University of Texas Libraries
FAL
Staff Picks
The art of Harvey Kurtzman : the mad genius of comicsThank Harvey Kurtzman for Mad Magazine, if you are old enough to remember when it was good, or if not, for The Simpsons whose creators were influenced by him as youths. Or whatever hilarious subversive satire the kids are reading and watching these days. He was a subversive genius when it wasn’t so lucrative.
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009Wonderful photography and essays about an area that we usually see only from planes (landing at Newark Liberty) or from the road and rail links that cross it.
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009What a great new reference source! A much needed index of catalogues raisonnes, complete works of an artist.
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009The photographs in this book are beautiful, scene of New York without any people!
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009R.I.P., Mr. C.
modern dance would have been a different thing without you and it will never be the same.
Some amazing photographs of Americans and America.
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009a film by Kent De Spain, UT Theatre and Dance faculty member.
Date: Fri, 15 May 2009Interesting juxtaposition of photographs of the West.
Date: Fri, 15 May 2009From the 9/6/08 Times review by Michael Arditti: “He [Holroyd] creates a saga in which the glories of an older generation are dissipated by children.”
Date: Fri, 01 May 2009This book is full of beautiful and provocative photographs.
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009The heavier side of American Minimalism.
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009Quoting Eddy in the BBC’s Absolutely Fabulous, “Lacroix, darling.”
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009A resource for inspiration as well as a review of technique. This book has it all for the contemporary printmaker.
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009Hieronymous Bosch meets Julie Speed, paintings by a Chinese artist who now lives in Munich.
At right, “Kardinal II”; At left, “East Meets West,” collaborative self-portrait with Dietmar Gross
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009This DVD contains excellent documentary films of Partch’s music and workplace. Totally fascinating material.
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009An interesting documentary that provides excellent perspective into this omni-present font’s place in the world.
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009A good, perhaps overly detailed, analysis of Joni Mitchell’s works, from the beginning of her career through the most recent. Many of the descriptions of specific songs reminded me of my first connections with them – um, a few years ago!
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009An amazing contemporary artist that sculpture enthusiasts should know about…
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009Real, provocative, startling images.
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009Choreographer for musicals “The Pajama Game,” “Damn Yankees!,” “Sweet Charity,” “Cabaret,” “Pippin,” and “Chicago,” among others
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008These volumes in the Guide to Imagery series continue to be of use to students studying iconography. Over and over again, the answers to meanings of subjects within artworks are found in these volumes.
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008The Walker Art Center presents the exhibition Trisha Brown: So That the Audience Does Not Know Whether I Have Stopped Dancing, the centerpiece of a spectrum of programs honoring the 40-year career of this contemporary dance icon at a moment of increasing interest in the broad sweep of her work and its influence. Providing an in-depth look at Brown’s visual arts practice, the exhibition features a survey of the artist’s drawings going back thirty-five years, a live early performance work in the gallery, and videos of seminal early performances.”
from e-flux: http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/5332
Part 2 of this wildly successful and satisfying book series, which connects works art, architecture, and a variety of other disciplines through patterns.
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2008Vampire Weekend was far from the first group to incorporate African influence into snotty white kid music, and Radiohead was certainly not the first to try to sell their music on their own. The Homosexuals were a shifting group of punk rockers in the UK who set out to make avant garde music in a totally insular, outsider manner. The result was they self-released a ton of projects on their own label It’s War Boys that ultimately sound like they may be the best DIY, kitchen-sink pop recordings ever. Collected on three CDs in this set are all of the recordings they issued as The Homosexuals.
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2008A tragically beautiful mixture of musical theater and cinematography. Bjork stars as a factory worker fighting a losing battle to save her son’s vision. And she sings, too!
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2008From the publisher: “Presents 800 jewelry objects and drawings from 1960 through 2006 by more than 170 international jewelry artists in the Helen Williams Drutt Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Includes essays about Minimalist and Conceptual influences and the history behind the collection, a chronology, and artist biographies.”
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2008“When it was new, each of these music systems, now long obsolete, was state of the art, visionary, radically new and so revolutionary that it required extended explanations in response to common questions such as ‘Why would anyone ever want to do that?’ ” -Laurie Spiegel
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2008Here is Jack Nitzsche’s massive and beautiful orchestral work that brilliantly captures what’s compelling about the classical avant garde in the 20th century.
Most will recognize Nitzsche’s name for his work scoring films like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Performance” as well as arranging for Phil Spector, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, and pretty much everyone else too.
Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2008Finally we have a good selection of Sun Ra material. This is one of my favorites. Eloquent and odd jazz that’s deeply satisfying
Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2008For an eye-opening study of the market for art and why some artists are paid millions and others starve, this is a fascinating read. Full of gory detail about how dealers, auction houses, collectors and artists operate.
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2008Some very fine electronic music from Persia. A compilation spanning 40 years.
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2008Matthew Monteith’s images of the people and the environment of the Czech Republic are provocative. They both pull you in and keep you out. Some landscapes are pastoral and others are industrial. Portraits of individuals look right at you but you have no idea what they are thinking. I was mesmerized by the images in this book.
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008Interesting glimpse into the world during WWI-WWII and especially vaudeville life during this time.
p.s. Great fashions and costumes!
Date: Sat, 03 May 2008Interesting glimpse into the world during WWI-WWII and especially vaudeville life during this time.
p.s. Great fashions and costumes!
Date: Sat, 03 May 2008Some of the most genuinely enjoyable experimental film and videowork, bar none.
Date: Thu, 01 May 2008Recommended by Adam.
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008Biopic of Colorado’s favorite son/cannibal Alferd Packer; it’s an early effort by Southpark’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Wikipedia has a lot to say about it. This is a good example of what Wikipedia is good for. And an EXCELLENT illustration of the fact that it doesn’t have to be fine art to be available at the Fine Arts Library!
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008Almost all illustrations – drawings and photographs of SHOES!
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008An exhibition of object design since 1992, household objects that remind us that design is part of our everyday life. And I just love the title!
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008Three picks from different publishers and different years that we received within the last month or so; they could almost be companion volumes:
- A performer’s guide to Renaissance music
- A performer’s guide to music of the Baroque period
- A performer’s guide to music of the classical period
Three picks from different publishers and different years that we received within the last month or so; they could almost be companion volumes:
- A performer’s guide to Renaissance music
- A performer’s guide to music of the Baroque period
- A performer’s guide to music of the classical period
Three picks from different publishers and different years that we received within the last month or so; they could almost be companion volumes:
- A performer’s guide to Renaissance music
- A performer’s guide to music of the Baroque period
- A performer’s guide to music of the classical period
The director answered questions at a recent screening of this film. Wacky guys, wacky times, and Sam Shepard! www.boundtolose.com
Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2008“Meet the Silver Belles, five tap dancers who performed in the 1930s in Harlem at the famed Apollo and Cotton Club. Together again, they’re dancing to standing ovations and sharing stories of the Harlem Renaissance.”
How can you lose?
Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2008Finally after 13 years! A new edition of the we-need-to-find-a-sceners bible.
Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2008Superior vocal works from under the direction of Paul Hillier. Stimmung is scored specifically for voice, while his treatment of “In C” is a new and extremely well done approach to the piece.
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008I like it because it has a huge photo of part of the town of Aberystwyth including the Old College, where I studied, and also the house in which I lived for 3 years, and the building in which I had my natural food store! Also many other great photos of the sea along the coastlines of the 6 celtic countries.
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008This item was chosen as a Fine Arts Library Staff pick in June 2009.
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008The subject headings say it all:
Celebrities — United States — Portraits.
Seeds as art material — United States.
Two films by one of America’s most interesting composers and performers.
Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2007Two landmark films finally on DVD. Extreme exploration of image-making and storytelling.
Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2007Here is a great film from a once-local film maker (Bill Daniel) about box-car-writers …. was that the beginnings of graffiti? More at www.billdaniel.net/who_is_bozo_texino/info.
Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2007Not only a great biography of an incredibly important musician, it is also an interesting overview of rock from the sixties to the nineties.
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2007A surprising disc coming from this South American MC. Sounding something like an expert mixing of Keith Jarrett and Erik Satie (in his more imaginative stylings), Gonzales has made a thoroughly enjoyable and memorable album of piano sketches that are at turns elegiac, ecstatic, comatose. The sound quality of the recording leaves something to be desired (expect a small amount of background noise and damage if you turn it up) but it also adds its fair share of charm to the recording, coming across as a work of private, brilliant impulse. Odd, but a CD to play again and again.
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2007The chapter on Ruskin in the above de Botton book describes Ruskin’s view that drawing can teach us to see, and that everyone should draw.
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007How art has influenced what we consider beautiful in the world, and how an appreciation of art can enhance your travels and your life. “Although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so.”—from the jacket blurb
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007These three CD’s are performed by Antonio Florio and the Cappella de’ Turchini who are reviving baroque music of Naples.
