A basic biography about such a curious individual. Ordered this book for a paper that I am writing on psychopathology and Dali. Very helpful information; lots of description in this biography. Not just a time line.
The memory man / / 2001-10-31
Surrealists said that someone who came up with something out of the ordinary must have been in love with Gala Eluard: her husband Salvador Dali's unforgettable imagery, from early autobiographical works through Surrealist dream symbols to metaphysical and religious themes, drew into the art world people who had been uninterested in painting. Perhaps he revealed the secret of his appeal when he said that he drew just one picture, mixing what happened to him and in the world with eternal themes from his childhood, such as the threatening father in "The old age of William Tell." Some childhood memories found expression in Hieronymus Bosch-styled decaying soft objects, as in "The persistence of memory." With "Cenicitas" and "La miel es mas dulce que la sangre," he launched his psychoanalytically symbolic art by following the Surrealist ideal of uncensored and uncontrolled imagery, knowing what to apply from Sigmund Freud's "The interpretation of dreams," and using sleepwalking shadows, Joaquin Sorolla-type light, and jewel-like clear colors. One of his hallmarks became pictures with multiple images: "The endless enigma" double, triple and quadruple imaging into such disturbing visions as a fish skeleton balanced on top of a stick and Gala's eyes staring cruelly out at viewers; "The image disappears" double imaging a Jan Vermeer-styled girl into a bearded man; "The metamorphosis of Narcissus" double imaging Narcissus into a petrified hand holding an egg cracking into a narcissus, with Sandro Botticelli-type dancing figures and Umbrian school-like golden glowing background; his metaphysical "Dali a six ans soulevant avec precaution la peau de l'eau pour observer un chien dormir a l'ombre de la mer" covering a dog with atomic reactor-type, mirrorlike heavy water and reflecting granite cliffs, in a Piero di Cosimo-styled seascape; one of his nuclear fission series, "The three sphinxes of Bikini," double imaging the atomic explosion into three heads, with one turning into two trees. Later, one of the high points in his religious paintings was floating a foreshortened "Christ of St John of the cross" over an early evening sky and above the rocks of the painter's homeland. From his fascination with three-dimensional art and as an exercise in the stereoscopy that he saw in Gerard Dou's art, he painted "Dali from the back painting Gala from the back externalized by six virtual corneas, provisionally reflected by six mirrors." And his final masterpiece Teatro museo Gala-Dali was a three-dimensional autobiography of all his ideas and images. Author Meredith Etherington-Smith reads magnificently with DALI'S OPTICAL ILLUSIONS edited by Dawn Ades and Robert Radford's DALI. Readers might want to look into Ruth Brandon's SURREAL LIVES, Sharon Fermor's PIERO DI COSIMO, Carl Linfert's BOSCH, Bruno Santi's BOTTICELLI, and Arthur K. Wheelock's JAN VERMEER.
Excellent overview of Jackson Pollock's life / / 2008-05-10
I enjoyed the iambic trimeter of the book. The prose feels spare but got me in sideways into Pollock's consciousness. Well worth reading for anyone who wants to understand modern art. Pollock would have benefited from a more religious upbringing. Who knows what he might have accomplished had he not been so internally tortured?
Blazing comet burning out! / / 2004-08-17
This book was a revelation to me! I've always loved the strength
and delicacy of Pollock's works, without ever being able to place the undercurrent of violence and black rage in it. Now I understand. What a fascinating picture of how an artist can turn
what to others would be crippling limitations into lasting beauty!
Thank you, Martin Gray, for opening my eyes.
The book is good to start with, it was the first book that was required in my first class or arts (architect) 11A at UCB, it helped a lot in showing different types of drawing styles. It is a good book to start with, its just like an intro for art students.
Chambers... / / 2009-09-24
Interesting book, text for a class on "Placemaking" for architecture. Great Pictures! The authors write letters to each other about many different great places. It's also, notably, not all on western architecture, there are some awesome eastern places too.
A Book on Architect Fundamentals / / 2009-07-01
This book is great. It looks at the why of design elements. It is easy to read and just about anyone can follow the ideas. If you are interested in looking into the what and why of architecture this is the book for you.
Design + / / 2007-06-26
An interesting format for a discussion of design principles with beautiful pen and ink sketches. Imaginary letters written between two architects discussing well known and not so well known buildings that illustrate proportion, paths, angles and why they appeal to our eyes and hearts. Recommended by a designer whose course I took. A very pleasing book.
A bit technical / / 2004-09-19
For the way this book is advertised, I did not feel like it accomplished what it sets out to do. Nevertheless if you are an amateur buff of architecture like me this is a good book to add to your home library collection.
Being that I am 20 years old, I did not have the privilege of witnessing the Three Stooges first hand. Richard's book really put me right in front of the old black and white television set feeling the same excitement and devotion he did to the lovely trio. As a personal pen-pal of Moe's, his story is really one worth reading and experiencing. I just wish I could've been around then... nowadays you don't experience the type of devotion to fans that the Three Stooges had (especially Moe). They were comedic geniuses, and it's time my generation knows it and keeps the Three Stooges around forever!
