The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art

The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art
Author: Noah Charney
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2017-10-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0393248399

“Readers curious about the making of Renaissance art, its cast of characters and political intrigue, will find much to relish in these pages.” —Wall Street Journal Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a man of many talents—a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar—but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, which singlehandedly established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari’s extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari’s visionary writings that Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift. Lauded by Sarah Bakewell as “insightful, gripping, and thoroughly enjoyable,” The Collector of Lives reveals how one Renaissance scholar completely redefined how we look at art.

The Collector of Lives

The Collector of Lives
Author: Noah Charney
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-11-20
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0393356361

“Readers curious about the making of Renaissance art, its cast of characters and political intrigue, will find much to relish in these pages.” —Wall Street Journal Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a man of many talents—a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar—but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, which singlehandedly established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari’s extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari’s visionary writings that Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift. Lauded by Sarah Bakewell as “insightful, gripping, and thoroughly enjoyable,” The Collector of Lives reveals how one Renaissance scholar completely redefined how we look at art.

The Collector's Apprentice

The Collector's Apprentice
Author: B. A. Shapiro
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2019-06-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1616209801

The bestselling author of The Art Forger and The Muralist delivers a page-turning historical thriller of art and revenge, of history and love, that will transport readers to 1920s Paris and America. It’s the summer of 1922, and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris—broke, disowned, and completely alone. Everyone in Belgium, including her own family, believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiancé, George Everard. To protect herself from the law and the wrath of those who lost everything, she creates a new identity, a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby, and sets out to recover her father’s art collection, prove her innocence—and exact revenge on George. When the eccentric and wealthy American art collector Edwin Bradley offers Vivienne the perfect job, she is soon caught up in the Parisian world of post-Impressionists and expatriates—including Gertrude Stein and Henri Matisse, with whom Vivienne becomes romantically entwined. As she travels between Paris and Philadelphia, where Bradley is building an art museum, her life becomes even more complicated: George returns with unclear motives . . . and then Vivienne is arrested for Bradley’s murder. B. A. Shapiro has made the historical art thriller her own. In The Collector’s Apprentice, she gives us an unforgettable tale about the lengths to which people will go for their obsession, whether it be art, money, love, or vengeance.

The Collector of Leftover Souls

The Collector of Leftover Souls
Author: Eliane Brum
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1644451042

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature Urgent investigative essays covering a wide range of humanity in Brazil, from the Amazon to the favelas Eliane Brum is a star journalist in Brazil, known for her polyphonic writing that gives voice to people often underrepresented in popular literature. Brum’s reporting takes her into Brazil’s most marginalized communities: she visits the Amazon to understand the practice of indigenous midwives, stays in São Paulo’s favelas to witness the joy of a marriage and the tragedy of young men dying due to drugs and guns, and wades through the mud to capture the boom and bust of modern-day gold rushes. Brum is an enormously sensitive and perceptive interlocutor, and as she visits these places she provides intimate glimpses into both everyday and extraordinary lives: a poor father on the way to bury his son, a street performer who eats glass, a woman living out her final 115 days, and a hoarder rescuing the “leftover souls” of the city. The Collector of Leftover Souls showcases the best of Brum’s work from two books, combining short profiles with longer reported pieces. These vibrant missives range across current issues such as the human cost of exploiting natural resources, the Belo Monté Dam’s eradication of a way of life for those on the banks of the Xingu River, and the contrast between urban centers and remote villages. Told in the vibrant and idiomatic language of the people Brum writes about, The Collector of Leftover Souls is a vital work of investigative journalism from an internationally acclaimed author.

Lost Lives, Lost Art

Lost Lives, Lost Art
Author: Melissa Muller
Publisher: Vendome Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780865652637

The legendary names include Rothschild, Mendelssohn, Bloch-Bauer--distinguished bankers, industrialists, diplomats, and art collectors. Their diverse taste ranged from manuscripts and musical instru­ments to paintings by Old Masters and the avant-garde. But their stigma as Jews in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe doomed them to exile or death in Hitler's concentration camps. Here, after years of meticulous research, Melissa Müller (Anne Frank: The Biography) and Monika Tatzkow (Nazi Looted Art) present the tragic, compelling stories of 15 Jewish collectors, the dispersal of their extraordinary collections through forced sale and/or confiscation, and the ongoing efforts of their heirs to recover their inheritance. For every victory in the effort to return these works to their rightful heirs, there are daunting defeats and long court battles. This real-life legal thriller follows works by Rembrandt, Klimt, Pissarro, Kandinsky, and others. Praise for Lost Lives, Lost Art: "A heartbreaking and enthralling story of the brutal and mindless Nazi destruction of a singularly cultivated caste of rich German and Austrian Jews and the pillage of their great art collections: a world that was lost and could never be recreated." ~ Louis Begley "Each chapter focuses on a single collector. . . the adulatory profiles [are] matched with an attractive layout and an abundance of well-selected images." ~ Wall Street Journal "The book is meticulously researched, brilliantly and dispassionately written, and is in all likelihood a game changer in the world of art, art provenance, and art restitution that will resound for years to come."~ ForeWord Reviews "Richly illustrated with excellent art reproductions and family photographs, this is a solid addition to works on Nazi art plundering and the world of art restitution, ownership, and property rights. This will be of great interest to readers wanting to know more about upper-class Austrian and German Jews. Recommended." ~ Library Journal

