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Art & Architecture

BLIND SPOT: AUTHOR OF OPEN CITY AND KNOWN AND STRANGE THINGS

BLIND SPOT: AUTHOR OF OPEN CITY AND KNOWN AND STRANGE THINGS

By: Cole, Teju
$40.00
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In this innovative synthesis of words and images, the award-winning author of Open City and photography critic for The New York Times Magazine combines two of his great passions.

One of Time's Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of the Year - One of Smithsonian.com's Ten Best Photography Books of the Year

When it comes to Teju Cole, the unexpected is not unfamiliar: He's an acclaimed novelist, an influential essayist, and an internationally exhibited photographer. In Blind Spot, readers follow Cole's inimitable artistic vision into the visual realm as he continues to refine the voice, eye, and intellectual obsessions that earned him such acclaim for Open City.

Here, journey through more than 150 of Cole's full-color original photos, each accompanied by his lyrical and evocative prose, forming a multimedia diary of years of near-constant travel: from a park in Berlin to a mountain range in Switzerland, a church exterior in Lagos to a parking lot in Brooklyn; landscapes and interiors, beautiful or quotidian, that inspire Cole's memories, fantasies, and introspections. Ships in Capri remind him of the work of writers from Homer to Edna O'Brien; a hotel room in Wannsee brings back a disturbing dream about a friend's death; a home in Tivoli evokes a transformative period of semi-blindness, after which "the photography changed. . . . The looking changed."

As exquisitely wrought as the work of Anne Carson or Chris Marker, Blind Spot is a testament to the art of seeing by one of the most powerful and original voices in contemporary literature.

Praise for Blind Spot

"Common things [are] made radiant by the quality of Cole's looking. . . . In this new, luminous book, Cole shows himself to be really one of the best at seeing."--The Guardian

"This lyrical essay in photographs paired with texts explores the mysteries of the ordinary."--The New York Times Books Review (Editors' Choice)

"Stunning . . . feels like the fulfillment of an intellectual project that has defined most of [Cole's] career."--Slate

"Dazzling . . . cerebral yet intimate . . . combines personal essay, history, biography, journalism, and photography into a seamless package, capturing human dignity and grace through careful, clear-eyed reverence."--Vice

"An eclectically brilliant distillation of what photography can do, and why it remains an important art form."--San Francisco Chronicle

BLUE: THE HISTORY OF A COLOR

BLUE: THE HISTORY OF A COLOR

By: Pastoureau, Michel
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A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color blue throughout the ages

Blue has had a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now cite it as their favorite color. In this fascinating history, the renowned medievalist Michel Pastoureau traces the changing meanings of blue from its rare appearance in prehistoric art to its international ubiquity today.

Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Pastoureau investigates how the ever-changing role of blue in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, heraldry, clothing, paintings, and popular culture. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color became a powerful element in church decoration and symbolism. Blue gained new favor as a royal color in the twelfth century and became a formidable political and military force during the French Revolution. As blue triumphed in the modern era, new shades were created and blue became the color of romance and the blues. Finally, Pastoureau follows blue into contemporary times, when military clothing gave way to the everyday uniform of blue jeans and blue became the universal and unifying color of the Earth as seen from space.

Beautifully illustrated, Blue tells the intriguing story of our favorite color and the cultures that have hated it, loved it, and made it essential to some of our greatest works of art.

BOOK ABOUT XU BING'S BOOK FROM THE GROUND

BOOK ABOUT XU BING'S BOOK FROM THE GROUND

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The creation of Xu Bing's Book from the Ground documented and described in text, images, and photographs.

Although the pictogram-only narrative in Xu Bing's Book from the Ground can be read by anyone, there is much more to the story of Xu Bing's wordless book than can be gleaned from icons alone. This companion volume to Book from the Ground chronicles the entire project, mapping the history of Xu Bing's novel creation from inspiration to exhibition to publication.

In the 1980s, Xu Bing created Book from the Sky. Using garbled and nonsensical faux-Chinese characters, this installation expressed Xu's doubts about written language and provoked questions about the Chinese language. Thirty years later, with Book from the Ground, the artist expresses his hope for a single, universally understood language. Inspired by airport signs that communicate instantaneously through images--directing a temporary community of modern nomads where to eat, shop, sit, and find a bathroom--Xu began to collect images, icons, and logos from which he could construct a story. This book describes Xu's research, showing notebook pages and bulletin boards full of clipped-out images; offers commentary by the artist and discussions of reading, alphabets and languages; documents, with text and photographs, exhibitions and installations connected to the work (including a Book from the Ground pop-up concept store); provides a list of works; describes Xu's "icon lab"; and "translates" Xu's pictographic narrative into English.

