Search results for ""fresco fine art publications""

Relicarios - finely crafted, bi-faced lockets of gold or silver - are artifacts of the Spanish Colonial era. These exquisite jewels containing devotional imagery protected by glass may include paintings on vellum, nacre, alabaster, copper, or ivory; prints; or miniature sculptures of boxwood, ivory, alabaster, or tagua. Although tons of relics were imported from Europe, particularly by Jesuits, in general only high-status individuals wore relicarios containing relics. Relicarios attest to colonists' dedication to their favourite Virgins and saints as well as fealty to church and crown. As powerful amulets they protected wearers in a precarious world. Relicarios reflects forty years of the author's research, including correspondence and interviews with relicarieros, art historians, curators, collectors, silversmiths, anticuarios, and clergy as well as the author's collection of several hundred examples. Photos commissioned from leading art photographers in the Americas were mostly unpublished until this handsome volume.

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Since 1969 Mark Spencer has been producing drawings and paintings that are compelling, beautiful, and sometimes disturbing. His work implies that reality is not what our culture has led us to believe, and it carries a consistent main narrative of "nature versus human nature." He reveals a persistent conflict between the nature of this gorgeous planet and the ways in which human nature perceives itself as being separate from and superior to it. He believes that "the soul's hand can reach down into our fertile depths to retrieve images that may heal the divide and transform our consciousness."Spencer's creative vision encompasses high realism and broad abstractions. Never disregarding either, he seeks to discover images that unite the personal with the universal. His works can be found in public and private collections around the world.

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Relational Undercurrents accompanies an exhibition curated by Tatiana Flores for the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, which forms part of the Getty Foundation's Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. This initiative examines the artistic legacy of Latin America and U.S. Latinos through a series of exhibitions and related programs. This exhibition catalog and volume edited by Flores and Michelle Ann Stephens calls attention to the artistic production of the Caribbean islands and their diasporas, challenging the conventional geographic and conceptual boundaries of Latin America. The editors offer an "archipelagic model," which proposes a mapping of the Caribbean from the perspective of its islands as distinct from its continental coasts. The exhibition, organized around the four themes of Conceptual Mappings, Perpetual Horizons, Landscape Ecologies, and Representational Acts, highlights thematic continuities in the art of the insular Caribbean, placing Hispanophone artists in visual conversation with those from Anglophone, Francophone, Dutch, and Danish backgrounds. It includes over eighty artists, among them Tania Bruguera, Allora & Calzadilla, Christopher Cozier, Jorge Pineda, Edouard Duval-Carrié, and Ebony G. Patterson. In accompanying essays, curators, critics, and scholars discuss particular artistic traditions in Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Haitian art and theorize the broader decolonial and archipelagic conceptual frameworks within which such works are produced. Relational Undercurrents will be on display that the Museum of Latin American Art from September 2017 through January 2018. Publication by the Museum of Latin American Art in collaboration with Fresco Books / SF Design, LLC. Distributed by Duke University Press.

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The framework of these short volumes introduces the reader to the specific focus of each book. The accompanying poems and images offer an aesthetic and emotional experience.This final volume in Professor Pietroni's impressive collection explores the concept of leadership. In developing its theme, the book introduces the myth of the great leader and details the attributes of the compassionate leader.

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Jane Culp's muscular paintings and drawings make palpable the rush she feels when on location interacting with nature. From her modernist perspective she conveys a powerful sense of the moment using surface tension and movement. "I'm interested in the life and language of form", she explains. "How form talks as it goes into space, how light and distance swallow and selectively magnify the forms, how a rhythmic movement in space releases forms that change direction, split, bulge, and fall back into space". Working in harsh weather conditions that force her to strap her easel to her knees, Culp explores wilderness terrain along the spine of the Sierra Nevada, transporting viewers from her home base north of the Anza-Borrego Desert, through Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks, up to Tioga Pass, and into Yosemite Valley.

