art criticism

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1st Edition, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 155 pages. Hardcover. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. Cover boards bound in orange cloth, gilt title on spine, all excellent. Dust jacket unclipped, has small puncture near spine on front cover (patched from inside a with tape, see image), otherwise very good. Binding tight. Spine straight. In beautiful condition. Hassrick's illuminating discussion of Russell's work, based on much new research, is set against the backgrond of the artist's experiences in the West.

Hardcover. Grand Rapids MI, Eerdmans Publishing , 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 199 pages. A brief account of Williams' life and examination of his early poems, the criticism, biographies and plays, the novels, the Arthurian poems and his theological writings. Light edge wear to dust jacket. Else a very clean, tight copy.

Softcover. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 112 pages, color & b/w plates, text illustrations, notes, bibliography. This book looks closely at the whiz kid of graphic novelists whose 'Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth' (2000) inspired praise from critics & readers alike, and demonstrated that Ware's graphic novels challenged traditional definitions of literature. Here is the career, the work methods, and the graphic innovations, which include pullout, flip-up, and three-dimensional insertions, along with cut-out-and-assemble paper projects that require construction by readers.

Softcover. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 112 pages, color & b/w plates, text illustrations, notes, bibliography. This book looks closely at the whiz kid of graphic novelists whose 'Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth' (2000) inspired praise from critics & readers alike, and demonstrated that Ware's graphic novels challenged traditional definitions of literature. Here is the career, the work methods, and the graphic innovations, which include pullout, flip-up, and three-dimensional insertions, along with cut-out-and-assemble paper projects that require construction by readers.

Hardcover. NY, Harper, 5th pr., 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 391 pages with index. In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans--and all movie lovers--could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining. At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT's and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the art form ever.

Softcover. Rochester NY, Visual Studies Workshop Press, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 199 pages, paperback. Fictions and the fictions of theory from acclaimed theorist of film. With a foreword by Annette Michelson. Mild rubbing and edgewear to wraps. Light bumping to spine. Previous owner's signature to front endpapers. Scarce. A clean and tight copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 358 pages, color and b&w illustrations. What we call classical art did not simply appear in ancient Rome, or in the Renaissance, or in the eighteenth-century Academy. Endlessly repackaged and revered or rebuked, Greek and Roman artifacts have gathered an amazing array of values, both positive and negative, in each new historical period, even as these objects themselves have reshaped their surroundings. Vout shows how this process began in antiquity, as Greeks of the Hellenistic period transformed the art of fifth-century Greece, and continued through the Roman empire, Constantinople, European court societies, the neoclassical English country house, and the nineteenth century, up to the modern museum. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, British Film Institute/Palgrave, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 119 pages, b&w photos, Cleo de 5 a 7, Agnes Varda's classic work of 1962 depicts, in near real time, ninety minutes in the life of Cleo, a young woman in Paris awaiting the results of medical tests that she fears will confirm a fatal condition. The film, whose visual beauty matches its evocation of early Fifth Republic Paris, was a major point of reference for the French New Wave despite the fact that Varda, the only major female French director of the period, never considered herself a member of the core Cahiers du Cinema group of critics turned filmmakers. Ungar provides a close reading of the film and situates it in its social, political and cinematic context, tracing Varda's early career as a student of art history and a photographer, the history of post-war French film, and the lengthy Algerian war to which Cleo's health concerns and ambitions to become a pop singer make her more or less oblivious. His study is the first to set a reading of Cleo's formal and technical complexity alongside an analysis of its status as a document of a specific historical moment.

Hardcover. London, Tate Publishing, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 144 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear. Richly illustrated with many images taken from original artwork and rare artefacts, Comics Art gives a fascinating, accessible guide to some of the special properties of sequential art, such as panels, page layouts, speech balloons and wordless or 'silent' narration. It addresses concerns about how comics perpetuate stereotypes and support the status quo, while assessing their growing significance, notably through autobiography and reportage, as vehicles for provocative voices often silenced in other media. Comics Art also explores the diversity of styles, media and approaches now possible in the medium and exciting developments in digital comics and in comics conceived for galleries and installations.