Hector the Collector

Hector the Collector
Author: Emily Beeny
Publisher:
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2017-07-03
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 162672296X

Hector the Collector celebrates one young animal's love of collecting and explores how collections can grow into some of the most breathtaking museums in the world.

Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono
Author: Nell Beram
Publisher: ABRAMS
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2013-02-01
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 1613125135

This lyrical biography explores the life and art of Yoko Ono, from her childhood haiku to her avant-garde visual art and experimental music. An outcast throughout most of her life, and misunderstood by every group she was supposed to belong to, Yoko always followed her own unique vision to create art that was ahead of its time and would later be celebrated. Her focus remained on being an artist, even when the rest of world saw her only as the wife of John Lennon. Yoko Ono’s moving story will inspire any young adult who has ever felt like an outsider, or who is developing or questioning ideas about being an artist, to follow their dreams and find beauty in all that surrounds them.

The Story Collector

The Story Collector
Author: Kristin O'Donnell Tubb
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2018-08-28
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1250143810

"For every book lover who fantasized about getting locked in the library overnight,The Story Collectoris a dream come true!"—New York Times-bestselling author Alan Gratz In the tradition of E. L. Konisburg, this middle-grade mystery adventure is inspired by the real life of Viviani Joffre Fedeler, born and raised in the New York Public Library. The Story Collector by Kristin O'Donnell Tubb is a middle-grade historical fiction inspired by the real life of Viviani Fedeler. Eleven-year-old Viviani Fedeler has spent her whole life in the New York Public Library. She knows every room by heart, except the ones her father keeps locked. When Viviani becomes convinced that the library is haunted, new girl Merit Mubarak makes fun of her. So Viviani decides to play a harmless little prank, roping her older brothers and best friend Eva to help out. But what begins as a joke quickly gets out of hand, and soon Viviani and her friends have to solve two big mysteries: Is the Library truly haunted? And what happened to the expensive new stamp collection? It's up to Viviani, Eva, and Merit (reluctantly) to find out.

Drawings

Drawings
Author: Dorian Vallejo
Publisher:
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2010-05-15
Genre: Figurative drawing, American
ISBN: 9780984303403

For Dorian Vallejo, drawing is an integral part of the creative process. The drawings selected for this volume represent some of the work he does from life. They offer a glimpse of his art done solely for the pleasure of creative research and the visual expression of ideas.In part, they owe their roots to the centuries old tradition of academic figure drawing. However, they are not a strict adherent of any school in particular. Instead, that tradition is used as a point of departure.Here we view drawings that seek to capture visually, a distinct feeling, tone or mood. In some cases the figure is used in a symbolic manner, hinting at phases or streams of conscious awareness that are present as we trail off into sleep. In other cases the symbolism is a visual interpretation of the dual nature of our existence. Still, other drawings are experiments in movement and over lapping forms. Also represented, are several gestures that display the characteristic beauty inherent in the tangible expressions of rapid creation.In this collection of drawings are many avenues of thought allowing for a view into the birth of ideas that may later become paintings. One consistently present element is Vallejo?s appreciation for the beauty of life and the feminine in particular. With rare exception his subjects in this volume are all women represented in the bloom of youth. There is a feeling that these beautiful young women who paused for a brief moment to be immortalized, in spite of the ever changing flux of life, will grace us with the memory of their essence, like the flowers of spring.In every one of these drawings is clearly a mind wholly, completely and faithfully committed to the pursuit of excellence. This book, the first devoted to the artwork of Dorian Vallejo will be a treasured prize in the libraries of all who love art.

The Art Collector

The Art Collector
Author: Jan Wahl
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2011-07-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1607342987

Oscar loves looking at the art Great-Granny creates. But his own drawings never look the way he wants them to. So instead of making art, he decides to collect art. Over the years Oscar's room becomes filled with beautiful paintings and drawings in every style and color. His collection grows and grows and grows until a museum needs to be built to house it all.