The Coral Buildings of Suakin: Islamic Architecture, Planning, Design and Domestic Arrangements in a Red Sea Port

Book Description

In twentieth-century sculpture, one name towers above all others: Romanian-born Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957). This book accompanies a major retrospective exhibition of Brancusi's sculpture, drawings, and photographs, organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Profusely illustrated throughout, with photographs by the artist and images culled from a wide range of archival sources, it is the most definitive work yet published on this influential artist. The authors provide a detailed reassessment of Brancusi's work, incorporating and extending the profound revisions in scholarship that have been taking place since the last major retrospective in 1969-1970. The three major essays present new information on such diverse issues as the sculptor's sources of inspiration, his formal approach, and the works' original presentation. Friedrich Teja Bach rejects the notion of Brancusi's oeuvre as hermetic, timeless, and pure, and examines instead the heterogeneous combinations of form and material that make Brancusi's works compellingly paradoxical. Margit Rowell explores the sculptor's place in the artistic climate of Paris in the 1910s and 1920s and his rejection of dominant styles and subject matter in favor of non-Western sources, particularly Asian art. Ann Temkin traces the history of Brancusi's American patronage during his lifetime by such influential collectors as John Quinn, Katherine Dreier, James Johnson Sweeney, and Louise and Walter Arensberg. The plate section features full-color reproductions of over 100 sculptures, with accompanying texts and visual references. In addition, 55 photographs by Brancusi in full-page duotone are shown for the first time alongside a major selection of his sculptures. There are also color and black and white reproductions of over forty of his drawings -- the richest documentation to date of this aspect of Brancusi's work -- as well as prefatory essays on the photographs and drawings, a chronology, and bibliographic and exhibition listings. Distributed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Customer Reviews:

Ethereal sculpture..........2001-07-14

In the Sucevita Cloisters in Sucevita Romania a painted vault depicts a repeated rhomboid design in the shape of a pillar. Wooden funery columns in Loman Cemetery in Hunedoara, Transylvania, Romania also exhibit the rhomboidal design, albeit on a much more articulated, differentiated, and elaborate scale.

The Romanina artist, Constantin Brancusi brought the image of the rhomboid pillar to his wonderful sculpture the "Endless Column." For Brancusi, the rhomboid pillar was the embodiment of the "axis mundi", the world's axis, the tree of life, the pillar of the sky, the pivot of the universe. He once referred to these columns as stairways to heaven. Peoples all over the world have used the metaphysical pillar to link the earth and the sun, the source of all life.

The pillar image may not seem as fresh today as it did when arrived on the Paris art scene in the early 20th Century, but today, many art critics view the Romanian-born Parisian sculptor Brancusi as a major player in the Modern art movement. Along with Picasso, Brancusi introduced the notion of using traditional art forms in Western art--including 'totem' poles or sacred pillars, stone plinths, and other metaphysical carvings.

BRANCUSI was published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in conjunction with a major retrospective of his work. Brancusi apparently deplored analytic attempts to understand his art (he felt his works should simply be "enjoyed" i.e. the fill the viewer with joy). However, the book is filled with material designed to help the reader "understand" and to a great extent, I feel it accomplishes it's goal.

The layout includes photographs showing how Brancusi may have found inspiration for his many birds, heads, and other organic and metaphysical works, including his rhomboidal columns. For example, one series of photographs shows Brancusi's famous "Muse" series executed in marble, bronze, and other media, and includes possible sources of inspiration such as a photograph and self-portrait of Margit Pogany. The various "Muse" may have evolved from a semi-formal bust similar to those executed by more traditional artists to a fully evolved "essence" of "head" more akin to Modern art.

Book Description

This catalog, published in conjunction with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Venice, documents the first major exhibition of Brancusi the photographer. While Brancusi's attraction to the medium is well-known, his photographs have always been seen as secondary to his other studio work. But the 96 photographs collected in this volume are to be seen as an oeuvre in their own right, formally autonomous, showing exceptional aesthetic and technical quality.The book opens new dimensions in space and time of Brancusi's work, especially for three plaster works featured: The Sleeping Muse, The Torso of a Youth, and The Baroness. The exceptional quality and openness of Brancusi-the photographer-gives vantage points on the aesthetic world beyond the realm of his bronze, marble, or wooden works.

Average customer rating:

Brancusi Photographer
Marielle Tabart
Manufacturer: Dodd Mead
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0960106847

Average customer rating:

BRANCUSI THE SCULPTOR AS PHOTOGRAPHER
Hilton [Brancusi] Kramer
Manufacturer: Callaway Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Average customer rating:

Brancusi, Photographer
Elizabeth Brown
Manufacturer: Art Books Intl Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 2908228327

Average customer rating:

Brancusi, the sculptor as photographer
Constantin Brancusi
Manufacturer: D. Grob
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0935112006

Average customer rating:

BRANCUSI. The Sculptor As Photographer
Hilton (essays by) Kramer
Manufacturer: Callaway Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Average customer rating:

Brancusi : Photographer
Brancusi
Manufacturer: Agrinde
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Average customer rating:

Brancusi Photographer
Marielle and Monod-Fontaine, eds Tabart
Manufacturer: Agrinde Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

This short work is a program for property distribution as an alternative to how it is planned by socialist states or naturally happens in capitalist societies. It is a landmark of European social thought, attempting to rectify the wrongs in both of the major economic theories by approaching the problem from an entirely new angle. The essay is thus an anticapitalist and antisocialist work of Christian and Catholic social thought in which basic truths about society and human nature are applied to socioeconomics. It is a manifesto and a program for the Distributist League, of which Belloc and G. K. Chesterton were the primary figures. It marks a key point in the history of economic thought, and it is a fundamental text illustrating the influence of religion and philosophy on social thought and their practical application to societal questions.

Customer Reviews:

Towards a Restoration of Property........2004-12-09

_An Essay on the Restoration of Property_ by Roman Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc, reprinted by IHS Press, is an essay which outlines Belloc's distributist scheme to restore widespread ownership of private property. As explained in a previous book _The Servile State_, Belloc contrasts three separate forms society may come to take: that of the servile state, that of communism, and that of the proprietary state (or distributism). Belloc explains this as follows: "There is a third form of society, and it is the only one in which sufficiency and security can be combined with freedom, and that form is a society in which property is well distributed and so large a proportion of families in the state severally OWN and therefore control the means of production as to determine the general tone of society; making it neither Capitalist nor Communist, but Proprietary." Distributism arose as a response to the excesses of industrial capitalism in which many families had been ruined, and the vast majority of the population was reduced to the level of wage slaves. In contradistinction to communism, distributism allowed for the maintenance of private property (communism basically reducing all individuals to the status of slaves to the state). In the Middle Ages, the serfs were at least allowed to own the means of production and made use of them through a guild system. With the breakdown of medieval society and the decline of Christendom, property was seized by the capitalist class. Belloc makes the analogy that it is necessary to achieve a restoration of property in the same manner as it is necessary to achieve a re-afforestation of barren land. In order to do this, Belloc offers several proposals, including the return to a guild system as well a system of taxation on large businesses which operate at the expense of the small businessman. Belloc's theories along with those of his fellow writer G. K. Chesterton, both published in the periodical _The New Age_ by Alfred Richard Orage, continued in the line of Catholic social teachings which arose as a response to the excesses of industrial capitalism and the dangers of communism in the beginning of the modern era.

Average customer rating:

A Time to Gather Stones
Vladimir Soloukin
Manufacturer: Northwestern University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Study & Teaching | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Enlargement poses a number of institutional challenges to the European Union: institutions originally established for six member states need to be adapted to cope with an EU of between 20 and 30 members. This poses questions both about their size, and about the procedures for taking decisions. The eleventh Monitoring European Integration report will evaluate the reforms adopted at the Nice summit and highlight an number of structural and institutional reforms that were ignored for political reasons. It also argues that enlarging an insufficiently reformed EU may provoke crises whose solution might actually lead to a better EU. The authors conclude with an analysis of the emergency measure that should be taken, before enlargement occurs.

