Art History

Hardcover. Philadelphia, Quirk Books, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, 255 pages. A hilarious spotlight on the strangest second bananas in superhero comics, including junior partners, animal assistants, and even heinous henchmen (sidekicks of the villain world). Complete with vintage art and publication details.Batman has Robin. Captain America has Bucky. And Yankee Doodle had Dandy. Being a superhero is hard work, which is why so many comics characters rely on a sidekick for help. Someone who can watch the hero's back, help search for clues, or, if nothing else, give the hero someone to talk to. But just as not every superhero achieves the glory of Batman, not all sidekicks are as capable as the Boy Wonder. In The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, author Jon Morris discusses some of the strangest iterations of the sidekick phenomenon, and in the process explores how important these characters were to comic book storytelling.

Hardcover. NY, Benjamin Blom, reprint, 1971, Hardcover, oversize folio, brick red boards with gilt lettering and black etchings on the front. 1971 reissue of the commemorative edition published in Antwerp, 1642, by Meursius, with descriptive text by Casperius Gervatius and engravings, after design Of Peter Paul Rubens, by Theodor van Thulden. Clean, bright copy, no dust jacket. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 199 pages illustrated in color. This book provides a new way of thinking about eighteenth-century French art and visual culture by prioritizing production over reception. Abandoning the ideologically driven discourse that distinguished fine from decorative art between the 1690s and 1770s, The Mobile Image reveals how the two have been inextricably bound from the earliest stages of artistic instruction through the daily life of painters' workshops. In this study, author David Pullins defines artisanal and artistic means of learning, seeing, and making through a system of "mobile images": motifs that were effectively engineered for mobility and designed never to be definitive, always awaiting replication and circulation. He examines the careers of Antoine Watteau, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, and Francois Boucher, situating them against a much broader cast of actors--such as printmakers, publishers, anonymous studio assistants, and architects, among others--to place eighteenth-century painting within a wider context of media and making. clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Chicago, University Of Chicago Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 280 pages. This American art history book explores the early cultural development of the movement in Chicago, pulling from previously unpublished primary sources. 20 color reproductions along with black and white photographs and sketches and a timeline in the back. First study of Modernism in Chicago, examining the struggle between the "old guard's" ideals of traditional 19th century art versus an "avant garde" of painters, illustrators, photographers, and sculptors. Focuses on the cultural context in which art evolved. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Onassis Foundation, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 131 pages illustrated in color. The Origins of El Greco focuses on the evolution of the multifaceted relationship of Cretan painters with Western art during this rich period. The icon painters in the workshops on Crete in the 15th and 16th centuries-the setting in which El Greco was trained-were renowned for their skill in painting impeccable panels not only in the traditional Byzantine manner but also in a style inspired by Western models. The Origins of El Greco presents an extraordinary group of 15th and 16th century paintings, including works by El Greco. The color-illustrated catalogue features detailed descriptions of all 46 masterpieces included in the exhibition, some of them published for the first time, as well as 3 informative essays: Anastasia Drandaki, Curator, Byzantine Collection, Benaki Museum, Athens writes on "Between Byzantium and Venice: Icon Painting in Venetian Crete in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries", Olga Gratziou, Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology, University of Crete writes on "Cretan Architecture and Sculpture in the Venetian Period" and Nicos Hadjinicolaou, Professor Emeritus in Art History, University of Crete, and Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, writes on "Early and Late El Greco". Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with a small closed tear to front panel. 187 pages, 117 b.w. photos, index, bibliography, 187p., notes. A scholarly monograph, addressing our image of the Chinese artist, the painters' livelihood, studio & hand. A grand essay, giving us the kind of insights to really appreciate the full art of Chinese painters & paintings.