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BORDERWALL AS ARCHITECTURE: A MANIFESTO FOR THE U.S.-MEXICO BOUNDARY

By: Rael, Ronald
$29.95
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"A protest against the wall and a forecast about its future."--Allison Arieff, The New York Times

"Rael's courageous mixture of subversion and compromise is not going to hide the affront that the border represents to those who live south of it."--London Review of Books

"Borderwall as Architecture explores how architects can undermine the wall not just structurally, but conceptually. Today, the wall symbolizes xenophobia and fear. Designs that promote social, economic, and ecological development on both sides of the border could rewrite that narrative. In the past, groups have gathered on both sides of the wall to hold yoga meetups and stage horse races. Rael draws inspiration from these and other examples to highlight opportunities for subversion and change."--Wired

"Part historical account, part theoretical appraisal, and part design manifesto, Borderwall as Architecture is reminiscent of Rem Koolhaas' Delirious New York in its sweeping assessment of both the sociocultural peculiarities and outlandish possibilities represented by a prominent structural element."--Architect Magazine

"Borderwall As Architecture goes into keen scholarly detail on the walls at the US-Mexico border...Rael offers many such concepts in the book, which often have a whimsy about them that reminds me of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities."
--New Scientist

"[Rael's] imagination is audacious, and he smartly frames his "grand tour" of the border as a procession of vignettes that shift easily between history, architectural what-ifs and what you might call postcards from the front."-- San Francisco Chronicle

"...in raising questions that not many others are asking about the relationship between two countries that share 2,000 miles of border, his book serves an important purpose."--The Daily Beast

Borderwall as Architecture is an artistic and intellectual hand grenade of a book, and a timely re-examination of what the physical barrier that divides the United States of America from the United Mexican States is and could be. It is both a protest against the wall and a projection about its future. Through a series of propositions suggesting that the nearly seven hundred miles of wall is an opportunity for economic and social development along the border that encourages its conceptual and physical dismantling, the book takes readers on a journey along a wall that cuts through a "third nation"--the Divided States of America. On the way the transformative effects of the wall on people, animals, and the natural and built landscape are exposed and interrogated through the story of people who, on both sides of the border, transform the wall, challenging its existence in remarkably creative ways. Coupled with these real-life accounts are counterproposals for the wall, created by Rael's studio, that reimagine, hyperbolize, or question the wall and its construction, cost, performance, and meaning. Rael proposes that despite the intended use of the wall, which is to keep people out and away, the wall is instead an attractor, engaging both sides in a common dialogue. Included is a collection of reflections on the wall and its consequences by leading experts Michael Dear, Norma Iglesias-Prieto, Marcello Di Cintio, and Teddy Cruz.

BRION GYSIN: HERE TO GO Interviews and Texts

BRION GYSIN: HERE TO GO Interviews and Texts

By: Gysin, Brion
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Brion Gysin is a legend. As an artist, author, filmmaker, and the long-term collaborator of William S. Burroughs, Gysin helped to develop the so-called Beat aesthetic from the beginning, influencing one of the most important American art movements of the last century and helping to shape decades of literature and art across the world.

In "Here to Go," Terry Wilson introduces us to this singular talent through Gysin s own words. Best known for his discovery of the cut-up technique and the invention of the Dreamachine, it was to painting and drawing that Gysin devoted his greatest efforts. Gysin was a man of diverse interests and strident opinion; the interviews collected here cover topics as diverse as magick and psychic warfare, and as intermingled as literature and drugs.

With excerpts from Gysin s own written work and a rare extract from Gysin's original screenplay adaptation for Burrough s "Naked Lunch," this is the most complete assembly of Gysin s written work. And, with additional texts by Burroughs himself, this is the best introduction to the life, work, and philosophy of one of the 20th century s most neglected, yet visionary, polymaths."