Softcover. New York, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 199 pages. Softcover with minor wear to paper wrappers. Spine cracked on sencond page. Library embossed stamp on front cover, otherwise clean, tight copy. Minor wear on edges.

Softcover. NY, Basic Books, reprint, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 359 pages. Stanley Crouch-MacArthur "genius" award recipient, co-founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Book Award nominee, and perennial bull in the china shop of black intelligentsia- has been writing about jazz and jazz artists for over thirty years. His reputation for controversy is exceeded only by a universal respect for his intellect and passion. As Gary Giddons notes: "Stanley may be the only jazz writer out there with the kind of rhinoceros hide necessary to provoke and outrage and then withstand the fulminations that come back." Now, in a long-awaited collection, Crouch collects fifteen of his most influential, and most controversial pieces (published in Jazz Times, The New Yorker, the Village Voice, and elsewhere), and includes two new essays as well. The pieces range from the introspective "Jazz Criticism and its Effect on the Art Form" to a rollicking debate with Amiri Baraka, to vivid, intimate portraits of the legendary performers Crouch has known. The first, autobiographical essay reflects on his life in jazz as a drummer, a promoter, a critic, and most of all a lover of this quintessentially American art form. And the closing essay, about a young Italian saxophonist, expresses undaunted optimism for the worldwide vibrancy of jazz.Throughout, Crouch's work reminds us not only of why he is one of the world's most important living jazz critics, but also of why jazz itself remains, against all odds, an elemental component of our cultural identity. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Rodale Books , 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Robert Hilburn's storied career as a rock critic has allowed him a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of some of the most iconic figures of our time. He was the only music critic to visit Folsom Prison with Johnny Cash. He met John Lennon during his lost weekend period in Los Angeles and they became friends. Bob Dylan granted him his only interviews during his "born-again" period and the occasion of his 50th birthday. Michael Jackson invited Hilburn to watch cartoons with him in his bedroom. When Springsteen took to playing only old hits, Hilburn scolded him for turning his legendary concerts into oldies revues, and Springsteen changed his set list. In this totally unique account of the symbiotic relationship between critic and musical artist, Hilburn reflects on the ways in which he has changed and been changed by the subjects he's covered; Bono weighs in with an introduction about how Hilburn's criticism influenced and altered his own development as a musician.

Hardcover. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1st , 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 269 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Transl. from German by John W. Gabriel. Black & white illus. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 156 pages. Create and Be Recognized is the first survey of a compelling, always surprising art form -- outsider photography. Presented here is the work of seventeen largely self-taught artists who have used photography or photographic elements in their creations, including such luminaries as Adolf Wolfli, Howard Finster, and Henry Darger, as well as discoveries from little known, equally dramatic artists. As with most outsider art, the work here is fuelled by singular passions, marginalized mindsets, and extreme circumstances, falling outside mainstream picture-making. Employing collage (affixing photos or reproductions to a background), photocollage (photographs cut and pasted together to form a new whole), and tableaux (works based on manipulation and staging), the artists here present work that is, by turns, lyrical and frightening, and always fascinating. Published to coincide with a major touring exhibition of the same name originating at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Create and Be Recognized documents an emerging and important facet of contemporary photography.

