Awarded the Washington DC Book Publishers' design and effectiveness competition Honorable Mention in the category of Illustrated Text from a Small- to Medium-Size Nonprofit Publisher and Third Prize in the category of Illustrated Jacket or Cover from a Small- to Medium-Size Nonprofit Publisher Ballyhoo! looks at the poster as a form of popular portraiture. These celebrity likenesses are dramatic―and often enormous―but in fact, what a poster communicates about an individual is usually secondary to its principal message: Barnum and Bailey announcing the arrival of their circus, the Woodbury Soap company using Veronica Lake to promote its "matched make-up," Greta Garbo advertising the Swedish version of Queen Christina, or Bette Midler publicizing her 1973 concert at the Palace Theater. By interweaving the three themes of poster art, celebrity promotion, and advertising, Ballyhoo! suggests how a famous face can enhance the message of the poster and, conversely, how posters have defined and disseminated images of prominent Americans. Furthermore, posters provide an instructive glimpse of an era's prevailing ideals, prejudices, and presumptions. These images remind us of the ubiquitous presence of portrait images outside the world of fine art. Widely disseminated forms of popular portraiture, like the poster, remain a profound influence in our culture.

Ballyhoo!: Posters as Portraiture

Arts & Photography

Reaves, Wendy Wick

Graphic Design

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute

This delightful book presents hundreds of entertaining caricatures of celebrities from popular American periodicals in the first half of the twentieth century. Employing a vivid new type of portraiture based on modern design and a preoccupation with personality- based fame, master caricaturists filled the pages of newspapers and magazines with renderings of Mae West, George Gershwin, the Marx Brothers, Babe Ruth, Mussolini, and other personalities of their times.

Celebrity Caricature in America

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Yale University Press

At least since the Renaissance, artists have created wonderful images of themselves. Some self-portraits are the equivalent of a painter's "signature," while others were inspired by the need to establish social status or gain a commission. In the twentieth century, however, self-representation turned inward, becoming a means by which artists sought to navigate passageways of the mind. In Reflections/Refractions, some of the greatest modern artists—including Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Jacob Lawrence, Louise Bourgeois, David Hockney, Alexander Calder, and Alex Katz—use sinuous line and gorgeous color to trace the intricacies of their personalities, whether dark and gloomy or bright and fanciful. The book is at once a catalog of twentieth-century self-portraits in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, and an exploration of how modern artists view themselves and the world. Eighty color illustrations—drawings and paintings—are accompanied by lively and informative captions, making this volume an endlessly fascinating book for the coffee table and library.

Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraits in the Twentieth Century

Goodyear, Anne Collins

Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press

Reports of its death were exaggerated but persistent in the art world; in mid-twentieth century America, everyone seemed to agree that portraiture was finished as a progressive art form.
A groundbreaking reassessment of the reinvention of portraiture in America between 1945 and 1975—the period when the abstract expressionists reached international prominence—this new volume presents fifty-five innovative portrait paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures. It features works by Joan Brown, Alice Neel, Elaine de Kooning, Larry Rivers, Marisol Escobar, Alex Katz, Romare Bearden, Fairfield Porter, Jamie Wyeth, and Andy Warhol, amongst others.
 Features a poem by leading New York School poet John Ashbery specially commissioned for this book.

Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction

Ward, David C.

Fortune, Brandon Brame

History & Criticism

GILES

From 1845 to 1862, the Boston partnership of Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes maintained the most celebrated photography studio in the United States. Taking as their subjects both the greatest personalities of the day and the natural spectacles of the American landscape, such as Niagara Falls, Southworth &amp; Hawes elevated the new medium of daguerreotype photography to the level of art. Transcending the mere recording of factual detail, their daguerreotypes reflect a quintessentially American aesthetic and embody an emerging national culture and spirit. Young America will be the most significant publication to date on Southworth &amp; Hawes, featuring full-scale color reproductions of all plates in the exhibition as well as 2,000 additional black-and-white illustrations.

Young America: The Daguerreotypes Of Southworth & Hawes

Wallis, Brian

Romer, Grant

Pierce, Sally

Photography & Video

Steidl/ICP

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reaves, Wendy Wick. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Reaves, Wendy Wick