Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered It
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • A wonderful book
  • SPOILS OF WAR
  • What were they thinking!!
  • I recommend this book
  • Great Book!
Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered It
Robert M. Edsel
Manufacturer: Laurel Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

GeneralGeneral | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0977434907

Book Description

During and following WWII, a special multinational group of more than 350 men and women served behind enemy lines and joined frontline military units to ensure the preservation, protection, liberation and restitution of the world's greatest artistic and cultural treasures. This "band of unsung heroes," formally referred to as the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) section, or commonly referred to as the "Monuments Men," worked tirelessly to track down, identify and catalogue millions of priceless works of art and irreplaceable cultural artifacts, including masterpieces by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Vermeer, that had been stolen by Hitler and the Nazis.

The story of the Monuments Men, including their heroics and exploits in rescuing and safeguarding many of the world's greatest artworks for the benefit of mankind, has never before been fully revealed until now, with the publication of Rescuing Da Vinci, an exhaustively researched historical account written by Robert M. Edsel. Mr. Edsel can best be described as a successful athlete and business entrepreneur turned modern day "Indiana Jones." Mr. Edsel has dedicated the last five years of his life to painstaking and far-reaching research to unravel the secrets of the Monuments Men and, in so doing, to make the world aware of their unprecedented contributions, both during and after WWII, and to ensure that these unsung heroes receive appropriate recognition from the United States government, as well as the broad public.

The detailed documentation, inventories and photographs developed and catalogued by the Monuments Men during and following World War II, have made possible, and continue to make possible, the restitution of stolen artworks of to rightful owners and their descendents. Long after WWII, many Monuments Men went on to become renowned directors and curators of preeminent international cultural institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Toledo Museum of Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, among many others, as well as professors at esteemed universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, New York University, Williams College and Columbia University. Others became founders, presidents, and members of associations such as the New York City Ballet, the American Museum Association, the American Association of Museum Directors, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Society of Architectural Historians, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as respected architects, archivists, artists and musicians.

"Mr. Edsel's book is captivating in several respects, from the graphic, garish reminders of the faces of the great plunderers, to the singular beauty of the art they sought to steal. And it is a high and overdue memorial to the "Monuments Men," who did the herculean job of tracking down and repatriating the great art." -- William F. Buckley Jr.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A wonderful book.......2007-10-09

This book shows and tells another side of war. It is the story told in picture of Hitler and his Nazi thugs pillaging Europe and stealing priceless art objects, painting, statures, books, even ancient scrolls then hiding them in caves and bunkers in Germany. What I loved about this book were the photos of US Army units rescuing those stolen art treasures then returned them to the towns, churches and cities. The author has done an exemplary job of finding photos and stories which has made this an important work. Photos I've never seen and story I have never heard about. I think this book needs to be in every high school library in the country. Students need to be shown how our American Army worked to recover all this lost art. His book made me proud to have serviced in the US army.

Thank you for writing this book

5 out of 5 stars SPOILS OF WAR.......2007-09-21

This is one of the most fascinating books i have ever read. The period images are amazing, just the photo of italian masons bricking up Michaelangelo's iconic David is worth the purchase. After reading this book I was stunned that so few art treasures were destroyed. I had no idea that much of the treasures at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. was stored at Biltmore because of its remote setting. I was also blown away to see the images of workman removing winged victory from the Louvre, I just had no idea all of this went on leading up to the war and during the war. The German pillaging of the great European art treasures is disgusting of course, especially the art they looted from the weathy Jewry like the Rothchilds and others, some of which even to this day are trying to get back art work that is rightly theirs. I highly recommend this great book to anyone interested in art, history, art history, or frankly has an inquisive mind. I want to thank the authors for a job well done.

5 out of 5 stars What were they thinking!!.......2007-08-10

This was a fascinating and disturbing account of the massive Nazi looting and subsequent recovery by the Allies. It is a story told mostly by pictures to the tune of about 20 pages of pictures for each page of print. It is promoted by the publisher as the biggest non-told story of WWII and he might be right; it diminished the German war effort and probably shortened the War. It was also about the massive and admirable effort by the so-called Allied `Monuments Men' to recover and redistribute the loot back to their rightful owners after the War.

Germany stole millions of art objects from occupied countries, and even from its own ally Italy, on the pretext of saving it from the `barbarian' invaders from the West. Monuments weighing tons, like the `Burghers of Calais' from France and the `Winged Lion' from atop the column in Florence's San Martin Square, were somehow lifted and hauled away. Also, 5000 church bells were stolen from Europe and 300 trolley cars were removed from Amsterdam. In short, they looted everything they could get their hands on, and they were good at it. There are good pictures of the bells and the trolley cars.

In Slavic countries such as Russia and Poland, the plundering was accompanied by an attempted systematic destruction of the culture itself; `inferior races' in Hitler's mind didn't deserve a history. The siege of Russia was particularly bad; 6000 hospitals were destroyed, and 86,000 elementary and secondary schools were destroyed. Decency had taken a long vacation in Germany.

Hitler was a master at destroying things. He destroyed a lot of Europe and Russia, and even extended his `scorched earth' policy to his own country when Germany was near defeat. Thankfully, that order was not faithfully carried out.

How could a country justify destroying the culture of another country? What were the people of Germany thinking when they elected this maniac as Chancellor in the 1930's? Why did they blindly follow him?

What were they thinking!!

5 out of 5 stars I recommend this book.......2007-05-13

If you enjoy WWII history and art, this is a book that should be in your collection. It is full of wonderful photos that you will not find elsewhere. If you have ever wondered about what happened to the great masterpieces of art during WWII, this is the book to buy. Amazon also has a great price.

