Sun dogs & eagle down

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Stefan Sharff

One of the most popular thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock's middle years, Rear Window is now also recognized as one of the most brilliant demonstrations of the director's cinematic wizardry. Starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, with Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr in memorable supporting roles, the film centers on a photographer confined to a wheelchair in his apartment who, using binoculars, spies on his courtyard neighbors and witnesses a possible murder. This was not the first time Hitchcock challenged himself to build suspense when plot limited action to a small area, but it was the only time when the director's art in creating through a lens is so dramatically reflected in the very story he tells. The voyeur-hero is there to see for us, and the images he chooses to observe become the language of the movie, which is almost thirty-five percent silent. Stefan Sharff, professor emeritus of Columbia University's film department, shows us how Hitchcock achieved the mounting excitement and fear that mark this film. The author first provides a detailed overview of the director's skill in developing the story from intriguing start to shattering climax. In the second part of the book, he goes on to a shot-by-shot analysis; using the film's continuity as his text, he describes how hitchcock's technique accomplished its magic. Illustrated throughout with stills from the film, The Art of Looking is a unique appreciation of the art of Alfred Hitchcock, made even more valuable by the first publication in any form of the full dialogue of a screen masterpiece.

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Patricia Janis Broder

For over 25 years, from 1878 until his death in 1903, Ben Wittick photographed the Indian world of the Southwest. Shadows on glass brings together for the first time over 200 of his images, capturing a time of cultural confusion and change.

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curated by Barbara Fischer

This is a unique book. It is not an exhibition catalogue, nor is it an artist's book. It is a sustained, multi-faceted exploration of a single work of art by Rebecca Belmore, 'March 5, 1819'. In this extraordinary video installation, Belmore looks back two centuries to revisit a devastating encounter in Beothuk territory, in the central interior of the island of Newfoundland.

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Stephen C. Foster

Few artists spanned the movements of early twentieth-century art as completely as did Hans Richter. Richter was a major force in the developments of expressionism, Dada, De Stijl, constructivism, and surrealism, and the creator, with Viking Eggeling, of the abstract cinema. The contributors to this book rewrite Richter's history to include his pivotal role in the development of the early twentieth-century avant-garde and his political activism. When Richter's work, particularly that of his earlier, European career, is viewed in its historical and political context, he emerges as an artist committed to the power of art to change the fabric of social, political, and cultural affairs.