Cover Up That Nude Book Cover, Thomas Gainsborough's Here!

NOTED IN THE NEWS-

- Design: Don't judge a book by its cover, particularly in France : "Music albums are sold across the world inside a universal sleeve, blockbuster films branded in a singular style. But novels, by a convention that nobody in the publishing industry seems fully able to explain, must be re-jacketed from territory to territory. It inspires all kinds of illustrative madness, and makes browsing foreign bookshelves a fascinating – often bewildering – experience..." read the whole story


- David Hockney turns the iPad into an art form : "The iPad is not yet available in the UK – but it seems one famous Yorkshire resident is already up and running with Apple's latest device. David Hockney, one of the most influential British artists of the past century, has already been using the Brushes application on the device to draw pictures and email the results to friends..." read more

- Rare nude sketch by Constable discovered : "A sketch of a naked woman by John Constable that was hidden away for more than a century – apparently because it was considered too risqué – has sold for four times its estimated valuation. The pencil drawing featuring a bare bottom was placed in an album of other work by the English artist but had a dinner invitation pasted over it..." Read the entire, un-covered story


ARTS ALMANAC-

May 14, 1727: Thomas Gainsborough, English painter, was baptized. "Gainsborough was noted for the speed with which he applied his paint, and he worked more from his observations of nature (and of human nature) than from any application of formal academic rules. The poetic sensibility of his paintings caused Constable to say, "On looking at them, we find tears in our eyes and know not what brings them." He himself said, "I'm sick of portraits, and wish very much to take my viol-da-gam and walk off to some sweet village, where I can paint landskips (sic) and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease."

May 14, 1885: Otto Klemperer, German-born conductor and composer widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century, was born. "In 1933, once the Nazi Party had reached power, Klemperer, who was Jewish, left Germany and moved to the United States. In the U.S. he was appointed Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Following the end of World War II, Klemperer returned to Continental Europe to work at the Budapest Opera (1947-1950). Finding Communist rule in Hungary increasingly irksome, he became an itinerant conductor, guest conducting the Royal Danish Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, WDR Orchestra Köln, Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Philharmonia of London. In 1954 London-based producer Walter Legge recorded Klemperer in Beethoven, Brahms and much else with his hand-picked orchestra, the Philharmonia, for the EMI label."


IN OUR STORE-

“Exposed. The Victorian Nude”

Edited by Alison Smith.

Published by Watson-Guptill Publications in 2002.

“This sumptuous and sensual volume focuses primarily on painting, though it does include drawings, sculpture, and early forms of photography and silent film stills. [Alison] Smith, whose Victorian Nude: Sexuality, Morality, and Art provided a broad cultural context of the topic, showcases work by John Singer Sargent, Frederic Leighton, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and others.... The unlikely juxtaposition of Victorian mores with nude imagery provides an alternate sensibility to Victorian England, both enlightening the mind and pleasing the eye. Three richly illustrated essays by Smith, Martin Myrone, and Michael Hyatt frame the work.”

$25.00

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