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Exploring the pathos and promise of the human experience, New Mexico artist Patrick Mehaffy creates sculptures, drawings, and, more recently, paintings that harken back to the timelessness of cultures past while affirming human relevance in a precarious world. Beneath the sensual surfaces of his works lies a keen understanding of the liminal spaces between nature and society and the impact of human activity on Earth, now known as the Anthropocene.Throughout his thirty-five-year career, Mehaffy has approached his art from the perspective of the unconscious. His work is informed by his education and training in anthropology and museology as well as his experiences in the wilderness and, ultimately, as an artist. He reveres animals while admiring how past cultures have done the same through their art and objects of veneration. Mehaffy's reveries are aesthetically perceptive and keep the past alive while interpreting it in new ways, reigniting our own need to appreciate and honor nature and culture, both past and present. - from the essay ""Beneath the Surface: The Work of Patrick Mehaffy"" byJulie Sasse, Chief Curator of the Tucson Museum of Art

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The artist Beatrice Wood, born in 1893, lived and worked until the age of 105. She was known variously as the Mama of Dada and the Queen of Luster. In 1917 she was part of the avant-garde Dada movement in New York. By the mid-1950s she had become a leading practitioner of luster-glazed ceramics. Wood moved from being a debutante to joining one of the most bohemian circles of her day. Her work played with sexuality, but her aesthetic was often more comic than erotic. Now featured in over one hundred museums across the world, Wood is often quoted for her recipe to a long life: “art books, chocolates, and young men.”This book contains a collection of risqué drawings that document an intimate relationship she enjoyed with a married couple, Jack and Rhea Case, in Ojai, California, during the 1950s and 1960s. The collection was later acquired by Betsy Ross Rowland, who has sponsored this limited-edition book to benefit the ceramics educational programs of the nonprofit CFile Foundation.

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The title, Violent Grace, suggests a paradox. This pairing has become an unexpected gateway into the astonishingly varied and prolific artistic career of Edward Knippers. Violence conjures images of aggression while grace has long been associated with beauty, poise, or an unmerited gift, perhaps even a kind of salvation. Within the ambiguity of this fertile paradox, the art of Edward Knippers—which can initially shock and disturb—opens up into something rich and rewarding.Our lives are reflected in the lives of his biblical characters; we understand their message in our own flesh and blood.Edward Knippers grapples with the perennial human questions embedded in the Bible—a strenuous effort never satisfied until it has extracted a blessing. This is the image of violent grace. Drawn into the wrestling match, we come away wounded—and blessed—by a passionate, unreasonable, overwhelming beauty.

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The majesty of Earth's most magnificent features was the domain of Wilson Hurley (1924-2008). In paintings of natural wonders throughout the galaxy, he was committed to expressing his love of the richness of reality. His journey to become a revered twentieth-century American landscapist is brought to life in this intimate biography. Written for appreciators, collectors, and working artists, Hurley's goals and procedures - from thumbnails to plein air field studies and finished studio paintings - are elucidated in depth, including a commission that resulted in five monumental triptychs of our nation's most prized vistas installed at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

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Artist Robert Gratiot refers to his work as ""painterly photo-realism,"" and he readily reveals his complete commitment to this reference by rendering his subjects with photographic accuracy. His mastery of painterly methods and of various drawing techniques highlights his astounding eye-to-hand coordination. Gratiot precisely conveys a particular scene through meticulously produced details, each down to the smallest and expertly handled. But it is more than that-he regards each small section of a painting as an abstraction, and then assembles these tiny abstractions to build the realistic whole. His paintings are obviously the product of the considerable efforts of a very gifted and extremely meticulous painter.""The genuine revelation is how deeply personal and individual these pieces are for Robert Gratiot. This is a surprise, particularly considering the impersonal nature of his subjects. However, each is deeply felt and carries hidden moods and veiled stories, which until he shared them, were known only to Gratiot.""-Michael Paglia

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Archaeoastronomy is a relatively new field of study that examines the astronomical knowledge of prehistoric peoples.These sophisticated sky-watchers cannily created observatories to help them understand the turning points in the year. Knowing when spring began, when to plant and harvest crops, and when winter was turning had an overwhelming significance in their lives.Steve Mulligan has applied his large-format camera skills to his most recent fifteen-year-long project in locating and photographing these prehistoric observatories in the American Southwest. During the various seasonal events of summer and winter solstice, equinox, and cross-quarters, he has captured these fantastic light displays on film and luminous silver prints.Prehistoric Suns is an unusual combination of fine art and documentation. Requiring a balance of intuition and technique, it will appeal to both aficionados of fine art photography and those enthralled by the beautiful rock art scattered across the western states.

