Product Description
In the years 1988-1995 the Japanese architect Tadao Ando built a museum complex complete with a hotel, restaurant and seminar rooms on the island Naoshima (Kagawa). Constructed out of concrete, its platforms and walls extend far out into the landscape, framing the natural surroundings as a picture. Ando's customary restraint in his selection of materials, and his preference for simple forms which allow the serenity of the surrounding land and seascape to penetrate the rooms are much in evidence in this masterpiece.

In this book, Werner Blaser has successfully captured the essence of tranquility so characteristic of Ando's architecture. His photographs are of an extraordinarily beautiful and reflective intensity. Also included is an introductory essay, drawing comparisons to Ando's other buildings which all succeed in combining nature and geometry. ... Read more

Product Description
The establishment of the Modern Greek state in the late 1820s, after four centuries of Ottoman rule, marks a crucial advance in the long history of the Greek nation. Inspired by their new sense of nationalism, the Greeks turned to their own rich architectural heritage - the physical ruins of whose glories stood all around them - for inspiration in building the towns and cities of the new Greek state. The development of this Neoclassical architecture in Greece had distant roots in the Enlightenment and the climate of Western humanism - including a predilection for the ancient world that pervaded eighteenth-century European thought. ... Read more

Product Description
A Guggenheim Museum PublicationDan Flavin (1933-1996) was hailed for his pioneering use of light and color divorced from traditional artistic contexts. Employing only commercial fluorescent lights, Flavin devised a radical new art form that circumvented the limits imposed by frames, pedestals, and other conventional means of display. His embrace of the unadorned fluorescent light as an aesthetic object placed him at the forefront of Minimal art.

This book, published on the occasion of an exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, draws upon the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's extensive holdings of Flavin's work, which includes representative examples of each of the formats he developed over the course of his career.

Flooded with color on every page, this volume provides a wide-ranging view of Flavin's work and intellectual thought, bringing together contributions by a number of critics and art historians, and including excerpted writings by the artist.illustrated in full color, 9 1/4 x 11 3/4"

J. FIONA RAGHEB is associate curator for Collections and Exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULEThe Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin Nov. 6, 1999-Feb. 13, 2000 ... Read more

Product Description
"If architecture fails, if it is pedestrian and lacks imagination and power, it tells only one story, that of its own making: how it was built, detailed, financed. But a great building, like great literature or poetry or music, can tell the story of the human soul. It can make us see the world in a wholly new way, change it forever." In 2007, the noted American architect Daniel Libeskind, quoted above, completed the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, his critically acclaimed addition to Canada's Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Situated among the ivy-covered colleges of the University of Toronto and a cluster of other cultural institutions that were transformed by Toronto's architectural reawakening early in the twenty-first century, Libeskind's new blockbuster exhibition space restores the logic of the museum's original Beaux Arts master plan. This volume analyzes the evolution of ROM's architecture and illuminates the buildings, old and new. ... Read more

Product Description
DESCRIPTION: In this simple and elegant counting book from the worldís most renowned museum, numbersare introduced to children through masterpieces of art. Each number from one to ten has four pages devoted to it. First, readers are invited to search for how many of a certain object they can find in a single piece of art. Then, they turn the page to discover four different works illustrating that number. Information about each piece of art and its creator appear in the back of the book. While kids practice counting, adults will love the cultural richness and educational value of this tour through the Metropolitan Museumís collection, from Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings and tenth century Iranian art to the work of Vincent Van Gogh and Homer Winslow. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Toddlers love it!
My grandson loves the trio of Metropolitan Museum books. He knows his colors, shapes, and numbers. This is a creative way to teach these concepts to little ones.

Great Intro to Art
The three (so far) books of this kind published by the MMA are an excellent introduction to art for small children.In this book artwork is grouped by numbers.It makes for a nice counting book for children.The artists, etc., are listed in the back making it easy for the parent to tell the children who the artist was and when the work was created.

Great idea but it didn't work.
I was so excited about these books and first of all I must say they are absolutely beautiful.However, that being said it is really hard for me to find the items in the pictures (art) they want you to count.I can't imagine how frustrating that would be for a child.

