February 2023 MBR The Art Shelf

The Art Shelf

Renaissance Secrets
Maurizio De Luca, author
Jason Cardone, translator
Getty Publications
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500, Los Angeles, CA 90049-1682
www.getty.edu/publications
9781606067994, $35.00, PB, 160pp

https://www.amazon.com/Renaissance-Secrets-Lifetime-Paintings-Michelangelo/dp/1606067990

Synopsis: Beginning in the late 1400s, the greatest artists of Renaissance Italy were summoned to Rome, where they were employed decorating the walls and ceilings of the Vatican. Expert restorer Maurizio De Luca spent his forty-year career in the Vatican Museums, including fifteen years as head restorer of the Painting Restoration Laboratory. He personally oversaw some of the most important restorations of the last half century, including wall paintings by Perugino, Botticelli, and others on the walls of the Sistine Chapel; the Pintoricchio wall paintings in the Borgia Apartments; the Raphael Rooms; and the last two frescoes by Michelangelo, in the Pauline Chapel at the Apostolic Palace.

With the publication of "Renaissance Secrets: A Lifetime Working with Wall Paintings by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Others at the Vatican", an accessible and copiously illustrated coffee-table style paperback (8.25 x 0.3 x 11 inches, 1.11 pounds) volume, De Luca conveys the kind of knowledge that can only be derived from close personal observation. The reader is offered a stunningly intimate perspective that illuminates the distinctive expressive challenges, choices, and techniques of each artist and demonstrates how the conservation process enriches the understanding and interpretation of these iconic works.

Critique: Magnificently and profusely illustrated in full color throughout, combined with an impressively informative commentary and captioning, "Renaissance Secrets: A Lifetime Working with Wall Paintings by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Others at the Vatican" is unreservedly recommended for inclusion into personal, professional, community, college, and university library Italian Renaissance Art History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note#1: Maurizio De Luca was head restorer at the Painting Restoration Laboratory at the Vatican Museums at the time of his retirement in 2010. (https://shop.getty.edu/products/renaissance-secrets-a-lifetime-working-with-wall-paintings-by-michelangelo-raphael-and-ot hers-at-the-vatican-9781606067994)

Editorial Note #2: Jason Cardone (https://aur.edu/faculty/professor-jason-cardone) is an Adjunct Professor at the American University of Rome.

Balthazar
Kristen Collins, editor
Bryan C. Keene, editor
Getty Publications
www.getty.edu/publications
9781606067857, $40.00, PB, 152pp

https://www.amazon.com/Balthazar-Black-African-Medieval-Renaissance/dp/1606067850

Synopsis: According to the Gospel of Matthew, magi from the East, following a star, traveled to Jerusalem bearing precious gifts for the infant Jesus. The magi were revered as wise men and later as kings. Over time, one of the three came to be known as Balthazar and depicted as a Black man.

Balthazar was familiar to medieval Europeans, appearing in paintings, manuscript illuminations, mosaics, carved ivories, and jewelry. But the origin story of this fascinating character uncovers intricate ties between Europe and Africa, including trade and diplomacy as well as colonization and enslavement.

With the publication of "Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art" experts in the fields of Ethiopian, West African, Nubian, and Western European art explore the representation of Balthazar as a Black African king. They examine exceptional art that portrays the European fantasy of the Black magus while offering clues about the very real Africans who may have inspired these images.

Along the way, the contributors chronicle the Black presence in premodern Europe, where free and enslaved Black people moved through public spaces and courtly circles. The volume's lavish illustrations include selected works by contemporary artists who creatively challenge traditional depictions of Black history.

Critique: A magnificent coffee-table style (9781606067857, 1.11 pounds) volume, "Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art" is an inherently fascinating and informative art history presentation that is unreservedly recommended as a prized addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university Medieval/ Renaissance Art History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note #1: Kristen Collins is curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. (https://www.curatorialleadership.org/participants/ccl-program/kristen-collins)

Editorial Note #2: Bryan C. Keene (https://smarthistory.org/author/dr-bryan-c-keene) is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Riverside City College and a former Associate Curator of Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He specializes in codex cultures of a global Middle Ages and fantasy medievalisms.

Noguchi
Fabienne Eggelhofer, editor
Rita Kersting, editor
Florence Ostende, editor
Prestel Publishing
www.prestel.com
9783791379791, $55.00, PB, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Isamu-Noguchi-Fabienne-Eggelh%C3%B6fer/dp/3791379798

Synopsis: Now available in paperback, "Noguchi" is the definitive exploration of the multidisciplinary career of Isamu Noguchi, one of the most experimental and pioneering artists of the 20th century.

Encompassing the entirety of Noguchi's work in sculpture, ceramics, photography, architecture, design, as well as the artist's playscapes, gardens and stage sets for modern dance and theatre performance, this superbly illustrated survey explores Noguchi's creative process and lesser-known aspects of his practice, his engagement with a wide range of mediums and cultures, and his innovative achievements over six decades.

Brimming with imagery and contributions from an international range of authors, "Noguchi" helps the reader to grasp the diversity and patterns of Noguchi's work both in situ and in galleries. Archival photographs of the artist's studios offer glimpses into his experimental attitude towards sculpture. Themes of harmony and dissonance, which were central to his practice, are explored in a series of essays that consider the artist's dual heritage, the Japanese American experience, his worldwide travel and his many influences.

