« Older Entries

The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers

The Paris of the 1860s and 1870s was supposedly a brand new city, equipped with boulevards, cafes, parks and suburban pleasure grounds – the birthplace of those habits of commerce that constitute “modern life”. Questioning those who view Impressionism solely in terms of artistic technique, T.J. Clark describes the painting of Manet, Degas, Seurat and others as an attempt to give form to that modernity and seek out its typical representatives – be they barmaids, boaters, prostitutes, sightseers or petits bourgeois lunching on the grass. The central question of the book is this: did modern painting as it came into being celebrate the consumer-oriented culture of the Paris of Napoleon III, or open it to critical scrutiny? The revised edition of this classic book includes a new preface by the author.


The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers

Tags:

States

This sumptuous slipcased clothbound book is accompanied by a silver-gelatin photograph signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of just eighty.


States

Tags:

Garrett Eckbo: Modern Landscapes for Living

One of the central figures in modern landscape architecture, Garrett Eckbo (1910-2000) was a major influence in the field during an active career spanning five decades. While most of the early American designers concentrated on the private garden and the corporate landscape, Eckbo’s work demonstrated innovative design ideas in a social setting. This engagement with social improvement has stayed with Eckbo throughout his life, distinguishing both his intentions and achievements, from his early work for the Farm Security Administration to his partnerships (including one of the most prominent landscape firms in the world, Eckbo, Dean, Austin, and Williams–EDAW) and his years as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.
In an elegant and detailed book that includes more than 100 of Eckbo’s designs, Marc Treib examines the aesthetic formation of Eckbo’s manner, and by implication the broader field of landscape architecture since the 1930s. Dorothée Imbert writes about Eckbo’s social vision, including his belief that ultimately, landscape design is the “arrangement of environments for people.” The book also contains a biographical and professional chronology and a complete bibliography of publications by and about Garrett Eckbo.


Garrett Eckbo: Modern Landscapes for Living

Tags: