I spent some time with a family member who is an artist and art teacher over the weekend. We had a lengthy discussion about his AP Art History class. He showed me the book — the kids should get PE credit just for having to carry the 20 lb book. (He said that he doesn’t have them bring it to school.) I would love to have this book, with its beautiful selection of photographs of art from around the globe and across the centuries.
I took two of his tests and scored well on them. I have obvious gaps in my art knowledge, but where the questions were concerning artists that I was familiar with, I rocked!
One of the questions was about Brancusi, so I had to tell about going to Brancusi’s studio, which has been recreated in a special building at the Centre Pompidou. I am fascinated by the studio: that the artist spent so much time arranging his pieces so that he could display them; that he lived in such a small area of the studio; that his bequest specified that the studio be recreated in its entirety; by the sculptures themselves, their clean, smooth surfaces that I just want to touch. Unfortunately, they are behind glass.
I took the pictures below two years ago when I was in Paris. Fortunately, I don’t have to go to Paris to see some of his sculptures. There is a set of them at MOMA that I may stop by to visit when I’m in NYC in a few weeks.
One of my favorites
I love this reclining head, and the red & blue artwork in the background
Some of the sculptures in their natural habitat
The part of the studio where Brancusi slept, ate and worked.
Maybe this is the time one appreciates eBooks and reading online. I suppose in the future, 20lb. textbooks will become an object of antiquity.
I love your photos here, esp. the studio, which is an art display itself. And how wonderful to go to NYC to actually visit the MOMA. I look forward to your NYC posts!
I don’t think that you would have the same quality in an ebook that you would in this text book. The paper was so lovely and all of the 4-color artwork. I think my BIL said that the book was >$200 and I’m not surprised.
MoMA is one of my favorite museums, but I didn’t make it there when I was in the City in August. This time though, it is high on my list of planned activities.
Love the reclining head! I remember my art history book from college, it was a monster of a book. Sometimes I wish I still had it but I sold it back after the class because I couldn’t imagine lugging it around for the rest of my life.
I don’t think that I have any of my books from college. Most of what I kept, I lost in the great basement flood of 2002. I still miss many of those books. But, I do have art catalogs from many exhibits I’ve been too, with the oldest one from an exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1979. I think I would have lugged this book around for many years. Maybe I can find one used.