Art History

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 265 pages illustrated in b&w. From Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead and Nobody's Fool, comes Three Rocks, a biography of cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller, creator of the iconic comic strip Nancy. But this graphic novel is about more than a single comic book artist. It is the story of this American art form, tracing its inception to 1895 with the Yellow Kid, the creation of Nancy in 1933, and all the strips that followed, including Peanuts and The Far Side. When Bushmiller died in 1982, Nancy was running in almost 900 daily newspapers--a number few syndicated cartoonists ever achieve. Nancy is hailed as the "perfect" comic strip by fans and cartoonists alike. The title Three Rocks refers to the trope of three hemispherical rocks often seen in a Bushmiller landscape--just enough to communicate environment to the reader. This distillation is exemplary of the iconic, diagrammatic look of Nancy, a comic strip about the nature of what it means to be a comic strip--the perfect avatar for Griffith to expand upon his philosophy of creating comics. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st US, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 288 pages, color & b/w plates, sources, index.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 271 pages. Hardcover. Extensive color photographs throughout. Illustrated end papers and paste downs. Gilt titles on spine. Some shelf wear to dust jacket, otherwise clean, tight copy. A collection of 250 glamorous images chronicle the simultaneous evolution of fashion photography and fine jewelry, featuring extraordinary photographs that range from Richard Avedon's portrait of Elizabeth Taylor bedecked in cultured pearls to Scavullo's photograph of Paloma Picasso wearing her own jewelry designs.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 271 pages. Hardcover. Extensive color photographs throughout. Illustrated end papers and paste downs. Gilt titles on spine. Minor shelf wear to dust jacket, otherwise clean, tight copy. A collection of 250 glamorous images chronicle the simultaneous evolution of fashion photography and fine jewelry, featuring extraordinary photographs that range from Richard Avedon's portrait of Elizabeth Taylor bedecked in cultured pearls to Scavullo's photograph of Paloma Picasso wearing her own jewelry designs.

Softcover. NY, HarperCollins, 1st pbk, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 296 pages, b&w illustrations. The apt subtitle of this award-winning biography, Photographer & Revolutionary, sums up the creative tensions that characterized Tina Modotti's life and brief photographic career. Active as a photographer for only nine years, Modotti was pulled between formal and social concerns. Producing striking modernist compositions of everyday objects, photojournalism of poverty and conflict, and portraits of celebrities and common people alike, Modotti balanced political concerns with formal rigor.First published in 1993 and long out of print, Tina Modotti: Photographer & Revolutionary is the definitive portrayal of Modotti's life and work. Few photographers are more deserving of a biographical treatment than Modotti, whose work as an actress and artist's model introduced her to Edward Weston, who was to become her lover. Soon after she arrived in Mexico City with Weston, Modotti became increasingly politicized, working for the communist newspaper El Machete and establishing herself as the go-to photographer for the Mexican Muralist movement. The book includes extensive archival material, interviews with Modotti's contemporaries and many rare photographs. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Prestel Publishing, reprint, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 452 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Color pictures throughout. Black covers with gilt lettering on spine. Previous owner's signature and bookplate on front flyleaf. Light wear and rubbing to dust jacket. This excellent catalog of the 1990-1991 exhibition in Venice and Washington is a work of permanent value. Featuring essays by 16 authorities, primarily Italian and American, on every aspect of the art of Titian (Tiziano Vecelli, c. 1490-1576), the quintessential Venetian artist of the high Renaissance, the work transcends the limits of spatial and temporal exhibition to summarize and extend current scholarship. At the same time, the text is accessible, well translated, and aimed at a broad audience. Many of the works in the exhibit were conserved or cleaned, so the book features fresh illustrations and a hefty amount of technical discussion of specialist interest.

Hardcover. London, Phaidon Press, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 240 pages. Hardcover no dust jacket. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. Titian (Tlziano Vecellio, c. 1488/90-1576) was an outstanding painter of the Renaissance. An Ideal introduction to Titian's life and work for the general reader and scholar alike. Places Titian's career and work into the social and historical context of sixteenth-century Italy and explores his approach to a number of themes.

Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, large format pictorial boards, 200 pages. In 1949, the ambitious Charles Biro - who had previously co-created the realistically brutal comic Crime Does Not Pay - edited and wrote an oversized comic aimed at adults, called Tops. Like several other radical adult comics projects that would follow, it proved to be a commercial failure and lasted only two Life magazine-sized issues. The original comics have since become a legendary holy grail among comics fans and historians, fetching as much as $6,000 on the collector's market: written about but rarely seen and never reprinted. Until now.Fantagraphics' Tops collects both issues of these oversized experimental comics in their entirety. Some of the best craftsmen working in comics at that time drew these pulpy, sexy, and melodramatic stories: Dan Barry, George Tuska, and others. It includes two stunning pre-EC crime tales illustrated by Reed Crandall, reminiscent of his Crime SuspenStories work. Actor Melvyn Douglas (believe it or not) takes the reader on a tour of utopia, entitled "How Would You Live Under A World Government?" - a positive spin on global Socialism! A treasure trove of fascinating and revelatory comics history for scholars and fans, this compilation includes an introduction by the editor, the historian and cartoonist Michael T. Gilbert, as well as several other essays providing background on the creation of the series and the publisher, editors, and cartoonists who realized it. It includes a chronicle in essay form of experimental, adult comics endeavors throughout the first half of the 20th century. Tops is a landmark work of historical importance and a mind-boggling reading experience from a bygone era meticulously restored and reproduced in a deluxe hardcover in its originally published dimensions. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Softcover. Salt Lake City, Gibbs Smith, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wrappers, 160 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. Trailer Travel showcases the rich visual history of America's enduring fascination with life on the road. Beautifully reproduced color and black-and-white images culled from public archives and the private collections of passionate trailerites vividly document the travel trailer?s storied past. This engaging volume offers a look at motor-camping trips in the early 1900s, the unparalleled innovations in trailer design during the thirties, rare and unique trailer models and interiors, and an extensive array of bold and graphic promotional material, literature, and postcards that illustrate the undeniable attraction of living on wheels.

Softcover. New York , Ira Spanierman Gallery, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Exhibition catalog. 88 pages, illustrated throughout with numerous plates in b&w and 19 plates in full color. French folded pictorial wrappers. Lovely copy. like new.

Softcover. Rome, Libreria dello Stato, 1st, 1992-01-01, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 429 pages, illustrated throughout in b&w. Folio. Light edgewear and rubbing to wrappers, else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Gallery Books, 1st US, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 390 pages, illustrated throughout in color. INSCRIBED BY YOSHIDA on half title page. Large, very heavy book. Light shelf-wear to dust jacket. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Essex, VT, Battenkill River Press, 2nd printing, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 288 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. Black and white images throughout. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHORS ON TITLE PAGE.

Softcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 536 pages. Illustrated in color and black-and-white. A landmark study of California's visual arts and poetry, 1925 to 1975, Utopia and Dissent demonstrates the profound influence this regional culture had on American art and thought. Bookselle's label on rear cover, wrinkle to page 513, otherwise clean, very good.

Hardcover. New York, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 3rd Printing, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 426 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Sunfading to dust jacket. Light soiling to textblock edges. Otherwise a very clean, unmarked copy with only minor dust jacket wear. A tight copy. Black and white illustrations throughout.

Softcover. NY, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1st pbk., 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 218 pages with 256 b&w illustrations. From cover: "describes the ideals that inspired an earlier generation to leave city and factory in order to practice crafts ranging from bookbinding and metalwork to furniture making." Mild curl to cover, otherwise very good, clean.

Hardcover. Salt Lake City, Peregrine Smith, Inc, 1st US, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 218 pages. Green cloth cover with gilt lettering to spine, color illustrated dust jacket, 256 b&w plates, some in color. Light wear to dust jacket; overall a tight, clean copy.

