Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles is one of the pioneers in Britishphotography. Compiled by his grandson from previously unpublishedglass negatives, this collection is a beautiful portrayal ofEdwardian life in England in the early 1900s.
This is a fascinating and beautifully illustrated culturalhistory of ideas about what might exist under the Earth's surface.Beliefs in mysterious Underworlds are as old as humanity. From theancient Sumerians to Incas to modern Christians, nearly everyculture has had its special version. However, the idea that theearth has a hollow interior where strange lands, creatures andcivilizations may exist was first proposed as a scientific theoryin 1692 by Sir Edmund Halley (of Halley's Comet fame). Since then,it has been used as a popular literary motif by writers as variedas Edgar Allen Poe, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, L Frank Baum andEdgar Rice Burroughs to name a few. "Hollow Earth" traces thisnotion through the centuries and cultures, exploring how each era'srelationship to the notion of a hollow earth reflected itsparticular hopes, fears and values. Lavishly illustratedthroughout, it features a wide collection of artwork includingBosch's inspired surreal nightmares of Hell, seventeenth-centurymaps and dia
In 1931, Diego Rivera was the subject of The Museum of ModernArt s second monographic exhibition, which set new attendancerecords in its five-week run. The Museum brought Rivera to New Yorksix weeks before the show s opening and gave him on-site studiospace. There he produced five "portable murals" --large blocks offrescoed plaster, slaked lime and wood that feature bold imagesdrawn from Mexican subject matter and address themes of revolutionand class inequity. After the opening, to great publicity, Riveraadded three more murals, now taking on New York subjects throughmonumental images of the urban working class and the city duringthe Great Depression. Published in conjunction with an exhibitionthat brings together key works made for Rivera s 1931 show, thiscatalogue casts the artist as a highly cosmopolitan figure whotraveled between Russia, Mexico and the United States and examinesthe intersection of artmaking and radical politics in the 1930s.Illustrated with reproductions of each panel as well as r
In this compulsively readable, fascinating, and provocativeguide to classical music, Norman Lebrecht, one of the world's mostwidely read cultural commentators tells the story of the rise ofthe classical recording industry from Caruso's first notes to theheyday of Bernstein, Glenn Gould, Callas, and von Karajan. Lebrechtcompellingly demonstrates that classical recording has reached itsend point-but this is not simply an expos? of decline and fall. Itis, for the first time, the full story of a minor art form,analyzing the cultural revolution wrought by Schnabel, Toscanini,Callas, Rattle, the Three Tenors, and Charlotte Church. It is thestory of how stars were made and broken by the record business; howa war criminal conspired with a concentration-camp victim to createa record empire; and how advancing technology, boardroom wars,public credulity and unscrupulous exploitation shaped the musicalbackdrop to our modern lives. The book ends with a suitable shrineto classical recording: the author's critical selectio