BROKEN CYCLES

BROKEN CYCLES

By: Falke, Damon
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BUCKMINSTER FULLER: POET OF GEOMETRY

BUCKMINSTER FULLER: POET OF GEOMETRY

By: Gerst, Cole
$40.00
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Winner - Silver Medal - Nautilus Book Awards. "One of the most beautiful books about a designer, ever." -- SolidSmack In Buckminster Fuller: Poet of Geometry, artist and designer Cole Gerst brings us the illustrated life story of renowned 20th century inventor and utopian visionary, Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller. Most known for inventing the geodesic dome, Bucky dedicated his life to solving problems for humanity by "doing more with less." His ideas continue to influence generations of designers, architects, scientists, and artists working to create a more sustainable planet. This book not only shows how important Fuller was during his lifetime, but how his ideas are even more relevant today than ever.
BUDDHA: RADIANT AWAKENING

BUDDHA: RADIANT AWAKENING

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Buddhism, a faith of perpetual evolution and regeneration, has flourished for over two thousand years and has been embraced by peoples of many cultures. Veneration for the Buddha in all his myriad forms has inspired glorious imagery that celebrates his beliefs. This magnificent book presents and discusses works of art from many countries that portray the life of Buddha and address the different ideas that have shaped the religion through the ages to the present day.

Buddha: Radiant Awakening provides illustrations of paintings, sculpture, metalwork, manuscripts, mandalas, and textiles, with images that range from early Indian sculptures to Japanese and Chinese scrolls, from a Tibetan tangka to a contemporary set of panels created from digital media. Each image is explained, and longer essays by authorities in the field discuss such topics as the life of Buddha, Buddhist cosmology, Buddha lands, and Buddhas of the past, present, and future. A comprehensive glossary is also included.

Lavishly illustrated with some 150 full-color photographs, this book offers a compelling example of the enduring fascination with and power of Buddha.

BUDDHAS OF THE CELESTIAL GALLERY

BUDDHAS OF THE CELESTIAL GALLERY

By: Shrestha, Romio
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The third edition in the Celestial Gallery series, Buddhas of the Celestial Gallery collects Romio Shrestha's rarest and previously unpublished t'angkas, surveying the many incarnations of the Buddha.

In the tradition of Celestial Gallery and Goddesses of the Celestial Gallery, Romio Shrestha's latest art book gathers striking Tibetan-style mandala paintings featuring the Buddha. These hauntingly powerful paintings depict the life of the deity in eloquent detail and render postmodern interpretations of an age-old Tibetan artistic tradition in which images are painstakingly created using malachite, lapis, and marigolds, and painted at times with three hairs of a cat's tail. These exquisite portrayals of the celestial spheres, known as mandalas, invite viewers to meditate on the Buddha's message of love, completion, and connectedness. Also available in a lavishly illustrated oversize edition.

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BUDDHISM AND BUDDHIST ART: AN ILLUSTRATED INTRODUCTION

By: Chicarelli, Charles F
$35.00
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Over 180 color photographs from temples, museums, historical sites, and private collections enhance this attractive survey of the Buddhist art of India, Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. It presents the life story and teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha, founder of Buddhism, as shown in paintings, sculptures, and other works of art, and explores the major schools of Buddhism--Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Zen--and the styles and characteristics of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, deities, and other images seen in their art.

Everyone interested in Buddhist art and its enduring significance will find this volume a useful reference for the study and appreciation of the various gestures, poses, and artistic elements seen in Buddhist art through the ages.

BUILDING WITH AWARENESS DVD/BOOK

BUILDING WITH AWARENESS DVD/BOOK

By: Owens, Ted
$42.00
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Constructing a straw bale solar home requires the merging of solar design with alternative building techniques. Books are useful for accessing information on these topics quickly and easily, while videos are a great way to show actual building methods and techniques firsthand.

The Building with Awareness DVD/guidebook combination brings you the best of both worlds. The award-winning DVD is inspiring and informative, with over five hours of material on every aspect of building a green home. The handy reference guidebook complements the DVD, with color photographs, diagrams, suggestions, and step-by-step methods, all condensed into a nuts-and-bolts format. Used together, these two valuable resources provide a visually dynamic and easy-to--understand library of information.