Thoughtful Book About The Importance of Memory and Perception And The Things That Shape Our Lives / / 2008-09-22
The book has a thoughtful message about the images we see in other people's family photographs - not the casual Polaroid snapshots but the more formal sit-down, dressed up posed photos that we are most willing to share with people outside the family.
While Kuhn's book doesn't take a linear path through her life, and is at times extremely confusing, her strongest message to the reader is reminding us all of the images - in photographs and even in movies - that shape our lives and our perceptions. She writes about a movie she saw as a child, one that fascinated her greatly, and which resulted in the author growing up to become a noted film critic, historian and writer.
I enjoyed reading this because it made me more aware of the influences that shape all of our lives. Kuhn's own existence was defined by the time and place of her birth - in postwar England, her parents working-class, her mother sending her conflicting messages about the elite prep school her daughter was attending on a scholarship. Her mother understood that the end result of this education was that her child would outgrow her, achieve more in her life, and as a result, she would not be part of the working class.
Author : Donald S. Vogel Publisher : University of North Texas Press / 2001-01-01 Binding : Hardcover / 312 Pages Rating : ISBN 10 : 1574411179 ISBN 13 :
For students of American art history / / 2001-03-13
Memories And Images: The World Of Donald Vogel And Valley House Gallery is the story of Donald Vogel who arrived in Dallas at the beginning of World War II after a sojourn at the Art Institute of Chicago and began a successful and explosive career in the arts. This is the story of the wealth that came with East Coast art dealers following the oil field trails throughout Oklahoma and Texas. During a tumultuous time of dubious art and fake old masters, Vogel was able to be a part of bringing fine art works to Dallas, beginning with the Betty McLean Gallery, and later to his own Valley House Gallery. Already established as a painter, Vogel became a critical and important outlet in Dallas for art dealers in the United States and Europe. An honor that has endured for the past fifty-eight years at the heart of the Dallas art scene. Memories And Images is an autobiography that is very highly recommended and informative reading for students of American art history in general, and the work and contributions of Donald Vogel and his Valley House Gallery in particular.
There are many book about American films made during World War II. What sets this book apart from most of those is that Schickel focuses on the movies he saw at the time of the war as a child, giving us a double perspective: the child watching the film then and the adult watching the films again now.
Thus there are some gaps. The young Schickel, unsurprisingly, avoided the Preston Sturges comedies, and so these do not play a big part in the book. However, what we do get is a believable and convincing look at how the public perceived these films (Hangmen Also Die, The Human Comedy, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo) at the time.
A nice thing is that Schickel, although he makes it clear he finds some of these movies mendacious, never takes a snide, wise guy attitude but remembers his childish delight in these films, while as an adult he can pick out the flaws.
The book is not just a look at films of 1941-5. It is also a memoir, so there is material about growing up and becoming a film critic. I found this interesting, as Schickel is one of my favorite critics. (His book on D. W. Griffith is superb.) However, people only interested in wartime films, and not also in Schickel, might be advised to get it from the library.
Fascinating! But is it too limited? / / 2003-05-31
Richard Schickel's memoir of life and movies during WWII, is a book that not "only a film scholar could write", but one that only THIS film scholar could write. To those of us of, as they say, a certain age, it offers a fascinating re-evaluation of the films of WWII, as well as a compelling portratit of growing up in America at the time. Indeed, if the book has a flaw for those of us old enough to remember the films in their original release, it is the lack of precise dates of release of many of them. HOWEVER, one does have to ask (and my rating of 4, rather than 5, stars offers my answer), who, besides me, Schickel, and our co-age group, is the book for? While his insights into all the films he cites are meticulous, the vast majority of them are not only obscure to most film goers, but DESERVEDLY so. The writing is, as one would expect, always compelling; the portrait of America, film, and the intertwining of the two to an impressionable public, is flawless. Indeed, the subject not only should have been covered, but needed to be. But, will the average film buff, let alone the average reader, be as enthralled as I was? Alas, I tend to doubt it, but I'm grateful it was done, anyway.
Review without Reading! / / 2003-04-14
I heard an interview with R. Schickel on Public Radio and am quite interested in buying and reading his book. I grew up in the same Wisconsin suburb - Wauwatosa, WI and most likely the same time period that he did and am interested in his depiction of that time and place. I'm most interested in how he covers the question of Hollywood not dealing with the WW2 persecution of European Jews. Subject matter which was not publically known in the US until about March 1945, two months before the end of that war.
I rated this 3 stars because I couldn't submit a review without it.
Very useful and honest book. The story of a ordinary old Cheyenne woman, good singer, good beadworker, good grandmother, and good human being. The reader can learn about the contemporary life of the Cheyenne people even surviving traditions. The score of the Cheyenne songs and the follow-up CD make this book still more valuable.
/ 2010-07-19