Art appreciation actually isn't intimidating!
With this absolutely beautiful book both children and adults can enjoy many different styles of art and play a counting game.I notice this book is suggested for older elementary school aged children.I know it is a big hit with my 6 year old even though she knows how to count extremely well.The art is very interesting and it is a fun game to search for what objects are the matching number for the page.As we go along we casually discuss what we like about the pictures, or what we don't like.We also discuss how some things look similar or very different.There is a very nice selection of art from America, Europe, India, China, Japan and Egypt.I think there is even something from Australia and Syria and Iran.I did not notice anything from South America or anything from Africa south of Egypt, my applogies if it is there and I missed it.I plan on reading this with preschoolers.It is my firm belief that one can not develop an appreciation of art if one does not see art.This is a very engaging way to explore the world of art.

very good counting book and more...
not only is this a very unique counting book but it allows you to share with your child fine art that they may not usually be exposed to.i use it as a counting book and an art book.it is an excellent gift to give someone as well. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (8)

wonderful adventure
this is a wonderful adventure to share with your kids - it's a lot of fun, and unlike anything we've read or seen before.

Beautiful, fun mazes
The perfect book for my maze-crazed 7 year old who hates to read.High quality product.Would recommend a version with reading be created, I think the rest is so enjoyable, the kids would be inspired to try and read it.

Of art and daydreams
Barbara Lehman [The Red Book] works her magic again in this offering. The lines between reality and imagination are blurred as a boy who is on a museum field trip finds himself lost. He comes upon a series of labyrinth drawings and shrinks and enters the mazes, before finally entering the real world again. Any kid who loves adventure [and which kid doesn't] will love this story. The illustrations too are wonderful and engaging.

neat
In this word less picture book a little boy and his class go on a field trip to the museum.Along the way the little boy gets separated from his class.Follow the young boy as he explores the museum on his on and see what fun things he encounters!




The book has no words so the "reader" gets to make up their own story as they look at the pictures!


Great for the preschool age group!Lots of fun things to point out and look for in the illustrations!

Stunning art, lyrical wordless story
A friend introduced me to Museum Trip and it's now my go-to-gift-book for children of all ages. The wordless adventure is accessible to kids young and old and the surprise ending sends them all back to the beginning again. Barbara Lehman's eye for detail astounds and delights: each page can be enjoyed over and over again. I can't wait to see what she does next! ... Read more

Product Description
A Companion to Museum Studies captures the multidisciplinary approaches to the study of the development, roles, and significance of museums in contemporary society. It is an indispensable reference for art historians, museum curators, and art and culture lovers.

• Collects first-rate original essays by leading figures from a range of disciplines and theoretical stances, including anthropology, art history, history, literature, sociology, cultural studies, and museum studies
• Examines the complexity of the museum from cultural, political, curatorial, historical and representational perspectives
• Covers traditional subjects, such as space, display, buildings, objects and collecting, and more contemporary challenges such as visiting, commerce, community and experimental exhibition forms

Product Description

Customer Reviews (13)

another interesting and surreal novel from Carroll
Harry Radcliffe lives a complicated life.He's a brilliant architect (if he does say so himself) who's recently recovered from a nervous breakdown.He has two mistresses and a demanding shaman, and now he's being corralled into designing the sultan of Saru's dog museum.Could things get more complicated?Oh yes they can, and do, under the skillful pen of Jonathan Carroll, American magical realist and author of fascinating, intricate novels about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

If you are familiar with Carroll, Outside the Dog Museum will be as good as you've come to expect from this fine author; if you are not familiar with Carroll, do your mind a favor and expand it a bit!

Also, check out the author's web site for short stories, plays, etc.:www.jonathancarroll.com

Jonathan Carroll's writing is just like caviar
Everyone tells you how good it is, and if you see it at a party you will almost certainly have some, but not many people will drive to the grocery store at midnight to get some.

I enjoyed the book and it certainly is well written and contains some absolutely wonderful turns of phrase but it just isn't something that I can get really wrapped up in.

The story basically just seems to go along until we reach the end. There are some revelations, some tragedy, some triumphbut in the end it just really doesn't do that much for me.

A fascinating literary trek into magical realism courtesy of Jonathan Carroll
When the likes of fantasy authors as diverse as Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub and Jonathan Lethem are praising Jonathan Carroll's work, offering it the finest compliments that they can muster, then you know that Carroll is an author worthy of your attention (All three provided memorable blurbs in the back cover of this book's paperback edition.). Truly, without question, Carroll is both a memorable writer and a fine literary stylist. However, at least not in "Outside the Dog Museum", should he be regarded as a writer of fantasy. Instead, I concur with another reviewer who noted that this novel is truly a philosophical novel draped in moments of magical realism. Carroll's usage of magical realism may not be as beguiling as those from the likes of Borges and Garcia Marquez for example, but nonetheless, he manages to do a fine job of it in this novel.