- Take a front-row seat on the work site, learning from the experts as they notch and stack the straw bales and mix the mud.
- Learn about foundations, post-and-beam wall framing, roof construction and insulation, interior thermal mass walls for improved efficiency, rain-water cisterns, electrical wiring, and photovoltaic systems.
- Learn earth-plastering techniques that create beautiful wall finishes.
- Understand how window placement and other structural elements can help to heat and cool your home and lower your energy bills.
- See how the structure works as a whole and how both energy efficiency and superb aesthetics can come from the same materials.

BUILT UPON LOVE

BUILT UPON LOVE

By: Perez-Gomez, Alberto
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A vision of architecture that transcends concerns of form and function and finds the connections between the architect's wish to design a beautiful world and architecture's imperative to provide a better place for society.

The forced polarity between form and function in considerations of architecture--opposing art to social interests, ethics to poetic expression--obscures the deep connections between ethical and poetical values in architectural tradition. Architecture has been, and must continue to be, writes Alberto Pérez-Gómez, built upon love. Modernity has rightly rejected past architectural excesses, but, Pérez-Gómez argues, the materialistic and technological alternatives it proposes do not answer satisfactorily the complex desire that defines humanity. True architecture is concerned with far more than fashionable form, affordable homes, and sustainable development; it responds to a desire for an eloquent place to dwell--one that lovingly provides a sense of order resonant with our dreams. In Built upon Love Pérez-Gómez uncovers the relationship between love and architecture in order to find the points of contact between poetics and ethics--between the architect's wish to design a beautiful world and architecture's imperative to provide a better place for society.

Eros, as first imagined by the early lyric poets of classical Greece, is the invisible force at the root of our capacity to create and comprehend the poetic image. Pérez-Gómez examines the nature of architectural form in the light of eros, seduction, and the tradition of the poetic image in Western architecture. He charts the ethical dimension of architecture, tracing the connections between philia--the love of friends that entails mutual responsibility among equals--and architectural program. He explores the position of architecture at the limits of language and discusses the analogical language of philia in modernist architectural theory. Finally, he uncovers connections between ethics and poetics, describing a contemporary practice of architecture under the sign of love, incorporating both eros and philia.

CALLIGRAPHY IN TEN EASY LESSONS

CALLIGRAPHY IN TEN EASY LESSONS

By: Lico, Laurie E
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Anyone can master the beautiful art of calligraphy, a rewarding pursuit that requires few tools and no artistic training. This practical guide ― the only book that teaches the basic Italic hand (also known as Chancery Cursive) in ten easy steps ― offers comprehensive instructions for beginners. Two expert calligraphers show how to get started, with definitions of terms and suggestions for assembling materials, choosing a good writing surface, lighting the work space, posture, placement of the paper, setting up the page, and assembling the pen. After demonstrating how to make the basic calligraphic strokes, they give specific instructions for forming letters, numbers, and punctuation. Readers will also find detailed discussions of spacing and connecting letters; forming words and sentences; drawing swash capitals; changing nibs; using color; making corrections; and waterproofing their work.
Students will also discover an exciting variety of applications for their new skills, including addressing envelopes, making invitations, creating personalized stationery, and transcribing special texts or poems. Additional helpful features include a section of questions and answers and an appendix covering pens, inks, paper, light boxes, and other useful tools for using the basic Italic hand to create elegant works of calligraphic art.
CALM CALLIGRAPHY: PRACTICE LETTERING TO FIND INNER PEACE

CALM CALLIGRAPHY: PRACTICE LETTERING TO FIND INNER PEACE

By: Malleus
$15.99
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Discover the healing and relaxing power inherent in calligraphic handwriting and the Medieval art of copying with this beautifully designed activity book that includes interactive sections filled with inspirational words and sentences to carefully mimic, each created by calligraphy master Màlleus.

Navigating a nonstop interconnected digital world leaves most of us frazzled and exhausted. One of the most enjoyable ways of learning to slow down is calligraphy and the art of copying. Many studies show that writing nicely and carefully can be therapeutic like meditation--repeating certain graphic signs and reciting a mantra have a similar effect. In fact, the art of copying is a kind of meditation: it improves concentration, provides a sense of order, and channels impatience and restlessness--helping to alleviate stress and quiet anxiety. The tactile nature of writing--putting fingers to pen to paper--makes our thoughts tangible and concrete. Tapping into our inner nature, writing focuses our attention so we can discover what we want most, organize our thoughts, and work towards making our dreams come true.

