UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. I, Abridged Edition


Book Description

"This volume covers the period from the end of the Neolithic era to the beginning of the seventh century of our era. This lengthy period includes the civilization of Ancient Egypt, the history of Nubia, Ethiopia, North Africa and the Sahara, as well as of the other regions of the continent and its islands."--Publisher's description




Gauguin


Book Description

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) came late to painting, after two previous careers, first as a seaman, then as a stockbrocker. A romantic, a primitive, a symbolist, a born rebel and flamboyant personality, he stands at the crossroads of modern painting, summing up in his life's work the crucial transition from Impressionism to abstraction. He had no art school training. What we did have was an idea and a dream. His genius is usually considered in terms of his painting. This book offers the rare treat of a selection of watercolors, gouaches, pastels, pen-and-ink and charcoal drawings, monotypes, zincograph and woodcuts, together with pages from "Noa Noa", Gauguin's illustrated account of his stay in Tahiti. In many ways these works are more revealing than his paintings, as they allowed the artist a spontaneity and intimacy that painting, by the very nature of his technique, could not. -- From publisher's description.




Gustave Courbet


Book Description

Child of materialism and positivism, Courbet was without a doubt one of the most complex painters of the nineteenth century. Symbolising the rejection of traditions, Courbet did not hesitate to confront the public with the truth by liberating painting of conventional rules. He became from then on the leader of pictorial realism.




Catalogue, 1906


Book Description




The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art


Book Description

"This extraordinary book is the first in a projected series of specialized catalogues documenting the permanent collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The collection of Italian paintings, a total of sixty works, is a representative one for the years 1300-1800 with significant examples from all major schools." "Each catalogue entry, written by Eliot W. Rowlands, includes a thorough and lively biography on the artist; complete technical notes and a detailed description; a fully documented commentary with a discussion of attribution, date, subject, and function; an exacting list of references that also summarizes the critical history of each work; and a full account of exhibition history and provenance. All the Italian paintings in the Nelson-Atkins collection are reproduced in full color, and there are over 200 black-and-white comparative illustrations."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved




Rethinking Boucher


Book Description

"Unequivocally a modern, Francois Boucher (1703-70) defined the French artistic avant-garde throughout his career. Yet the triumph of modernist aesthetics - with its focus on the self-critical, the autonomous, and the intellectually challenging - has long discouraged art historians and other viewers from taking Boucher's playful and alluring works seriously. Rethinking Boucher revisits the cultural meanings and reception of his diverse oeuvre, inviting us to revise the interpretive cliches by which we have sought to tame this artist and his epoch."--BOOK JACKET.