Utilizing the way in which scientists and computers see our world, drawing on images based on sonar views of the ocean floor, to aerial and satellite views of the land, I have started to create artworks that translate that technological view into sculptural forms.” (Maya Lin) One of the most celebrated artists working in the United States, Maya Lin (b. 1959) came to prominence in 1981 with her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Generously illustrated and beautifully designed, Systematic Landscapes traces her continued fascination with geologic phenomena and topography, integrating natural contours and materials into evocative landscape sculptures such as Character of a Hill Under Glass (2002) and 11 Minute Line (2004). As the book reveals, Lin’s earthworks and public sculptures have always developed alongside small-scale, exploratory sculptures and monumental temporary installations, such as Avalanche (1998), through which Lin evokes the physical processes that shape the earth. This important volume also introduces three major new installation works created for the "Systematic Landscapes" exhibition, along with a series of related drawings and reliefs demonstrating the expanding scope of Lin’s creative process. The largest of these installations, 2 x 4 Landscape, is composed from more than 45,000 sections of lumber placed on end that from a distance take on a pixel-like image of a hill, and close up create a form that evokes both mound and wave, earth and water. Systematic Landscapes is of interest to newcomers to Maya Lin's work as well as to longtime enthusiasts of her unique artistic creations and stunning design work.

Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes

Arts & Photography

Beardsley, John

Andrews, Richard

Individual Artists

Yale University Press

Product Description 
A fascinating new look at an extraordinary artist whose deafness led to an acute visual awareness and near photographic memory Self-taught artist James Castle (1899–1977) is primarily known for soot and saliva drawings of meticulously rendered domestic interiors and farm scenes, along with fantastical figures, animals, and architectural constructions made of cardboard and stitched paper. Castle was born into a family of homesteaders in Idaho, and his visual world comprised variations of seemingly ordinary subjects: rural landscapes, houses, barns, and outbuildings; interiors with closed and open doors, beds, bureaus, tile floors, and minutely patterned wallpaper; and color copies of illustrated advertisements for food, fuel, and matches. Castle was a deaf artist who by most accounts never learned to read, write, or speak. In this remarkable book, author John Beardsley discusses how these limitations led to the development of an extraordinary memory, an ability that enabled him to create a large number of distinctly intelligent artworks. Beardsley follows Castle’s work as if through a series of rooms (a “Memory Palace”)—interiors, exteriors, objects, books, and words—reproducing many previously unknown works and referencing other documents made available for the first time from the James Castle Collection and Archive. 
 Book Description 
A fascinating new look at James Castle, an extraordinary self-taught artist, whose deafness led to an acute visual awareness and near photographic memory that he called upon throughout his life. 
 About the Author 
John Beardsley is an author, curator, and educator.

James Castle: Memory Palace

History & Criticism

Briefly traces the history of the Storm King Art Center, describes the sculpture on display, and includes brief profiles of the featured artists

A Landscape for Modern Sculpture: Storm King Art Center

Finn, David

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Abbeville Press

The third edition updated and expanded survey of the influential Land Art Movement details the most recent and interesting efforts by artistsoften in collaboration with architects and city plannersto transform ravaged landscapes and desolate cityscapes into pleasure-giving parks and artworks. 210 illustrations. 80 in full color.

Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape (Abbeville Modern Art Movements)

Abbeville Pr

With incisive intelligence and beguiling prose, John Beardsley tells the story of some twenty-five "visionary environments" and the fiercely independent individuals who created them. Beardsley also situates the work in the larger contexts of traditional garden design, religious architecture, environmental sculpture, and folk art. The thought-provoking text combines with dazzling views of the far-flung gardens to make this an inspiring volume.

