All these new books are available to be checked out by putting a request for them to be sent to a branch. See previous posts for details.
Art History, Design
Discovering Caravaggio: The Art Lover’s Guide to Understanding Symbols in his Paintings by Stefano Zuffi
Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, Berlin: 100 Masterpieces by Dietrich Wildung
Legal Guide for the Visual Artist by Tad Crawford
Pop: How Graphic Design Shapes Popular Culture by Steven Heller
Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Masters, new expanded edition by David Hockney
Architecture
Architecture in the Balkans: From Diocletian to Suleyman the Magnificent by Slobodan Curcic
Beyond Modernist Masters: Contemporary Architecture in Latin America by Felipe Hernandez
Heart-Made: The Cutting Edge of Chinese Contemporary Architecture
Shigeru Ban: Paper in Architecture
Venice: An Architectural Guide by Richard J. Goy
Movies, Theater, Dance, TV
Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy by Saul Austerlitz
D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation: A History of “The Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time” by Melvyn Stokes
The New Business of Acting by Brad Lemack
Photography
The Digital Eye: Photographic Art in the Electronic Age by Sylvia Wolf
Antiques, Collectibles
Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass: Identification and Values, 7th edition by Mike Carwile
December 17, 2010
December 1, 2010
Latest Acquisitions
Remember, you can still check these books out. You just have to put in a request for them to be sent to one of our branches. Find more details at the first New Books post, dated Nov. 4, 2010.
Art History, Design
Constable by Jonathan Clarkson
Grant Wood: A Life by R. Tripp Evans
Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine by John T. Spike
Architecture / Planning / Landscape
Architect: The Work of the Pritzker Prize Laureates in their own Words by Ruth Peltason
The Architecture of Harry Weese by Robert Bruegmann
The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer
Marina City: Bertrand Goldberg’s Urban Vision by Igor Marjanovic and Katerina Ray
MAXXI: Zaha Hadid Architects
The Trouble with City Planning: What New Orleans Can Teach Us by Kristina Ford.
Music
The Music of Django Reinhardt by Benjamin Marx Givan
The New York Philharmonic: From Bernstein to Maazel by John Canarina
Antiques and Collectibles
Antique Porcelain Boxes: Identification and Value Guide by Jim and Susan Harran
Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, 12th Edition
Art History, Design
Constable by Jonathan Clarkson
Grant Wood: A Life by R. Tripp Evans
Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine by John T. Spike
Architecture / Planning / Landscape
Architect: The Work of the Pritzker Prize Laureates in their own Words by Ruth Peltason
The Architecture of Harry Weese by Robert Bruegmann
The Curves of Time: The Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer
Marina City: Bertrand Goldberg’s Urban Vision by Igor Marjanovic and Katerina Ray
MAXXI: Zaha Hadid Architects
The Trouble with City Planning: What New Orleans Can Teach Us by Kristina Ford.
Music
The Music of Django Reinhardt by Benjamin Marx Givan
The New York Philharmonic: From Bernstein to Maazel by John Canarina
Antiques and Collectibles
Antique Porcelain Boxes: Identification and Value Guide by Jim and Susan Harran
Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, 12th Edition
November 19, 2010
More New Books!
At the start of our fiscal year, October 1, we were able to order many great new books, and they are coming in now. All you have to do is put a request on them through our catalog (found at www.slpl.org) and have them sent to the branch of your choice. Enjoy!
Art History, Design
Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention by Mason Klein
American Modern by Thomas O’Brien
At Home with 'Town & Country'
Dada in Paris by Michel Sanouillet
Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria by Henry John Drewal
In the Studios of Paris: William Bouguereau and his American Students by James F. Peck
Islamic Arts from Spain by Mariam Rosser-Owen
My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic by Charles Saatchi
Picasso Looks at Degas by Elizabeth Cowling
Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum by Elizabeth V. Warren
Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine by John T. Spike
Architecture / Planning / Landscape
Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture by Alanna Stang
Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age by Kathryn E. Holliday
New Architecture in Japan by Yuki Sumner
Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey by James Ackerman et al.
Tadao Ando, Venice: The Pinault Collection at the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana by Philip Jodidio
Music
Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage by Kenneth Silverman
Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy by Ken Sharp
We want Miles : Miles Davis ed. by Vincent Bessières, et al.
Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed our World by Norman Lebrecht
A Wizard, A True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio by Paul Myers
Photography
Steichen in Color: Portraits, Fashion and Experiments
Art History, Design
Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention by Mason Klein
American Modern by Thomas O’Brien
At Home with 'Town & Country'
Dada in Paris by Michel Sanouillet
Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria by Henry John Drewal
In the Studios of Paris: William Bouguereau and his American Students by James F. Peck
Islamic Arts from Spain by Mariam Rosser-Owen
My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic by Charles Saatchi
Picasso Looks at Degas by Elizabeth Cowling
Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum by Elizabeth V. Warren
Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine by John T. Spike
Architecture / Planning / Landscape
Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture by Alanna Stang
Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age by Kathryn E. Holliday
Mr. Hamilton’s Elysium: The Gardens of Painshill by Michael Symes
Morris Lapidus: The Architecture of Joy by Deborah DesiletsNew Architecture in Japan by Yuki Sumner
Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey by James Ackerman et al.