Calm Calligraphy is a beautiful spiritual guide and activity book that introduces you to the world of copying. Calligraphy master Màlleus offers a brief philosophical overview and introduction to his art and then provides relaxing words, phrases, and sentences on lined pages to help you unwind as you improve your skill and ultimately master the art of copying. The selections have been carefully created by the author and are inspired by the books collected in Màlleus' acclaimed scriptorium.

For older people, the exercises in Calm Calligraphy offer a way to stretch hand and finger muscles and warm up aching joints, while younger people can learn to create beautiful fine script, once a common practice taught in schools, that is quickly becoming a lost art.

With Calm Calligraphy, you can write away your stress, learn to focus better, and tune in to your inner desires.

CASE STUDY HOUSES

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CHANCE

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Why chance remains a key strategy in artists' investigations into the contemporary world.

The chance situation or random event--whether as a strategy or as a subject of investigation--has been central to many artists' practices across a multiplicity of forms, including expressionism, automatism, the readymade, collage, surrealist and conceptual photography, fluxus event scores, film, audio and video, performance, and participatory artworks. But why--a century after Dada and Surrealism's first systematic enquiries--does chance remain a key strategy in artists' investigations into the contemporary world? The writings in this anthology examine the gap between intention and outcome, showing it to be crucial to the meaning of chance in art. The book provides a new critical context for chance procedures in art since 1900 and aims to answer such questions as why artists deliberately set up such a gap in their practice; what new possibilities this suggests; and why the viewer finds the art so engaging.

Artists surveyed include Vito Acconci, Bas Jan Ader, Francis Alÿs, William Anastasi, John Baldessari, Walead Beshty, Mark Boyle, George Brecht, Marcel Broodthaers, John Cage, Sophie Calle, Tacita Dean, Stan Douglas, Marcel Duchamp, Brian Eno, Fischli & Weiss, Ceal Floyer, Huang Yong Ping, Douglas Huebler, Allan Kaprow, Alison Knowles, Jiri Kovanda, Jorge Macchi, Christian Marclay, Cildo Meireles, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Gabriel Orozco, Cornelia Parker, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Daniel Spoerri, Wolfgang Tillmans, Keith Tyson, Jennifer West, Ceryth Wyn Evans, La Monte Young Writers include Paul Auster, Jacquelynn Baas, Georges Bataille, Daniel Birnbaum, Claire Bishop, Guy Brett, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Stanley Cavell, Lynne Cooke, Fei Dawei, Gilles Deleuze, Anna Dezeuze, Russell Ferguson, Branden W. Joseph, Siegfried Kracauer, Jacques Lacan, Susan Laxton, Sarat Maharaj, Midori Matsui, John Miller, Alexandra Munroe, Gabriel Pérez Barreiro, Jasia Reichardt, Julia Robinson, Eric L. Santner, Sarah Valdez, Katharina Vossenkuhl

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CHINA'S VANISHING WORLDS: COUNTRYSIDE, TRADITIONS, AND CULTURAL SPACES

By: Chuang, Hsin-Mei
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Photographs and text document disappearing cultural landscapes and lifestyles in rural China, capturing poignant scenes far from Beijing or Shanghai.

Just a few kilometers from the glittering skylines of Shanghai and Beijing, we encounter a vast countryside, an often forgotten and seemingly limitless landscape stretching far beyond the outskirts of the cities. Following traces of old trade routes, once-flourishing marketplaces, abandoned country estates, decrepit model villages, and the sites of mystic rituals, the authors of this book spent seven years exploring, photographing, and observing the vast interior of China, where the majority of Chinese people live in ways virtually unchanged for centuries.

China's Vanishing Worlds is an impressive documentation in images and text of modernization's effect on traditional ways of life, and a sympathetic portrait of lives burdened by hardship but blessed by simplicity and tranquility. The scars of China's recent history and the decay of centuries-old traditions are made visible in this volume, but so is the lure and promise of technology and another life for young people. In the next twenty years, an estimated 280 million Chinese villagers will become city dwellers, leaving their ancestral homes in search of urban jobs and opportunities.