5 out of 5 stars Great Book!.......2007-04-14

What a great story. Incredible photos too. Quality of the pages is very good. I'm actually surprised it's only $35 after getting it.
44 Scotland Street
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Delicious slice of Edinburgh life!
  • Wonderfully Enjoyable Book
  • makes you want to visit Scotland
  • hilarious
  • A very enjoyable read
44 Scotland Street
Alexander Mccall Smith
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1400079446
Release Date: 2005-06-14

Book Description

Welcome to 44 Scotland Street, home to some of Edinburgh's most colorful characters. There's Pat, a twenty-year-old who has recently moved into a flat with Bruce, an athletic young man with a keen awareness of his own appearance. Their neighbor, Domenica, is an eccentric and insightful widow. In the flat below are Irene and her appealing son Bertie, who is the victim of his mother’s desire for him to learn the saxophone and italian–all at the tender age of five.

Love triangles, a lost painting, intriguing new friends, and an encounter with a famous Scottish crime writer are just a few of the ingredients that add to this delightful and witty portrait of Edinburgh society, which was first published as a serial in The Scotsman newspaper.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Delicious slice of Edinburgh life!.......2007-09-24

This book was written for The Scotsman newspaper in serial form, as many of Charles Dickens's novels were. It's not Dickensian, but Smith's view of the purpose of fiction is certainly compatible with Dickens's - "to remind us of the virtues - of love and forgiveness, for example - and these can be portrayed just as well in an ongoing story of everyday life as they can on a more ambitious and more leisurely canvas." That is not to say that this book is dull or moralizing - far from it! Smith's sly wit enlivens each character and scene and makes me think more of Austen than of Dickens. It is no easy feat to write article-length chapters interesting in themselves, that are connected in theme and tone, with a central plot thread which is tied up satisfactorily in the end (at least for me...some reviewers have disagreed). Smith has done it.

The cast of characters here is presumably the one that we will meet in the next two novels of the series, Espresso Tales and Love Over Scotland. Smith has left loose ends for future exploration. These characters may not equal the popularity of his Botswana folks (Mma Ramotswe of the Ladies Detective Agency) but it's a very close call. It's satisfying to watch Pat (the twenty-year old in search of work and love and social life) grow in realizing and acting on her own very good judgment of people and situations. Pat's older sidekicks, Domenica and Angus, are witty sophisticates with a taste for the down-to-earth - Pat probably won't turn out to be like them, but they are an amusing counterbalance for her innocence and honesty.

Bruce - aaaahhhhh, Bruce! Bruce deserves his own paragraph, as he would certainly tell us. No more about Bruce, you gotta read it. Irene, our other over-the-top manipulator, is equally amazing, in a much more intellectual way. I still can't get over the idea of a Stockhausen ringtone...anyway, that's the snobby nouveau-riche side of Edinburgh for you. And Bertie, Irene's son, is right up there with Pat as the most interesting character. We are going to see much more of Bertie, I hope. Matthew, Pat's "boss" (if it is possible to think of Matthew as a boss), will continue to surprise us.

Edinburgh itself is a character in the book. Some of Scotland's poets and politicians appear in this book (the introduction fills us in on who is real and who is not), and as we get to know them and hear some of their poems (courtesy of Domenica and Angus), we feel that we are beginning to know this place, its past and present. Big Lou, the coffee-shop owner who reads Proust, is fictional, but I bet there is someone close to being Big Lou in Edinburgh somewhere. One day I'm going to meet her!

If you like the Botswana series, give this one a try! I'm betting you will be hooked.

5 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Enjoyable Book.......2007-09-22

I picked this (and the sequel) up on my way back from a business trip in the U.K. I've read all of Mccall Smith's "#1 Lady Detective Agency Books" so I thought I'd give this a go.

The book is excellent and an incredible joy to read. I started and finished the book on the 7 hour flight back, and many times laughed out loud at some of the humor and the fascinating characters.

I'll say this - every book I read by Mccall Smith makes me want to go visit the country in which it's set. This is no different. Edinburgh in Scotland is high on the agenda for the next trip.

If you're traveling overseas, buy this first book for the trip over, then wait to get the sequel for the return flight.

4 out of 5 stars makes you want to visit Scotland.......2007-07-29

Good characters, an alluring setting and a good tale make this series an enjoyable read. You will be eager to read the next one.

5 out of 5 stars hilarious.......2007-05-21

This book is absolutely hilarious. The characters, while apparently quintessentially Scottish, are easily relatable to anyone of any nationality in that you sit there and think, "I know someone exactly like that!" You do not have to be from Edinburgh to find this book laugh-out-loud funny. True, there is not much of a resolution at the end, but this book is one of the few instances where the writing is the point, not the plot (which is enjoyable on its own anyway). I can't wait to read the sequel.

5 out of 5 stars A very enjoyable read.......2007-02-22

I really liked this book. It was a joy to read. The characters are interesting and unpredictable. Also, it's been a while since I've laughed out loud while reading a book, but I did so with this one.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide (Tim Grey Guides)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Product walkthrough
  • Excellent intro to using Lightroom
  • Tim Grey's Lightroom book
  • Great visual guide
  • Lightroom Workflow
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide (Tim Grey Guides)
Tim Grey
Manufacturer: Sybex
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0470119195

Book Description

Get the most out of Lightroom with Tim Grey as your guide by reducing the time and effort you spend storing, selecting, and editing your digital images. Adobe’s new Lightroom software, together with this practical guide, explains everything from importing and cataloguing to processing and archiving. Whether you’re a professional photographer or advanced amateur, you’ll find ways to work efficiently with Lightroom in order to improve your productivity and get the results you want.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Product walkthrough.......2007-07-05

This is a well written book, however talks less about workflow and more about Lightroom. if you are new to light room I highly recommend this book as it is a great introduction to the product and a walkthrough on all of it's features 1.0 (does not cover 1.1).