Hardcover. University of South Carolina Press, Supreme Council, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 269 pages. " ...a fascinating journey through the history of Scottish Rite in America. This comprehensive pictorial history provides valuable insights into the critical role masons have played throughout our nation's history." b/w, sepia, & color plates throughout. In Valley of the Craftsmen, the story of "higher degree" Freemasonry is depicted through portraits, official papers, material objects, photographs, buildings, and stagecraft. Featuring many previously unpublished images, Valley of the Craftsmen begins with rare illustrations of the English and French philosophical sources that were projected upon an American landscape vitalized and transformed by the concept of fraternity. The story is framed by American popular culture and the serious private effort of individual men in small towns and expansive cities who were intent on developing a moral life in service to their communities. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with light edgewear. In 1945, a previously unknown Vermeer was discovered by the Allied Art Commission in the collection of Hermann Goering. The question arose: where - and how - did Goering acquire it? From the investigation came a story that rocked the art world. The trail finally led to Han van Meegeren, an obscure painter who had sold seven authenticated Vermeers over a number of years. Faced with a possible death sentence for collaborating in a sale of a national treasure to the Nazis, van Meegeren insisted he had not helped the Nazi cause: he had painted all the Vermeers himself. Needless to say, nobody believed him - until he proved he was telling the truth by painting still another Vermeer, before the eyes of an astonished jury. Here, with 24 pages of illustrations, is the story of the audacious forger who fooled the most eminent art critics, yet failed to impress them with his own paintings. Lord Kilbracken offers an exhaustive study of van Meegeren's background - his motives , his two marriages, and all the pieces of the puzzle that go to make up an understandable complex human being. With fascinating detail he also makes it clear exactly how the incredibly bold deception was executed - and why it worked. The result is an eminently readable true account that has all the narrative excitement of a thriller. No markings.

Hardcover. London, National Gallery , 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 256 pages, illustrated throughout in color. Light shelf-wear to dust jacket with small scratch on front cover. Clean, tight copy. With over 150 illustrations and an in-depth chronology, this beautifully produced and comprehensive book surveys Velazquez's entire career and explores his universal popularity. Fascinating essays by world-class Velazquez scholars address the artist's life and technique, examining his studies in Seville and Italy to his final great works at the court of Philip IV.

Hardcover. NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, still sealed in publisher's shrinkwrap. 550 pages. Seventeenth-century Delft has traditionally been viewed as a quaint town whose artists painted scenes of domestic life. This important book revises that image, showing that the small but vibrant Dutch city produced fine examples of all the major arts--including luxury goods and sophisticated paintings for the court at The Hague and for patrician collectors in Delft itself. The book traces the history and culture of Delft from the 1200s through the lifetime of the city's most renowned painter, Johannes Vermeer. The authors discuss at length some ninety major paintings (seventeen by Vermeer), forty drawings, and a choice selection of decorative arts, all of which are reproduced in full color. Among the paintings are state portraits, history pictures, still lifes, views of palaces and church interiors, illusionistic murals, and refined genre pictures by Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch. The rich works on paper encompass exquisite drawings by Delft artists and sketches of the town by visiting artists. Included in the decorative arts are tapestries, bronze statuary, silver, Delftware, and glass. The volume concludes with an essay that takes the reader on a walk through seventeenth-century Delft. It is accompanied by maps of the city's neighborhoods that indicate major monuments and the homes of patrons, art dealers, and painters.

Hardcover. Stonehill Publishing/Chelsea House, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 184 pages. This book presents a representative selection of the best work produced for children during the great flowering of the illustrator's art that began in England in the 1860s. Beautifully crafted drawings of such illustrators as Caldecott, Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, and Richard Doyle are reproduced with painstaking fidelity to the originals. Commentary by Maurice Sendak.

Hardcover. Boston, David R Godine , 1st US, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 144 pages, illustrated throughout in b&w with a few color plates. Light wear to dust jacket with slight tape-residue on rear cover. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1st English, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 143 pages, b&w photographs throughout. A very clean, tight copy.