Caroll's fine prose is written in a breezy, almost conversational, style, that works well in his depictions of the protagonist, Pritzker Prize-winning architect Harry Radcliffe, and his intense personal and romantic relationship with both of his mistresses, Claire and Fanny, who know each other well. After winning his award - and recovering from a recent divorce through the aid of a bizarre mental therapist - Radcliffe is offered a commission by the Sultan of Saru - a fictitious Gulf State emirate - to be a dog museum in honor of the sultan's late father, the previous ruler of the emirate. What follows is a series of fascinating, and occasionally confusing, adventures and misadventures for Harry Radcliffe set in both the emirate and Vienna, Austria - where the museum is ultimately built. Not only must he contend with his complex personal relationships with both of his mistresses and his therapist, Harry is unexpectedly confronted with a fundamentalist Islamic rebellion against the Sultan of Saru within his emirate. Until the very end Carroll does a fine literary juggling act, but his less than memorable conclusion is the main reason why his fine novel isn't earning my highest praise.

Hmmm.What to think...
I liked it.I liked its hopefulness.It read a lot like The Wooden Sea.Sorry, but it does.

I've been reading his work since The Land of Laughs.I like what he does, but I have to say it's starting to get a little repetitive.Don't get me wrong: each novel is enjoyable, just a bit repetitive.

a dog of a book
the blurb on the back cover "Harry Radcliffe is a brilliant prize-winning architect--witty and remarkable"(Really?I'm Sooo impressed.)He's also a self-serving opportunist, ready to take advantage of whatever situation, and women, come his way."(A man who is READY!However ooops--) But now, newly divorced and having had an inexplicable" (mysterious) nervous breakdown,"(Not our hero!) "Harry is being wooed" (wooed, mind you) by the extremely wealthy"(I guess they mean really rich) "Sultan of Saru to design a billion dollar dog museum." (What a GREAT plot.The sultan, the dogs, remarkable Harry)In Saru he (Harry) finds himself in a world even madder and more unreal than the one he left behind" (Where did he live? Glendale?)"and as his obsession (Yes the obsession) grows, the powers of magic weave around him," (Like Harry Potter) "and the implications of his strange undertaking grow more and more ominous and astounding..."I could only get a ways into this epic before I realized I was crossing the line into madness myself. ... Read more

Product Description
Arata Iozaki is one of the most prolific and creative personalities in contemporary architecture. The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, arguably the architect's masterwork, was the first in a line of commissions for modern and contemporary art museums on a worldwide scale. Completed in 1974 it was refurbished and extended by Isozaki in 1994. The museum is located in the rural surroundings of the Gunma-no-Mori park, and is the most complete realization by Isozaki of conceptual architectural approach - a pristine, essential structure composed of an arrangement of cubes taking the form of a large rectangular block with projecting wings. The 1994 addition consists of a cube added to the main entrance facade housing the new Highvision Theatre, and a restaurant which occupies part of the area beneath one of the wings. ... Read more

Product Description
Presented within the pages of Museum Architecture is an astonishing array of buildings designed by architects of world renown. Many of these museums have already evolved into cultural symbols of the cities and regions where they are located, and represent major worked in the careers of their designers. Outstanding architectural talent, combined with financial largesse, both public and private, has resulted in a new wave of museums all over the world.

Through compelling photography, this beautiful volume examines the relationship of a museum to its site, context, and collections. It represents the museum structure as a dramatic backdrop for the art in contains, and looks at how the building itself is recognized as art within its own context. ... Read more

Product Description
A little book that celebrates a remarkable building. ... Read more

Product Description
Planning Successful Museum Building Projects provides comprehensive, practical guidance on planning, financing, implementing, managing, and evaluating all kinds of museum construction projects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Planning Successful Museum Building Projects
This is about the most comprehensive book on planning a successful Museum from the onset of the ideas and gathering information.Would have liked to see actual business plans that were submitted and show the actual completed Museum as a end result. ... Read more

Product Description
Museum ABC is a unique and colorful picture book that uses the alphabet to introduce children to more than a hundred works of art.A full spread is devoted to each letter of the alphabet and four pictures of the object represented.This simple presentation scheme allows readers to see how objects can be both the same and different in the eyes of various artists, cultures, and time periods.Children will be fascinated to discover that boats, roses, trees, or even windows can be so different from one another and from those they see every day.Adults will love the visual and cultural richness of this alphabetical tour through the Metropolitan Museum's collection.A fact section at the end of the book provides more details about each piece of art and its creator. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

the best ABC ever
My grandchildren began enjoying this book well before their first birthdays and loved them, almost always wanting to have them "read."The book is beautifully produced and introduces each letter with four works of art from the Met collection that exemplify the letter. "B," for example, is "boat" and the four art works are from different periods and styles but all have recognizable "boats" in them.I think that we "are what we see" and giving children such beautiful images as part of their mindscapes from early on is a wonderful gift.This book and its companions,Met shapes, colors, and numbers (which follow the same format but aren't quite as compelling as the letters) have been my baby gifts of choice for some time now.

