physical violence in conflicts with others to the powerful figure who changed the face of Realism. His many liaisons with women are described in detail: Hoban offers us a candid sketch of who the most prominent women in his life were, his problems with commitment and other moral conundrums we are forced to consider in his character, such as his questionable demand on his lovers that they use no form of birth control, resulting in at least 14 children, most out of wedlock. Along with that, Freud's gambling addiction and his love of risk are explored by Hoban in a way that allows us a glimpse into Freud's psyche that is invaluable for anyone wanting to understand in a more in depth way the factors that might have contributed to his enormous talents and output.

Hardcover. London, Constable & Company, 1st, 1962, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover in a price-clipped dust jacket, 252 pages including index. Illustrated in b&w and color. Biography of Lucien Pissarro, artist and son of Camille, and his family. With an introduction by John Rewald. Name on inside front cover (behind flap), chunk gone from rear panel of dust jacket.otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Bloomsbury , 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, pictorial boards with wrap-around dust jacket band with title. 403 pages, color and b&w illustrations. Claude Monet's water lily paintings are among the most iconic and beloved works of art of the past century. Yet these entrancing images were created at a time of terrible private turmoil and sadness for the artist. The dramatic history behind these paintings is little known; Ross King's Mad Enchantment tells the full story for the first time and, in the process, presents a compelling and original portrait of one of our most popular and cherished artists. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 224 pages, 148 illustrations, (47 in color) many in full page photographs. Text in English by Barbara Rose based on numerous interviews with the artist. An extensive biography that deals with all the important works of the artist. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 330 pages, b&w illustrations. Paris in the 1920s was bursting with talent in the worlds of art, design and literature. The city was at the forefront of everything new and exciting; there was no censorship; life and love were there for the taking. At its center was the gorgeous, seductive English socialite Nancy Cunard, scion of the famous shipping line. Her lovers were legion, but this book focuses on five of the most significant and a lifelong friendship. Her affairs with acclaimed writers Ezra Pound, Aldous Huxley, Michael Arlen and Louis Aragon were passionate and tempestuous, as was her romance with black jazz pianist Henry Crowder. Her friendship with the famous Irish novelist George Moore, her mother's lover and a man falsely rumored to be Nancy's father, was the longest-lasting of her life. Cunard's early years were ones of great wealth but also emotional deprivation. Her mother Lady Cunard, the American heiress Maud Alice Burke (who later changed her name to Emerald) became a reigning London hostess; Nancy, from an early age, was given to promiscuity and heavy drinking and preferred a life in the arts to one in the social sphere into which she had been born. Highly intelligent, a gifted poet and widely read, she founded a small press that published Samuel Beckett among others. A muse to many, she was also a courageous crusader against racism and fascism. She left Paris in 1933, at the end of its most glittering years and remained unafraid to live life on the edge until her death in 1965. Remainder dot top edge otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Ludion/ D.A.P., 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 167 pages with color and b&w photographs & illustrations. Red cloth boards. Dustjacket. A nice crisp copy. Translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti. Includes notes and acknowledgements. Rene Magritte, the Surrealist artist, began experimenting with photography at any early age. This book studies the ways in which the photographic medium played a constant role in Magritte's social and artistic life.

Hardcover. NY, Random House Studio , 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Color illustrations throughout by Claire Keane. SIGNED BY KUNKEL on the title page. In the beginning, there was a boy named Robert McCloskey, growing up in Ohio, his hands always moving, always creating. Many years later, after attending art school in Boston, he would reflect on his days wandering through Boston Garden and write the classic picture book Make Way for Ducklings. In the beginning, there was also a girl named Nancy Sch n. She grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, working in her father's greenhouse, twisting wire and boughs into wreaths. Many years later, Nancy would look at Robert's drawings in Make Way for Ducklings and get the seed of an idea. That seed became the beloved bronze sculptures of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings that stand in Boston Garden today. This stunning and clever picture book biography intertwines the lives of two phenomenal artists--who were contemporaries and friends--and reveals the extraordinary impact they've had on generations of children.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. An Armenian national raised in Russia, Rouben Mamoulian (1897--1987) studied in the influential Stanislavski studio, renowned as the source of the "method" acting technique. Shortly after immigrating to New York in 1926, he created a sensation with an all-black production of Porgy (1927). He then went on to direct the debut Broadway productions of three of the most popular shows in the history of American musical theater: Porgy and Bess (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), and Carousel (1945). Mamoulian began working in film just as the sound revolution was dramatically changing the technical capabilities of the medium, and he quickly established himself as an innovator. Not only did many of his unusual camera techniques become standard, but he also invented a device that eliminated the background noises created by cameras and dollies. Seen as a rebel earlier in his career, Mamoulian gradually gained respect in Hollywood, and the Directors Guild of America awarded him the prestigious D. W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1983. In this meticulously researched biography, David Luhrssen paints the influential director as a socially conscious artist who sought to successfully combine art and commercial entertainment. Luhrssen not only reveals the fascinating personal story of an important yet neglected figure, but he also offers a tantalizing glimpse into the extraordinarily vibrant American film and theater industries during the twenties, thirties, and forties.

Softcover. NY, Da Capo Press, reprint, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 449 pages, b&w illustrations. Man Ray was the quintessential modernist figure - painter, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, poet, and philosopher. One of the most fascinating of the Surrealists who transformed the Paris art world during the 1920s, Man Ray was an enigma - a Dadaist who revered the Old Masters, an anarchist pursued by wealthy patrons. Driven to make his mark in as many art forms as possible, he struggled bitterly to win acceptance as a painter even as his skill as a photographer brought him world wide fame. Remainder line to bottom edge, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Boston MA, Little, Brown and Company, reprint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 319 pages, paperback. Man Ray's extraordinary autobiography, which reveals the entertaining life and times of the remarkable artist. Color and black-and-white illustrations throughout. Mild rubbing and edgewear to wraps. Lower fore edge corner slightly creased. Light pen mark to front flyleaf. A bright and tight copy.