"Noguchi" also pays tribute to Noguchi's fruitful collaborations with creatives from a range of industries, such as R. Buckminster Fuller, Martha Graham and Louis Kahn.

Throughout the monograph Noguchi's own words provide a critical backdrop towards understanding an artist who embraced many schools of thought, and whose entire life and career set an example for partnership and cooperation across artistic, political and cultural boundaries.

Critique: Offering a complete chronology of Isamu Noguchi's work, "Noguchi" by the editorial team of Fabienne Eggelhofer (Chief Curator at Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern), Rita Kersting (Deputy Director at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne), and Florence Ostende (Curator at the Barbican Art Gallery, London) is a truly splendid coffee-table style (9.06 x 0.9 x 10.63 inches, 3.02 pounds) volume that will have a particular appeal to readers with an interest in sculpture. Informative, profusely illustrated, "Noguchi" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Art & Sculpture collections.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Of Symbols and Signs
Dieter Buchhart, editor
Antonia Hoerschelmann, editor
Prestel Publishing
www.prestel.com
9783791379579, $55.00, HC, 216pp

https://www.amazon.com/Jean-Michel-Basquiat-Symbols-Dieter-Buchhart/dp/3791379577

Synopsis: Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement.

Basquiat's symbolic, complex, and often emotionally charged work made a huge impact on the 1980s downtown New York City art scene. And though his all-too-brief career ended when he died at age 27, Basquiat left behind an enormous legacy -- not only in the number of works he produced, but also in the messages he encoded around political, social, racial, and cultural issues.

With the publication of "Jean-Michel Basquiat: Of Symbols and Signs" by the editorial team of Dieter Buchart (an international guest curator and Basquiat specialist) and Antonia Hoerschelmann (Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Albertina Museum, Vienna), the reader is shown how Basquiat used an intricate network of signs and symbols to challenge the very system that made him a darling of the art world.

"Jean-Michel Basquiat: Of Symbols and Signs" also traces his inspiration from cartoons, children's drawings, and advertising as well as his own Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage; discusses the influence of African-American, African, and Aztec cultural histories; and shows how Basquiat incorporated into his work classical themes and contemporary icons ranging from athletes to musicians. What becomes clear is how, even as a young man, Basquiat had a profound understanding of the artist's role in art history, and of his unique position as a young Black artist in a world of racism, suppression and social injustice.

"Jean-Michel Basquiat: Of Symbols and Signs" will help the reader in decoding Basquiat's unique lingua franca, an intoxicating body of work brimming with social commentary that was in turns incisive, angry, comic, hip, and heartbreaking, and that remains powerful and meaningful today.

Critique: An impressive compendium of presentation and analysis of his art, "Jean-Michel Basquiat: Of Symbols and Signs" is a coffee-table style (10 x 0.93 x 12.13 inches, 3.44 pounds) volume that is as thoughtful and it is thought-provoking. It is one that is exceptionally informative and very highly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library 20th Century American Art History collections.

Women Street Artists
Alessandra Mattanza, author
Prestel Publishing
www.prestel.com
9783791388953, $39.95, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Women-Street-Artists-Contemporary-Graffiti/dp/3791388959

Synopsis: If street graffiti and mural art is, in itself, an act of rebellion, it is tragically ironic that the genre seems dominated by men. With the publication of "Women Street Artists: 24 Contemporary Graffiti and Mural Artists from around the World" by journalist Alessandra Mattanza takes an important first step in shedding light on the substantial number of women who are gaining fame in the street art world. She brings together the work of 24 artists, through dazzling photographs of their work and intimate portraits of their lives based on her interviews with them.

On walls, sidewalks, prison cells, grain silos and other nontraditional canvases, these are artists who tackle ideas around empowerment, feminism, the pink revolution, body shaming and body imagery, racism, and the climate crisis. From Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh makes site specific work that considers how people experience race and gender within their surrounding environments.

South African multidisciplinary artist Faith XLVII imbues her narratives with a longing for a deeper connection to nature, and a resurrection of the divine feminine. Italy's Camilla Falsini incorporates joyful, bold colors and simple shapes to deliver serious messages about the environment. Shamsia Hassani, one of Afghanistan's first female street artists, makes vibrant murals and paintings in which women play musical instruments as a vehicle for self-expression.

Bursting with colorful photographs of works in situ as well as in detail, this thrilling and incisive and massively illustrated volume proves that street art is not only female -- it's the essence of conceptual rebellion itself!

Critique: An impressive coffee-table style (9.38 x 1.1 x 12.13 inches, 3.88 pounds) volume showcasing the work of 24 contemporary female graffiti and mural artists from around the world, "Women Street Artists" is informatively enhanced with a Foreword by Stephanie Utz (founder of the Munich based Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art) and an inherently fascinating study that is a unique, prized, and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Contemporary Art History and Graffiti/Street Art/Pop Culture collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Alessandra Mattanza (https://alessandramattanza.com) is a foreign correspondent, contributor, and editor for several publishers in Italy and Germany. Her previous books are "Street Art: Famous Artists Talk About Their Vision" and "Banksy".

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