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Lillian Schacherl

Edgar Degas was one of the most obsessive painters of the female body in the entire history of art. He produced some six hundred images of ballet dancers alone, and the nudes that dominate his late work are scarcely less numerous. The wealth of carefully chosen illustrations in this volume provides a multi-faceted survey of these two aspects of Degas' oeuvre. The iconographical variety of the imagery is complemented by the wide range of media employed by the artist. Oils and pastels, prints and drawings, sculptures - all are included here. Lillian Schacherl brings to life the world inhabited by these women. She rejects the interpretation of the images as voyeuristic by the moralists among Degas' contemporaries and by some present-day writers. The artist's intention, she argues, was neither to glorify the glamorous world of the ballet nor to revel in the beauty of the female form. Rather, he sought to capture fleeting moments of classically perfect movement and spontaneous, unselfconscious gesture. The author shows that, in their synthesis of classical values and more modern artistic concerns, Degas' ballet dancers and late nudes constitute one of the peaks of nineteenth-century art.

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Susanna Brown

"The first major book to celebrate the entire career of legendary fashion photographer Horst P. Horst. The first comprehensive book on Horst P. Horst, this richly illustrated survey accompanies a retrospective of the photographer's career, spanning fashion, nudes, portraiture, interiors, and art, at the Victoria and Albert Museum. For an incredible six decades, Horst's work graced the pages and covers of Vogue, beginning in the 1930s alongside luminaries such as Cecil Beaton and George Hoyningen-Huene. With equal admiration for the physical ideals of classical sculpture and the surrealism of Salvador Dali, Horst crafted some of fashion's most iconic images. Newly researched essays follow the photographer as he captured--and mingled with--the great thinkers, designers, and muses of his day, among them Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel. Known first as a master photographer of French and British couture, Horst also left his mark on interior and lifestyle photography with his work in House & Garden. This survey traces a career remarkable for its range, daring, and depth."--

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Robert Descharnes, Gilles Néret

The seminal surrealist: Exploring Dalí's grandiose and grotesque oeuvre Picasso called Dalí "an outboard motor that’s always running." Dalí thought himself a genius with a right to indulge in whatever lunacy popped into his head. Painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was one of the century’s greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics—and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the insights of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis to the art of painting, approaching the subconscious with extraordinary sensitivity and imagination. This publication presents the entire painted oeuvre of Salvador Dalí. After many years of research, Robert Descharnesand Gilles Néret finally located all the paintings of this highly prolific artist. Many of the works had been inaccessible for years—in fact so many that almost half the illustrations in this book had rarely been seen.

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Jennifer Komar Olivarez

"Largely regarded as one of the most important movements of American architecture and design, the Prairie School helped move America into the modern age. Signaling a departure from nineteenth-century formality, its practitioners sought to create buildings that were organic and would facilitate a new, progressive way of life. This guide to the treasures of the Prairie School at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts focuses not only on the museum's collection of early twentieth-century American design but also on the Institute's historic Purcell-Cutts house, one of the most significant examples of Prairie School architecture in the country. With its historic photographs, many never before published, Progressive Design in the Midwest is a combination of history, house tour, and museum guide." "The many objects in the Institute's Prairie school collection including works by Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, William Gray Purcell, and George Grant Elmslie, among others, are described in detail. Along with each piece is a list of relevant texts, exhibitions, and the historical background of the piece, as well as information about the designer."--Jacket.