Degas • Natalia Brodskaïa

Bauhaus • Michael Siebenbrodt & Lutz Schöbe

Complete Works of Diego Velazquez

 

The leading figure of the Spanish Golden Age, Diego Velázquez is universally acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest artists. Celebrated for his naturalistic style and remarkable power of observation in depicting both the living model and still life, Velázquez produced artworks that have helped change the course of Western art. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail.

 

Peter Russell (Autor)  

 

Greek Art of the Aegean Islands • MET

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents us with a rich sampling of the splendid cultural heritage of Greece. Not only does it emphasize the diverse geographic centers of artistic production but it also covers a broad chronological span, extending from the Early Bronze Age to the Classic Period of the fifth century B.C. Many of the objects are of particular interest in that they are recent finds, which, outside of archaeological circles, are known only to those who have actually visited the National Museum in Athens, and the many different local museums throughout the Greek islands. The loan demonstrates the significant cultural interconnections among the islands as well as the wealth and variety of materials used and the lively forms that characterize so much of Greek art.

American Impressionism and Realism The Painting of Modern Life 1885 1915 • MET

"A true historical painter ... is one who paints the life he sees about him, and so makes a record of his own epoch." This principle, voiced by the Impressionist Childe Hassam, was heeded by the artists whose contributions are the focus of this volume: the American Impressionists and the Realists of the generation that succeeded them. The authors of the book, which accompanies a major exhibition, illuminate the continuities and differences between American Impressionism and Realism, two movements that are traditionally viewed as merely opposed.

They explore the roots of American Impressionism in European art, especially in the French Impressionists' engagement with the contemporary scene. Also elucidated are the evolving responses of both the American Impressionists and Realists to the changing realities of life in the United States at the turn of the century, as the nation shifted rapidly from an agrarian to an increasingly industrialized urban society. In an examination of paintings that represent the country, the city, and the home - the triad of subjects that engaged the artists - these responses are shown to reflect a tension between enthusiasm for the new and a sense of loss of the rural past. Studying a wide range of painters, including John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, John Sloan, William Glackens, and George Bellows, the authors offer new insights into the threads of nationalism, optimism, euphemism, and nostalgia that link the two movements. They demonstrate that these painters of modern life endowed their European-rooted art with a distinctly American inflection and produced a selective register of an energetic nation, revealing a complex commitment to Robert Henri's assertion that "painting is the giving of evidence."

The volume brings a new approach to this area of American art history, which has tended to be more descriptive than interpretive: it offers detailed historical and social contexts for the works and movements under consideration as well as penetrating stylistic analyses. Lavish illustrations of the paintings in the exhibition, comparative works and period photographs, a biography of each of the twenty-six artists in the exhibition, a selected bibliography, and an index are included.

Complete Works of Artemisia Gentileschi

 

The Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi is considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation following Caravaggio. In an era when women painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community or patrons, she was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence, achieving fame for her many depictions of strong female characters from myth and the Bible. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail. 

 

Peter Russell (Author)  

 

Art: Paintings, Sculpture, Artists, Styles, Schools

 

American Rococo 1750-1775 - Elegance in Ornament

The rococo style was among the primary artistic contributions of the eighteenth century. Its manifestations throughout Europe have been comprehensively acknowledged and chronicled, but its influence in America, where it was probably the century's crowning design achievement (commonly referred to as the Chippendale style), had never been thoroughly examined. It was a lavish taste that found surprisingly fertile ground in the colonies, where affluent members of society, rejoicing in their hard-won prosperity, strove to adopt London fashions. The exhibition, "American Rococo, 1750–1775: Elegance in Ornament" was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the latter's motivations emanating from the desire to bring an exhibition of American Chippendale furniture to a city where such objects have always been in short supply.

The book includes chapters on European origins and the American manifestations of the rococo, a brief discussion of firearms, and architecture, and medium-based explorations of objects made of paper, silver, wood, iron, glass, and ceramic.

Velázquez • MET

 

Surrealism - Genesis of a Revolution

 

 

The Dada movement and then the Surrealists appeared in the First World War aftermath with a bang: revolution of thought, creativity, and the wish to break away from the past and all that was left in ruins. This refusal to integrate into the Bourgeois society lead Georg Grosz to remark of Dada, ""it's the end of-isms."" Breton asserted that Dada does not produce perspective, ""a machine which functions full steam, but where it remains to be seen how it can feed itself."" Surrealism emerged amidst such feeling. These artists often changed from one movement to another. They were united by their superior intellectualism and the common goal to break from the norm. Describing Dada with its dynamic free-thinkers, and the Surrealists with their aversive resistance to the system, the author brings a new approach which strives to be relative and truthful. Provocation and cultural revolution: Dada and the Surrealists, aren't they above all just a direct product of creative individualism in this unsettled period?

 

Caravaggio • Félix Witting & M. L. Patrizi

Aelbert Cuyp • Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691) was one of the foremost Dutch painters and draftsmen of the seventeenth century. His prolific artistic career spanned the years between 1640 and 1665, the greatest period of Dutch painting, and his idyllic views of the Dutch countryside have entranced collectors and connoisseurs ever since. Although particularly renowned for his pastoral scenes, Cuyp also painted portraits, biblical scenes, and majestic views of Dutch harbors. He had an extraordinary ability to capture atmospheric conditions from the golden glow of the late afternoon sun to the brisk wind accompanying a sudden thunderstorm. Indeed, Cuyp's unique combination of Italianate atmospheric effects and native Dutch landscape distinguishes his art from that of any of his contemporaries. At the core of this book and the exhibition it accompanies are forty-five of Cuyp's most distinguished paintings and sixty-four drawings, taken largely from the impressive collections of the organizing institutions but also from other American, British, Dutch, and German museums and private collections. The works are reproduced in brilliant color and accompanied by more than 100 additional illustrations in color and black and white. Their appeal lies not only in the subject matter but also in their distinctive style, for Cuyp infused his Arcadian subjects and river views with a sensitivity to light and a clarity of form that is firmly grounded in reality. 222 illustrations, 124 in color Led by Arthur K. Wheelock of the National Gallery of Art, an international team of curators and scholars discuss Cuyp's work in the context of his time, personal background, artistic development, patrons, use of costume, and artistic techniques.

Hokusai • After Edmond de Goncourt