In striking and evocative color photographs, we see picturesque villages set against a background of rolling hills, planned centuries ago according to the principles of feng shui; a restaurant with bright pink resin chairs and a wide-screen television; traditional buildings preserved by the accident of poverty and isolation; ramshackle rooms decorated with portraits of Chairman Mao; backpack-wearing children walking to school; festivals with elaborately costumed performers; old men playing cards; buyers and sellers at open-air markets.

China's Vanishing Worlds offers readers a rare opportunity to glimpse China as it once was, and as it will soon no longer be.

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CHINESE ART: A GUIDE TO MOTIFS AND VISUAL IMAGERY

By: Welch, Patricia Bjaaland
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With over 630 striking color photos and illustrations, this Chinese art guide focuses on the rich tapestry of symbolism which makes up the basis of traditional Chinese art.

Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery includes detailed commentary and historical background information for the images that continuously reappear in the arts of China, including specific plants and animals, divine beings, mortals and inanimate objects. The book thoroughly illuminates the origins, common usages and diverse applications of popular Chinese symbols in a tone that is both engaging and authoritative.

Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery is an essential reference for collectors, museum-goers, guides, students and anyone else with a serious interest in the culture and history of China.

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CHINESE BESTIARY: STRANGE CREATURES FROM THE GUIDEWAYS THROUGH MOUNTAINS AND SEAS

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A Chinese Bestiary presents a fascinating pageant of mythical creatures from a unique and enduring cosmography written in ancient China. The Guideways through Mountains and Seas, compiled between the fourth and first centuries b.c.e., contains descriptions of hundreds of fantastic denizens of mountains, rivers, islands, and seas, along with minerals, flora, and medicine. The text also represents a wide range of beliefs held by the ancient Chinese. Richard Strassberg brings the Guideways to life for modern readers by weaving together translations from the work itself with information from other texts and recent archaeological finds to create a lavishly illustrated guide to the imaginative world of early China.

Unlike the bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe, the Guideways was not interpreted allegorically; the strange creatures described in it were regarded as actual entities found throughout the landscape. The work was originally used as a sacred geography, as a guidebook for travelers, and as a book of omens. Today, it is regarded as the richest repository of ancient Chinese mythology and shamanistic wisdom. The Guideways may have been illustrated from the start, but the earliest surviving illustrations are woodblock engravings from a rare 1597 edition. Seventy-six of those plates are reproduced here for the first time, and they provide a fine example of the Chinese engraver's art during the late Ming dynasty.

This beautiful volume, compiled by a well-known specialist in the field, provides a fascinating window on the thoughts and beliefs of an ancient people, and will delight specialists and general readers alike.
CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY

By: Chiang, Yee
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Chiang Yee's Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique remains the classic introduction to Chinese calligraphy. In eleven richly illustrated chapters, Chiang explores the aesthetics and the technique of this art in which rhythm, line, and structure are perfectly embodied. He measures the slow change from pictograph to stroke to the style and shape of written characters by the great calligraphers.

In addition to aesthetic considerations, the text deals with more practical subjects such as the origin and construction of the Chinese characters, styles, technique, strokes, composition, training, and the relations between calligraphy and other forms of Chinese art.

Chinese Calligraphy is a superb appreciation of beauty in the movement of strokes and in the patterns of structure--and an inspiration to amateurs as well as professionals interested in the decorative arts.

CHINESE LITERATI ON PAINTING: SU SHIH (1037-1101) TO TUNG CH'I-CH'ANG (1555-1636)

CHINESE LITERATI ON PAINTING: SU SHIH (1037-1101) TO TUNG CH'I-CH'ANG (1555-1636)

By: Bush, Susan
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This classic work, first published in 1971, explores the transition in painting styles from the late Sung period to the art of Yuan dynasty literati. Building on the pioneering work of Oswald Siren and James Cahill, Susan Bush's investigations of painting done under the Chin dynasty confirmed the dominance of scholar-artists in the north and their gradual development of scholarly painting traditions, and a related study of Northern Sung writings showed that their theory was shaped as much by the views of their social class as by their artistic aims. Bush's perspective on Sung scholars' art and theory helps explain the emergence of literati painting as the main artistic tradition in Yuan times. Social history thus served to supplement an understanding of the evolution of artistic styles.
CHINESE ON THE ART OF PAINTING

