art china

Softcover. Hong Kong, Christie's Inc., 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 65 pages, photographs throughout with English and Chinese text. Very slight corner and edge wear, otherwise, very clean and tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 592 pages, b&w illustrations. Samuel Fuller, independent director-producer extraordinaire, tells the story of his life, a life that spanned most of the twentieth century. His twenty-nine tough, gritty pictures made from 1949 to 1989 set out to capture the truth of war, racism, and human frailties, and incorporate some of his own experiences. He writes of his years in the newspaper business--selling papers as a boy on the streets of New York, working for Hearst's New York Journal American, first as a copyboy, then as personal runner for the famous Hearst editor in chief Arthur Brisbane. His film Park Row was inspired by his years as a reporter for the New York Evening Graphic, where his beat included murders, suicides, state executions, and race riots--he scooped every other New York paper with his coverage of the death by drug overdose of the legendary Jeanne Eagels. Fuller talks about directing his first picture (he also wrote the script), I Shot Jesse James . . . and how, as a result, he was sought after by every major studio, choosing to work for Darryl Zanuck of Twentieth Century Fox. We see him becoming one of the most prolific, independent-minded writer-directors, turning out seven pictures in six years, among them Pickup on South Street, House of Bamboo, and China Gate. He writes about making Underworld U.S.A., a movie that shows how gangsters in the 1960s were no longer seen as thugs but as "respected" tax-paying executives . . . about the making of the movie Shock Corridor--about a journalist trying to solve a murder in a lunatic asylum--which exposed the conditions in mental institutions . . . and about White Dog (written in collaboration with Curtis Hanson), a film so controversial that Paramount's then studio heads, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner, refused to release it. Clean copy.

Hardcover. MIT Press, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in black cloth stamped with silver lettering. an autobiography in pictures, 400 pages. Ai Weiwei is China's most celebrated contemporary artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. In April 2011, when Ai disappeared into police custody for three months, he quickly became the art world's most famous missing person. Since then, Ai Weiwei's critiques of China's repressive regime have ranged from playful photographs of his raised middle finger in front of Tiananmen Square to searing memorials to the more than 5,000 schoolchildren who died in shoddy government construction in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Against a backdrop of strict censorship, Ai has become a hero on social media to millions of Chinese citizens. This book, prohibited from publication in China, offers an intimate look at Ai Weiwei's world in the years after his return from New York and preceding his imprisonment and global superstardom. The photographs capture Ai's emergence as the uniquely provocative artist that he is today. There is no more revealing portrait of Ai Weiwei's life in China than this. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. US, Yale University Press, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 549 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. This book presents a survey of Chinese painting from the eighth to the 14th century, a period during which the nature of China's pictorial art changed dramatically. Illustrated by works in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the author begins by describing the advent toward the end of the Bronze Age of figural representation in Chinese art, and next traces the development of Chinese landscape painting from the third to the tenth century. He then moves on to discuss the art of the Sung dynasty, when the imperial government was increasingly absolute and repressive. In this period artists shifted from a realistic rendition of nature to more symbolic representation of single flowers, rocks and trees. By the time of the Yuan dynasty, following the Mongol conquest of 1279, objective representation in art had been replaced by imagery that drew on the artist's inner response to his world. Because it was believed that the meaning of a painted subject, made complex by personal and symbolic associations, could no longer be expressed without language, the painter began to inscribe poems and incorporate calligraphy in his works, the multiple relationships among word, image and calligraphy forming the basis of a new art. At this stage Chinese art entered its richest and most diverse stage f development.

Hardcover. Gottingen, Steidl, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover with dust jacket. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. This volume presents Bruce Davidson's personal selections from his lesser-known color archive, from a period of nearly 60 years. Assignments from various magazines including Vogue, National Geographic and Life, as well as commercial projects led Davidson to photograph subjects as diverse as fashion (in the early 1960s), the Shah of Iran with his family (1964), keepers of French monuments (1988), the supermodel Kylie Bax (1997) and college cheerleaders (1989). He photographed in India and China, but also at home in New York, in Chicago and along the Pacific Coast Highway. In 1968, Michelangelo Antonioni invited Davidson to document the making of his film Zabriskie Point. Davidson also continued to pursue personal projects, such as photographing the Yiddish writer and Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer (1972-75), the New York City subway (1980) and Katz's Delicatessen (2004). Often staying on in a country after an official assignment, Davidson documented Welsh coalfields, family holidays in Martha's Vineyard and travelled through Patagonia and Mexico.

