Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings

Just before World War II, Piet Mondrian fled from Paris to London and later to New York, where he lived until his death in 1944. Upon his arrival in Manhattan, the artist began reworking seventeen of the paintings he brought with him, many of which had already been finished and exhibited. He changed lines and added blocks and bars of color to give them what he called "more boogie-woogie." By inscribing these so-called transatlantic works with a double date, for example "38/42," Mondrian emphasized the exceptional history of the series.

Arts & Photography

Cooper, Harry

Spronk, Prof. Ron

History & Criticism

Harvard Art Museums

Widely praised for its fine collection of Latin American geometric abstract art, the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros of Caracas, Venezuela, contains the compelling work of such leading artists as Uruguayan Joaquín Torres-Garcia, Brazilians Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, Venezuelans Gego and Jésus Rafael Soto, and Argentinians Tomás Maldonado, Raúl Lozza, and Alfredo Hlito. This lavishly illustrated book presents a selection of more than eighty paintings, drawings, and sculptures from the Cisneros collection, representing some two dozen Latin American artists. The works were completed between 1934 and 1988, but the vast majority date from the “heroic” years of geometric abstraction, 1948–1966. This special bilingual volume explores in both English and Spanish the history and importance of the major movements that were dedicated to geometric abstraction. These movements include Concretism and Neo-Concretism in Brazil, Constructivism in Uruguay, the Madi Group and Concrete artists in Argentina, and Kinetic Abstraction and Neo-Constructivism in Venezuela. The book also offers biographies of the artists and an intriguing selection of their statements and manifestos.

Geometric Abstraction: Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection

Bois, Yve-Alain

Herkenhoff, Paulo

Jiménez, Ariel

Oramas, Luis Enrique Pérez

The catalog of an exhibition organized by the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard U., on view during fall 2001. It presents work from a highly regarded commercial photography studio that operated in Mali's capital, Bamako, in the decades before and after independence from France in 1960. The warm-toned b&amp;w portraits combine formulas of Western portrait photography with local aesthetics to create images that are both souvenirs of special moments and also symbols of wealth and the sitters' status in the community. In addition to reproducing more than 70 portraits, the catalog includes excerpts of recent interviews with the photographers and an essay placing their work within the context of the history of portrait photography in West Africa. Harvard University Art Museums published the book (ISBN 1-891771-20-5); distribution is by Yale U. Press under ISBN 0-300-09188-5. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibe

Michelle Lamuniere

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

The great British satirist William Hogarth (1697–1764) addressed his country’s moral condition in prints of exquisite detail and contrast. This book examines such prints that address the theme of “execution” in three senses—performance, death by official order, and carrying a plan through to its natural end. Pride of place is given to images of hanging. In early modern England, public execution was an amusement as popular as pleasure gardens, fairs, and theater extravaganzas.  Hogarth fleshed out numerous print narratives with references to criminal culture and the melodramatic rituals surrounding the act of execution.  With forty-two entries and three short essays, this volume is the catalogue of a Harvard University Art Museums exhibition organized by curatorial intern Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell. The prints are from the collection of Suzanne and Gerald Labiner and from various Harvard collections.    

Death by Hogarth

Mitchell, Elizabeth Kathleen

Touchstone: 200 Years of Artists’ Lithographs

Cohn, Marjorie B.

Rogan, Clare I.

Graphic Design

Wols Photographs

MEHRING, Christine

Photography & Video

This beautiful book presents highlights from the collection of Maida and George Abrams, arguably the finest private collection of Dutch seventeenth-century drawings in the world. The works range from studies by renowned masters―including Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jacques de Gheyn II, Hendrick Goltzius, and Hendrick Avercamp―to drawings by lesser-known draftsmen whose contributions are essential to understanding the art of the period. The book features seven drawings by Rembrandt, a diverse group by his pupils, a comprehensive survey of Dutch landscape drawing, and figure studies and scenes of daily life by genre artists such as Willem Buytewech and Adriaen van Ostade. The works are explicated in William Robinson’s detailed catalogue entries and in two essays: George Abrams reflects on recent acquisitions for his collection; and Martin Royalton-Kisch examines the Abrams’ holdings within the tradition of specialized collections of Dutch drawings in England, France, and America.

Bruegel to Rembrandt: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection

Robinson, William W.

Mel Bochner (b. 1940) is considered a pioneer of the Post-Minimal and Conceptual art movements. Perhaps best known for his paintings, sculptures, and drawings, Bochner became deeply involved with photography in the mid- to late 1960s, although most of these works have only recently been exhibited. This significant book provides the first critical look at a virtually unknown body of Bochner’s extremely varied photographs dating from 1966–1969. Some 75 of his photographs are presented, many in color and most published for the first time. Also included are a number of Bochner’s drawings that directly informed his photographic works. Scott Rothkopf explores the crucial role of photography in Bochner’s artistic development as well as key issues in the relation of photography to Minimal and Conceptual art. In Bochner’s photography, Rothkopf argues, a clear arc can be traced from his grappling with Minimalism toward a more rigorous and nuanced articulation of Conceptual art. Examining this shift, the author compares Bochner’s work with that of other artists who were engaged with photography during this period, among them Robert Smithson, Sol LeWitt, and Bruce Nauman. For Bochner and others, Rothkopf concludes, photography was used as a response to the limits of minimal sculpture and helped make possible the birth of Conceptual art. The book also features an essay by Elisabeth Sussman on the relevance of Bochner’s 1966 film experiments to his later photographic projects.

Mel Bochner Photographs, 1966-1969

Rothkopf, Scott

Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art

Lois Orswell (1904-1998) was a pioneering collector of abstract expressionist art and modern sculpture. She was notable not only for the quality of her acquisitions but also for her exceptional position as a woman collector at a time when men dominated the art world. Orswell focused her attention on sculpture and drawings, rather than paintings, and her collection features the work of such canonical artists as Kline, de Kooning, Rodin, Calder, Moore, Nevelson, and many others. Of all these artists, none was more important than David Smith -- arguably the greatest American sculptor of the twentieth century -- and the book highlights the close connection between collector and artist. 
This handsome volume publishes for the first time the correspondence between Orswell and Smith, which sheds important new light on the sculptor's personality and professional practice. The book also tells the history of the Orswell Collection, which numbers over 340 objects and is housed at the Harvard University Art Museums. 
This book is published to coincide with an exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, from September 21, 2002 to February 16, 2003.

During the Han (206 B.C.–A.D. 220) and Tang (A.D. 618–907) dynasties, terra cotta sculptures were placed in elaborate tombs to protect and to serve the spirit of the deceased. These fascinating sculptures took the form of soldiers, courtiers, musicians, merchants, attendants, court officials, and guardians. Animals were depicted as well--horses, rams, boars, dogs, and camels.From Court to Caravan features seventy-five exquisite Chinese tomb sculptures from the collection of Anthony Solomon, which includes a particularly rich selection of sixth-century pieces and is noteworthy for its focus on unglazed, cold-painted sculptures. The book provides an up-to-date overview of China’s wide variety of ceramic tomb sculptures, their place in Chinese material culture, and the influences of Silk Route trade that they reveal.

From Court to Caravan: Chinese Tomb Sculptures from the Collection of Anthony M. Solomon

Bower, Virginia L.

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