CHINESE ON THE ART OF PAINTING

By: Siren, Osvald
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Because so many Chinese artworks have been ravaged by time, the only way to really understand their history and significance is to turn to writings by the painters themselves or by contemporary critics. That is what Osvald Sirén has done in this classic book, with eye-opening results.
One of the first Western studies to systematically cover the more than two thousand years of Chinese art, this book by a modern expert considers a wide range of topics, including the relationship between religion and art and the different aesthetic philosophies prevalent in different periods. The book covers art works from the Han (third century B.C.) to the T'ang dynasties; the Sung period; aspects of Ch'an Buddhism and its relation to painting; the Yüan period; historical theories, methods of study, and aesthetic principles of the Ming dynasty; and individual departures and reassertion of traditional principles during the Ch'ing period.
Readable and intriguing, this volume is a valuable reference for art lovers and historians.
CHRISTIAN AND ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY OF ART

CHRISTIAN AND ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY OF ART

By: Coomaraswamy, Ananda K
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Nine of the most famous essays by the preeminent philosopher and art historian, exploring such subjects as the true function of aesthetics in art and the importance of symbolism.
CHROMATOPIA: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF COLOR

CHROMATOPIA: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF COLOR

By: Coles, David
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Did you know that the Egyptians created the first synthetic color and used it to create the famous blue crown of Queen Nefertiti? Or that the noblest purple comes from a predatory sea snail? The royal color, used in the Roman Empire, resulted in hundreds of thousands of snails being sacrificed to produce a single ounce of dye. Throughout history, pigments have been made from deadly metals, poisonous minerals, urine, cow dung, and even crushed insects. From grinding down beetles and burning animal bones to alchemy and pure luck, Chromatopia reveals the origin stories behind over fifty of history's most vivid color pigments.

Featuring informative and detailed color histories, a section on working with monochromatic color, and "recipes" for paint-making, Chromatopia provides color enthusiasts with an eclectic story of how synthetic colors came to be.

Spanning from the ancient world to modern leaps in technology, and vibrantly illustrated throughout, this book will add a little chroma to anyone's understanding of the history of colors.

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CHROMOPHOBIA

By: Batchelor, David
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The central argument of Chromophobia is that a chromophobic impulse - a fear of corruption or contamination through color - lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge color, either by making it the property of some foreign body - the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological - or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic.

Chromophobia has been a cultural phenomenon since ancient Greek times; this book is concerned with forms of resistance to it. Writers have tended to look no further than the end of the nineteenth century. David Batchelor seeks to go beyond the limits of earlier studies, analyzing the motivations behind chromophobia and considering the work of writers and artists who have been prepared to look at color as a positive value. Exploring a wide range of imagery including Melville's great white whale, Huxley's reflections on mescaline, and Le Corbusier's journey to the East, Batchelor also discusses the use of color in Pop, Minimal, and more recent art.

CINEMA OF PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON

CINEMA OF PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON

By: Warren, Ethan
$30.00
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Paul Thomas Anderson's evolution from a brash, self-anointed "Indiewood" auteur to one of his generation's most distinctive voices has been one of the most remarkable career trajectories in recent film history. From early efforts to emulate his cinematic heroes to his increasingly singular late films, Anderson has created a body of work that balances the familiar and the strange, history and myth: viewers feel perpetually off balance, unsure of whether to expect a pitch-black joke or a moment of piercing emotional resonance.


This book provides the most complete account of Anderson's career to date, encompassing his varied side projects and unproduced material; his personal and professional relationships with directors such as Jonathan Demme, Robert Altman, and Robert Downey Sr.; and his work as a director of music videos for Fiona Apple, Joanna Newsom, and Haim. Ethan Warren explores Anderson's recurring thematic preoccupations-the fraught dynamics of gender and religious faith, biological and found families, and his native San Fernando Valley-as well as his screenwriting methods and his relationship to his influences. Warren argues that Anderson's films conjure up an alternate American history that exaggerates and elides verifiable facts in search of a heightened truth marked by a deeper level of emotional hyperrealism. This book is at once an unconventional primer on Anderson's films and a provocative reframing of what makes his work so essential.