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 228 pages. At the beginning of World War II Cecil Beaton was commissioned by the British government to photograph the home front. He set to work recording both the destruction of the city, and the heroism of Londoners under attack. He conducted a survey of Bomber and Fighter Commands for the RAF, which was published with his own astute commentary. Beaton was an effective propagandist, but his voice, like his photographs, was touchingly elegant. Beaton's wartime work amounted to 7,000 photographs. He traveled through the Western Desert and on to Iraq, Palestine, Transjordan, Syria, and India, where he photographed the final days of the Raj in New Delhi and Calcutta before joining the Burma campaign. He ended the war deep in Chinese territory where he witnessed the Nationalist resistance to the Japanese. This collection of Beaton's masterful WWII photography captures the home front, the Middle East, arms and vehicle manufacturing in Britain, India, the Burma Campaign, and the war in China. It also includes a chronology placing events in Beaton's life alongside developments in photography, journalism, and the arts; war photography; and world events. His original photographs are reproduced large on the page, alongside his diary extracts, allowing for deep scrutiny and appreciation of the images and their artist.

Hardcover. Chicago, Art Media Resources, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 305 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Light edgewear to cover boards, otherwise clean bright copy. Color pictures throughout. 12x12x1 dimensions. Numbering over 250 works spanning nearly 1500 years, the Dewey collection of ancient Chinese tomb sculpture is exceptional for its breadth and outstanding quality. Representing nearly all figural types, stylistic traditions and themes, it provides a comprehensive visual record with fascinating insights into the customs and fashions, inventions and superstitions of ancient China's ruling elite during the golden age of the Great Silk Road.

Softcover. Hong Kong, The Urban Council, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 146 pages. Illustrated in b&w, some color. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket, 217 pages. A 12 year old girl who knows little of her Chinese heritage is sent to San Francisco's Chinatown to live with her grandmother. Jane Addams Peace Award & Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Color dust jacket art by Allen Say.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1892, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. Light blue cloth-covered boards illustrated w/floral porcelain design. Gilt lettering on spine. Classic resource on collecting China and English Porcelains including histories of porcelains, early arts in America, designs, and manufacture. The author tells about her china-collecting experiences and tells the history of the pieces she has chosen to illustrate. She also describes how china was made at various American sites. B&w illustrations, previous owner's bookplate otherwise clean.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 200 pages. Hardcover. Dust jacket unclipped, just a bit age-yellowed. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. Gilt title on spine, bound in red cloth. Other than a slight age-yellow, pages clean and unmarked inside. Touch of foxing to top edge and back of dust jacket. In great shape.

Softcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Asia Center, 1st pbk, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 445 pages, b&w illustrations. In China Made, Karl Gerth argues that two key forces shaping the modern world-nationalism and consumerism-developed in tandem in China. Early in the twentieth century, nationalism branded every commodity as either "Chinese" or "foreign," and consumer culture became the place where the notion of nationality was articulated, institutionalized, and practiced. Based on Chinese, Japanese, and English-language archives, magazines, newspapers, and books, this first exploration of the historical ties between nationalism and consumerism reinterprets fundamental aspects of modern Chinese history and suggests ways of discerning such ties in all modern nations. Clean copy.

Singapore, Asiapac Books, reprint, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover 121 pages. The infamous and powerful eunuchs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties come to life in this graphic novel. Illustrated in b&w line.

Softcover. Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 236 pages. Paperback with faded paper wrappers. Black and white and colored pictures throughout. Tight copy

Hardcover. London/NY, Castle Books (Thomas Nelson & Sons), 1st, nd, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket with some light spotting to rear panel. 204 pages, 24 color plates, 96 b&w illustrations and 9 Figure illustrations. "Previous books on the subject have often been based on inaccurate and varying translations of Chinese writings. Mr. Thiel, on the other hand, has carefully and studiously avoided speculation and fantasies, confining himself absolutely to the facts. Beginning with Chou and Ha Dynasties of 1122-206 B.C. and covering the periods up to and including the Ch-ing Dynasty of 1644-1912 A.D.; all that a collector needs to know about style, workmanship, color, texture, glaze is included here with stress on exact information. chapters are devoted to the all-important T-ang and Ming Dynasties."