Hardcover. NY, Scribner, 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 458 pages. Robert Crumb is often credited with single-handedly transforming the comics medium into a place for adult expression, in the process pioneering the underground comic book industry, and transforming the vernacular language of 20th-century America into an instantly recognizable and popular aesthetic. Now, for the first time, Dan Nadel, delivers a "gripping and essential account" (The Boston Globe) of how this complicated artist survived childhood abuse, fame in his twenties, more fame, and came out the other side intact. Braiding biography with "cultural history and criticism...that honors the complexity of [its] subject, even, perhaps particularly, when it gets ugly" (Los Angeles Times), Crumb is the story of a richly complex life at the forefront of both the underground and popular cultures of post-war America. Including forty-five stunning black-and-white images throughout and a sixteen-page color insert featuring images both iconic and obscure. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Scribner, 2nd pr., 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 458 pages. Robert Crumb is often credited with single-handedly transforming the comics medium into a place for adult expression, in the process pioneering the underground comic book industry, and transforming the vernacular language of 20th-Century America into an instantly recognizable and popular aesthetic. Now, for the first time, Dan Nadel, delivers a "gripping and essential account" (The Boston Globe) of how this complicated artist survived childhood abuse, fame in his twenties, more fame, and came out the other side intact. Braiding biography with "cultural history and criticism...that honors the complexity of [its] subject, even, perhaps particularly, when it gets ugly" (Los Angeles Times), Crumb is the story of a richly complex life at the forefront of both the underground and popular cultures of post-war America. Including forty-five stunning black-and-white images throughout and a sixteen-page color insert featuring images both iconic and obscure. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, in a bright dust jacket, 278 pages. An important pioneer of the artform that became known as photomontage. Hoch (November 1, 1889 to May 31, 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Hoch was the lone woman among the Berlin Dada group, however she was dismayed to the Dadaists lip service to women's emancipation and her work echos her feelings that there were difference between women in media and reality. Marriage did not escape her criticism. She depicted brides as mannequins and children, reflecting the idea that women are not seen as complete people and have little control over their lives. A long-time German resident, her work fell out of favor after WWII although she continued to produce her photomontages and exhibit them internationally until her death in 1978.

Hardcover. London, Rodale Press, 1st thus, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, publisher's original cream and red pattern paper covered boards, gilt title and author lettering to the black cloth spine. 36 printed pages of text with monochrome illustrations throughout. A small (although not really a miniature) book containing an essay by James which was originally published in the Century Magazine in 1890. Illustrated with a portrait of Honore Daumier and 15 his caricatures. Mild foxing to endpapers otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Berkeley CA, University of Calfornis, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 127 b&w and color illustrations. Light edge wear to dust jacket. Light marking on bottom edge. Else a very clean, tight copy.

Softcover. New Britain, CT, New Britain Museum of American Art ; London : University Press of New England, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 84 pages. Softcover. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear. Color illustrations throughout. This catalogue explores the often uneasy relationship between the art of painting and the art of illustration, featuring American artists who practiced both styles of painting between 1850 and 1950. The catalogue charts the development of both types of art through the eyes of a select group of artists of who engaged in both fine art and illustration.

Softcover. New Britain, CT, New Britain Museum of American Art ; London : University Press of New England, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 84 pages. Softcover. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear. Color illustrations throughout. This catalogue explores the often uneasy relationship between the art of painting and the art of illustration, featuring American artists who practiced both styles of painting between 1850 and 1950. The catalogue charts the development of both types of art through the eyes of a select group of artists of who engaged in both fine art and illustration.

Hardcover. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1st, March 1, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 245 pages, illustrated throughout. Clean, bright pages and tight binding. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) was a towering figure in late nineteenth-century France. The country's greatest public painter, he created murals that decorated museums in Amiens, Rouen, and Lyons as well as major buildings in Paris-most notably the Pantheon, the Sorbonne, and the city hall. Critics from the political right, left, and center, the avant-garde, the Academy, and the state all agreed on the importance of Puvis's murals. Avant-garde artists greatly admired and drew from his work. There was much controversy, however, over the meaning of these murals. This handsomely illustrated book is the first full-length examination of Puvis's murals and their critical reception during the artist's lifetime. Jennifer L. Shaw explains that Puvis's paintings were imagined to embody a vision of France. Although his regional images, allegories of the French heritage, and evocations of the nation as an embracing motherland were all part of a grand tradition of public art, Puvis's painting style was more closely aligned with the avant-garde. Rather than providing a specific narrative or allegory of France, Puvis's murals provoked viewers to experience their own fantasies of Frenchness; rather than using the close brushwork favored by most of his contemporaries, Puvis used large flat areas of color to render his subjects. Shaw persuasively argues that Puvis was the only painter of the period to unite the traditions of public art and modernist form. Her original analysis of Puvis's art underlines his importance to the history of modernism; her examination of the public response to his art illuminates debates about art, subjectivity, and national identity in fin de siecle France.