Tadao Ando, Venice: The Pinault Collection at the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana by Philip Jodidio
Music
Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage by Kenneth Silverman
Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy by Ken Sharp
We want Miles : Miles Davis ed. by Vincent Bessières, et al.
Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed our World by Norman Lebrecht
A Wizard, A True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio by Paul Myers
Photography
Steichen in Color: Portraits, Fashion and Experiments
November 4, 2010
New Books!
Even though we are closed to the public, we are still ordering books that we hope will be of interest to our patrons. Although they will be housed at our temporary storage location, they are available to be checked out -- just request them, then pick them up at any branch. Here is a list of some of the books we have acquired recently:
Art History, Design
Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds, and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures by Philip Mould.
Artistic Leather of the Arts & Crafts Era by Daniel Lees
Born Modern: The Life and Design of Alvin Lustig by Steven Heller
Chess Masterpieces: 1000 Years of Extraordinary Chess Sets by George Dean
Fifty Years of Painting by Ed Ruscha
Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement by Kevin Tucker
How to Read World History in Art by Flavio Febbraro
Large Scale: Fabricating Sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s by Jonathan D. Lippincott.
Prendergast in Italy by Nancy Mowll Mathews
Renoir in the 20th Century (major exhibition catalogue)
Storytelling Time: Native North American Art from the Collections of the University of North Dakota
String Felt Thread: The Heirarchy of Art and Craft in American Art by Elissa Auther
Telling Stories: Philip Guston’s Later Works by David Kaufmann
Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color by Patricia Marshall
Architecture
Architecture on the Edge of Postmodernism: Collected Essays, 1964-1988 by Robert A. M. Stern.
Gyo Obata: Architect, Clients, Reflections by Marlene Ann Birkman and Gyo Obata
Hariri & Hariri Architecture: Buildings and Projects
Norman Foster: A Life in Architecture by Deyen Sudjic
Robert Adam: The Search for a Modern Classicism by Richard John
Tadao Ando Venice: The Pinault Collection at the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana by Philip Jodidio
Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village: The Creation of an Architectural Masterpiece, revised ed. by Richard Guy Wilson
Music
Amore: The Story of Italian American Song by Mark Rotella
Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label by Mick Houghton
Deutsche Grammophone: State of the Art, 1898 – Present; Celebrating over a Century of Musical Excellence
Hard Luck Blues: Roots Music Photographs from the Great Depression by Rich Remsberg
Listen to This by Alex Ross
Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling by Marcus Gray
The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings by Thomas Larson.
Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins by Bob Blumenthal, photos by John Abbott
Some Liked It Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928 - 1959 by Kristin A McGee
Movies, Theater, Dance, TV
Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes, 1909-1929; Art, Music, Dance. (Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum).
Hail, Hail Euphoria: Presenting the Marx brothers in Duck Soup, The Greatest War Movie Ever Made by Roy Blount, Jr.
Harry Potter Collector’s Handbook by William Silvester
Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide, 2nd Edition.
Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb
Photography
The Gersheim Collection / Harry Ransom Center by Roy Flukinger
Hard Luck Blues: Roots Music Photographs from the Great Depression by Rich Remsberg
Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins by Bob Blumenthal, photos by John Abbott
Antiques & Collectibles
Harry Potter Collector’s Handbook by William Silvester
Valentines: A Collector’s Guide 1700s – 1950s by Barbara Johnson
Art History, Design
Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds, and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures by Philip Mould.
Artistic Leather of the Arts & Crafts Era by Daniel Lees
Born Modern: The Life and Design of Alvin Lustig by Steven Heller
Chess Masterpieces: 1000 Years of Extraordinary Chess Sets by George Dean
Fifty Years of Painting by Ed Ruscha
Gustav Stickley and the American Arts & Crafts Movement by Kevin Tucker
How to Read World History in Art by Flavio Febbraro
Large Scale: Fabricating Sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s by Jonathan D. Lippincott.
Prendergast in Italy by Nancy Mowll Mathews
Renoir in the 20th Century (major exhibition catalogue)
Storytelling Time: Native North American Art from the Collections of the University of North Dakota
String Felt Thread: The Heirarchy of Art and Craft in American Art by Elissa Auther
Telling Stories: Philip Guston’s Later Works by David Kaufmann
Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color by Patricia Marshall
Architecture
Architecture on the Edge of Postmodernism: Collected Essays, 1964-1988 by Robert A. M. Stern.