Customer Reviews:

Relevant for the Constitutional Treaty debate.......2003-09-26

Although this came out in 2001, it contains tons of information and analysis that is relevant to the debate on the draft Constitutional Treaty. The voting analysis, for example, is critical since many members are pushing for keeping the Nice Treaty rules. And it has an analyis of how Council voting rules affects the balance of power among institutions.

Book Description

At a time when the American labor movement is mobilizing for a major resurgence through new organizing, here, at last, is a book about research on union organizing strategies. Previous studies have focused on factors contributing to union decline, devoting little attention to the organizing process itself. The twenty chapters in this volume dramatically increase understanding of the range and effectiveness of new organizing strategies and their potential contribution to the revitalization of the labor movement.

The introduction defines the context of the current organizing climate. Major sections of the book cover strategic initiatives in union organizing, overcoming barriers to worker support for unions, community-based organizing, building membership and public support for organizing, and organizing initiatives by industry or by sector. Individual chapters focus on topics such as organizing outside the NLRB process, the role of clergy, local labor councils, and rank-and-file volunteer organizers.

Contributors: Adrienne Birecree. Kate Bronfenbrenner. Larry Cohen. Brian Condit. Daniel Cornfield. Tom Davis. Dean Eatman. Christopher Erickson. Jack Fiorito. Bill Fletcher. Fernando Gapasin. Jeffrey Grabelsky. Richard W. Hurd. Tom Juravich. Fred Kotler. Janet Lewis. Holly McCammon. John McClendon. Darren McDaniel. Theresa Merrill. Ruth Milkman. Bill Mirand. Daniel J. B. Mitchell. Gregor Murray. Ruth Needleman. Immanuel Ness. Bruce Nissen. Ronald Peters. Jim Rundle. Katherine Sciacchitano. Lowell Turner. Abel Valenzuela. Roger Waldinger. Roger Weikle. Hoyt Wheeler. Howard Wial. Kent Wong. Angela Young. Maurice Zeitlin.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book for Union Organizers!.......2007-05-07

This is a good reference tool for Union Organizers, a bit outdated, but a lot of the info is still current. So I would definatly recommend this book!

Interesting for both union insiders and non-unionists.......1999-02-20

This is another labor community insider book directed toward labor union leaders and their strategists and written by the same. The motivation is the reversal of the sagging fortunes of labor unions. Many of the articles focus on the need for grassroots activity by existing union members and community supporters. Several union campaigns utilizing members are examined in detail. Union support organizations such as the Garment Women Justice Center are described. Serveral articles examine subtleties of the motivations of non-unionists to vote for a union. An interesting observation is that white collar and technical workers are turned off by the potential for conflict when joining a union, which is interesting in light of the fact that unions have always relied on confrontation as their tool of last resort. The main point of the editors is that union tactics and actions make a large difference in organizing success. The second point is that unions must remake themselves into organizing bodies and avail themselves of the wisdom contained in these articles. But for non-union insiders reading this book, many chinks appear when looking at the articles in totality. For example, one article shows that belonging to two community organiztions lowers the desire to join a union, yet many articles tout labor-community coalitions. In one case where community connections were leveraged to the fullest to win a union contract, it is admitted that may have been a one-time occurrence. A large and confusing point that leaps out from these articles is, just what is a union. Is it a centralized business that collects fees from subsidiaries, demands adherence to policies from the CEO, and provides services? Or is a union a legally recognized association of workers at a locale that affiliates with a national body but retains sovereignty? Statements that workers "are" the union hide more than they reveal. If workers are the union, can they insist that national unions remain committed to a servicing model? If workers are the union, how can some national unions literally require local unions to focus on recruitment? Claiming that workers are the union can be a demotivator for joining a union. After all, it is workers who have unsuccessfully dealt with employers on their own that want to join unions; now they want support, not abandonment. The editors and authors may complain that this book is not about "what is a union," but is only about subtle strategy. If so, they need to put a "Nonunionists need not read" label on the cover. Actually the book is worth reading by all interested in the situation of labor not only on its educational merits but also for the questions that it can engender for non-insiders. Who knows, maybe their next book can be "What is a Union."

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books