Softcover. New Haven, New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1st, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 100 pages in color illustrated wrappers. 45 b&w illustrations from a catalogue of 227 works in the collection. Preface by Robert R. MacDonald. Clean, tight copy

Hardcover. NY, John Wiley & Sons , 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 170 pages, color illustrations. n The Passionate Collector: Eighty Years in the World of Art, you'll follow this fascinating financial figure and great patron of the arts from the streets of 1920s Paris to the museums of New York as he develops the eye of a connoisseur and begins to collect great contemporary art.Vivid detail puts you in the center of the action as Neuberger collects the brilliant artists of his time-Milton Avery, Jackson Pollock, Ben Shahn, Edward Hopper; works with legendary art dealers Paul Rosenberg, Betty Parsons, Sidney Janis, and Leo Castelli; and befriends avid collectors, including the incomparable Duncan Phillips. You'll follow Neuberger as he strives to further the cause of contemporary American artists by exhibiting, lending, and donating from his growing collection, and becoming an activist for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney. You'll also see how the Neuberger Museum of Art was created at the urging of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and how it continues to fascinate art enthusiasts today. Clean copy.

Softcover. Rochester NY, George Eastman House, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 127 page book with 40 black & white and color images by Stieglitz. Essays by Eugenia Parry, Laura Downey and Therese Mulligan. A complete illustrated catalog in rear of the collection O'Keeffe left to George Eastman House in 1951.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 721 pages, many b&w illustrations, come color. John Brewster's landmark book shows us how British artists, amateurs, entrepeneurs, and audiences created a culture that is still celebrated for its wit and brilliance. Light notations to five pages, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Atheneum, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 353 pages. This is the first book-length survey of the international illicit trade in antiquities, and of the worldwide destruction of what is left of our civilized past. Museums, dealers, tomb-robbers, police, and scholars form the cast of a story that moves from tropical jungles to Madison Avenue galleries, from a rifled temple to a collector's private museum. A centerpiece of the book is a detailed consideration of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's acquisition of the beautiful calyx krater by Euphronios, which the Italian authorities are claiming was taken illicitly from an Etruscan tomb in 1971. 24-page b/w photo section. Index. Extensive, 23 page Bibliography. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Pantheon Books, 1st, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 12th volume of the A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts. The Bollingen Series XXXV. Profusely illustrated with b/w plates. Arntzen calls this book `a good critical treatment of the development of the Renaissance portrait.' Light edgewear to dust jacket.

Softcover. Boston, Shambhala, 1st, 1981, Softcover, 160 pages. The Power of Limits was inspired by those simple discoveries of harmony. The author went on to investigate and measure hundreds of patterns--ancient and modern, minute and vast. His discovery, vividly illustrated here, is that certain proportions occur over and over again in all these forms. Patterns are also repeated in how things grow and are made--by the dynamic union of opposites--as demonstrated by the spirals that move in opposite directions in the growth of a plant.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown and Company, ARC, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, uncorrected proof. 364 pages. the untold, richly detailed story of the women of Walt Disney Studios, who shaped the iconic films that have enthralled generations For the first time, author Nathalia Holt recounts their dramatic stories, showing how these women infiltrated the all-male domain of Disney's story and animation departments and used early technologies to create the rich artwork and unforgettable story lines that have become part of the American canon. Over the decades - while battling sexism, domestic abuse, and workplace intimidation - these women also fought to transform the way female characters are depicted to young audiences.Based on extensive interviews and exclusive access to archival and personal documents. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth covers with gilt lettering on spine. No dust jacket. Profusely illustrated throughout in black & white and color. 433 pages. This book examines the technical and aesthetic experimentation that went into printmaking, workshop practices, and the material and social contexts of print production, and it gives the fullest account ever written of the ways in which Renaissance prints were produced, distributed, and acquired. David Landau and Peter W. Parshall pose a range of practical questions about the production of prints. They investigate, for example, what materials were used, how they were acquired, and how a Renaissance printmaker's workshop operated. They explore the evidence that individual prints were beginning to be esteemed as works of art rather than as inexpensive substitutes for them, and the relationship between prints made to be collected and those of a more ephemeral nature intended for a wider audience. They discuss how prints were valued during the period, including the relative value of woodcuts to engravings, and engravings to etchings. And they investigate how prints evolved in relation to the pictorial arts of the Renaissance generally. Clean, bright copy. NOTE: DUE TO SIZE AND WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Brentano's, 2nd Ed., 1922, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth stamped with gilt design and lettering, 346 pages with index. Color frontis plus 3 color plates, many halftone photos throughout. This volume examines the modern Russian theatre and its restless spirit, showing how bold direction, new forms, and a sense of discovery reshaped performances. It ties together productions from Moscow's leading houses to the London- and New York-based stages where this energy found a global audience. The book foregrounds how artists, designers, and actors worked together to create moments that felt both experimental and deeply musical, often transforming familiar stories through striking staging and rhythm. Originally published 2 years earlier by Little, Brown. This is the slightly revised Second Edition with illustrations. Spine darkened, bookplate on second prelim page, otherwise clean.

Softcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 375 pages. In this pathbreaking and richly illustrated book, Martin Kemp examines the major optically oriented examples of artistic theory and practice from Brunelleschi's invention of perspective and its exploitation by Leonardo and Durer to the beginnings of photography. In a discussion of color theory, Kemp traces two main traditions of color science: the Aristotelian tradition of primary colors and Newton's prismatic theory that influenced Runge, Turner, and Seurat. His monumental book not only adds to our understanding of a large group of individual works of art but also provides valuable information for all those interested in the interaction between science and art. "This beautifully made volume . . . shows us the unity of the visual study of nature-the exalted mutual task of Renaissance science and art."-Scientific American. Clean copy. NOTE: Due to weight, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. Greenwich CT, New York Graphic Society, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, dark red cloth/dark red DJ. 144 pp. 108 bw plates. All of Falconet's major works and attributions are illustrated in gravure, with many details. Includes a translation from the French of Falconet's Reflections sur la sculpture by Eda Mezer Levitine.

Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 120 pages illustrated in color. Since the first report of cave art (at Altamira in 1879), attempts have been made to explain the purpose of the mysterious drawings. Art for art's sake; totemism; hunting, destructive, or fertility magic; and modern structuralist theories have all been proposed. Clottes and Lewis-Williams propose a new theory emphasizing the shamanic aspects of Paleolithic cave paintings. After an unavoidably technical chapter providing the basics of shamanism, the authors examine Paleolithic paintings from across France and Spain, noting the use of animal figures, composite figures combining both human and animal characteristics, and geometric designs that are all common elements of shamanism. The bulk of the book is both fascinating and thought-provoking, and while it is not likely to be the last word on the subject, it is an important contribution to the field. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 216 pages. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. The long-awaited collection of comic strips created in the early 1970s by some 169 contributors from 15 countries from C.C. Beck to Art Spiegelman. What started out as a special insert for Rolling Stone took on a life of its own as writer/editor Michel Choquette traveled the world, commissioning this visual chronicle of the 1960s, only to find himself without a publishing partner or the financial support to continue. Forty years later, readers finally get to experience this legendary anthology as Choquette celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of The Someday Funnies.

Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 216 pages. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. The long-awaited collection of comic strips created in the early 1970s by some 169 contributors from 15 countries from C.C. Beck to Art Spiegelman. What started out as a special insert for Rolling Stone took on a life of its own as writer/editor Michel Choquette traveled the world, commissioning this visual chronicle of the 1960s, only to find himself without a publishing partner or the financial support to continue. Forty years later, readers finally get to experience this legendary anthology as Choquette celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of The Someday Funnies.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, Quirk Books, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright acetate dust jacket, 240 pages. Meet more than one hundred of the most heroic female characters in comics history, complete with backstories, vintage art, and colorful commentary. This spectacular sisterhood includes costumed crimebusters like Miss Fury, super-spies like Tiffany Sinn, sci-fi pioneers like Gale Allen, and even kid troublemakers like Little Lulu. With vintage art, publication details, a decade-by-decade survey of industry trends and women's roles in comics, and spotlights on iconic favorites like Wonder Woman and Ms. Marvel, The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen proves that not only do strong female protagonists belong in comics, they've always been there. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Reaktion Books, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 240 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. The story of this most familiar garment, from its emergence in western Europe at the end of the seventeenth century to today. Suit-wearing figures such as the Savile Row gentleman and the Wall Street businessman have long embodied ideas of tradition, masculinity, power and respectability, but the suit has also been used to disrupt concepts of gender and conformity. Adopted and subverted by women, artists, musicians and social revolutionaries through the decades - from dandies and Sapeurs to the Zoot Suit and Le Smoking. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn and chipped dust jacket. Autobiography of the owner of the bookshop La Maison des Amis des Livres in Paris, a center, between the World Wars, for the best contemporary French writing and for its authors. 536 pages, b&w illustrations. Clean copy.