If you are looking for workflow and already know lightroom.... this book will teach you a few things you didn't know. I suggest taking a look at your local book store first to see if it is right for you.

5 out of 5 stars Excellent intro to using Lightroom.......2007-05-29

Most folks who've been around digital imaging for any length of time know Tim Grey. An engaging, energy-filled, computer whiz who used to teach for George Lepp at the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging and then got hired by Microsoft to head their professional photo expansion effort, Tim has a rare talent for clear, insightful writing about complex subjects. He's parlayed that skill into a whole series of books, of which this is one of his latest, and it carries on the tradition of being very thorough and easy to read and understand.

The topic of this book is one of a new breed of image editing tools that takes a fundamentally different approach to working with digital photo files from the King Kong of the industry, Adobe Photoshop. While Photoshop still is the industry leader by far, it has several serious drawbacks, including expense, complexity, and a very steep learning curve.

Enter Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The concept for this new tool is to provide a more user friendly, efficient end-to-end workflow within one program that includes editing, optimizing, cataloguing, and output, allowing the photographer to spend less time in front of the computer and more time actually taking pictures. There are competing programs from other companies with a similar goal - Apple's Aperture (strictly for Macs), and LightZone from Light Crafts (for both platforms), but only Lightroom has near-seamless cross compatibility with Adobe's other creative products.

Lightroom has strong promise. One of its leading attributes is that it works nondestructively. When you make editing changes to images you are not altering actual pixel values within the image file but only adding a set of instructions for changes you wish to make and shows those effects on the fly. This makes files much smaller than when you create multiple variations in Photoshop, many times with many layers resulting in huge files. Many of its tools are both clever and intuitive as well, speeding the way to a polished product in less time.

There are some limitations however. While image adjustments are well mechanized, there is no provision in this version of the program to apply them selectively to parts of the image. For this type of work the file must be exported to another editing program. Also, there is no means for working on more than one monitor. A favorite approach for many who use Photoshop is to use two displays with the image on one and the palettes for various adjustments on the other; can't do that at this point with Lightroom.

Will Lightroom catch on? Very likely, especially for those photographers who yearn for a tool that gives good, quick results that increase their productivity. And when the global adjustments available within Lightroom aren't enough, it's easy to export to another tool for that kind of work. In addition, the simple digital asset management capabilities may be enough for someone whose file storage and cataloguing needs aren't too great. Furthermore, this is version 1.0, and there is every expectation that the program will grow and improve as the new conceptual paradigm gains acceptance, particularly with serious competition from at least two other quadrants.

So, how valuable is Tim Grey's take on the subject? About as good as it gets, I'd say. Tim has a rare talent for clarity of expression that leaves little doubt about what's being described. Throughout his books he makes suggestions about settings and states his personal preferences so someone new to the program has a place to start, which is far preferable, in my view, to just describing all the choices and leaving one hanging without a clue where to begin. If you purchase Lightroom, or are even just considering doing so, you should also acquire this book. It will save hours and hours of figuring it all out on your own and give you a running start toward becoming an expert with one of the best new editing programs.

5 out of 5 stars Tim Grey's Lightroom book.......2007-05-24

Tim's effort is a noteworthy in clarity of writing style. Realistic workflow approach and sequencing in this book makes Lightroom's use far more understandable. Tech-writing of technical subject-matter always is a difficult job. Tim does it exceptionally well. Oddly, Tim's book... is the very material that - should - be included within Adobe's $300 product under the "Help" menu. User tips picked up from the book make it a worthwhile purchase. LR itself... the jury is still out on that issue. Noteworthy features, but quirky Raw conversions and exposure values and color balance readings. A product that attempts to be the proverbial "Swiss Army Knife" with the inclusion of many many functions... the number count tends to overload the user, even get in the way.

4 out of 5 stars Great visual guide.......2007-05-17

There are so many Lightroom books available but I waited for Tim's because of his writing style. He's a technical guy who can also make us "visual" people understand.

5 out of 5 stars Lightroom Workflow.......2007-05-13

A great book! Easy to read and helps make sense of Adobes new product. Tim Grey is one of the most knowledgeable experts on Lightroom and other
Adobe products for photographers. This bood will be an ongoing source of reference as I work in Lightroom. I would highly recommend it to anyone starting in Lightroom.
John Currin
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • The Fantastic Awkward Nature of Existence
  • It is 5 stars to the book, but does the artist deserve such a book?
  • surprisingly disappointed
  • It'll be worth something some day
  • Weird & wonderful
John Currin
Alison M. Gingeras , Dave Eggers , and John Currin
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0847828654
Release Date: 2006-12-05

Book Description

One of the leading figurative painters of his generation, Currin's influences range from Italian and Northern Renaissance paintings to popular illustrations from the mid-20th century. Whether portraits of older women, buxom girls, nudes with elongated bodies, or group scenes of domestic life, his works are characterized by baroque gestures, loose brushstrokes, unorthodox palettes, and detailed backgrounds that startle the viewer into a reconsideration of the tradition of painting. His "old master" techniques and individual style have earned him accolades from critics and collectors worldwide.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars The Fantastic Awkward Nature of Existence.......2007-06-07

The first time I saw some paintings by John Currin they appealed to me right away. I did not need a second look or to hear some long winded explination like from art school about why I should appreciate them. The simple fact is they connected to me and I picked up my first book on him.