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In this fifth volume of his series of poems on compassion, Professor Patrick Pietroni outlines how the more modern study of the brain using MRI scanning and neuroimagining has enhanced our understanding of the psychology of compassion. He begins with a historical review of how our predecessors--including Aristotle, Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Descartes, and Newton--described the relationship between the brain, the mind, consciousness, and emotions. However, as he proceeds to demonstrate, it was not until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that further steps were taken to understand the workings of the mind. Between Freud and Jung, new territories of the mind were discovered. Others followed, including psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and evolutionists, whose studies shed additional light on the concept of compassion.Today, as we are living through the worst pandemic any of us has witnessed, many scientists believe that being compassionate can improve health and well-being--indeed, that compassion may even be vital to the survival of our species.

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Joan Brooks Baker grew up privileged in the New York City of post-World War II America. The Yankee daughter of transplanted, dyed-in-the-wool Southerners soon confronted an unwritten code of conduct - the Magnolia Code - that paralyzed her mother and threatened to do the same to her. In this embellished memoir, Baker shares how she navigated her bifurcated world, defying the code and finding role models in rebellious women including her Aunt Billie, who challenged her to be herself regardless of the consequences. Baker examines relationships with her primary and extended families, ultimately discovering that her work as a photographer taught her much about who she is and where she belongs. The author's unselfconscious, humorous narrative will strike a chord for those who struggle in a world full of paradox.

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The framework of these short volumes introduces the reader to the specific focus of each book. The accompanying poems and images offer an aesthetic and emotional experience.In this volume Professor Pietroni explores the poetry of economics and politics using the metaphor of the Greek god Atlas, who carries Earth on his shoulders as punishment for being unhospitable to Perseus. In developing this metaphor, Pietroni stresses the need to introduce and understand the gods and goddesses of compassion.

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The framework of these short volumes introduces the reader to the specific focus of the book. The accompanying poems and images offer an aesthetic and emotional experience.This eighth volume by Professor Pietroni focuses on why the concept of compassion is so important in our health-care system and what can be done to restore its centrality in the doctor/patient encounter.

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Painting the Divine explores New World images of the Virgin Mary that portray some of the events in her life, as well as examples of apparitions unique to various locales in the Americas. Iconography seen in these artworks tells a story that mixes religion, culture, and geography in ways unique to their regions. In addition, it examines pieces produced by New Mexican artists who developed a unique hybrid style with Spanish colonists, though they were separated by large geographic distances. It also explores the ways that contemporary Hispanic artists have adapted and infused Marian imagery with their own historical perspectives, stylistic traditions, and cultural values.

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Since his first visit to Taos at age nineteen, Jerry Jordan was "captured" by the land, sky, and Indigenous peoples of Northern New Mexico. "I will never forget the feeling of awe," he says. "I remember taking a deep breath and thinking, How would I paint that?" Six decades later, Jordan remains in awe with each colourful canvas conveying his oneness with the common threads that unite people across time and place. This insider's look at Jordan's career highlights times of agony and defeat, chance encounters, and divine interventions. It's an inspired tale in which Jordan reminds us that we are all "riding on the back of hope, pointing our face toward our dreams . . . and walking our destiny with the God-given talent placed in our DNA."Often compared to art by the fabled Taos Society of Artists, Jordan's paintings are distinguished by loads of paint, vibrant pigments, animated brushwork, pulsing patterns, and titles that speak to the soul.

