Thursday, October 13, 2016

Thursday's Three on Art

Today's Thursday's Three spotlights a trio of recently published of forthcoming art-related books.

Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging the Two Cultures (Columbia University Press, August 30, 2016) ~ Neuroscientist and author Eric R. Kandel, who earlier published the fascinating study The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present (Random House, 2012), examines in his new book how artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko used a reductionist approach, analogous to that used by scientists to resolve complex problems, to "[explore] the nature of visual representation by reducing images to their essential elements of form, line, color, or light", thereby impelling a shift in perspective from modern art to abstract expressionism. Kandel is known for his elegant, absorbable prose.


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Columbia University Press Page for Reductionism in Art and Brain Science  (This page includes the book's introduction.)


The Artist's Estate: a Handboook for Artists, Executors and Heirs (Hatje Cantz, September 2016; U.S. Edition, Octoer 25, 2016) ~ Edited by Loretta Wurtenberger, who advises artists and artists' estates through her business Fine Art PartnersThe Artist's Estate covers legal estate concepts, alternatives for maintaining an artist's estate, appropriate financing models, recommendations for handling work, archives, and ephemera after an artist's death, and other topics related to structuring, managing, and preserving an artist's estate.


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Hatje Cantz Page for The Artist's Estate

Hatje Cantz on FaceBook

Read extracts from the handbook at The Art Newspaper.

Barns and Portrait Paintings (University of Arkansas Press/Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, September 1, 2016) ~ Featured in his most recent book are Fayetteville-based George Dombek's paintings of rustic barns from each of Arkansas's 75 counties. The watercolorist, who trained as an architect and is also a sculptor, includes as well his "portraits" of found objects. Henry Adams, art professor, Case Western Reserve University; Laura M. Terry, architecture professor, Fay Jones School of Architecture, University of Arkansas; and Louis A. Zona, art writer and lecturer, contribute commentary. The 200-page book includes 122 images.


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Kathy Chin Leong, "In the Studio: George Dombek", Western Art & Architecture, December 2013/January 2014

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