art biography

Hardcover. NY, PowerHouse Books, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 263 pages. Personal history and intimate memoir by the wife of the great American artist. 50 duotone photographs and over a dozen by Walker Evans. Storey's memoir of her ten-year marriage to Walker Evans, is the story of an elegant young woman's infatuation with a great American artist--with the man himself, with what he stood for aesthetically, and with his artistic and social circle--and how her initial passion gradually cooled into disenchantment. Isabelle and Walker were married in 1960. Evans, already a prominent figure in the world of photography, introduced Isabelle to Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Helen Levitt, Robert Penn Warren, Alfred Kazin, William H. Whyte, and a host of other luminaries. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Tucson AZ, HP Books, 1st, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 96 pages. A pictorial biography of one of Disney's most popular creations. Color and b&w illustrations, filmography and bibliography. Clean in a bright dust jacket.

Hardcover. London/NY, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial cloth, 112 pages illustrated in color, b&w. Jenny Uglow narrates the story of Walter Crane, an intriguing and most prolific figure not only in illustration, but in political culture more broadly. Uglow expertly weaves a fascinating study of how Crane's art and politics developed from his childhood love of Pre-Raphaelite painting to the influences of Morris and William Blake on the journals, books, banners, pamphlets and postcards he went on to create as he forged a new style for the international socialist movement. Comprising a staggering range of visual material, Crane's images became a symbolic code that leapt over linguistic boundaries. This book is a brilliant record of an artist who blended styles and influences like no one before him. An exploration of the life and work of Walter Crane, the pioneering British socialist artist who transformed the illustration of children's books. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Prestel Publishing, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 214 pages, color plates. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. Catalog of an exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and three other institutions between Sept. 25, 2011 and Jan. 6, 2013.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 1948 , Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 234 pages. Green cover with small gilt head silhouette to cover and lettering to spine, acetate-protected dust jacket, "Sally and Rockwell Kent" bookplate - formerly owned by the famous illustrator Rockwell Kent. Color frontispiece, 59 b&w plates of Allston's paintings. Light wear and chipping evident to dust jacket under acetate cover; overall, a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Skira Rizzoli, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 224 pages. Illustrated in color and b&w. The most comprehensive book on the artist to date, offering an insightful look into the legendary musician and his enormous impact on the development of jazz. Miles Davis explores the life and art of one of the greatest visionaries in jazz history--through photographs, handwritten musical scores, album covers, posters, and more--cementing his reputation as the embodiment of cool, both on- and offstage. To examine his extraordinary career is also to examine the history of jazz from the mid-1940s through the early 1990s, as Davis was crucial in almost every important innovation and stylistic development during that time. His genius paved the way for these changes, both with his own performances and recordings, and by choosing collaborators with whom he forged new directions. Miles Davis--trumpeter, bandleader, and composer--was one of the most important figures in jazz history. He was born in a well-to-do family in St. Louis in 1926 and died in a Los Angeles hospital in 1991. He was at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including cool jazz, hard bop, free jazz, and fusion. Davis worked with many of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, including Ron Carter, John Coltrane, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Charlie Parker, and Max Roach, among numerous others.

Hardcover. New York , Thames & Hudson, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 255 pages, clean hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. B&w photographs throughout by Bischof. His images were influenced by the major photo-movements of his time: the formal concepts of Das Neues Sehen (New Vision), the surrealism of Man Ray, and the documentary tradition of photojournalism. From the 1940s through the early 1950s, he covered World War II, the bombing of Hiroshima, and the Korean War for Life , Paris-Match , and other publications; his most famous series, "Famine in India," appeared in Life in 1951. This first major compilation of Bischof's work is nicely complemented by the text, a joint effort by son Marco and Swiss art historian Magnaguagno that vividly integrates biography and history. Dust jacket with minor edgewear, short closed tear to rear panel.

Hardcover. New York , Thames & Hudson, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 255 pages, clean hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. B&w photographs throughout by Bischof. His images were influenced by the major photo-movements of his time: the formal concepts of Das Neues Sehen (New Vision), the surrealism of Man Ray, and the documentary tradition of photojournalism. From the 1940s through the early 1950s, he covered World War II, the bombing of Hiroshima, and the Korean War for Life , Paris-Match , and other publications; his most famous series, "Famine in India," appeared in Life in 1951. This first major compilation of Bischof's work is nicely complemented by the text, a joint effort by son Marco and Swiss art historian Magnaguagno that vividly integrates biography and history.