Hardcover. US, Getty Research Institute, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover with dust jacket. Like new still in publisher's shrink wrap.

Hardcover. US, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 247 pages, illustrations in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Lucian Freud, perhaps the world's leading portrait painter, spent seven months painting a portrait of the art critic Martin Gayford. Gayford describes the process chronologically, from the day he arrived for the first sitting through to his meeting with the couple who bought the finished painting, and he vividly conveys what it is like to be on the inside of the process of creating a work of art. As Freud completes his portrait of Gayford, so the art critic produces his own portrait of the artist, giving a rare insight into Freud's working practice. Through their wide-ranging conversations, the reader learns not only about Freud's choice of models, lighting, setting, pose, and colors, but also about his likes and dislikes, his encounters and experiences, and the ways in which he approaches his relationship with each portrait subject. Gayford records Freud's observations on the work of Michelangelo, Vermeer, Titian, Chardin, Goya, van Gogh, Mondrian, and his great contemporary Francis Bacon. The book is full of revealing anecdotes about the people Freud has met in the course of his long career, including Max Ernst, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, George Orwell, W. H. Auden, Greta Garbo, and his grandfather Sigmund Freud.

Hardcover. NY, Bobbs-Merrill , 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in an unclipped dust jacket with faging to spine. Illustrations and jacket art by Al Hirschfeld. One woman's humorous take on life in New York City in the early 1950s. The author was married to NYT drama critic, Brooks Atkinson, but she could write too. Clean copy.

Softcover. Chicago, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 327 pages, b&w photographs and illustrations. Light edge wear to wrappers, else a very clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 1056 pages, b&w illustrations. This work presents a biography of the artist Marc Chagall in dialogue with events and ideologies of his time. It encompasses different aspects of his life (1889-1985) including his roots in folk culture, his personal relationships and his interests.

Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton/ Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 153 pages, b&w illustrations. "Mather and Weston first met in Los Angeles in 1913. They soon developed a close relationship, eventually working together as full-fledged artistic partners and even co-signing the photographs they produced. Weston was also madly in love with Mather, and the two engaged in an affair during his first marriage, even though Mather was more interested in women. This book which features art by both artists, chronicles their twelve-year association and sheds light on Mather, whose artistry, sexual identity, and mysterious past have been overshadowed by the massive reputation of Edward Weston and his subsequent association with Tina Modotti."

Softcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press , reprint, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 281 pages. A fascinating exploration of the life and work of one of America's most famous and enigmatic postwar visual artists Mark Rothko, one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Phaidon Press, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 192 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. Marlon Brando (1924-2004) is an icon in the history of American cinema. When he passed away in 2004, The New York Times remember 'the rebellious prodigy who electrified a generation and forever transformed the art of screen acting... a truly revoluntionary presence.' From his beginnings in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) to his mythic performances The Godfather (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979), Brando, who worked with such famous film stars as Elizabeth Taylor and Al Pacino, and such leading directors as Elia Kazan, John Huston and Francis Ford Coppola, has become a benchmark for other actors. Clean copy.

Softcover. New York, Whitney Museum & University of New York Press, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 224 pages illustrated throughout with plates in color and b&w. White pictorial stiff wrappers with light wear and some yellowing to back cover, else a very nice, tight, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Abbeville Press, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 10 x 12". 187 pages. 77 b&w, 77 color plates. The major monograph on American modernist Marsden Hartley (1877-1943). In addition to insightful and sensitive text, there is included a chronology, index, list of exhibitions, collections and selected bibliography. Wonderful color plates. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 179 pages, with photographs throughout by Martha Swope. Minor dust jacket edge wear and rub, otherwise, very clean and tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N Abrams Inc, 1st, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Facsimile replica of David Hockney's sketchbook. Unpaginated Hardcover. Comes with 31 page explanatory softcover that accompanies hardcover, both in slipcase. Very clean, tight hardcover with marble leather boards. Yellowing to softcover wrapper edges, otherwise clean and unmarked. Minor soiling and wear to slipcover. Slight yellowing around edges. Color illustrations throughout.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Master of Shadows weaves a gripping drama of 17th-century cloak-and-dagger diplomacy with an insightful, authoritative exploration of Peter Paul Rubens' art and the private passions that influenced it.

Hardcover. Flammarion, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 448 pages. This elegant, large-format volume presents twenty masters of photography via 300 extraordinary authorial photographs, providing a broad yet accessible overview of twentieth-century photography. From Man Ray's pioneering experimentations to the elegant and provocative fashion shots of Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts, the twenty master photographers featured in this handsome tome are masters of their craft across different photographic genres, from reportage and documentary to art and portraiture to fashion and glamour photography. A portfolio for each photographer features a selection of their legendary images, an introduction to the photographer's oeuvre, a brief biography, and commentary on each of the featured photographs. The volume features a striking, elegant design and large format, bringing these iconic photographs into sharp focus.Master Photographers features the work of Araki Nobuyoshi, Gabriele Basilico, Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Elliott Erwitt, Walker Evans, Mario Giacomelli, Mimmo Jodice, William Klein, Peter Lindbergh, Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, James Nachtwey, Helmut Newton, Martin Parr, Herb Ritts, Sebastiao Salgado, and August Sander.