Some 15 years ago Cartier-Bresson decided to lay down the Leica and return to his first love painting and drawing to which he brings the same magic that infused his famous photographs. The foreword by John Russell (chief art critic, The New York Times ) and introduction by Jean Clair (curator of drawings, the Pompidou Center in Paris) complement the 65 reproductions, nine in color and 56 in duotone. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Line by Line: The Drawings of Henri Cartier-Bresson

Arts & Photography

Clair, Jean

History & Criticism

Thames&Hudson

PICASSO : THE ITALIAN JOURNEY 1917-1924

"A definitive catalogue. Once Cartier-Bresson photographed something or someone, you might as well have retired them as subjects."―Newsweek Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the finest image makers of our time. His extraordinary photographs were shaped by an eye and a mind legendary for their intelligent empathy and for their unerring ability to get to the heart of the matter. This sumptuous collection of work by Cartier- Bresson is the ultimate look at his achievements. The book brims with classic photographs that have become icons of the medium, as well as rarely seen work from all periods of Cartier-Bresson's life, including a number of previously unpublished photographs and a generous selection of drawings, paintings, and film stills. The book also features telling personal souvenirs of his youth, his family, and the founding of Magnum. This definitive collection of a master photographer's work will be an essential book for anyone interested in photography―indeed, for anyone interested in the people, places, and events of the past century. 600+ photographs in color and duotone

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image & The World

Individual Artists

The fact that this 500-page catalogue raisonné was approved by Balthus himself, the most mutable of authorities on his own life and oeuvre, will make it suspect for some historians. And the fact that the texts for the 2,100 black-and-white reproductions are in French (a long, earnest essay by Jean Clair is translated into English) will limit its usefulness for nonacademic readers. But the book is beautiful, and something even better: a cautionary tale about an artist of enormous talent tarnished by unresolved neurosis. As the poet James Fenton wrote of Joseph Cornell, even the most devoted admirer must sometimes turn away, when "the pathology glints from the depths." 
 Balthus has often lamented that his paintings are mistakenly discussed in terms of their subject matter, but it is the imagery that rudely seizes the viewer's attention away from the paintings' serene, early Renaissance formality and lush 19th-century brushwork, so easy on the eye, and directs it toward the spread legs of all those pubescent girls, to the knife on the floor near the nude on the bed, or to the music teacher's teeth tearing the skirt of her trapped, flailing student. 
 The hundreds upon hundreds of drawings here, as well as the 80 beautiful color plates of paintings, show the young Balthus as a master of haunting imagery--cats and streets and hills in shadow--that often melds Piero della Francesca's classical forms with an edgy, slightly surreal anxiety. They convey the tender poet of the European countryside, heir to both Caspar David Friedrich and Cézanne. But the nymphet pictures ultimately overshadow Balthus's body of work--not that they are anything but tame in light of today's erotic tastes--but because they come to seem the raison d'être of a second-rate romantic painter, rather than the personal quirks of a great one. --Peggy Moorman

Balthus Catalogue Raisonne of the Complete Works

Monnie, Virginie

Harry N. Abrams

Balthazar Klossowski, known as Balthus, is largely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most important painters-- as well as the most scandalous. His dreamlike canvases populated with pubescent girls in provocative poses garnered him both praise and scorn from artists and critics alike. This volume, edited by renowned scholar Jean Clair, includes more than 400 color plates and includes essays by the premier experts on Balthus's work and life as well as recollections of the artist by his colleagues and friends. Since the beginning of his seventy-five year career, he was admired for his extraordinary ability to straddle tradition and modernity, as is evident with his references to Renaissance masters such as Piero della Francesca. His work also revealed ties to early modernism as his first apprenticeships were guided by Claude Monet, Emile Bonnard, and André Derain. Nonetheless, by 1926, the year of his first solo exhibition in Paris, the exceptional "newness" of his work had garnered him a distinguished following including major French intellectuals such as Georges Bataille, Albert Camus, and Antonin Artaud. This volume, which accompanies the largest exhibition to date of the artist's work, traces every stage of Balthus's career including an essay devoted to his early life and influences as well as a chapter devoted to the influence of Chinese paintings on his landscapes. A portion of the book is devoted to recollections by his friends who shed light on the elusive painter's life. The volume is complete with an extensive catalogue of his work which includes paintings, drawings, sketches for theatre sets as well as scores of photos of the artist taken by major photographers.

Balthus

Rizzoli

Des Européens

Reference

CARTIER-BRESSON, Henri

Foreign Language Study & Reference

SEUIL

Hubris: La fabrique du monstre dans l'art moderne. Homoncules, Géants et Acéphales (French Edition)

Gallimard]

Considérations sur l'État des Beaux-Arts: Critique de la modernité

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Terre natale: Exercices de piété

Malaise dans les musées

Flammarion

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