Hardcover. NY, Harper, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 672 pages. 16 pages of photos. What Becomes a Legend Most is the first definitive biography of this luminary--an intensely driven man who endured personal and professional prejudice, struggled with deep insecurities, and mounted an existential lifelong battle to be recognized as an artist. Philip Gefter builds on archival research and exclusive interviews with those closest to Avedon to chronicle his story, beginning with Avedon's coming-of-age in New York between the world wars, when cultural prejudices forced him to make decisions that shaped the course of his life. Compounding his private battles, Avedon fought to be taken seriously in a medium that itself struggled to be respected within the art world. Gefter reveals how the 1950s and 1960s informed Avedon's life and work as much as he informed the period. He counted as close friends a profoundly influential group of artists--Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Harold Brodkey, Renata Adler, Sidney Lumet, and Mike Nichols--who shaped the cultural life of the American twentieth century. It wasn't until Avedon's fashion work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the late 1970s that he became a household name. Balancing glamour with the gravitas of an artist's genuine reach for worldy achievement--and not a little gossip--plus sixteen pages of photographs, What Becomes a Legend Most is an intimate window into Avedon's fascinating world. Dramatic, visionary, and remarkable, it pays tribute to Avedon's role in the history of photography and fashion--and his legacy as one of the most consequential artists of his time.

Hardcover. NY, Harper, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 672 pages. 16 pages of photos. What Becomes a Legend Most is the first definitive biography of this luminary--an intensely driven man who endured personal and professional prejudice, struggled with deep insecurities, and mounted an existential lifelong battle to be recognized as an artist. Philip Gefter builds on archival research and exclusive interviews with those closest to Avedon to chronicle his story, beginning with Avedon's coming-of-age in New York between the world wars, when cultural prejudices forced him to make decisions that shaped the course of his life. Compounding his private battles, Avedon fought to be taken seriously in a medium that itself struggled to be respected within the art world. Gefter reveals how the 1950s and 1960s informed Avedon's life and work as much as he informed the period. He counted as close friends a profoundly influential group of artists--Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Harold Brodkey, Renata Adler, Sidney Lumet, and Mike Nichols--who shaped the cultural life of the American twentieth century. It wasn't until Avedon's fashion work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the late 1970s that he became a household name. Balancing glamour with the gravitas of an artist's genuine reach for worldy achievement--and not a little gossip--plus sixteen pages of photographs, What Becomes a Legend Most is an intimate window into Avedon's fascinating world. Dramatic, visionary, and remarkable, it pays tribute to Avedon's role in the history of photography and fashion--and his legacy as one of the most consequential artists of his time.

Hardcover. NY, HarperCollins, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 498 pages. The renowned artist offers a humorous take on his own life, discussing among other topics his Bronx childhood, his jazz career, his legendary excesses, and his brief stint in the military. There is the Larry Rivers whose work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery, and there is the Larry Rivers who himself has hung out in a variety of other, less respectable milieus. Now the artist, musician, friend, lover, and entertaining writer--with help from his old friend playwright Arnold Weinstein--pens perhaps the most outspoken and candid autobiography ever. B&w, some color illustrations. Clean copy.

Art Intitute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial cloth, 251 pages illustrated in color. The extraordinary life of a captivating American artist, beautifully illustrated with his dreamlike drawings Much of Joseph Elmer Yoakum's story comes from the artist himself--and is almost too fantastic to believe. At a young age, Yoakum (1891-1972) traveled the globe with numerous circuses; he later served in a segregated noncombat regiment during World War I before settling in Chicago. There, inspired by a dream, he began his artistic career at age seventy-one, producing some two thousand drawings over a decade. How did Yoakum gain representation in major museum collections in Chicago and New York? What fueled his process, which he described as a "spiritual unfoldment"? This volume delves into the friendships Yoakum forged with the Chicago Imagists that secured his place in art history, explores the religious outlook that may have helped him cope with a racially fractured city, and examines his complicated relationship to African American and Native American identities. With hundreds of beautiful color reproductions of his dreamlike drawings, it offers the most comprehensive study of the artist's work, illuminating his vivid and imaginative creativity and giving definition and dimension to his remarkable biography. Clean copy. NOTE: DUE TO WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Penguin Press, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 474 pages, b&w illustrations. "A "heroic" and "fascinating" biography of John Cage showing how his work, and that of countless American artists, was transformed by Zen Buddhism". (The New York Times). Where the Heart Beats is the story of the tremendous changes sweeping through American culture following the Second World War, a time when the arts in America broke away from centuries of tradition and reinvented themselves. Painters converted their canvases into arenas for action and gesture, dancers embraced pure movement over narrative, performance artists staged "happenings" in which anything could happen, poets wrote words determined by chance.