He is an excellent painter but that is just incidental to his work. There are a lot of excellent painters in this world but skill alone does nothing for art. An artist has to have something to communicate, something to show beyond his talent as a painter or draftsman. John Currin definitely has something to show. He paints mostly women but that too I feel is mostly incidental. Men as a rule of thumb love to paint women. It's a tremendous lure to paint that which we find so beautiful.

To me, I love his work because with no more than a simple pose, or a well painted women with a heavily modeled pasty face, he is able to communicate the awkward nature of day to day life. Figures with uncomfortable inner thoughts and feelings show overly affected smiles or looks. Stamford After Brunch, Park City Girl, The Activists, and Brown Lady all have this feel to them. Something is lurking in the inner psyches of these people. Women they may be, but people they surly are and something is a bit off below the surface of their lives. The masks that we all put on are communicated with the actual heavily modeled pasty made up faces of some of the women.

There is also a restless longing in many of his paintings. Paintings such as: Lovers 1993, Lovers in the Country 1993, Portrait 1993, and The Never Ending Story. These paintings seem to show that something is missing from the lives of the men. In a few of them a woman is present but she seems to be there for her man, perhaps to help aid him in what ever way she can. The man in each case appears like some kind of bizarre perversion of Abe Lincoln meets Uncle Sam meets Colonel Sanders with some Mr. Rogers thrown in. These paintings, to me, have a very distinct American feel to them. All 4 paintings have clouds and appear to be set in large open spaces where the man is gazing far and wide while he thinks about what it is exactly that is missing from his life or his country. The men and women in the paintings may in fact be metaphors for America itself, looking lost like some odd flustered older man but with all the help and appreciation of a young mistress by his side.

Currin is most definitely pointing out what he likes and does not like about this world often in the same painting. Things are not clear cut black and white, good or bad, it's messier than that and more complicated.

Day to day life as a human is complicated. We all have these powerful brains and they ceaselessly function and generate thoughts and communicate ideas, impulses and urges almost all the time. I personally find life to often be quite awkward for people in general. Adulthood is mostly a veiled childhood where we think way too much about what others are doing, thinking, and how they are acting. many facades go up and come down. People see others and desire what they have, the spouce someone has, or their house, possessions, situation and the like. All the while we are bizarre animals with all sorts of odd functions that also function ceaselessly beyond our control. All the while we have the urge to sleep, eat, fornicate, and all this while we try and do better for ourselves and appear as normal as possible within the confines of what ever community we find ourselves in. For me John Currin's paintings show this day to day struggle we all have with the awkward nature of existence and the strains that having a large brain in a complex world put on a person with urges, and longings that often happen in direct contradiction to what is expected of one in this world, country, town, street, or home. Also there is the deeper thoughts that we mostly as a society tend to uncomfortably ignore. Where did we come from? Where did the universe come from? Why does anything exist at all? These thoughts are ones that as animals we are privileged to have. Still they have boggled man for ever and humans at home who are not great thinkers can contemplate this too. We all carry these unanswered questions around with us all the time. We may not know it but we carry a bit of fear with us as a result of these unanswered questions about existence and the universe every day. They are deep in the back of our minds. I sense this in some of Currin's paintings.

All this just scratches the surface of what I get from his paintings. Some of them are just beautiful portraits in their own rights and need not be viewed as more than that.

He is definitely one of the few great contemporary American painters alive today and he has his brush on the pulse of the odd facade that is exhibited with the awkward doppelgänger that is writhing just below the phony surface of this country.

5 out of 5 stars It is 5 stars to the book, but does the artist deserve such a book?.......2007-04-09

A great art book, undoubtedly. It actually is a catalogue raisonné, with all the information needed on the provenance, the size and the medium. Now isn't it a bit early in Currin's career? At only 40 years old, he has yet to prove that he can stand the test of time. If you try to set aside all the hype that has been surrounding the artist (the "very dear" of the the art world, in every sense of the word "dear"), I am not sure that you will find his works worth the weight and the price of this beautiful monography...

1 out of 5 stars surprisingly disappointed.......2007-02-23

I was so excited when the big package containing this book had arrived at my door, Currin has been one of my favourite artists and during recent years I had the pleasure of starring at many of his masterpieces from up close.
This may explain my disappointment with the selection of works & reproductions (yes, I do understand it is impossible to come close to the originals with 4 color printing, but the images in the book at least could have been larger, i dont need all this white space, and I guess theres a reason amazon didnt have a "look inside the book" for this one).

5 out of 5 stars It'll be worth something some day.......2007-01-29

I love saying that. But seriously, I bought this book for a loved one keeping in mind it'll be a collector's item some day. The loved one is the type that handles books with white cotton gloves, since he doesn't want fingerprints or hand oils to transfer to the pages...yeah, it's like that.

This is a pricey item, but definitely worth the purchase since it was done in a limited run. The prints are gorgeous, and it follows Currin's rise to surprisingly quick fame along with what his current collections look like. He is technically brilliant (although I know a lot of art nerds would totally interject here) and his topics are always fun. How can you not stare at an oddly shaped nude woman wearing huge shades? Besides, he's the only alum that Yale can really brag about.