The only ABC book you need
My daughters (4 and 3) love this book.The illustrations are taken from classical works of art and are extremely engaging.They love choosing their favorite pictures.The text is bold and my older daughter loved having me spell the words for her.By placing her finger on each letter, over and over, she was able to learn her ABC's.I would buy this book for any young child.

Almost perfect
This is really a great book and a great alphabet learning tool for toddlers. The letters are all presented in very large print and the art is very lovely. It's a good, unique book for a child since most other ABC books only have very basic pictures rather than famous masterpieces. The only complaint I have is that "M is for Monster". The monsters are not the Sesame Street variety, but are actually kind of creepy-looking beasts. Not the best choice for young children. We always sort of skip the letter M.

Not just for toddlers!
I recently visited Chicago and had time to visit their art museum.When I came home, my daughter was entranced with the pictures I had taken and the fact that I stood in front of famous paintings, like "American Gothic" and "Sunday in the Park".

She's turning 9 and I'm buying this book as a birthday gift for her.Most art books are limited to a single art style or artist and I wanted a broader range collected in one book.It's great to show the books to toddlers, but don't forget older children who are starting to develop a true interest in things outside their own little world.

Great idea, but...
The implementation lacks something to be desired.Maybe a version 2 will be better. ... Read more

Product Description

Reshaping Museum Space pulls together the views of an international group of museum professionals, architects, designers and academics highlights the complexity, significance and malleability of museum space,  and provides reflections upon recent developments in museum architecture and exhibition design.

Various chapters concentrate on the process of architectural and spatial reshaping, and the problems of navigating the often contradictory agendas and aspirations of the broad range of professionals and stakeholders involved in any new project.

Contributors review recent new build, expansion and exhibition projects questioning the types of museum space required at the beginning of the twenty-first century and highlighting a range of possibilities for creative museum design.

Essential reading for anyone involved in creating, designing and project managing the development of museum exhibits, and vital reading for students of the discipline.

Product Description
The original Getty Museum, housed in a replica of a Roman Villa on a site overlooking the Pacific Ocean, is one of Los Angeles's most treasured landmarks. Closed for almost ten years while renovations were made to the building and the site itself was transformed into a center for the study of antiquities and conservation, the Getty Villa is now set to open late in 2005. The Getty Villa is a lively history of the Getty Museum, its renowned antiquities collections, and its growth from a small museum in a ranch house in Malibu to its first home in a building designed to replicate what we know of the Villa dei Papiri, an ancient Roman villa partially uncovered in Herculaneum.Most engagingly, this book records the ten-year adventure in reconfiguring a beautiful, but topographically challenging, site into one that could continue to accommodate the splendid Museum building and also provide for an outdoor theater, laboratories for conservation work and research, offices for staff and visiting scholars, and an education program for adults and children. This is a story of architectural imagination, geographical challenges, and legal hurdles, all of which have resulted in a truly unique and beautiful site. The story is an enlightening and rewarding one for anyone interested in architecture and in the difficulties posed by building on a grand scale in the twenty-first century.Beautifully illustrated throughout, the book includes 250 reproductions of works of art, photographs of both the old and the new Getty Museum, site plans, and architectural elevations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

nice villa, but it had some drawbacks
At one level, this appears like a typical coffeetable art book. Large format, glossy pages and many detailed photos and illustrations. Certainly, you can treat it like that. Giving you several nice views of the Getty Villa over the last 30 years.

But True and her co-authors also provide a detailed history of how the villa was built. From the artistic aspirations of Getty to the legacy he left after his death. If you have already visited the villa, especially before the recent changes, then the text furnishes a neat counterpoint to your experiences. It points out that the villa was severely underserved with parking spaces. A key reason for that annoying requirement that you ring ahead to reserve a space. Another aspect was that entering the villa was often confusing, as the villa lacked a grand entrance.

To ameliorate these and other drawbacks is why the villa was shut for several years. Heavy and necessary upgrades. Plus, the new Getty Center was also being built elsewhere in Los Angeles.

The book has a hilarious anecdote. In 1993, there was a meeting at the Villa, for architects to decide on changes. A presentation was given about the last days of Pompeii and Heculaneum, before they were covered by volcanic ash. The presentation was because the Villa was inspired by excavations at those places. After the meeting, the people went outside, and saw fine white ashes fall from the sky! Was this an omen from the gods? Was Los Angeles to be destroyed by a volcano? Turned out, the ashes were from bushfires around Los Angeles, that had been raging for several days.

