art

Joseph H. Hirshhorn, founding donor of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, was an avid collector and supporter of Picasso. The two became friends after being introduced by photographer Edward Steichen. The original dark purple cloth publisher's binding of this monograph is embossed with a gold gilt facsimile of Picasso’s signature.

Joseph H. Hirshhorn, founding donor of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, was an avid collector and supporter of Pablo Picasso. The two became friends after being introduced by photographer Edward Steichen.

Embroidery is an important art in China with examples found from as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1027–221 B.C.). One of the most well-known pieces of Chinese embroidery is a 10th century A.D. textile piece discovered in the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang. There are also fine pieces from the Song dynasty. Traditional embroidery is still practiced in many areas of China. The Chinese government has designated four schools of Chinese embroidery as Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The late-16th century was the golden age of Japanese screen painting, both literally and figuratively. The Momoyama period (1573-1615) was also an age of monumental architecture, with feudal lords building forts and castles of a size unprecedented in Japan. The great masters of the art of screen painting who were called upon to decorate the interiors of these large buildings filled them with screens of bold and innovative aesthetics, some with gold leaf covering their entire surfaces. Japan had a well-established tradition of incorporating gold leaf into art and decorative work.

The British Punitive Expedition against the Kingdom of Benin in 1897 spawned an outpouring of curiosity about this African kingdom, its stunning bronze sculpture (confiscated booty), and its tyrannical king. H. Long Roth’s Great Benin is one of the classic pieces of literature written about Benin. It is not a product of direct observation—the author never traveled in West Africa—but rather of careful research on eyewitness accounts and museum collections.

This charming binder served as the exhibition catalog for Man Ray’s second show at the Hanover Gallery in London (April-May 1969). The exhibition featured mid-career painting and sculpture from the 1940s and 50s, with clear stylistic references to Man Ray’s peers, such as De Chirico, Picabia, and Kandinsky. The metal ring binder is polished aluminum, silk-screened in bright red. The yellow-bordered pages include an essay by Man Ray, 17 illustrations (7 in full color), and a checklist.

Los Angeles-based video artist Doug Aitken is known for his multi-screen environments projected onto iconic buildings, including the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum in 2012. In the spring of 2007, Aitken premiered the video projection Sleepwalkers on seven facades of the Museum of Modern Art in midtown Manhattan. Four years later, Aitken partnered with Princeton Architectural Press and DFA Records to create a multimedia artist’s box based on Sleepwalkers.

Although black—the color that contains all colors—has been American sculptor Louise Nevelson’s signature color, the artist began incorporating white and gold into her work in the 1960s. This announcement for an exhibition of sculptures by Nevelson at The Pace Gallery, New York, October 23-November 28, 1992, reflects her limited palette. Reproductions of her assemblage sculptures are presented in three die-cut printed pop-ups, printed in silver and gold. Nevelson herself is pictured in a silver-printed portrait on the front cover. The entire elegant presentation is ribbon-tied.

The Tate’s Seven Exhibitions (February 24–March 23, 1972) was a seminal event which marked the arrival of conceptual art in Britain. The seven overlapping exhibitions were organized by Michael Compton, and included works by Keith Arnatt, Michael Craig-Martin, Hamish Fulton, Bob Law, Bruce McLean, David Tremlett, and Joseph Beuys. The exhibition included photographs, films, tape recordings, and a public lecture by Beuys on direct democracy, which also marked the first time the Tate displayed mixed media.

This catalog was published in conjunction with the two-part exhibition “Paul McCarthy's Low Life Slow Life,” curated by the artist, which took place at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts on the San Francisco campus of California College of the Arts from 2008-2009. Packaged as a recreation of a vintage Tide detergent box circa 1973, this publication was designed by McCarthy to serve as an extension of the show and as an artwork in itself.

"'Yumechigae.' According to the dictionary, this means: A charm to divert misfortune after experiencing a nightmare." Thus opens the essay to this exquisite exhibition catalog for a solo show of Japanese artist Tabaimo’s work at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, in the summer of 2003. Tabaimo is a contemporary Japanese artist whose immersive video installations evoke Japanese woodblock prints (Ukiyo-e), manga, and anime to express the anxieties underpinning Japanese society in an age of globalization.

Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) created detailed and elaborate etchings illustrating the antiquities of Rome as well as a fictitious and atmospheric series entitled Carceri d'invenzione (Imaginary Prisons). The Smithsonian Libraries is fortunate to own several first-editions of Piranesi’s publications, including his book on fireplaces and mantels entitled Diversi Maniere d'Adornare i Cammini and “vedute” or views of Rome, an example of which is this 1761 folio.

The muted colors and illustrative style of the Arts & Crafts movement period are featured in this color trade catalog from 1912-13. The company focused on making large wallpaper friezes, and was one of the first companies to develop a washable color wallpaper printed with oils that could be cleaned with a damp cloth or sponge. It was called San-kro-mura, the “sanitary” wall covering. The company produced wallpaper with panoramic views of mountains, deserts, forests, lakes, and scenic narratives of folklore and history.

