Art

SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town is an unprecedented photographic personal journey into the heart of hidden Tuscany that celebrates the principles that define the Slow Food movement and pays tribute to the region's kaleidoscope of vibrant characters, whose shared culture revolves around the everyday pleasure of growing, preparing, and eating food.

With an anecdotal charm reminiscent of Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence, Douglas Gayeton's interplay of pictures and words conveys a thrilling narrative that transports you halfway around the globe to the charming town of Pistoia, nestled in the outskirts of Florence. There we meet the mushroom hunters and sheep farmers, the winemakers and fishermen, the bakers, butchers and chocolate makers whose lives are profoundly bound to the rhythms of nature. It is a riveting story told in a riveting way: each image comprised of multiple photographs taken over a period of time that can range anywhere from ten minutes to several hours, and layered with Gayeton's handwritten notes, recipes, facts, and sayings. With this process, Gayeton has managed to introduce the concept of story and time; both compressed and exploded, into his portraits. The result is a photographic approach critics have dubbed flat film; the effect is exhilarating.

As Gayeton observes, "What my eyes saw was always grander than any lens could capture...How could I introduce the presence of time, of an emerging and evolving story comprised of not one, but many moments, into a single photograph?" In the accompanying text, Gayeton offers an absorbing first person account of his immersion into rural Italian culture, offering an intimacy that draws us deeper into this romantic and rustic world. A photographer, a pioneering new media creator, a wonderful writer and an award winning documentarian, Gayeton is passionately interested in food, culture, art, and people.

For centuries, stone carvers have enhanced buildings ranging from the Gothic cathedrals of Europe to the Beaux-Arts skyscrapers of New York. Steeped in tradition and skilled in an exacting craft, these master artisans have contributed much to some of the 20th century's most celebrated civic and religious monuments, but they have rarely received individual recognition for their work.

From one of the most acclaimed and profound writers in the world of comics comes a thrilling and provocative exploration of humankind's great modern myth: the superhero
The first superhero comic ever published, "Action Comics no. 1" in 1938, introduced the world to something both unprecedented and timeless: Superman, a caped god for the modern age. In a matter of years, the skies of the imaginary world were filled with strange mutants, aliens, and vigilantes: Batman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and the X-Men--the list of names as familiar as our own. In less than a century, they've gone from not existing at all to being everywhere we look: on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and dreams. But what are they trying to tell us?
For Grant Morrison, arguably the greatest of contemporary chroniclers of the "superworld," these heroes are powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves, our troubled history, and our starry aspirations. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, science, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of the superhero--why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are . . . and what we may yet become.

Traces the history of the bandanna, describing how the images pictured on them reflect over two hundred years of American life.

It is arguably the greatest feat of civil engineering in history, and indisputably earth s largest single cultural relic: begun during the Qin Dynasty (around 208 BC) and completed nearly 1,800 years later during the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall of China spans more than 4,000 miles. At the dawn of the Beijing Olympics, the eyes of all the world are upon it.
Two men who navigated every inch of the Wall have collaborated on a lavishly-illustrated tribute to this amazing structure. Michael Yamashita, an award-winning "National Geographic" photographer, spent a year shooting the Wall, its environs, and the people who live in its shadow, for the magazine. One hundred and sixty of his magnificent photos grace this volume, which features text by William Lindesay, who not only conducts tours of the Wall and spearheads the movement to preserve it, but has actually run its entire length. Broken into three sections, "The Great Wall" provides an overview that debunks myths and dishes up rare facts and figures, a comprehensive history that proceeds dynasty by dynasty through its construction, and an account of Lindesay s personal experiences of the Wall."

"The Passion" is a visual portrayal of the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus. Gripping photos taken on the set of Mel Gibson's new film, "The Passion of Christ, " together with the biblical narratives in the New Living Translation, present the story in vivid detail. A sweeping presentation of the Passion story in powerful images that will enhance the movie experience! “This is a movie about love, hope, faith, and forgiveness. He [Jesus] died for all mankind, suffered for all of us. It's time to get back to that basic message. The world has gone nuts. We could all use a little more love, faith, hope, and forgiveness.” —Mel Gibson, Icon Productions

This reference work deals with all aspects of Western art from 1300 to the present day. It provides information on painters, sculptors, and graphic artists, technical processes, terminology, theory, schools, movements, patrons and collecting, and much more.

Tony Bennett is one of the world's most loved musical legends. What many of his admirers may not know, however, is that Bennett, under the name of Anthony Benedetto, is also a successful painter whose works hang in major museums and galleries. In this text, Tony reflects on his career.

The artistic work produced in the Netherlands 100 years ago is characterized by enormous variety. Impressionism was still a strong influence, but young artists were exploring numerous other avenues as well. Some turned to new sources of inspiration such as Japanese art and symbolism, while others were pushing stylization to its limits. International schools were followed closely by Dutch artists, many of whom stayed for months at a time in Paris, the South of France, or London to study new trends.

These developments, which roughly spanned the period from 1885 to 1915, began with Van Gogh, and ended with Mondrian. Each of them pioneered modern art in his own utterly distinctive fashion. In the intervening period the most striking Modernist tendencies are found in the work of artists such as Jan Toorop, George Breitner, Isaac Israels, Willem Witsen, Kees van Dongen, and Jan Sluijters.

This book explores the significance of this period for art on paper. To the Rijksmuseum's own drawings, designs for decorative art, prints, posters, and photographs, items have been added from other public and private collections in the Netherlands. The selection gives an excellent impression of the range of work produced on paper in the period around 1900.

Photography matters, writes Jerry Thompson, because of how it works -- not only as an artistic medium but also as a way of knowing. With this provocative observation, Thompson begins a wide-ranging and lucid meditation on why photography is unique among the picture-making arts. He constructs an argument that moves with natural logic from Thomas Pynchon (and why we read him for his vision and not his command of miscellaneous facts) to Jonathan Swift to Plato to Emily Dickinson (who wrote "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant") to detailed readings of photographs by Eugene Atget, Garry Winogrand, Marcia Due, Walker Evans, and Robert Frank. Forcefully and persuasively, he argues for photography as a medium whose business is not constructing fantasies pleasing to the eye or imagination, but describing the world in the toughest and deepest way."