Gardens of Revelation: Environments by Visionary Artists (How Artists See)

This invaluable volume now includes the most recent efforts by artistsGÇöoften in collaboration with architects and city plannersGÇöto transform ravaged landscapes and desolate cityscapes into pleasure-giving parks and artworks. The book begins with an enlightening introduction tracing the historical roots of art in the landscape: Stonehenge, Indian mounds, cliff dwellings, park design from 18th-century England to modern-day golf courses. The opening chapter deals with such innovative artists as Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, Walter De Maria, and Christo, who in the 1960s began to free their art from the confines of tradition by constructing monumental sculptures in the environment. The following chapters discuss their predecessors, peers, and successors, including Constantin Brancusi, Herbert Bayer, Richard Long, James Turrell, and many others. The final four chapters (chapter 7 is entirely new) explore at length the increasing involvement of artists in land reclamation and urban design, featuring projects by Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt, Mel Chin, Maya Lin, and many others.

Earthworks And Beyond: Contemporary Art In the Landscape

The SBC Collection, formed by SBC Communications, Inc (formerly Southwestern Bell), reflects the intellectual and cultural trends that have influenced artists working in the United States during the 20th century. Works by many of the leading names in American art are illustrated in this book, which also contains 13 essays by scholars, critics and curators to offer an understanding of American art for both the general reader and the student of art history. Beginning at the turn of the century and closing with a look at Postmodernism and the visual culture of today, the essays investigate various aspects of American Modernism. Along the way they focus on major American movements, schools and artists of the century. The book also contains a complete catalogue of the SBC Collection.

American Images: The Sbc Collection of Twentieth-Century American Art

Clarke, John R.

FAHLMAN, BETSY

Ashton, Dore

SANDLER, Irving

BAIGELL, MATTHEW

Agee, William C.

Larsen, Susan C.

Plagens, Peter

King-Hammond, Leslie

Quirarte, Jacinto

Sbc Communications

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

Examines the life and work of Picasso, discussing how and why his art looks the way it does and how it relates to the artist.

Pablo Picasso (First Impressions)

Harry N. Abrams

He has been compared to Blake, Piranesi, and Escher, and his imaginative architectural drawings have been described as "the find of the century." Outwardly, he was a recluse who had few companions except for his mother and children in the neighborhood; inwardly, he was the creator of fantastic renderings, including an attempt late in life to transcribe a third testament of the Bible. He is A. G. Rizzoli (1896-1981), visionary artist extraordinaire. The discovery of Rizzoli's Beaux Arts-style drawings in San Francisco came in 1990, when they were brought to the attention of a keen-eyed dealer. Since that time, Rizzoli has acquired a fame that would astonish this shy, conflicted man. Essays about Rizzoli's life, analyses of his work and writings, and sources of his inspiration are presented in this first-ever survey by scholars John Beardsley, Roger Cardinal, and Jo Farb Hernandez. A. G. Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions brings together for the first time a dazzling array of works. In addition the book includes a chronology, glossary of terms (for the artist was an acrobatic linguist), and list of pseudonyms and self-referential titles. Today Rizzoli is regarded as one of the most astonishing visionary or outsider artists, with an avid following from California to New York. This book will accompany a major traveling exhibition in the U.S., organized by the San Diego Museum of Art.

A.G. Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions

Biographies & Memoirs

Cardinal, Roger

Hernández, Jo Farb

Arts & Literature

<div>The first major monograph on a multifaceted self-taught artist whose work ranges from painting and sculpture to performance and sound. Lonnie Holley's work has captivated audiences. "Lonnie Holley has held a cult status among the art cognoscenti for a long time as a visual artist and performer."--New York Times Lonnie Holley's widely admired practice spans painting, drawing, assemblage sculpture, and performance that combines experimental music and poetry. After decades of making art, he is now getting the recognition he richly deserves. The artist's first sculptures were carved tombstones for his nieces who perished in a house fire in 1979. Over the following years, he devoted himself to making sculptures that populated his property near Birmingham, a large all-encompassing outdoor installation that was eventually destroyed in 1997. The artist's work continued unabated as he began to gain recognition and exhibit his work in the South and throughout the US. In his first major monograph, every facet of his practice is explored. Holiday considers Holley's art and music as interconnected components of the artist's overall creative vision. Beardsley focuses on the artist's Birmingham roots connecting the cultural firmament of that city with other major creative communities in Alabama, most notably Boykin, more popularly known as Gee's Bend, home of the famous quilters.</div>

Lonnie Holley

Holiday, Harmony

Rizzoli Electa

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Books by Beardsley, John