These free-wheeling, often exhilarating dialogues—which grewout of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks—are an exchange betweentwo of the most prominent figures in contemporary culture: DanielBarenboim, internationally renowned conductor and pianist, andEdward W. Said, eminent literary critic and impassioned commentatoron the Middle East. Barenboim is an Argentinian-Israeli and Said aPalestinian-American; they are also close friends. As they range across music, literature, and society, they openup many fields of inquiry: the importance of a sense of place;music as a defiance of silence; the legacies of artists from Mozartand Beethoven to Dickens and Adorno; Wagner’s anti-Semitism; andthe need for “artistic solutions” to the predicament of the MiddleEast—something they both witnessed when they brought young Arab andIsraeli musicians together. Erudite, intimate, thoughtful andspontaneous, Parallels and Paradoxes is a virtuosiccollaboration.
Inside this book, readers will find 200 imaginativesuggestions from 56 artists, along with intriguing paintings--inwatercolor, oil pastel, acrylic, and other popular media--that willjump-start their imaginations and lead them to fresh new subjectsand a thrilling sense of creative adventure.
What do you getwhen you cross a snail with the Indianapolis 500? If you’reDreamWorks, then the result is Turbo, an uplifting—andgear-shifting—story about the ultimate underdog, delivered with thedigital mastery, storytelling skill, and spellbinding imagery we’vecome to expect from the studio behind the Shrek and Madagascar.
For more than 100 years, National Geographic has set thestandard for nature, culture, and wildlife photography. Now, inThrough the Lens, 250 spectacular images—some famous, others rarelyseen—are gathered in one lavish and beautiful volume. Through the Lens is dividedinto geographical regions—Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East,the Americas, and Oceans and Isles—with a special section devotedto space exploration. Each geographical section features anoutstanding array of photographs that exemplifies the area’s uniquepeople, wildlife, archaeology, culture, architecture, andenvironment, accompanied by brief but informative captions. FromBarry Bishop’s heroic Mount Everest climb in the 1950s to theglorious wildlife of Asia and Africa, from ancient Maya culture tothe Afghan girl found 17 years after her piercing green eyescaptivated the world, these are some of the finest and mostimportant photographs ever taken. Featuring master photographers fromthe late 1800s to today, including Fr
Few music lovers realize that the arrangement of notes ontoday’s pianos was once regarded as a crime against God and nature,or that such legendary thinkers as Pythagoras, Plato, da Vinci,Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Newton and Rousseau played a role inthe controversy. Indeed, from the time of the Ancient Greeksthrough the eras of Renaissance scientists and Enlightenmentphilosophers, the relationship between the notes of the musicalscale was seen as a key to the very nature of the universe. In this engaging and accessible account, Stuart Isacoff leads usthrough the battles over that scale, placing them in the context ofquarrels in the worlds of art, philosophy, religion, politics andscience. The contentious adoption of the modern tuning system knownas equal temperament called into question beliefs that hadlasted nearly two millenia–and also made possible the music ofBeethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy, and all who followed. Filledwith original insights, fascinating anecdotes, and portraits ofsome of th
A beautiful illustrated edition of Henry David Thoreau’s CapeCod, from the photographer of "Walden: 150th Anniversay Edition"."Cape Cod" features the complete 1906 Houghton Mifflin edition textof Henry David Thoreau’s classic work, the stunning photography ofScot Miller, and a foreword from preeminent Thoreau biographerRobert Richardson. "Cape Cod" is a wonderfully written,surprisingly funny account of nineteenth-century life on the Cape,well before it became a major tourist attraction. Many of thesixty-two lush color photographs have a timeless quality and showthings Thoreau himself might have seen: the great beach, imposingcliffs, sand dunes, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, beach grass,and seaweed. Others reflect the unique personality of Cape Cod andits people today, from local artists to modern architecture. Thecombination of Thoreau’s timeless text and Miller’s exquisitelyreproduced color photographs makes this an indispensable editionfor anyone who loves Thoreau’s writing and the perfect gift
One of Victorian Englands most charismatic characters, DanteGabriel Rossetti painted and wrote with equal passion. He wassimilarly passionate in his personal life: his etherealartist-wife, his earthy blond mistress, and the ravishing JaneMorris are al
Interior designers will enjoy this beautifully illustratedvolume of 39 interiors located in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing.Both private and commercial buildings are featured, includingrestaurants, resorts, and homes, in new and renovated locations.Many of the designs combine Asian materials and styles with Westerntraditions. Distributed by T
The classic art of enameling is experiencing a well-deservedrenaissance—and it’s stunningly captured in this lovingly curatedsurvey. More than 300 international contemporary artists havecontributed museum-worthy pieces, which range in scale from DavidC. Freda’s Green Slipper Brooch and Harlan W. Butt’s Maine Teapotto large sculptures and public art. Some of the creators take aminimalist approach, using only soft colors and matte finishes,while others exploit the material’s vibrant palette and glass-likesurface. The broad technical applications include everything fromsimple sifting and torch firing to complex cloisonné andplique-à-jour.
This much acclaimed book, newly available in paperback, is thedefinitive retrospective of the most popular serious artist in theworld today, covering all media over almost fifty years. Presentedthematically to show the evolution and diversity of Hockney'sprolific paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints and photography,it also features quotes from the artist himself that illuminate thepassionate thinking behind the works produced. Its hugeinternational success confirms Hockney's position as the world'smost popular living artist.
Preserved by Arabic mathematicians and canonized by Christianscholars, Aristotle’s works have shaped Western thought, science,and religion for nearly two thousand years. Richard McKeon’s TheBasic Works of Aristotle –constituted out of the definitiveOxford translation and in print as a Random House hardcover forsixty years–has long been considered the best available one-volumeAristotle. Appearing in paperback at long last, this editionincludes selections from the Organon, On the Heavens, The ShortPhysical Treatises, Rhetoric, among others, and On the Soul, OnGeneration and Corruption, Physics, Metaphysics, NicomacheanEthics, Politics, and Poetics in their entirety.
From its ancient status as the jewel of an empire to itsmodern incarnation as a troubled, yet culturally vibrant Europeancapital, Rome has compelled the imagination of artists for over twothousand years. Now, in "The History of Rome in Painting", that
The Renaissance holds an undying place in our imagination, itsgreat heroes still our own, from Michelangelo and Leonardo to Danteand Chaucer. This period of profound evolution in European thoughtis credited with transforming the West from medieval to modern andproducing the most astonishing outpouring of artistic creation theworld has ever known. But what was it? In this masterly work, theincomparable Paul Johnson tells us. He explains the economic,technological, and social developments that provide a backdrop tothe age’s achievements and focuses closely on the lives and worksof its most important figures. A commanding short narrative of thisvital period, The Renaissance is also a universally profoundmeditation on the wellsprings of innovation.
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
When it was originally published in 1970, "How to Draw What YouSee" zoomed to the top of Watson-Guptill's best-seller list--and ithas remained there ever since. "I believe that you must be able todraw things as you see them--realistically," wrote Rudy de Reyna inhis introduction. Today, generations of artists have learned todraw what they see, to truly capture the world around them, usingde Reyna's methods. "How to Draw What You See" shows artists how torecognize the basic shape of an object--cube, cylinder, cone, orsphere--and use that shape to draw the object, no matter how muchdetail it contains.
