The royal road to the unconscious

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Joyce M. Szabo

"Ledger art is the term used to describe Plains Indian drawings and paintings on paper from the second half of the nineteenth century because they were often made on ledger paper readily available from military outposts. Howling Wolf is arguably the single most important ledger artist to emerge from the anonymity of this period. The Southern Cheyenne warrior was not only an extremely skilled artist, he was also the only Plains artist known to have created ledger art in all three phases of the art form: the pre-reservation era, the years from 1875 to 1878 when Indians of the southern Plains were confined at Fort Marion in Florida, and the reservation period. Howling Wolf's drawings while he was a prisoner at Fort Marion and those he made upon returning to the reservation were known, but this book presents the first in-depth examination of his previously undiscovered work from before his incarceration. The author shows ledger art to be a significant record of cultural attitudes of Plains Indian artists at a time when their societies were in great upheaval. She examines the works of art not only as historic documents but as visual statement reflecting the time, place, and society in which they originated. In contrast to the belief that ledger art was a stagnant form adhering to tradition, the author presents ledger art as a dynamic and inventive means of expression."--Book jacket.

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Sarah Wisseman

"In the magical and historically rich city of Siena, Italy, old paintings are as common as cobblestones. But what if some of those paintings are forgeries? And what if your employers at a respected firm of art conservators might be smuggling antiquities? After colleague and roommate Ernst Mann is found dead in the street below their apartment balcony, Flora Garibaldi suspects her bosses are crooks and that her new job is disintegrating into desiccated paint flakes. Burnt Sienna is a suspenseful mystery combining a spectacular Italian setting with complicated art historical dilemmas. The story of Flora Garibaldi and the colorful Lorenzetti family will take the reader on a labyrinthine journey while probing family and professional loyalties that no amount of yellowed varnish can hide "--

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essay by Marco Livingstone

Jim Dine, renowned for his wit and creativity as a Pop and Happenings artist, has a restless, searching intellect that leads him to challenge himself constantly. In the 1970s he began to focus on flowers and plants, sometimes from his own garden. Always a superb draftsman, Dine revealed a hitherto untapped precision and depth of expression in his botanical drawings and paintings, which are collected here for the first time. Many of these works have never before been published; the impetus for them came from this projected book. In this extraordinary and intense series, he extends traditional botanical illustration and flower painting to encompass a new subjectivity, deriving from artistic and personal sources. Familiar garden and house plants yield unsuspected qualities in Dine's work. Gardeners as well as art lovers will find his wide knowledge of plants and flowers delightful and rewarding. Unusual techniques underlie the uniqueness of much of Dine's botanical work. On several ceramic jars created to his specifications, Dine has drawn towering foxgloves or a clump of crocuses or a strong old trunk with a tangled network of branches - giving these plants an unexpected context that provokes new thinking. His eagerness to get down his ideas leads Dine to press any blank surface into use: two handsome wooden panels, purchased to become doors, now provide the backgrounds for an imposing thicket of weeds and a glorious bunch of gladiolas. The author, Marco Livingstone, who has written widely on Pop and other aspects of contemporary art, makes skillful use of interviews with the artist, whose comments on specific works provide direct insights into his working methods and intentions. With great sensitivity, Livingstone scrutinizes each work, noting the effect of Dine's virtuosity - a stroke of color here, a patch of scuffed paper, painstaking detail on the surface of a cactus - or Dine's patient studying and restudying of calla lilies or hyacinths or his bold rendering of crabapples. The remarkable power and beauty of Jim Dine's plant and flower works - 93 reproduced in full color - make this elegant book an exhilarating and memorable experience.

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Hans-Christian Kirsch

Im August 1889 kehren die befreundeten Maler Otto Modersohn und Fritz Mackensen dem Akademiebetrieb den Rücken. Sie lassen sich in dem niedersächsischen Dorf Worpswede am Rande des Teufelsmoors nieder, einem Flecken in der Nähe von Bremen, den in dieser Zeit kaum jemand in Deutschland kennt. Die Kollegen Heinrich Vogeler, Hans am Ende und Fritz Overbeck folgen ihrem Beispiel. »Der Erlolg, den die Maler von Worpswede auf der Jahresausstellung im Münchner Glaspalast errangen, hat in der Geschichte der neueren Kunst nicht seinesgleichen«, befand danach ein Kritiker. Ein Bauerndorf wurde zu einem Begriff der Kunstgeschichte. Vollends zum Mythos wurde Worpswede dann, als Rainer Maria Rilke sein Buch über die Künstlerkolonie veröffentlichte. Selbst um die Jahrhundertwende sporadisch in Worpswede lebend, heiratete der Dichter 1901 die Bildhauerin und Malerin Clara Westhoff. Zentrum des künstlerischen Lebens war in jenen Jahren der von Heinrich Vogeler erworbene und umgebaute Barkenhoff. Waren die «Alten Worpsweder noch von den französichen Landschaftsmalern der Schule von Barbizon beeinflußt, gelangte mit Paula Modersohn-Becker die Moderne nach Worpswede. Nach 1945 erlangte der Surrealist Richard Oelze internationale Anerkennung. Heute beeindrucken Künstler wie Waldemar Otto, Frauke Migge und Fritz Meckseper mit Werken, die das Wissen um die Gefährdung des Menschen und der Natur reflektieren. Hundert Jahre nach Ihrer Gründung legt Hans-Christian Kirsch mit diesem Buch eine sich auf exakte Recherchen und bisher unbekannte Aufzeichnungen stützende Darstellung der Künstlerkolonie vor.