This is a rare 1935 portfolio of Art Deco style pochoir printed full-color plates of designs for modern interiors. Among the designers whose work is represented in this portfolio are Francis Jourdain, Pierre Chareau, Georges Djo-Bourgeois, and the author, Henry Delacroix himself. Living rooms, children’s rooms, bedrooms, offices, dining rooms, and libraries are included, along with the room’s furnishings, such as furniture, lighting, and decorative accessories.

Cassandre, pseudonym of Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron (1901 –1968), was a French painter, commercial poster artist, and typeface designer whose inventive graphic techniques show influences of Surrealism and Cubism. He was very popular in Europe and the United States during the 1930s. In 1935, Cassandre signed an exclusive contract with the firm of Draeger Freres for the French editions of his posters. Draeger, a French printer who published some of the masterpieces of French design was a pioneer of advertising.

This beautifully illustrated English version of the German Die Wiener Werkstätte, 1903-1928 : Modernes Kunstgewerbe und Sein Weg, commemorates the artists and design of the Wiener Werkstätte - a production community of visual artists founded by Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann which was active in Vienna from 1903 to 1928. The book is an artistic novelty, or "Kachelband," designed by Mathilde Flögl (1893-1950), inspired by Hoffman and incorporating innovative use of typography, layout, and bold colors such as gold, silver, red, and black.

Christophe Huet (1700-1759), French artist of the Rococo period, illustrated this rare first edition depicting examples of “singerie.” Singerie, derived from the French word “monkey trick," a visual genre which features fashionably attired monkeys humorously imitating human behavior became a popular and amusing diversion for the upper classes in 18th century France. Singerie were depicted in paintings by such artists as Jean-Antoine Watteau as well as motifs in marquetry, textiles, and porcelain.

This first and only edition of the earliest book on decorative arts designer Dagobert Peche (1881-1923), written by art historian and Vienna University professor Max Eisler (1881-1937), includes 100 full plates of Peche’s designs for lamps, glass, textiles, ceramics, jewelry, silverware, wallpaper, and interiors. Peche became artistic director of the Wiener Werkstätte in 1915, a production community of visual artists founded by Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann in Vienna in 1903.

This is an illustrated catalog of the significant glass collection of Felix Slade (1790-1868), noted philanthropist, bibliophile, and collector of engravings and etchings, whose scholarships formed the London Slade School of Art. He prepared the Slade Catalogue of his glass collection, edited after his death, which he hoped would “be useful in encouraging the study and practice of this country (England)." In the preface, he explains his early attraction to Venetian glass, and expanded his scope to include specimens of various ages and countries.

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library owns over 4,000 photographs by American photographer and journalist Thérèse Bonney, (1894-1978), who documented life in Paris from 1925-35.

This is a first edition of an important pattern book containing 31 chromolithographics designed by Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852) and inspired by design forms found in nature. Pugin, best known as the designer of the interiors of Houses of Parliament (1836-1868) in collaboration with Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860), was a proponent of Neo-Gothic as a national style for England.

Owen Jones (1809-1874), one of the most influential English architects, designers, and design theorists of the nineteenth century, wrote this book. Jones selected 100 full-color plates sourced from the motifs of Chinese ceramics, cloisonné works, and carpet designs. In the preface, Jones notes that these magnificent works of Chinese ornament had rarely been seen before the 1860s, describing them as "remarkable, not only for the perfection and skill shown in the technical processes, but also for the beauty and harmony of the colouring, and general perfection of the ornamentation.”

Contrary to what one might expect a calico button to be, such as a calico cloth covered button, this book refers to a china button with printed calico designs. A calico textile pattern was printed in ink on paper that was then laid on top of a tray of fired china buttons. As the tray made a second trip through the kiln, heat transferred the inked pattern onto the surface of the button and the paper was burned away. The author, Mr. Wilfred Morgan, was the first person to publish a catalog of calico button patterns.

El Lissitzky (1890-1941) was a Russian avant-garde artist, designer, photographer, typographer, and architect whose work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and constructivist movements. His experimentation with techniques and styles went on to dominate 20th Century graphic design. Lissitzky designed this cover of Wendingen, an international Dutch magazine focusing on modern architecture, art, and design from 1918-1931. This issue was dedicated entirely to Frank Lloyd Wright with text by H.P.

Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-1877) was a British architect and art historian who championed the role of the designer in the manufacturing process. He was most famous for his two volume work, The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century, which he composed as Secretary of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

This beautifully illustrated and rare--actually, first and only edition folio--is a study of the subject matter depicted on a Roman glass cameo vase (AD1-AD25) called the Portland Vase. The Portland Vase inspired glass and porcelain makers including Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) who produced a duplicate in black and white jasperware in 1790. Discovered in the sarcophagus of Emperor Alexander Severus near Rome in 1582, the vase passed through the Barberini family, British ambassador Sir William Hamilton, and finally to the 2nd & 3rd Dukes of Portland who gave it to the British Museum. Auth

This extremely rare 1940 trade catalog represents the output of 10 state owned ceramics factories in small towns and villages all over the Ukraine after industry was nationalized in 1918. Today, we are more familiar with the graphic arts of Communist Russia as vehicles for propaganda, such as posters. The decorative arts of utilitarian objects, like the tableware featured in this catalog, were also important vehicles for disseminating political concepts of the new social order and Soviet nationalism to the masses in everyday life.