Seriously, though. If you are ever in Los Angeles, this book might inspire you to spend a leisurely afternoon at the Villa. It is really nice out there, by the Pacific. ... Read more

Product Description
Richard Meier, one of America's most influential and widely emulated architects, began his career in the early 1960s designing private residential projects, whose elegant modernist style and white facades have become icons of modern architecture. Renowned as the designer of large-scale works around the world, including the Jubilee Church in Rome and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, Meier has set an international style all his own based on the purity and power of his unique vision. This beautifully photographed volume is the first to document Meier's complete catalogue of museum and gallery projects, including the seminal High Museum in Atlanta (recently featured on a U.S. postage stamp in a series that includes the Guggenheim Museum and the Chrysler Building), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, the Getty Center, and the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome. Richard Meier Museums presents these and other celebrated projects in stunning full-color interior and exterior photography and extensive drawings and plans to give the fullest understanding of this modernist master's remarkable contribution to the art of museum design. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fantastic Read
Meier is one of the greatest modernist architects of our time and this is a great reference of his work.

CLASSIC MEIER
Richard Meier's work is so gorgeous and this book captures in perfectly, in vivid, crisp images and insightful text.Personally, I love all of Meier's work, but his Museums are where he guilds the lilly, but in a good way, because of the massive budgets, he can indulge, and he does.In the breathtaking Getty, he had a benefactor with unlimited resourses and he created, what most consider his signature building, which is given its due in this book. Meier's work is unique and so clean, he is known of course for his stark white moderne exteriors and generous use of glass and light, and to walk into one of his buildings is exhilarating.He is a singular architect and this book does his work justice.Highly recommended..if you where not a Meier fan before this book, I assure you you will be one after.Uh, whoever gave this review an unhelpful..has obviously never seen this book..or is an idiot with dubious taste. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A very choice collection
The reproductions in this book are very large and extremely beautiful. The Kimbell has limited its collection to first-rate masterpieces, mostly from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. There are also small but choice collections of African, Asian, and Mesoamerican art. In addition to the collections, the book contains extensive information and photos of their redesigned and expanded museum, the work of architect Louis Kahn. ... Read more

Product Description
Accademia di architettura
Mendrisio

This publication on the construction of the Kimbell Art Museum by Louis I. Kahn may prove very useful to students, and to anyone interested in gaining further knowledge of the distinctive features of the Kimbell museum. It documents the long and arduous quest that often characterizes a creative process-- even that of a great master such as Louis I. Kahn. The design of the Kimbell Art Museum is the product of extraordinary intuition, and results in a masterly synthesis that solves all the problems posed by the site and the specific purpose of the construction.

i Cataloghi dell'Accademia di architettura
2

The series "I Cataloghi" documents the exhibitions, i.e. reviews undertaken by the Academy of Architecture of the architectural works and events of the 20th century. The initial stages are dedicated primarily to a comparison between the principal figures of this century and contemporary emerging architects. This comparison attempts to trace the link that unites the birth and development of a theory to its subsequent concrete application, along the 'winding path' of research. The exhibitions and their accompanying catalogues aim to offer all readers, not only those attending the Academy, a review of architects and architectural works that have enriched and continue to enrich the discipline of building.
... Read more

Product Description
Frank Gehry's work has been described as "habitable sculpture". He is widely acknowledged as the father of the "Los Angeles School". Characterized by their collage-like complexity, their shifts in geometry and frequent use of utilitarian materials, Gehry's buildings blur the fine line that separates art and architecture. Recent work includes the widely acclaimed Vitra Design Museum at Wein am Rhein in Germany, and the bizarre "Fishdance" restaurant in Kobe, Japan. The California Aerospace Museum in Los Angeles exemplifies Gehry's irreverent, exploded-then-reassembled punk style. Irregular, angular forms break out of spatial boudaries, restructuring them in multi-layered, overlapping and antithetical ways. Gehry's witty approach is encapsulated by the aeroplane sculpture on the building's facade, appearing to soar into the blue Californian sky. ... Read more

Product Description
The Indiana State Museum, designed and built as homage to the citizens of Indiana, is one of the great buildings constructed in the state in the last half century. "An informed celebration" of vision, tenacity and teamwork, this book chronicles the events that turned a dream into the showcase structure that welcomes millions of visitors each year. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

INTERESTING
A great record of a building designed and built with heart.I think this book would be an excellent primer for those interested in architecture. ... Read more