CLASSIC HITS: NEW YORK'S PIONEERING SUBWAY GRAFFITI WRITERS

CLASSIC HITS: NEW YORK'S PIONEERING SUBWAY GRAFFITI WRITERS

By: Iovino, Paul
$39.95
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The most visual book on early 1970s graffiti ever published. The authors were themselves artists and maintain long friendships with other artists, as well as photo archives of the time, on display in this one-of-a-kind book. Early 70s New York saw the growth of a new phenomenon. Key pioneers tell their own story. Eye-opening first-hand story accounts in pictures and text. The names names here have star status far beyond graffiti culture; without them, no Seen, no Banksy, no Revok. In this glimpse of a different New York, there is an invaluable picture of graffiti in the early, playful years.

Essays and quotations by:
Ale One, All Jive 161, Blade, Cay 161, Checker 170, Clyde, Death, FDT 56, Flint 707, Iz The Wiz, Jester 1, Joe 182, Lava, LSD OM, Mico, Pnut 2, Roger 1, Ski 168, Snake 1, Taki 183, Vamm

Photos by:
Alan Fleisher, Robert Browning, Bill Ray, Jack Stewart
CLOSE UP AT A DISTANCE

CLOSE UP AT A DISTANCE

By: Kurgan, Laura
$29.95
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The past two decades have seen revolutionary shifts in our ability to navigate, inhabit, and define the spatial realm. The data flows that condition much of our lives now regularly include Global Positioning System (GPS) readings and satellite images of a quality once reserved for a few militaries and intelligence agencies, and powerful geographic information system (GIS) software is now commonplace. These new technologies have raised fundamental questions about the intersection between physical space and its representation, virtual space and its realization.

In Close Up at a Distance, Laura Kurgan offers a theoretical account of these new digital technologies of location and a series of practical experiments in making maps and images with spatial data. Neither simply useful tools nor objects of wonder or anxiety, the technologies of GPS, GIS, and satellite imagery become, in this book, the subject and the medium of a critical exploration.

Close Up at a Distance records situations of intense conflict and struggle, on the one hand, and fundamental transformations in our ways of seeing and of experiencing space, on the other. Kurgan maps and theorizes mass graves, incarceration patterns, disappearing forests, and currency flows in a series of cases that range from Kuwait (1991) to Kosovo (1999), New York (2001) to Indonesia (2010).

Using digital spatial hardware and software designed for military and governmental use in reconnaissance, secrecy, monitoring, ballistics, the census, and national security, Kurgan engages and confronts the politics and complexities of these technologies and their uses. At the intersection of art, architecture, activism, and geography, she uncovers, in her essays and projects, the opacities inherent in the recording of information and data and reimagines the spaces they have opened up.

COLOR: A NATURAL HIOSTORY OF THE PALETTE

COLOR: A NATURAL HIOSTORY OF THE PALETTE

By: Finlay, Victoria
$19.00
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Discover the tantalizing true stories behind your favorite colors.
For example: Cleopatra used saffron--a source of the color yellow--for seduction. Extracted from an Afghan mine, the blue "ultramarine" paint used by Michelangelo was so expensive he couldn't afford to buy it himself. Since ancient times, carmine red--still found in lipsticks and Cherry Coke today--has come from the blood of insects.
COLOR: A VISUAL HISTORY FROM NEWTON TO MODERN COLOR MATCHING GUIDES

COLOR: A VISUAL HISTORY FROM NEWTON TO MODERN COLOR MATCHING GUIDES

By: Loske, Alexandra
$40.00
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Charts color exploration and expression from the 1600s to the present day through painters' tools, art, ephemera, and literature

Throughout history, artists, scientists, and philosophers have attempted to explain and order the visible color spectrum. Color: A Visual History from Newton to Modern Color Matching Guides offers the fascinating history of how color has been recorded, explored, and understood. Using an extraordinary collection of original color material that includes charts, wheels, artists' palettes, and swatches, the book showcases centuries of significant scientific discoveries and artistic exploration. It celebrates the visual quality and beauty of various color theories over time and highlights the creativity of their design and codification. The book showcases everything from fourteenth-century illuminated manuscripts to Moses Harris's The Natural System of Colours (ca. 1769), and from 1814's Werner's Nomenclature of Colours to Paul Klee's color harmonies to highlight the fascinating interactions of science and art. This stunning display of shades, tints, and tones is an authoritative guide for anyone working in the arts, as well as anyone passionate about color in their personal lives, homes, and surroundings.