"Presents a retrospective of the drawings and paintings of the artist John Alexander from the late 1970s to the present day through more than 100 images, three essays, a chronology, an exhibition history, and a bibliography"--Provided by publisher.

John Alexander: A Retrospective

Livingston, Jane

Biographies & Memoirs

Museum Fine Arts Houston

In Islamic culture, calligraphy has long been considered a quintessential art form. This beautiful writing practice constitutes an expression of piety, and calligraphers are among the most highly esteemed artists. Traces of the Calligrapher portrays the intimate world of the calligrapher during the early modern period of Islamic culture. It brings together the tools of the trade”works in their own right that are rarely exhibited or publishedand the exquisite art made with these functional objects in India, Iran, and Turkey.
This richly illustrated and fascinating book presents exceptional works of the 17th through 19th centuries, drawn primarily from an unrivaled private collection. It features pens, pen boxes, chests, tables, paper scissors, knives, burnishers, and book bindings of superb manufacture and design, accompanied by examples of calligraphy that were executed as practice exercise, occasional works, wall hangings, and manuscripts.

Traces of the Calligrapher: Islamic Calligraphy in Practice, c. 1600-1900

Arts & Photography

McWilliams, Mary

Roxburgh, David J.

History & Criticism

An extraordinary group of Nasca miniature objects—exquisite works produced in ancient Central and South America for personal adornment, ritual use, and burial—resides in the renowned Glassell Collection of Pre-Columbian Art. Dating from about A.D. 600, the Nasca miniatures were reported to have been found together in the Ica Valley of the south coast of present-day Peru. Beautifully crafted from gold, silver, shell, and semiprecious stones, most of these objects were carved from or have elements of spondylus shell, a rare mollusk. Frances Marzio brings the Nasca culture vividly to life through her insightful discussion of diverse artworks from the collection—from warriors and trophy heads to females and a menagerie of animals—focusing on these fascinating treasures as a group for the first time.

Miniature Size, Magical Quality: Nasca Art from the Glassell Collection

Marzio, Frances

This beautifully illustrated book salutes the recent acquisition by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, of the Adolpho Leirner Collection of Brazilian Constructive Art, one of the most important and complete collections in the world devoted to modern Latin American art in the 1950s and 1960s. Including works by Cícero Dias, Samson Flexor, Lygia Clark, and members of the Grupo Ruptura of São Paulo and the Grupo Frente of Rio de Janeiro, Leirner's renowned collection celebrates its artists as important visual architects of Brazilian Modernism.

Dimensions of Constructive Art in Brazil: The Adolpho Leirner Collection

Ramírez, Mari Carmen

Leirner, Adolpho

Created by the renowned modernist artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988), the Cullen Sculpture Garden at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has grown into one of the most important sculpture parks in America. For the past two decades the garden has offered a perfect setting to feature sculptures from the museum's outstanding collection and for masterworks on loan. This handsome book maps the sense of discovery and rediscovery that the Cullen Sculpture Garden instills in every visitor. Two essays by leading experts on Noguchi and landscape architecture illuminate the history of the garden and its creator, and scholarly catalogue entries shed light on all twenty-three of the sculptures exhibited within this remarkable one-acre site.

Isamu Noguchi: A Sculpture for Sculpture: The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden

de Lima Greene, Alison

The art of Islamic calligraphy developed from the 7th to the 14th century, beginning in western Arabia, spreading south to Yemen and north to the Near East, and continuing east and west to Iran, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. This handsome book demonstrates the breadth and beauty of Islamic calligraphy across centuries and continents, as seen in rare early folios of the Qur’an.
Noted scholar David J. Roxburgh begins by discussing the Qur’an, which Muslims believe to be the written record of a series of divinely inspired revelations to the Prophet Muhammad. He then analyzes Kufic script, the preeminent vehicle for writing early manuscripts of the Qur’an; reforms of calligraphy in the 10th century; and the great master Islamic calligraphers, in particular Yaqut al-Mustasimi. The beautiful reproductions of folios and bifolios validate Roxburgh’s conclusion that the miracle of the text of the Qur’an found its equal in the technical mastery of the calligrapher’s practice, a miracle in its own right.”

Writing the Word of God: Calligraphy and the Qur'an

Originally published by Yale University Press in 1960, Katsura: Tradition and Creation of Japanese Architecture is the most significant photographic publication about the relationship of modernity and tradition in postwar Japan. Designed by famed Bauhaus graphic artist Herbert Bayer, Katsura comprises 135 black-and-white photographs by Ishimoto Yasuhiro depicting the 17th-century Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, with essays by architects Walter Gropius and Tange Kenzo.
This new publication argues that Tange, motivated by a desire to transform the architectural images into abstract fragments, played a major role in cropping and sequencing Ishimoto’s photographs for the book. The author provides a fresh and critical look at the nature of the collaboration between Tange and Ishimoto, exploring how their words and images helped establish a new direction in modern Japanese architecture. The book serves as an important contribution to the growing scholarly field of post-1945 Japanese art, in particular the juncture of photography and architecture.

Katsura: Picturing Modernism in Japanese Architecture: Photographs by Ishimoto Yasuhiro

Nakamori, Yasufumi

For the past 65 years, the National Galleries of Scotland has displayed the acclaimed Bridgewater Collection, one of the world’s most important groups of Old Master paintings still under private ownership. Consisting largely of French and Italian works, the collection includes Titian’s Diana and Actaeon (recently purchased by the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery of London) and Diana and Callisto, each an undeniable masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance.
This catalogue accompanies an unprecedented exhibition of 25 paintings and drawings from the National Galleries of Scotland. In addition to the works by Titian, the book features paintings and drawings by Lorenzo Lotto, Jacopo Bassano, Tintoretto, and Veronese. With special emphasis on the Titian masterpieces, the authors discuss the Bridgewater Collection and its long, proud history of bringing Old Master paintings to public view.

Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland

Cosmopolitan Routes situates 20th-century Latin American art as an evolving discourse of individual impulses, universal themes, and shared ideas. It further illustrates the parallels between works produced in Latin America and the artistic movements that have come to define modern and contemporary art on a global level. Showcased in detail are nearly 100 masterworks from Houston collections, ranging from early Modernist and postwar pieces to contemporary creations by artists from Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico. From the Constructive Universalism of Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-Garcia to the figurative and Surrealist work of artists such as Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, and Pedro Friedeberg, a host of diverse movements are represented. All of the works demonstrate the depth and quality of Latin American artistic expression as well as the spirit of diversity and exploration involved in the quest for collecting art.

Cosmopolitan Routes: Houston Collects Latin American Art

Vicario, Gilbert

Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez (b. 1923) is one of the greatest artistic innovators of the 20th and 21st centuries. Best known for experimenting with light and movement, and for stimulating the dialogue between the stable and unstable use of color, his pieces engage viewers on a multisensory level. Through the use of unconventional materials, Cruz-Diez strives to create art that is sophisticated in construction and theory while also accessible to viewers. Combining the principles of kinetic art (sculptured works that have an aspect of motion) with color theory, optics, machine engineering, digital printing technologies, and the painter's craft, Cruz-Diez's works defy standard categorization.
This monumental volume traces the full trajectory of the artist's career, from early, rarely published figurative works, to interactive series that continue to this day, to architectural projects in public spaces around the world. The book features an essay, an interview with Cruz-Diez, a selection of his own writings, texts by three early champions of his work, and an illustrated chronology.

Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color in Space and Time

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