Hardcover. London, Ernest Benn, 1st, 1925, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcovers, four volume set complete. Matching gray-brown buckram cloth with gilt front cover decoration and gilt spine lettering. Set from architect Albert Kahn's library with his pencil signature on each fly leaf. Vol. 1 Text, cxlvi plus 168 page index with detailed descriptions of plates. B&w frontispiece. Vol. II Plates 1-205. Vol. III Plates 206-421. Volume IV Plates 422- . Small stickers on bottom of spine. An exceptional set and reference. Very heavy volumes. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

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. Vista CA, Ibis Publishing, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 315 pages. As Financial Advisor to China, Arthur N. Young had an intimate insight as an on-the-spot observer of events during the critical 18 years leading to the fall of the Nationalists and the Communist takeover. Along with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Dr. Young worked closely with the highest-ranking officials of the National Government in carrying out monetary and fiscal reforms prior to World War II, and stayed through the war to aid with problems of war finance, including procurement of American aid. As the Pacific Rim gains increasing international prominence, this book will prove to be of particular importance to students, scholars, business and political leaders with an interest in Asian affairs. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Bew Haven CT, Yale/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Coming of age in the 1960s, the photographer Danny Lyon (b. 1942) distinguished himself with work that emphasized intimate social engagement. In 1962 Lyon traveled to the segregated South to photograph the civil rights movement. Subsequent projects on biker culture, the demolition and redevelopment of lower Manhattan, and the Texas prison system, and more recently on the Occupy movement and the vanishing culture in China's booming Shanxi Province, share Lyon's signature immersive approach and his commitment to social and political issues that concern those on the margins of society. Lyon's photography is paralleled by his work as a filmmaker and a writer. Danny Lyon: Message to the Future is the first in-depth examination of this leading figure in American photography and film, and the first publication to present his influential bodies of work in all media in their full context. Lead essayists Julian Cox and Elisabeth Sussman provide an account of Lyon's five-decade career. Alexander Nemerov writes about Lyon's work in Knoxville, Tennessee; Ed Halter assesses the artist's films; Danica Willard Sachs evaluates his photomontages; and Julian Cox interviews Alan Rinzler about his role in publishing Lyon's earliest works. With extensive back matter and illustrations, this publication will be the most comprehensive account of this influential artist's work. Clean copy. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Hardcover. Bew Haven CT, Yale/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Coming of age in the 1960s, the photographer Danny Lyon (b. 1942) distinguished himself with work that emphasized intimate social engagement. In 1962 Lyon traveled to the segregated South to photograph the civil rights movement. Subsequent projects on biker culture, the demolition and redevelopment of lower Manhattan, and the Texas prison system, and more recently on the Occupy movement and the vanishing culture in China's booming Shanxi Province, share Lyon's signature immersive approach and his commitment to social and political issues that concern those on the margins of society. Lyon's photography is paralleled by his work as a filmmaker and a writer. Danny Lyon: Message to the Future is the first in-depth examination of this leading figure in American photography and film, and the first publication to present his influential bodies of work in all media in their full context. Lead essayists Julian Cox and Elisabeth Sussman provide an account of Lyon's five-decade career. Alexander Nemerov writes about Lyon's work in Knoxville, Tennessee; Ed Halter assesses the artist's films; Danica Willard Sachs evaluates his photomontages; and Julian Cox interviews Alan Rinzler about his role in publishing Lyon's earliest works. With extensive back matter and illustrations, this publication will be the most comprehensive account of this influential artist's work. Clean copy. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Hardcover. Lee Publishers Group, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 285 pages. Preface by Jean Mailey; Introduction by Zhang Ding. Designs in blue and white, fine bright tight copy, unmarked, very good slightly edge-rubbed dj. Collected from the remote areas of China's southwestern provinces, each decorative pattern is rich in beauty and meaning. This royalty-free volume will be an invaluable resource for artists, designers, craftspeople, and any lover of traditional Chinese folk art. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Blue cloth covered boards with gold gilt lettering, slight stain on back cover, otherwise clean copy. Published by the Council on East Asian Studies at Harvard University. 335 pages. Appendixes include Table of the Published Chinese Sources of John Dewey's Lectures Delivered in China, 1919-1921, John Dewey's Major Lecture Series, Published Articles, and Professional Activities During His Visit to China, and Translations of Dewey's Works into Chinese.

Softcover. Lancaster PA, Phillips Museum, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 89 pages. Text in Chinese and English. Illustrated throughout in color. Light shelf-wear and rubbing to wrappers, else a clean, tight copy.