If you collect books or know and/or appreciate who John Currin is...go on and spend the money. You won't regret it.

5 out of 5 stars Weird & wonderful.......2006-12-31

John Currin's work occupies a very odd space. I love it all.
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Calculations are only as good as your numbers
  • Pants on fire?
  • Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
  • Very Interesting
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

5 out of 5 stars Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

5 out of 5 stars Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

5 out of 5 stars Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

4 out of 5 stars History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
The Calculus Gallery: Masterpieces from Newton to Lebesgue
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • stresses the important aspects.
  • Great Read
  • Very Good IF you have a solid background
  • Great side reader for a calculus course
  • A Great Book For Math Fans
The Calculus Gallery: Masterpieces from Newton to Lebesgue
William Dunham
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691095655

Book Description

More than three centuries after its creation, calculus remains a dazzling intellectual achievement and the gateway into higher mathematics. This book charts its growth and development by sampling from the work of some of its foremost practitioners, beginning with Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the late seventeenth century and continuing to Henri Lebesgue at the dawn of the twentieth. William Dunham lucidly presents the definitions, theorems, and proofs. "Students of literature read Shakespeare; students of music listen to Bach," he writes. But this tradition of studying the major works of the "masters" is, if not wholly absent, certainly uncommon in mathematics. This book seeks to redress that situation.

Like a great museum, The Calculus Gallery is filled with masterpieces, among which are Bernoulli's early attack upon the harmonic series (1689), Euler's brilliant approximation of pi (1779), Cauchy's classic proof of the fundamental theorem of calculus (1823), Weierstrass's mind-boggling counterexample (1872), and Baire's original "category theorem" (1899). Collectively, these selections document the evolution of calculus from a powerful but logically chaotic subject into one whose foundations are thorough, rigorous, and unflinching--a story of genius triumphing over some of the toughest, most subtle problems imaginable.

Anyone who has studied and enjoyed calculus will discover in these pages the sheer excitement each mathematician must have felt when pushing into the unknown. In touring The Calculus Gallery, we can see how it all came to be.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars stresses the important aspects........2007-07-06

wonderful book, adds mathematical context to the ideas developed. good to read along a textbook on analysis.

5 out of 5 stars Great Read.......2007-06-26

If you are up on your math it almost reads like a novel. I can't say anything about it that hasn't already been said, but just affirm all the positive comments. If you like math you will love this book.

5 out of 5 stars Very Good IF you have a solid background.......2007-02-12

And by "solid background", I mean a good understanding of honors-level algebra (high school senior variety) AND a reasonably thorough understanding of basic calculus notions such as limits, integration, and differentiation. Even if your background is not quite this strong, I feel you will understand parts of the Newton Leibnitz Euler chapters, but you may start to struggle a touch after that. And, as was pointed out in an earlier review, this book is NOT for the General Reader. Very far from it, in spite of professor Dunham's substantial skill as a science/math writer. (A pleasure to read the gentleman!)

In fine: I studied applied math at UCLA some 55 years ago, and I have not done any serious math since about 1970, so I may be overstating the requirements necessary to enjoy this work, given my own very dim memory of some key elements of mathematics and of the mathematical proof. But for those who feel qualified, this is yet another wonderful piece of work by a truly gifted author.

Naf February 2007; Los Altos CA

5 out of 5 stars Great side reader for a calculus course.......2006-04-19

I wish this book had been around when I was taking calculus a few decades ago. It is extremenly well written and explains all the reasons why mathematicians had to introduce all the concepts and definitions you encounter in a calculus course. Reading this book on the side will tell you exactly why you're doing what you're doing, and where you are going. All students of calculus will benefit from this book.

5 out of 5 stars A Great Book For Math Fans.......2005-09-30

If you like math, I guarantee you'll like this book! The author starts out with some very nice infinite sums from 17th and 18th century mathematics (Newton, Leibniz, the Bernoullis, and Euler's Gamma function). He continues into the 19th century with Riemann and Lebesque integrals, Weierstrass' pathological functions, Cantor's set theory, and winds up with Baire's category theorem.

Reading this book is like taking a guided tour through Real Analysis (= calculus of one real variable) with the math prof you always wished you had. Its only prerequisite is a working knowledge of calculus; the main points are explained very clearly, so the reader can skip through the book or fill in the details, and will learn a lot, either way. The book is very well written, and a great pleasure to read; I highly recommend it, for students, fans, and teachers!
Yoshio Taniguchi: Nine Museums
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Art in water garden.
Yoshio Taniguchi: Nine Museums

Manufacturer: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0870706071
Release Date: 2004-11-02

Book Description

The Museum of Modern Art is now in the midst of the largest building project in its history. Designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, the new Museum will reopen in midtown Manhattan in winter 2004-05 to coincide with its 75th anniversary. The 630,000-square-foot Museum will be nearly twice the size of the former facility, offering dramatically expanded and redesigned spaces for exhibitions, public programming, educational outreach, and scholarly research. But The Museum of Modern Art is not Taniguchi's first museum, though it is his first museum in the United States. The architect has been designing museums in his native Japan since 1978. In celebration of the opening of the new MoMA building, the Museum is publishing this book about Taniguchi's museums--nine in all. They include the Tokyo National Museum, Marugami Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagano Art Museum, Ken Domon Museum of Photography, and Shiseido Art Museum. For the Higashiyama Kaii Gallery in Nagano, Taniguchi situated a display space for the works of painter Kaii Higashiyama next to a reflecting pool and garden. In the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, built on the old castle site of Komoro City, Taniguchi expressed the history and distinct nature of the place by affording views to both the new city and the historic area. Finally, the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, situated across from the city's railway station, was designed to include a plaza that connects the museum with the station. Taniguchi: Nine Museums will discuss the plans of each of these museums with an emphasis on The Museum of Modern Art's new building.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Art in water garden........2006-12-04

If one is trying to understand contemporary Japanese architectural trends,
or the heavy theoretical background of Taniguchi's
architecture, then this might not be the best book. Yet, if one is
seeking an architectural book that speaks of architecture as a spatial
art and a coercive modulator with water
garden, then here is a book that provides great pleasure.