Gyo Obata: Architect, Clients, Reflections by Marlene Ann Birkman and Gyo Obata
Hariri & Hariri Architecture: Buildings and Projects
Norman Foster: A Life in Architecture by Deyen Sudjic
Robert Adam: The Search for a Modern Classicism by Richard John
Tadao Ando Venice: The Pinault Collection at the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana by Philip Jodidio
Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village: The Creation of an Architectural Masterpiece, revised ed. by Richard Guy Wilson
Music
Amore: The Story of Italian American Song by Mark Rotella
Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label by Mick Houghton
Deutsche Grammophone: State of the Art, 1898 – Present; Celebrating over a Century of Musical Excellence
Hard Luck Blues: Roots Music Photographs from the Great Depression by Rich Remsberg
Listen to This by Alex Ross
Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling by Marcus Gray
The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings by Thomas Larson.
Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins by Bob Blumenthal, photos by John Abbott
Some Liked It Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928 - 1959 by Kristin A McGee
Movies, Theater, Dance, TV
Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes, 1909-1929; Art, Music, Dance. (Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum).
Hail, Hail Euphoria: Presenting the Marx brothers in Duck Soup, The Greatest War Movie Ever Made by Roy Blount, Jr.
Harry Potter Collector’s Handbook by William Silvester
Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide, 2nd Edition.
Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb
Photography
The Gersheim Collection / Harry Ransom Center by Roy Flukinger
Hard Luck Blues: Roots Music Photographs from the Great Depression by Rich Remsberg
Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins by Bob Blumenthal, photos by John Abbott
Antiques & Collectibles
Harry Potter Collector’s Handbook by William Silvester
Valentines: A Collector’s Guide 1700s – 1950s by Barbara Johnson
June 12, 2010
Central Library Closed for Renovation
The Central Library building of the St. Louis Public Library has closed for a two-year restoration and renovation. The Fine Arts department's circulating books may be requested and picked up at any SLPL branch. The staff will not be available during this time; please call the library's Information Center at 314-241-2288 with questions. See the library's website, www.slpl.org, for more details and progress reports.
May 11, 2010
Moravian Pottery Tile Fireplace at Central Library, St. Louis
The charming tile fireplace in the room now occupied by Central Library's Teen Room was produced by the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. This company was one of the leading Arts & Crafts style tile producers at the time the Central Library building was built (ca. 1912). Its tiles and mosaics can still be seen in both public and private locations across the country. This is one example of architect Cass Gilbert and the city of St. Louis choosing the highest quality materials for their new library.
Henry Chapman Mercer had founded the Tile Works in 1898, and quickly gained a national reputation. He won a Grand Prize for “Original Objects of Art Workmanship” at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 (St. Louis’ own World’s Fair).
The tiles are marked with the company’s distinctive mark, an intertwined “MOR”. The central three-panel mosaic depicts scenes of Native American activities, including “Starting a Fire”. These images were favorites of Mercer, who was also a pioneer scholar in American anthropology and archaeology. The fireplace also features many individual tile designs based on those he had discovered in Medieval and Renaissance buildings in Europe. The whimsical “Centaur of Nuremberg”, and the more stylized “Little Castle” and “Fleur de Lys” tiles are of this type.
When the Central Library building opened, this room was the Children’s Room, with the fireplace serving as a gathering place for story times and other activities.
Henry Chapman Mercer had founded the Tile Works in 1898, and quickly gained a national reputation. He won a Grand Prize for “Original Objects of Art Workmanship” at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 (St. Louis’ own World’s Fair).
The tiles are marked with the company’s distinctive mark, an intertwined “MOR”. The central three-panel mosaic depicts scenes of Native American activities, including “Starting a Fire”. These images were favorites of Mercer, who was also a pioneer scholar in American anthropology and archaeology. The fireplace also features many individual tile designs based on those he had discovered in Medieval and Renaissance buildings in Europe. The whimsical “Centaur of Nuremberg”, and the more stylized “Little Castle” and “Fleur de Lys” tiles are of this type.
When the Central Library building opened, this room was the Children’s Room, with the fireplace serving as a gathering place for story times and other activities.
Photo courtesy of Melinda Stuart, taken in April 2010
April 6, 2010
The Ceilings of Central Library
Don’t forget to look up when you visit the two-story high second floor of Central Library, or you’ll miss some of the most striking decorations of the building. Before entering from the Olive Street stairs, notice the ceiling of the entrance portico. Its sparkling glass mosaics feature trees, owls, and eagles.
The entrance hall’s ceiling (shown above) is painted in muted tones that mirror those of the marble that supports it. Portraits of King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis), the explorer Hernando De Soto, inventor of movable type Johann Gutenberg, and influential early printer Aldus Manutius appear between floral decorative motifs.
