Edwin Mellen Pr.

An analysis of the work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.

Aalto is often called the quintessential modernist, and at first glance this appears to be rightly so. The forms are organic, the materials compatible. Yet Aalto is also the master of the ambiguous space and mystery; in one building one senses history but not exactly why, and in another Aalto has combed a curve to create an almost unbearable tension. Loftin (architecture, U. of Colorado, Denver) examines the subtleties beneath Aalto's work such as his own house, offices and summer house, the Enzo-Gutzeit of 1959-1962, his town plan at Seinajoki of 1958-1987 and three libraries dating from 1960 to 1969 noted for their narrative structure. The book includes sketches, plans and photographs. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Buddhist art and architecture of China.

Bao (art, North Carolina A&T State U.), retired American professor of England and art Letitia Lane, and Qing Tian (world religious art, Research Academy of Fine Arts, China) begin with a brief biography of the Buddha and an explanation of his teachings. Then they trace the gradual change from Indian Buddhism to the less severe Chinese form using a historical chronology that ties philosophical and aesthetic ideas to the development of artistic styles and iconographic symbolism. Among their topics are early Buddhist art in China, cave temples, temple sculptures, Buddhist painting, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese Buddhist architecture, and the art of Tibetan Lamaism. There is a section of 50 color plates; some are not of the best quality, but many capture objects from private collections that may not be available anywhere else. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The chief purpose of universities; academic discourse and the diversity of ideas.

Bowen (urban studies and public administration, Cleveland State U.) and Schwartz (president, Cleveland State U.) confront the "consumer model" of higher education with their belief that the highest priority within universities is to create, preserve, transmit, and find new applications of knowledge to extend free choice through society. They explore the enemies of universities, including authoritarianism, supernaturalism, the corporate model, irrationalism, and political correctness and conclude with seven requisites for success: appropriate curriculum, empowered leadership, adequate financial support, an atmosphere of free and open inquiry, correct psychological and academic factors, suitable library and information technology services, and strong faculty governance. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The drawings and watercolors of Lewis Mumford.

Not until some of his own drawings and watercolors appeared in his 1980 autobiography Sketches From Life, did anyone but his close associates know that Mumford had been drawing and painting regularly and frequently for some 70 years. DiMattio and Stunkel (respectively art and history, Monmouth U., New Jersey) began making inquiries, which led eventually to a sizable collection of his work at Monmouth. They describe the drawings and watercolors, discuss Mumford as an artist and his world of art, comment on his works, and present a catalogue of 321 works. They also include 12 color and 25 black and white reproductions. The text is double spaced. There is no index. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Films about Jewish life and culture.

Considering American films primarily, Taub (liberal studies, Purchase U.) asserts there has not yet been made a great film about any aspect of the Jewish experience, and he points out the absence of films dealing either with secular Judaism or with Black-Jewish relations. He looks at other types of films about Judaism by category: immigration, antisemitism, religious life in America, an Israeli film, heroism in Israel, the Holocaust, and Jewish weddings. Appendices contain a select bibliography and filmography, a list of fiction feature films and some documentaries, but no subject index. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Hilla Rebay, art patroness and founder of the Guggenheim Museum of Art.

Few people today realize that almost everything associated with the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation — its mission, its collection of central European and early American modern art, and its landmark home — are realizations of the efforts of Hilla Rebay. Vrachopoulos (visual culture, CUNY and Parsons School of Design) and Angeline (Parsons School of Design and School of Visual Arts) attempt to remedy this situation with their study of Rebay's career as an artist, curator, patron and museum director. By placing Rebay in the sphere in which she moved and which she influenced, they convey a sense of American Modernism in the period between the wars. They conclude with an examination of Rebay's historical persona as it is portrayed in newspapers, magazines and academic sources. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Photographs of Peking, China 1861-1908; an inventory and description of the Yetts collection at the University of Durham; through Peking with a camera.

The fortuitous discovery of a box of old photographs stored in the Oriental Museum at the University of Durham instigated the extensive research that Pierce, the former Deputy Keeper of the museum, presents in this scholarly volume. His investigation of the provenance of this collection of photographs led him to explore the lives and work of three men: a Scottish photographer; a British doctor, collector, and historian of Chinese art; and a second Scottish photographer. The second part of book is a catalog of the photographs, with information on the photographic process used in each, a description of the image, and remarks that provide both a geographic and a historical context. Forty black & white plates are included in the appendix. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Popular art and social change in the retablos of Nicario Jiménez Quispe.

Quispe is a Quechua speaker from the highlands of the Peruvian Andes, and an artist of the retablo, a folk and popular art form that descended from European portable altars featuring images of venerated saints and virgins that Spanish colonizers brought with them in the 16th and 17th centuries. US scholars of history, art history, and Spanish explore the evolution of the art form, Quispe's testimonial retablos, art as autobiography, Quispe's arrival to El Norte, and his art in the 21st century. Interviews with him are also provided, as are several monochrome photographs of his work. A recurring theme is the tension between tradition and change in the genre and the culture generally. The text is double spaced and not indexed. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Vitalism in modern art, c 1900-1950; Otto Dix, Stanley Spencer, Max Beckmann, and Jacob Epstein.

Lofthouse (fellow, modern history, Oxford U.) sketches an overview of "the vitalist moment" of the early 20th century — "a moment which re-enchanted life in the face of mechanistic onslaught, sought a reprieve from the more demoralizing implications of evolutionary inquiry and left open a space for spirit or even God in nature" — then pursues vitalism in modernism and modern art. He emphasizes Germany and Great Britain, focusing on the artists Dix, Spencer, Beckmann, and Epstein. The study includes nine color plates and about a dozen b&w images of the four artists and their work. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Women contesting the mainstream discourses of the art world.

Drawing on her study of nine women in the visual arts, Collet (art education, La Trobe U, Australia) analyzes the obstacles they've faced, the dominant discourses they've encountered, and the counter discourses they've formulated and adopted in order to sustain their careers in the traditional institutions of art reception, the appreciation of art, and art production. She considers art history, representations of women in the arts, language and research methodology, asking women's questions, a feminist poststructuralist methodology, mainstream discourses, negotiating interpretations, and contesting the mainstream discourses. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Wyndham Lewis and the philosophy of art in early modernist Britain; creating a political aesthetic.

By focusing on the aesthetic of Wyndam Lewis, Wragg (University College, Northampton) explores the registration of Enlightenment modernity, the meaning of the term "avant-garde" and the question of the artist as politician. He begins by introducing readers to Lewis and his take on the avant-garde, his approach to fascism, and his reaction to the thought of Kant. Wragg then proceeds to describing what he calls the "aporias of vorticism," describing the "machine aesthetic" and deconstructing the idea of vortex. He then describes Lewis's thoughts on the nature and condition of art, given the social and political contexts Lewis saw around it, the influences of such early twentieth-century movements as surrealism on Lewis, and Lewis's resulting relationship not only with his art but in his own and others' thinking about his art. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)