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Nature provides the subject for the beautifully intricate patterns and graceful lines of the art of Charlie Burk. His subject is clearly grass, with a horizon line or a slice of sky visible in many of his works as he moves in his world of sumptuous colors and delicate patterns. In a complex play of call-and-response, one brushstroke calls for the next. ""What really interests me,"" he says, ""is the texture grass creates and the way it moves in space."" Another equally powerful pull is the visual beauty and the artistic journey it presents, that ever-fresh experience of dancing on the edge between abstract and representational art.

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Inspired by nineteenth-century painters and photographers, Congress passed legislation preserving America’s spectacular natural resources for the enjoyment of all. Today, artists continue to play a significant role in interpreting these iconic panoramas, intimate corners, and diverse wildlife within our national parks. In Art of the National Parks, seventy painters and sculptors offer distinctive visions of eight of the nation’s most beloved wild lands: Acadia, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion. Susan Hallsten McGarry, well-known author and curator, guides readers on a lively journey through the artists’ styles, techniques, and philosophies. Art historian/author Jean Stern, director of the Irvine Museum, discusses the historic artists who put into motion our nation’s conservation consciousness. And Terry Lawson Dunn, biologist and educator, highlights the national parks’ ecological successes and challenges. With more than 450 artworks, this glorious, large-format book is a must for anyone who has hiked the trails, watched a sunset, marveled at buffalo herds, or yearned to experience our nation’s mythic and transformative vistas. It is also an indispensible compendium of artists who are at the forefront of twenty-first-century American landscape and wildlife art. Art of the National Parks is available in seven different book jackets depicting the art and beauty from each national park featured in the book. Featured parks include: Acadia, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone/Tetons, Zion, Everglades, Yosemite, and Rocky Mountain. Special cover requests will be accommodated as stock allows based on cover availability. To ensure special handling, please order direct.

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Why does the story of secret Jews fascinate us? What is crypto-Judaism? In recent decades religious practices that were preserved in hiding for centuries have become more widely known. Specifically, families of Spanish Jewish descent have retained elements of Judaism for five hundred years. What incredible religious and cultural tenacity! For many these elements represent a discovered identity that helps to explain mysteries in their lives. Is a person Jewish by genes, cultural heritage, religious practice, or by choice? What survives for a person whose ancestors were Jewish five hundred years ago? Fractured Faiths traces the history of the Sephardic and converso (converted) Jews from their Golden Age to the twenty-first century, in both the land they left behind and in the lands they later settled. Documents, maps, paintings, and objects illuminate the history of Sephardic Jews from Spain to Mexico to New Mexico.

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Relational Undercurrents accompanies an exhibition curated by Tatiana Flores for the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, which forms part of the Getty Foundation's Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. This initiative examines the artistic legacy of Latin America and U.S. Latinos through a series of exhibitions and related programs. This exhibition catalog and volume edited by Flores and Michelle Ann Stephens calls attention to the artistic production of the Caribbean islands and their diasporas, challenging the conventional geographic and conceptual boundaries of Latin America. The editors offer an "archipelagic model," which proposes a mapping of the Caribbean from the perspective of its islands as distinct from its continental coasts. The exhibition, organized around the four themes of Conceptual Mappings, Perpetual Horizons, Landscape Ecologies, and Representational Acts, highlights thematic continuities in the art of the insular Caribbean, placing Hispanophone artists in visual conversation with those from Anglophone, Francophone, Dutch, and Danish backgrounds. It includes over eighty artists, among them Tania Bruguera, Allora & Calzadilla, Christopher Cozier, Jorge Pineda, Edouard Duval-Carrié, and Ebony G. Patterson. In accompanying essays, curators, critics, and scholars discuss particular artistic traditions in Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Haitian art and theorize the broader decolonial and archipelagic conceptual frameworks within which such works are produced. Relational Undercurrents will be on display that the Museum of Latin American Art from September 2017 through January 2018. Publication by the Museum of Latin American Art in collaboration with Fresco Books / SF Design, LLC. Distributed by Duke University Press.

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