Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education

Institutional Time : a critique of studio art education by Judy Chicago.
In this characteristically tenacious book, feminist artist and educator Chicago, best known for her 1979 installation "The Dinner Party" (now permanently installed at the Brooklyn Museum), shares her struggles and successes as an art instructor at CalArts (where she helped establish the feminist art program), Indiana University, Duke, Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and elsewhere and boldly calls for a systematic restructuring of studio art programs, which she finds "deficient, dishonest, and lacking in standards, " as well as androcentric. Women's enrollment surpasses men's, but they are especially disadvantaged and less likely to succeed because the "curriculum as it exists today is biased against women." Chicago holds up her pedagogical methods as potential models for reforms, particularly her emphasis on students locating personal content (when technique usually takes precedence), which helps women and students outside the cultural mainstream. Publishers Weekly (02/17/2014)

Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties

 Witness : Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties 
 Accompanying a highly anticipated exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, this thoughtful catalog of brilliantly wide-ranging aesthetics explores the complex relations between visual art and the fight for racial justice. Taking as its occasion the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the text moves away from rote historical narratives, instead opting to focus on the role of the photographer in shaping action and emergent discourses, of the influence of Ghana and Cuba on politics and aesthetics, and of the tensions of politics in Pop art. These thoughtful essays help guide what might otherwise be an overwhelming diversity of images, including a David Hammons body print, an iconic poster by Emory Douglas, Betye Saar assemblages, and Norman Rockwell paintings, among many others. The images themselves, brought into conversation with one another, are a valuable and resonant resource, allowing not only a deeper understanding of art from the 1960s, but of the ongoing historical reality of race in the United States. Publishers Weekly (02/24/2014)

The Itinerant Languages of Photography

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While photographs have been exchanged, appropriated, and mobilized in different contexts since the 19th century, their movement is now occurring at an unprecedented speed. "The Itinerant Languages of Photography" examines photography's capacity to circulate across time and space as well as across other media, such as art, literature, and cinema. Taking its point of departure from Latin American and Spanish photographic archives, the volume offers an alternative history of photography by focusing on the transnational dimension of technological traffic and image production at a time when photography is at the center of current debates on the role of representation, authorship, and reception in a global contemporary culture. Featuring a wide-range of photographs--images that converse across temporal, political, and cultural boundaries by artists such as Lola and Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Marcelo Brodsky, Joan Colom, Marc Ferrez, and Joan Fontcuberta--the book argues that the photographic image comes into being only as a consequence of reproduction, displacement, and itinerancy.

Wunderkammer

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Inspired by the idea of the "wunderkammer" or "cabinet of curiosities"--that originated during the Renaissance, world-renowned architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien invited 42 celebrated architects and designers from around the world to create their own wunderkammers, filling boxes with objects that inspire them. The boxes, each spotlighted in its own section, are explored through each architect's essay; working drawings and sketchbook pages; construction and installation photos; a list of the items contained; and a photograph of the final box.

Watercolor Painting: A Comprehensive Approach to Mastering the Medium

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The beauty of a watercolor painting lies in its diaphanous layers, delicate strokes, and luminous washes. However, the very features that define the beauty of the medium can make it difficult to master. This complete guide to understanding the relationships between color, value, wetness, and composition unravels the mysteries of watercolor to help your practice evolve.
Experienced teacher and acclaimed artist Tom Hoffmann offers a unique, inquiry-based approach that shows you how to translate any subject into the language of watercolor. With Hoffmann as your guide, you'll learn the key questions to ask yourself at every turn and time-tested methods to help you reach solutions.
Hoffmann's thorough explanations and step-by-step demonstrations delineate the process of composing a painting in watercolor, while art from more than thirty-five past and present masters, including John Singer Sargent, Ogden Pleissner, George Post, Emil Kosa, Jr., Mary Whyte, Trevor Chamberlain, Lars Lerin, Torgeir Schjolberg, Piet Lap, Leslie Frontz, and Alvaro Castagnet serve to illustrate and inspire. Whether you're a serious beginner or a seasoned practitioner, this book will guide you toward the all-important balance between restraint and risk-taking that every watercolorist seeks.

In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly's Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman

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The eminence francaise or "powerful influence" behind scads of well-known cartoonists is Paris-born and New York-based writer and artist Francoise Mouly ("Best American Comics 2012"). Mouly is known primarily through her partnership with superfamous husband and cartoonist Art Spiegelman; however, Heer (editor, "Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium") points out that in her innovation, creativity, initiative, and advocacy over many decades, she has dramatically influenced comics and comics artists in her own right. Originally trained in architecture, Mouly was drawn to graphic narrative through Spiegelman and pushed him into coediting the comics magazine "Raw" between 1980 and 1991. Her work in "Raw" led to her current 20-year tenure as art editor of "The New Yorker". In addition, Mouly recently established TOON Books to bring comics for the youngest readers back on the market.

This Is Mars

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In amazingly clear images captured by a HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, we see our neighbor planet's surface in all its ruggled glory - craters, mountain ranges, chasms, and canyons that resemble microscopic specimens. The back of the book is thick with scientific data.--Jack Crager"American Photo" (11/01/2013)