This book communicates more with drawings and supplementary images than
words. When I first saw this book at the bookstore, I was a bit hesitant
to buy it. The price and the text in the book simply did not match.
Expository writing for each project is extremely short. Yet they are
condensed enough to deliver quintessential themes of the project.

The common denominator, besides being museums, which binds the
projects, is water body (garden). His museums have one leg in the water
and the other leg on the earth. His water bodies (typically, artificial)
have different faces; sometimes, static, promoting Ryoanji-like
meditation; othertimes, dynamic, promoting Katsura-like shakkei (editing
middle ground to borrow background landscape).

His museums weave in and out of the water to illuminate and intensify
the experience. The strokes of water garden in his museums, without
doubt, will wet the dry museum fatigue. In addition, because Taniguchi
reveals sometimes part and sometimes all of a water body, his spaces
breathe.

One criticism I have is that the fourth project, Marugame
Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, somehow does not belong
with other projects. It's a fine piece of building, but unlike
other museums, it's very self-contained. The other eight museums actively
engage with the exterior water body. Only the fourth museum defeats the
purpose of inter-penetration of Taniguchi's architecture; that is,
inter-penetration of Japanese garden and modernist's space.
Jackson Pollock
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Pollock, only Pollock, nothing else but Pollock
  • THIS BOOK OFFERS GREAT INSIGHT INTO POLLOCK'S ARTISTIC MIND
  • simply the best
  • Best Reproductions and Most Complete
  • Pollock Without the Boring Mythologizing
Jackson Pollock
Kirk Varnedoe , Pepe Karmel , and Jackson Pollock
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0810961938

Amazon.com

The almost mythic Jackson Pollock--a roughshod, ill-mannered, prodigiously ambitious, aggressive, alcoholic, tormented artist--is alive and unwell in this book. But Kirk Varnedoe and Pepe Karmel, the chief curator and adjunct assistant curator, respectively, of the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Painting and Sculpture, also go deeply into Pollock's art in eye-opening ways. This book is the catalog for the retrospective of Pollock's art-shattering oeuvre at the Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 1998 and includes many biographical pictures as well as color plates of Pollock's paintings, from the awkward but earnest early works to the late, great, famous canvasses. Varnedoe's essay, aptly titled "Comet: Jackson Pollock's Life and Work," deftly invites the reader into Pollock's world, starting with his country studio: "The structure, often called a barn, is in fact more like a glorified tool shed." Karmel's essay, "Pollock at Work: The Films and Photographs of Hans Namuth," is a truly groundbreaking exploration of Pollock's technique. Karmel has scrutinized every frame of every piece of film, still or moving, ever taken of Pollock painting. He arrives at absolutely original conclusions: Pollock's all-over swirls of dripped and flung paint often began as figurative works and clearly relate to such all-American stalwarts as Thomas Hart Benton. Karmel makes countless other sharp observations, noting the difference, for example, between fast-looking marks and the slow, deliberate movements with which they were made (and vice versa). His essay is a work of brilliant scholarship, written thrillingly, and it will forever change the way any serious viewer looks at Pollock's paintings. It makes this volume absolutely essential for understanding the work of this great, sad artist. --Peggy Moorman

Book Description

Jackson Pollock is widely considered the most challenging and influential American artist of the 20th century. In his revolutionary paintings of the late 1940s, he dripped paint into complex webs of interlacing lines, rhythmically punctuated by pools of color. With their allover composition, apparent abstraction, and spontaneous but controlled paint handling, these powerful works announced the emergence of Abstract Expressionism. This sumptuously illustrated book offers a fresh overview of his achievement, reinterpreted for a new generation and features a complete visual record of the artist's work, including over 200 color reproductions of paintings, drawings, and prints, enhanced by life-sized details, foldouts, and documentary photographs. An essay by Kirk Varnedoe explores Pollock's life, the mythology that so quickly grew up around him as the prototypical "action painter", and the different critical schools that have tried to lay claim to his legacy. Pepe Karmel offers new insight into Pollock's famous "drip" technique, as revealed by an intensive, computer-assisted study of photographs and films of Pollock at work. This volume was published to accompany the first major survey of the artist's career since 1967, held in 1998 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Pollock, only Pollock, nothing else but Pollock.......2007-04-16

This is the catalogue for the landmark Pollock exhibition held at the Moma and the Tate in 1998-1999. Considering the steep rise in the insurance value of Pollock's paintings, such a comprehensive retrospective is not likely to be repeated in the near future and we are therefore fortunate to have such a brilliant book to help us remember it. The late Kirk Varnedoe was one of the best interpreters of contemporary American art and his text, never anecdotical and always informative without being pedantic, does justice to the masterpieces without falling into any of the cliches that often pollute our view of this great artist.

Beautiful illustrations make this book an indispensable presence in any arts library.