To the right, the ceiling of the Business, Government Information, Law, and Language Room is a reproduction of the graceful garland designs of one of the most renowned libraries in the world, the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy. The powerful Medici family commissioned Michelangelo to design their library in 1523.
Across the entry hall, the Fine Arts Room ceiling is also based on a Florentine one, that of the abbey of Florence, La Badia. Molded plaster is painted to resemble the original’s dark wood, dating from the early 17th century. Lurking within the ivy scrollwork and deeply recessed geometric patterns are grimacing “green men”, mysterious symbols of the natural world.
The ceiling of the Great Hall is perhaps the most spectacular of them all – a coffered High Renaissance expanse of golden rosettes within red octagons set in gold squares. The chandeliers hanging from this ceiling are the only surviving original lighting of the building.
Flanking the Great Hall, the Entertainment, Literature, and Biography Room and the Social Sciences Room are both adorned with wooden beamed ceilings charmingly painted with various symbols of knowledge and learning such as owls, dolphins, cornucopias, and torches.
The entrance hall’s ceiling (shown above) is painted in muted tones that mirror those of the marble that supports it. Portraits of King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis), the explorer Hernando De Soto, inventor of movable type Johann Gutenberg, and influential early printer Aldus Manutius appear between floral decorative motifs.
To the right, the ceiling of the Business, Government Information, Law, and Language Room is a reproduction of the graceful garland designs of one of the most renowned libraries in the world, the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy. The powerful Medici family commissioned Michelangelo to design their library in 1523.
Across the entry hall, the Fine Arts Room ceiling is also based on a Florentine one, that of the abbey of Florence, La Badia. Molded plaster is painted to resemble the original’s dark wood, dating from the early 17th century. Lurking within the ivy scrollwork and deeply recessed geometric patterns are grimacing “green men”, mysterious symbols of the natural world.
The ceiling of the Great Hall is perhaps the most spectacular of them all – a coffered High Renaissance expanse of golden rosettes within red octagons set in gold squares. The chandeliers hanging from this ceiling are the only surviving original lighting of the building.
Flanking the Great Hall, the Entertainment, Literature, and Biography Room and the Social Sciences Room are both adorned with wooden beamed ceilings charmingly painted with various symbols of knowledge and learning such as owls, dolphins, cornucopias, and torches.
March 19, 2010
St. Louis Area Artists Files
Do you know the story behind the two murals depicting the history of aviation at Lambert airport? Do you have an old portrait of a family member and wonder if it was painted by a notable local artist? The Fine Arts department’s Local Artists Files can help you find the answers to these and other questions related to area art and artists.
The department has been collecting information on local area artists since the early 20th century. Hundreds of files, containing thousands of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, exhibition lists, questionnaires, gallery announcements, and other documents have been collected over the years, and the Fine Arts staff continues to create new files and add to existing ones. These files are housed in the Fine Arts Reading Room at Central Library, where they can be viewed in person. These archival materials cannot be checked out, but they can be photocopied.
About those airport murals: the files on the artists, Siegfried Reinhardt, Spencer Taylor and Solomon Thurman, contain newspaper clippings that tell the story of the murals from the time the Reinhardt mural was originally designed and executed, through the controversy it aroused, to the finished second mural by Taylor and Thurman. On a more personal level, many St. Louisans have portraits of family members painted by local artists. One such artist was Armin Stock, a successful local portraitist who had a prolific career in the mid-20th century. His file contains articles from the 1950s and 1960s that include his photo and some of his work, plus his obituary from 2003.
The staff of the Fine Arts Department will be happy to help you find information about local artists through our WebRef e-mail service (webref@slpl.org).
The department has been collecting information on local area artists since the early 20th century. Hundreds of files, containing thousands of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, exhibition lists, questionnaires, gallery announcements, and other documents have been collected over the years, and the Fine Arts staff continues to create new files and add to existing ones. These files are housed in the Fine Arts Reading Room at Central Library, where they can be viewed in person. These archival materials cannot be checked out, but they can be photocopied.
About those airport murals: the files on the artists, Siegfried Reinhardt, Spencer Taylor and Solomon Thurman, contain newspaper clippings that tell the story of the murals from the time the Reinhardt mural was originally designed and executed, through the controversy it aroused, to the finished second mural by Taylor and Thurman. On a more personal level, many St. Louisans have portraits of family members painted by local artists. One such artist was Armin Stock, a successful local portraitist who had a prolific career in the mid-20th century. His file contains articles from the 1950s and 1960s that include his photo and some of his work, plus his obituary from 2003.
The staff of the Fine Arts Department will be happy to help you find information about local artists through our WebRef e-mail service (webref@slpl.org).
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