New Books at PEOSTA

Reviewed: TLS 24 Jan. 2020 p. 36.
Description: Against an increasingly polarizing political backdrop, this book takes a visual journey through over a hundred years of social protest. From the early twentieth century suffragettes through to the 1960s and 1970s–considered by many the heyday of uprisings–and contemporary, social media-driven demonstrations of dissent, this illustrative history features iconic posters from world-renowned artists, including notable posters from the archives of Amnesty International, as well as more spontaneous ephemera from short-lived print collectives and street activists. With a foreword from celebrated artist and activist, Anish Kapoor, The Art of Protest showcases more than 100 posters. It covers key campaigns such as women’s liberation, nuclear disarmament, the civil rights movement, climate change, AIDS activism, and Black Lives Matter, revealing artists who have pushed boundaries, given voice to the marginalized, and railed against those who seek to deny people their rights to peace and equality. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 5 July 2019 p. 35.
Description: Without any prompting, children intuitively develop a powerful impulse to draw. Beginning with their first scribbles, drawing is an activity that encompasses children’s expanding knowledge, changing perceptions and new experiences about themselves and their environment. It is a visual language that evolves as the child grows, and one in which feelings, ideas and emotions can all appear. As children draw they develop motor skills, a positive sense of identity, and faculties of problem-solving and critical thinking. And their drawings offer parents a window to see how children perceive themselves and the world around them. This is a concise, richly illustrated book, aimed at parents and carers, that explores why children draw and the meaning and value of drawing for youngsters–from toddlers aged two to pre-adolescents aged twelve. Informed by psychology and practical teaching with children, it guides readers through the progressive stages and characteristics of drawing development as children grow and change mentally, physically, socially, emotionally and creatively. It offers parents tips about encouraging children to express their ideas visually, age-appropriate art materials, workspaces, and different media as well as suggestions for making an art museum visit more meaningful–not to mention more fun–for both parents and kids. (publ.)

Description: From the Zoroastrian sculpture of a 100-kilo mastiff to the portrait of a coiffured lap dog, this book presents humanity’s best friend like never before. Through a wide range of genres, fashions and cultures, from Roman mosaics to pop art, video, impressionism and photography, this book brings together more than 200 breathtaking canine images to tell the story of dogs in art from ancient times to the present. Susie Green considers the artist’s often very personal motives behind their work, the vastly different cultural raison d’etres, and the reasons why these sentient, emotional beings are loved and trusted by hundreds of millions of people, including artists such as Hogarth, William Wegman and Lucien Freud. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 10 Dec. 2018 p. 22.
Description: An entertaining and highly original introduction to graphic design, this beautifully designed book uses puzzles and visual challenges to demonstrate how typography, signage, posters and branding work. Through a series of games and activities, including spot the difference, matching games, drawing and dot-to-dot, readers are introduced to concepts and techniques in an engaging and interactive way. Further explanation and information is provided by solution pages and a glossary, and a loose-leaf section contains stickers, die-cut templates, and coloured paper to help readers complete the activities. (publ.)

Reviewed: TLS 16 Aug. 2019 p. 25 (referenced)
Description: In 2017, Leonardo da Vinci’s small oil painting the Salvator Mundi was sold at auction. In the words of its discoverer, the image of Christ as savior of the world is “the rarest thing on the planet.” Its $450 million sale price also makes it the world’s most expensive painting. For two centuries, art dealers had searched in vain for the Holy Grail of art history: a portrait of Christ as the Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. Many similar paintings of greatly varying quality had been executed by Leonardo's assistants in the early sixteenth century. But where was the original by the master himself? In November 2017, Christie’s auction house announced they had it. But did they? (publ.)

Reviewed: NYRB 19 Dec. 2019 p. 59.
Description: This study investigates how changing modes of representing the black female figure were foundational to the development of modern art. It examines the legacy of Edouard Manet’s Olympia (1863), arguing that this radical painting marked a fitfully evolving shift toward modernist portrayals of the black figure as an active participant in everyday life rather than as an exotic “other.” Denise Murrell explores the little-known interfaces between the avant-gardists of nineteenth-century Paris and the post-abolition community of free black Parisians. She traces the impact of Manet’s reconsideration of the black model into the twentieth century and across the Atlantic, where Henri Matisse visited Harlem jazz clubs and later produced transformative portraits of black dancers as icons of modern beauty. These and other works by the artist are set in dialogue with the urbane “New Negro” portraiture style with which Harlem Renaissance artists including Charles Alston and Laura Wheeler Waring defied racial stereotypes. The book concludes with a look at how Manet’s and Matisse’s depictions influenced Romare Bearden and continue to reverberate in the work of such global contemporary artists as Faith Ringgold, Aimé Mpane, Maud Sulter, and Mickalene Thomas, who draw on art history to explore its multiple voices. (publ.)
Note: Catalog accompanied the exhibitions at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, New York, (October 24, 2018-February 10, 2019), & Musée d’Orsay (March 26-July 14, 2019).

Reviewed: NYT/BR 12/23/2019 p. 9.
Description: Combining the expertise and insight of a leading journalist and a pioneering designer, Kuang and Fabricant provide a definitive, thoughtful, and practical perspective on a topic that has rapidly gone from arcane to urgent to inescapable. It is a paradigm that quietly rules our modern lives: the assumption that machines should anticipate what we need. Kuang and Fabricant unpack the ways in which the world has been–and continues to be–remade according to the principles of the once-obscure discipline of user-experience design. They map the hidden rules of the designed world and shed light on how those rules have caused our world to change. You’ll never interact with technology the same way again. (publ.)