5 out of 5 stars THIS BOOK OFFERS GREAT INSIGHT INTO POLLOCK'S ARTISTIC MIND.......2004-03-12

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I purchased this book when it first came out and refer back to it often. A person could spend hours at a time pouring over the plates and fold-out pictures (pun intended). Not only does this particular book provide the best collection of absolutely superb quality Jackson Pollock reproductions that I'm aware of, but the narrative is extremely well written and essential to understanding many things regarding Pollock's thought process and artistic technique.

Pepe Karmel's chapter imparticular, in which he analyzes Hans Namuth's photographs, is nothing less than brilliant detective work. I found it fascinating to find that underlying the lacy layers of at least one of Pollock's drip paintings are figurative images which he made within a narrative context. Although the complete details of this "narrative" may never be fully known, Pepe speculates that Pollock may have been acting out the destruction of some of his inward demons by first physically acknowledging and creating them and then systematically covering them within the confines of the finished painting. I'll leave it to you to get the book and both read and see for yourself all of the findings which include the deciphering of some of the figures and their meanings. With this discovery, the creation of the painting involved (Number 27, 1950) becomes not only a very strenuous and at once both spontaneous and preplanned action - but a true "ritual." Was he destroying these figures or merely absorbing them into a larger and more complex environment? We'll probably never know all the details. I wonder if Pollock would have disclosed answers to these questions had he been confronted with them during his life? Perhaps this would have been too personal. But maybe he did confide the details of what he was doing to someone and another good researcher might come across a total revelation in a hidden diary someday. I'm sure this is just wishful thinking on my part, but how I love a good mystery!

5 out of 5 stars simply the best.......2003-08-08

This breathtaking catalogue is simply the best single volume available on Jackson Pollock, and this is primarily--but not only--because of the number and quality of the reproductions it offers. Almost every one of the dozen or so Pollock books in my library contains a painting not available in the others, but this book collects and beautifully photographs the greatest number and variety of his canvases--outside of a catalogue raisonee.

As the other reviewers state, there are many generously-sized fold-out pages here, and the crispness and resolution of these big reprints and of the more modest pages are simply amazing. To take two essential examples, this book's reprints of "One: Number 31, 1950" and "Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952" are astoundingly clear, better than any of the many other versions I've seen in art books, even in Ellen Landau's large-format survey, a book which also includes gatefolds.

(Another reviewer, by the by, states that "Lucifer" is not available in any other book, which is not true. Among other places, it appears in Landau, in Elizabeth's Frank's concise volume, and as the sole color reproduction in the book for the 1965 MOMA retrospective. Anyway, it gets terrific treatment here.)

Another invaluable inclusion in this book is a great number of full-sized detail photos of the canvases. For example, on a page adjacent to "Lucifer" and "Autumn Rhythm" and "Full Fathom Five," we see another photo of just one small section of that same painting but in 1-to-1 scale; these details reveal much of the dynamic, kinetic, urgent quality of these works, their encrustations of sand, glass, pennies, paint caps--traits which even this book could otherwise never offer a livingroom Pollock-viewer.

Further, having seen the exhibit in January of 1999, I can attest to the generally excellent fidelity of the color-balance. (Curiously, no one seems to be able to capture "Autumn Rhythm"'s grey-teal passages in a book, but if you were at this show or have viewed the painting at the Met you've seen them.)

The accompanying articles are excellent. Kirk Varnedoe overviews of Pollock's life, artistic aims, his accomplishments, all illustrated with family and archival photographs and drawing on Pollock quotations. Pepe Karmel uses the extensive photographic and film record of Pollock painting to analyze Pollock's physical movements. Most wonderful are Karmel's computer reconstructions of early states of the painting "Autumn Rythm," based on Hans Namuth's photos of Pollock at work.

In sum, this book gives the finest, fullest offering of both Pollock's life and art.

5 out of 5 stars Best Reproductions and Most Complete.......2001-05-31

I picked this book up at the MOMA Pollock retrospective a couple years ago and have used it extensively. Having seen many of the paintings in this book firsthand, I can say that these are some of the best reproductions offerred in book form on Pollock's work. Another plus is that several paintings are printed on fold-out pages, so that the work doesn't cross the book's seam. So many of his paintings are extremely wide that this makes a lot of sense (otherwise, there would be hardly any resolution in the height dimension).

If you're interested in Pollock and need to refer to the reproductions, I absolutely recommend this book above all others out there.

5 out of 5 stars Pollock Without the Boring Mythologizing.......2000-06-05

Excellent companion piece to the MOMA show (which traveled to London's Tate) goes beyond all other Pollock explorations. A "must" for students of modern American art as well as those just wanting to get a better understanding of what Pollock was REALLY DOING.

Large format features fold-out reproductions of breathtakingly high quality. Among these, incredibly, are paintings not found in any other published sources. (The incomparable Lucifer (1947) is one such work).

The text is scholarly but readable, and although there is a considerable amount of it, each open page of writing offers at least a couple relevant and highly interesting photos or other illustrations. The many large color plates would certainly make a gorgeous and impressive coffee table book for anyone who doesn't choose to read it.

Kirk Varnedoe writes definitively about Pollock's mercurial life & career. Varnedoe's nearly 75 pages of biographical analysis are a welcome alternative to the kind of misguided mythologizing about Pollock that has for a long time colored the artist as an overrated art "star."

Pepe Karmel's contribution to this book is an amazing analysis of Pollock's painting process through an exhaustive examination of the famous films and photographs of Pollock at work. This was a fascinating, ground-breaking part of the exhibition, and is equally wonderful in the book.