Hardcover. New York, Watson-Guptill Publications, 1st, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 87 pages. 32 color illustrations. Dark blue cloth, gilt lettering to spine. Very nice, clean and tight copy. Dust jacket edgewear on upper corner of spine. In good shape.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 440 pages, colo and b&w illustrations. The first biography in more than twenty years of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) is also the first to make extensive use of the artist's private correspondence to tell the story of his life and work. This engaging personal history dispels the popular notion of Whistler as merely a combative, eccentric, and unrelenting publicity seeker, a man as renowned for his public feuds with Oscar Wilde and John Ruskin as for the iconic portrait of his mother. The Whistler revealed in these pages is an intense, introspective, and complex man, plagued by self-doubt and haunted by an endless pursuit of perfection in his painting and drawing. In his beautifully illustrated and deeply human portrayal of the artist, Daniel E. Sutherland shows why Whistler was perhaps the most influential artist of his generation, and certainly a pivotal figure in the cultural history of the nineteenth century. Whistler comes alive through his own magnificent work and words, including the provocative manifestos that explained his bold artistic vision, sparked controversy in his own time, and resonate to this day.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 440 pages, illustrations in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. The first biography in more than twenty years of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) is also the first to make extensive use of the artist's private correspondence to tell the story of his life and work. This engaging personal history dispels the popular notion of Whistler as merely a combative, eccentric, and unrelenting publicity seeker, a man as renowned for his public feuds with Oscar Wilde and John Ruskin as for the iconic portrait of his mother. The Whistler revealed in these pages is an intense, introspective, and complex man, plagued by self-doubt and haunted by an endless pursuit of perfection in his painting and drawing. In his beautifully illustrated and deeply human portrayal of the artist, Daniel E. Sutherland shows why Whistler was perhaps the most influential artist of his generation, and certainly a pivotal figure in the cultural history of the nineteenth century. Whistler comes alive through his own magnificent work and words, including the provocative manifestos that explained his bold artistic vision, sparked controversy in his own time, and resonate to this day.

Hardcover. Lausanne, Acatos, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket., 206 pages. With photographs and reproductions in color and black and white of Lam's paintings and drawings. With facsimile of small booklet by Andre Breton in pocket inside front cover.

Hardcover. New York, Bloomsbury, 1st US , 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 359 pages, hardcover. 16 pages of color illustrations. Extensive b&w illustrations and photographs. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Nantier Beall Minoustchine, 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards. Explore the life of Will Eisner, one of the most influential artists in the history of comics through the most appropriate medium: a graphic novel! From his immigrant roots and childhood in New York, starting his own comics studio and business, and the creation and publication of his beloved comic, The Spirit, through inventing the term ' graphic novel' to convince a general trade publisher to publish the groundbreaking A Contract with God, you'll follow along in Eisner's life journey. With the most prestigious comics awards named after him, Will Eisner is forever celebrated not only in what he created but his unerring belief in comics' capacity to be better, to reach higher, to be a full art form in its own right. This is the life of this man of vision who helped to put comics on the map. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NC, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2nd printing, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 254 pages. Hardcover no dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy in excellent condition. Color and black and white illustrations. Explores the fascinating life of Will Eisner , detailing a more than 70-year career in which he spearheaded comics for adult readers and created the first widely accepted graphic novel, A Contract with God.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 220 pages. Will Eisner (1917-2005) is universally considered the master of comics storytelling, best known for The Spirit, his iconic newspaper comic strip, and A Contract With God, the first significant graphic novel. This seminal work from 1978 ushered in a new era of personal stories in comics form that touched every adult topic from mortality to religion and sexuality, forever changing the way writers and artists approached comics storytelling. Noted historian Paul Levitz celebrates Eisner by showcasing his most famous work along-side unpublished and rare materials from the family archives. Also included are original interviews with creators such as Jules Feiffer, Art Spiegelman, Scott McCloud, Jeff Smith, Denis Kitchen, and Neil Gaiman--all of whom knew Eisner and were inspired by his work to create their own graphic novels for a new generation of readers.

Hardcover. Oak Knoll Press, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 216 pages, no dj issued. Will H. Bradley (1868-1962) is widely regarded as one of the masters of book, magazine, and graphic design during the Art Nouveau period. This extensive work also contains a biography of Bradley, a bibliography, and author, title, and publisher indices.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 376 pages, color and b&w illustrations. The marriage of William Michael Rossetti and Lucy Madox Brown united two of the most resonant Pre-Raphaelite family names. Their passionate and ultimately tragic relationship provides a fresh perspective on 19th-century marriage and on the private lives of eminent Victorians.

Softcover. New York, Harry N Abrams, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 159 pages. Cover has minor wear to edges. Inside is bright and clean. Many color plates throughout. A nice copy. This book celebrates the art as well as the poetry of the great English poet William Blake. The Huntington Library has the most extensive collection of Blake's artwork in the world.