The world's art heritage is under attack from the very people charged with its preservation, argues this important book, which has ignited controversy among art historians, curators, and restorers. In the world's museums and in towns and cities throughout Europe, misguided restoration efforts are having irreversible, often tragic effects on masterpieces by Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and many other artists. What roles do aesthetic, institutional, and commercial factors play in the decision to restore a work of art? How can we prevent or halt projects in which a work of art is not restored but irreparably damaged? James Beck and Michael Daley explore these questions in the context of restoration projects in Florence, at the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and in museums in France, England, and the United States. They sound an alarm that must be heeded if we are to preserve the world's art for future generations.

Don't miss The Pharos Gate, the final volume in the Griffin & Sabine story. Published simultaneously with the 25th-anniversary edition of Griffin & Sabine, the book finally shares what happened to the lovers.

Painter, designer, and filmmaker Salvador Dal (1904-1989) was one of the most colorful and controversial figures in 20th-century art. A pioneer of Surrealism, he was both praised and reviled for the subconscious imagery he projected into his paintings, which he sometimes referred to as "hand-painted dream photographs."
This early autobiography, which takes him through his late thirties, is as startling and unpredictable as his art. It is superbly illustrated with over 80 photographs of Dal and his works, and scores of Dal drawings and sketches. On its first publication, the reviewer of Books observed: "It is impossible not to admire this painter as writer. As a whole, he . . . communicates the snobbishness, self-adoration, comedy, seriousness, fanaticism, in short the concept of life and the total picture of himself he sets out to portray."
Dal 's flamboyant self-portrait begins with his earliest recollections and ends at the pinnacle of his earliest successes. His tantalizing chapter titles and headnotes -- among them "Intra-Uterine Memories," "Apprenticeship to Glory," "Permanent Expulsion from the School of Fine Arts," "Dandyism and Prison," "I am Disowned by my Family," "My Participation and my Position in the Surrealist Revolution," and "Discovery of the Apparatus for Photographing Thought" -- only hint at the compelling revelations to come.
Here are fascinating glimpses of the brilliant, ambitious, and relentlessly self-promoting artist who designed theater sets, shop interiors, and jewelry as readily as he made surrealistic paintings and films. Here is the mind that could envision and create with great technical virtuosity images of serene Raphaelesque beauty one moment and nightmarish landscapes of soft watches, burning giraffes, and fly-covered carcasses the next. For anyone interested in 20th-century art and one of its most gifted and charismatic figures, The Secret Life of Salvador Dal is must reading.

Arts and Crafts design, characterized by clean, graceful lines and solid workmanship with quality materials, has experienced an explosion of popularity over the past decade with museums, collectors, and the general public. William Morris, Gustav Stickley, and Frank Lloyd Wright are among some of the most well-known designers who produced furniture and architecture in the Arts and Crafts style, while many others produced ceramics, glass, textiles, wallpaper, and silverware in the same vein. A comprehensive survey of one of America's most enduring and popular interior design styles, reflecting both traditional and contemporary interpretations, this lavishly illustrated and informative volume begins with a discussion of the origins of the Arts and Crafts movement at the turn of the century and traces its evolution to the present day. Over 140 glorious, full-color photographs showcase the special beauty of this simple, graceful style and depict the hallmarks of its designimpeccable construction and proportions, the use of enduring woods, exquisite finishes, handwrought hardware, and other unique touchesin every object pictured, all in the context of contemporary homes. From a New York estate filled with rare Roycraft pieces to a Beverly Hills mansion furnished in Mission oak, the book not only provides a rare glimpse into the collector's world but offers a visual blueprint for incorporating this engaging style into any household, a source index explains how to identify original pieces and directs the consumer to places where both authentic and reproduction Arts and Crafts furniture and objects can be obtained. An invaluable and inspirational reference for decorators and collectors at all levels, "In the Arts and Crafts Style" combines splendid photography and an enlightening text into a treasured, one-of-a-kind volume as classic and timeless as the style to which it pays tribute.

For writers, painters, or performers in any field, new hope for overcoming creative blocks and finishing the art of their dreams.

The definitive chronicle of the origins of French avant-garde literature and art, Roger Shattuck's classic portrays the cultural bohemia of turn-of-the-century Paris who carried the arts into a period of renewal and accomplishment and laid the groundwork for Dadaism and Surrealism. Shattuck focuses on the careers of Alfred Jarry, Henri Rousseau, Erik Satie, and Guillaume Apollinaire, using the quartet as window into the era as he exploring a culture whose influence is at the very foundation of modern art.

A loosely formed autobiography by Andy Warhol, told with his trademark blend of irony and detachment

In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol--which, with the subtitle (From A to B and Back Again), is less a memoir than a collection of riffs and reflections--he talks about love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, and success; about New York, America, and his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania; about his good times and bad in New York, the explosion of his career in the sixties, and his life among celebrities.

Mary Cassatt's paintings and prints have long been treasured as some of the finest examples of Impressionist art. A rebel by the Victorian standards of her time, Mary Cassatt moved from the art schools of staid Philadelphia to the boulevards of Paris, where the young Impressionist movement was flourishing. Degas, her friend and mentor, encouraged her involvement in the new art movement.

Grace loves stories, whether they're from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be. Remarkable watercolor illustrations give full expression to Grace's high-flying imagination.

With this provocative and infinitely moving collection of essays, a preeminent critic of our time responds to the profound questions posed by the visual world. For when Booker Prize-winning author John Berger writes about Cubism, he writes not only of Braque, L ger, Picasso, and Gris, but of that incredible moment early in this century when the world converged around a marvelous sense of promise. When he looks at the Modigliani, he sees a man's infinite love revealed in the elongated lines of the painted figure.