Well worth the price.
The Far Side Gallery 2007 Off The Wall Page-a-Day Calendar
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Larson is a classic and usually a good spot for humor
  • absolut genius
  • "THE Master at His Best!" Larson's work is hilarious.
  • I LOVE GARY LARSEN!
  • My boss loves it
The Far Side Gallery 2007 Off The Wall Page-a-Day Calendar

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Calendar

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ASIN: 0740759248

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars Larson is a classic and usually a good spot for humor.......2007-04-17

I received this desk calendar as a gift, by request because I have always loved Larson and his Far Side. This calendar, however, seems to be a compilation of little seen, not published and sometimes not finished cartoons and very few are funny. I am very disappointed in this calendar this year.

5 out of 5 stars absolut genius .......2007-03-21

well, i am a greeat Gary Larson Fan. It proper, it's neat. You have to s'dscipline NOT to look through the whole calender at once. you want to but you can't help. you have to peak!! it's a joy day for day. it makes your day. it's alittle sunshine, a ray of lightfor every day!!Larson as homeopathic medicin!!

5 out of 5 stars "THE Master at His Best!" Larson's work is hilarious........2007-03-20

Hey Folks it's just a calendar I know,.......BUT it is a "Far Side" calendar taken from the cartoons by Gary Larson. You've seen these cartoons before in Larson's collections or from the newspaper. Trust me folks it doesn't even matter,........funny is funny is funny!!! If you can't find a genuine full, outloud hearty laugh from one of these cartoons then consider donating your organs to science. It is a calendar but to me one of the best and as mentioned before.....the FUNNIEST!

5 out of 5 stars I LOVE GARY LARSEN!.......2007-03-19

If i were ever going to have an affair, it would be with Gary Larsen.. the man is a genius!!!

5 out of 5 stars My boss loves it.......2007-02-16

This creates a comic relief for my boss who works long and hard. He told me he looks forward to a new page everyday. One day, he left a few of his favorites on my desk.
Jenny Saville
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • wow
  • Very Nice Book
  • Jenny Saville
  • ITS OK
  • Beautiful and Grotesque
Jenny Saville
Gagosian Gallery
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0847827577
Release Date: 2005-11-08

Book Description

At thirty-two, Jenny Saville has had a career most artists twice her age would envy. In 1992, the year she completed her studies at Glasgow School of Art, her graduation exhibition sold out. Most notably, one painting was bought by Charles Saatchi and, since then, her international reputation has grown at a rapid and steady pace.Jenny Saville is described as a "New Old Master" for the technical proficiency of her oversize nudes that have earned her comparisons to Rubens and Lucian Freud and universal praise from critics and art historians alike. For the conceptual underpinnings of her work, she has been hailed as one of the most interesting artists of the last decade. Her work has been shown alongside that of Damien Hirst and the other Young British Artists in the acclaimed and seminal survey of new British art Sensation at the Royal Academy (London, 1997) and the Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York, 2000).This is the only monograph devoted to the critically acclaimed young artist and features all of Jenny Saville's paintings to date-including many previously unpublished. This volume is being published in association with the Gagosian Gallery in London. The power of her brilliant and relentless embodiment of our worst anxieties about our own corporeality and gender is what distinguishes Saville from other paint-obsessed representers of the naked human body. To my eye, no other artist in recent memory has combined empathy and distance with such visual and emotional impact. -Linda Nochlin, Art in America, March 2000

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars wow.......2007-09-09

bought it at moma-snatched it up. love this painter-she is extremely talented. good book too. missed the last gagosian show:(

5 out of 5 stars Very Nice Book.......2007-09-06

This book is top-notch. The reproductions are very well done, and there are tons of close-up shots of individual paintings showing Saville's brush work. I would highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in contemporary art, portraiture, or figure painting. As a painting student, it is great to be able to see the whole painting on one page and then examine a series of close-ups and even shots of the artist's reference materials. Very informative. Oh, and the paintings are stunningly beautiful as well!!!

5 out of 5 stars Jenny Saville.......2007-06-13

I was extremely happy with this book. It was a reccomendation and I wouldn't have found her without that!
Wonderful full colour pictures and interesting essays.

2 out of 5 stars ITS OK.......2007-03-27

I THINK THAT THIS IS REALLY LIFELIKE AND I LIKE THE WAY THAT SHE USES SLIGHTLY BIGGER WOMEN IN HER PAINTINGS BEACAUSE TODAYS MEDIA LOOKS LIKE WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF PERFECT, SKINNY, SIZE 2 MODELS AND THAT DOESNT REFLECT THE GENERAL WEIGHT/MASS OF PEOPLE

HANNAH MORTELL AGE 13

5 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Grotesque.......2007-02-20

All other considerations aside, Jenny Saville can paint, and this book proves it, close up and pouring across the pages. Truly a "painter's painter," Saville uses heightened color discovered, apparently, through manipulating photographs in Photoshop, then painting the results. However she arrives at it, her paint is gorgeous, the colors luscious and compelling. Without a doubt Saville blows away the competition in contemporary figurative realism. For my money, Lucien Freud has nothing on this young female painter. On the other hand, anyone thinking of buying the book should realize that many of the figures are grotesque, raw, actually painful to look at. Art historian Linda Nochlin calls them "hugely disturbing," and I have to agree. It is, in fact, the virtuosity of the paint that delivers such a visceral gut punch when applied to the subject matter, which ranges from obesity plus plastic surgery to men with large [..] plus male genitalia, all displayed in gargantuan proportions right in your face.
The articles accompanying this monograph are excellent as well -- and not nearly disturbing as the images.

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