1. Mulier, E. Lettres
et Enseignes Art Nouveau. Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise): Ch. Juliot,
1901?
Green Library, Special Collections NK3625 .A73 M85 1900Z F
A rare and lavishly
illustrated volume on Art Nouveau typefaces along with designs
for common business signs. These typefaces, with their characteristically
ornate and asymmetrical qualities, enjoyed a revival in the 1960s,
and continue to influence the work of type designers today.
2.
Museo Espaĝol de Antiguedades bajo la Direccion del Doctor Don
Juan de Dios de la Rada y Delgado, con la ColaboraciÑn de los
Primeros Escritores y Artistas de Espaĝa. Madrid: T. Fortanet,
1872-1880. 11 v.
Art Locked Stacks Large DP44 .M87 1872 F
These extremely rare volumes constitute a monumental survey of Spanish
art in museums and private collections throughout Spain. The set
includes essays by leading Spanish writers and artists of the
day, along with hundreds of very fine lithographs and chromolithographs
showing works of decorative and fine art and architecture from
antiquity to the nineteenth century. This acquisition is interesting
from historiographic and book arts perspectives, since it reveals
the canonical aesthetic sensibilities of the 1870s, while also
embodying Spanish ideas about the presentation of art works in
the form of a deluxe catalogue.
3. Marl²s, J. de. Paris Ancien et Moderne, ou Histoire de France Divis³e
en Douze P³riodes Appliqu³es aux Douze Arrondissements de Paris,
et Justifi³e par les Monuments de cette Ville c³l³bre... Paris:
Parent-Desbarres, 1837-1838.
3 v. and an atlas.
Art Locked Stacks Medium DC707 .L25 1837
This set provides a major source of information on the city and architecture
of Paris before it underwent an enormous modernization campaign
orchestrated by urban planner Baron Georges Eugéne Haussmann.
Each volume features copious notes, and the atlas includes hundreds
of finely executed engraved and aquatint plates with drawings
of theaters, schools, hospitals, churches, and museums. Miniature
drawings of Parisians in nineteenth-century garb are integrated
into the urban surroundings, adding a humanizing perspective to
the architectural renderings.
4. Robert, Philippe. Feuilles d’Automne. Ried, Switzerland
: Edition Ph. Robert, [1909].
Art Locked Stacks Large NK1560 .R63 1909 FF
In this rare limited edition volume, Philippe Robert, a Franco-Swiss painter
(1881–1930), discusses color theory in his decorative paintings.
The text appears with lavishly colored borders, inspired in part
by Art Nouveau ornamentation. Each plate appears with a guard
sheet with descriptive letter press, and several photoengraved
color plates show botanical studies of autumn leaves from a variety
of trees and plants.
5. Lasinio, Carlo. Pitture a Fresco del Campo Santo di Pisa. Florence:
Bernardini, 1828.
Art Locked Stacks Large ND2757 .P57 L37 1828FF
This finely illustrated volume contains large engravings with some aquatint
showing interior and exterior views of frescoes at the Campo Santo
di Pisa, a structure which served as the burial grounds for the
cathedral complex at the Piazza del Duomo. The subject matter
of the frescoes, the earliest of which date from approximately
1330, include scenes from the Old Testament, as well as the Adoration
of the Magi and the Annunciation, the Story of Cain and Abel,
and the Story of Noah. The frescoes at the Campo Santo are generally
not well known due to the extensive damage the structure suffered
in WWII. The excellent quality of the plates that illustrate the
fresco cycles, each annotated in Italian and French and ornamented
with armorial emblems, make this volume an invaluable resource.
6. Duchamp, Marcel. Rotorelief: Disques Optique. [Paris]: Published
by the author in his studio, 11 rue Larey, n.d. First, unnumbered,
unsigned edition of 500 copies.
Green Library, Special Collections XX(4245697.1) RARE-BOOKS
Rotoreliefs
are six double-sided cardboard discs printed in color with 12
different compositions and titles and numbers printed in hand
at the edges. With a lifelong interest in visual perception, optical
illusions, and mechanical contraptions, Duchamp first presented
his Rotoreliefs at an inventors’ fair in Paris in
1935. When viewed with through a special viewer, or on a record
player rotating at a speed of 40-60 rpm, the disks reveal an optical
illusion of depth, or suggest three-dimensional objects such as
a balloon and a fish. The Rotoreliefs appear in Hans Richter’s
film Dreams That Money Can Buy and in Jean Cocteau’s
film, The Blood of a Poet, and in Duchamp’s seminal
1941 work, BŞite en Valise.
7. Ed Ruscha. Babycakes with Weights. CA: Ruscha, 1970.
Art Locked Stacks Small N7433.4 .R951 B11 1970
Billy Al Bengston and Ed Ruscha. Business Cards. Venice,
CA: Billy Al Bengston and Edward Ruscha, Inc., 1968.
Art Locked Stacks Small N7433.4 .B46 A4 1968
Ed Ruscha. Dutch Details. Stichting Octopus, 1971.
Art Locked Stacks Small N6537 .R8 A325 1971
Ed Ruscha. Records. Hollywood: Heavy Industry Publications,
1971.
Art Locked Stacks Small N7433.4 .R87 A4 1971A
Twenty Six Gasoline Stations. 2nd edition.
Alhambra, CA: Cunningham Press, 1962.
Art Locked Stacks
Small TR647 .R87 T84 1967
These five artists’
books by Ed Ruscha, document an important segment (1960s through
the early 1970s) of this widely acclaimed conceptual artist’s
career. Twenty Six Gasoline Stations (1962), created in
a style contrary to livres de luxe (limited-edition luxury
books) produced by artists earlier in the century, paved the way
for the consideration and acceptance of mass-produced artists’
books as a genre. Its straightforward series of black and white
photographs documenting gas stations on Route 40 between Los Angeles
and Oklahoma, is somewhat replicated in the equally characteristic
depictions of vinyl records and their covers in Records
(1971), babies and a variety of cakes and snack foods in Babycakes
with Weights (1970), bridges in Dutch Details (1971),
and business cards and photographs of people socializing in Business
Cards (1968).
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