Art/Books

This charming volume is a facsimile of a children's ABC of animals first published in 1899. Commissioned by Glasgow publisher Blackie & Son, it contains a short description and a full-page grisaille drawing for each animal, beginning with A for armadillo and ending with Z for zebra, with vignettes accompanying each letter. It was the first publication by Carton Moore Park, who specialized in animal subjects, and whose artistic style was strongly influenced by Japonisme. The quirky drawings, with modern-looking crops and close-up perspective, made the book stand out from all other alphabets of the day. The plate of the hippopotamus, for example, conveys the great bulk of the animal by forcing it up against the frame, while the image of the bat has the creature flying almost in the reader's face. When the book was published, contemporary critics acclaimed the artist's strong handling and accurate anatomical knowledge, as well as his appreciation of the habits and movements of the animals depicted. One wrote that "It is certainly the best book of the kind we have ever seen." A hundred and twenty years after it was first published, this exquisite book--very much of its moment but modern in spirit--will enchant and educate a new generation of children. Carton Moore Park (1877-1956) was a British painter, illustrator and teacher. During the 1890s, he was best known for his illustrated books, such as An Alphabet of Animals, Book of Birds and A Book of Elfin Rhymes. He lived in London until 1910, when he emigrated to New York, where he spent the rest of his life.

Few living artists can claim to have had the influence of Michael Craig-Martin (born 1941). Celebrated globally for his distinctive art, with numerous retrospectives and honors to his name, he has helped nurture generations of younger artists. In On Being an Artist, now published in paperback, Craig-Martin reflects with wit and candor on the people, ideas and events that have shaped his professional life. In a series of short, entertaining episodes, he recounts his time studying under Josef Albers at Yale University School of Art alongside Chuck Close, Richard Serra and others; his memories of meeting personal heroes such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and John Cage; and his surreal experience of staking out Christine Keeler at the height of the Profumo scandal. He recalls, too, his first tentative steps as an artist and emergence as a key figure of early conceptual art, and looks back on his achievements as a teacher at Goldsmiths, where he nurtured two generations of students, among them Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas, earning himself the sobriquet "the godfather of the YBAs." Craig-Martin tackles controversial issues such as the fashionability of contemporary art, the enduring status of painting, the relevance of life drawing and practical skills, the qualities of art schools, the role of commercial dealers and the judgment of what is good and bad in art. More than the life of one of the most creative minds of our age, On Being an Artist provides lesson after valuable lesson to anyone wishing to know what it means and what it takes to be an artist today. An erudite, insightful and hugely readable collection. -It's Nice That A gloriously illustrated credo-cum-memoir. -artsjournal.com

Previously unseen early works and other unpublished material from the pioneering Bauhaus polymath This publication considers Josef Albers' early development as an artist, beginning with the pre-Bauhaus years when he worked as an elementary school teacher in his native Bottrop in Western Germany, while sketching the landscape and architecture of his home town and studying courses in art by night. With a particular focus on works on paper, the book reveals not only the unappreciated naturalistic origins of his art, but also his ongoing interest in producing organic, surrealistic forms alongside the geometric abstraction for which he is best known. It presents dozens of prints, paintings and drawings from the first half of his career, as well as previously unseen photographs of the artist at work and on research trips to the ancient sites of Mexico where he found important sources of inspiration for his art and theories. With texts by two recognized Albers scholars, this volume offers a fresh and surprising view of a celebrated pioneer of modernism. German-born artist Josef Albers (1888-1976) laid the foundations for some of the most important art education programs of the 20th century. In 1936, during his time working at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, he had his first solo exhibition in New York at J.B. Neumann's New Art Circle. In 1949, Albers left the college and began his famous Homage to the Square series. He taught at various institutions throughout America, including Yale University, New Haven. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, organized Albers' traveling exhibition in 1965 and a retrospective of his work was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1971. He died in 1976.