These three CD’s are performed by Antonio Florio and the Cappella de’Turchini who are reviving baroque music of Naples.
These three CD’s are performed by Antonio Florio and the Cappella de’ Turchini who are reviving baroque music of Naples.
Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007A complete 6-hour performance of La Monte Young’s magnum opus for piano. Not as good a representation as is found on the out of print Gramavision 5CD box, which was stolen from us and which this version replaces, but still exquisitely beautiful piano that just doesn’t end. Also contains video of the performance.
If you like, you can do as I did and put it on on a Sunday afternoon playing through the stereo, leaving the TV off, then you have the option of surprising anyone who doesn’t know that you didn’t just happen to turn on the TV to a piano performance that perfectly matches what’s playing through the stereo…
edited by Judith Keller and Anne Lacoste; with essays by Kenneth A. Breisch, Bruce Wagner and Colin Westerbeck.
These photographs are great, so realistic and familiar. Simple and complex at the same time. I’m sorry I missed this exhibition that was at the Getty, but at least we have this great catalog!
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007. . . where Coltrane’s journey began . . .
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007She’s a great graphic/graffiti/figurative/musical artist, now deceased. If you like her, also check out Barry McGee, OsGemeos, Bill Daniel. Then look for the names they give you — and your journey begins.
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007Interesting insights into one of 20th century art’s best minds.
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007I’d like to recommend our newest Gershwin CD, “Porgy and Bess.“ Gershwin is always a classic, and that he wrote an opera when he did with this much style makes this worth a listen.
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007A wonderful 2 DVD set chronicling some of the most beloved film creations of this early master. The films range from aesthetically sublime animations to live dance, but really it all dances. There’s good reason this genre has come to be known as Visual Music.
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007Do you like reggae? If you do, you have to watch this great video that gives a glimpse of the reggae scene in Kingston, Jamaica. The footage of Trenchtown is revealing, especially contrasted with the luxurious parts of Kingston. Artists interviewed and performing include Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, Jacob Miller & Inner Circle, The Absyinnians, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Joe Higgs.
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007Beautiful renderings of Chemiakin’s costumes and scenery for the ballet
which premiered at Mariinsky Ballet in 2005.
About the dancer and the filmmaker. A nice accompaniment to the
Yvonne Rainer Collection series (DVD 4691- DVD 4697 Fine Arts Library)
Sondheim biography and the stories of eighteen Sondheim hit productions. Includes lots of color photos,
snippets of the librettos, and production history.
John Currin is one of the most skilled — and witty — painters working today. He uses paint like an old master, yet always keeps the current context evident. He is straightforward without being too academic, and never loses his sense of humor.
This monograph is substantial (382 pages), retrospective, and recent – exactly the kind of book we wish to have in our library about every contemporary artist.
This book explores eight theaters (The Living Theatre, The Open Theatre, At the Foot of the Mountain, The San Francisco Mime Troupe, El Teatro Campesino, The Free Southern Theater, The Performance Group, and Bread and Puppet Theater) that were significant in that period. The first section on each theater is a historical overview talking about the people who started the theater, what they were trying to do, and a description of how it evolved over time, and in most cases how the theater eventually went away. The second section discusses the contributions made by that theater to the overall subject of political theater. Finally an essay goes over the legacy of those contributions over the time since the sixties (and seventies). UT’s own Dr. Charlotte Canning writes this essay about At the Foot of the Mountain.
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007This book considers how western cultures’ understandings of racial, ethnic, and cultural differences have been incorporated into music from early operas to contemporary television advertisements, arguing that the commonly used term “exoticism” glosses over such differences in many studies of western music.
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007FAL has several issues. There’s also this website with links to other publications on the subject of world string art.
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007A reissue record label, has released Blue Gene Tyranny’s “Out of the Blue” and it is reviewed in the April issue of Wire. In the Boomerang section.
see also www.unseenworlds.net and www.myspace.com/unseenworlds
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007A great place to find new music, especially if Spin, NME, and Rolling Stone aren’t producing any worthwhile results for you. This British publication is always full of clearly written and interesting reviews of new (and old) music in most genres.
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007some recently acquired CDs
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007some recently acquired CDs
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007some recently acquired CDs
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007some recently acquired CDs
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007My favorite book in the library at the moment
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007I can spend hours looking at this set to find new things to look for on EBAY. Modern furniture, freaky looking electronics, as well as just classic designs. It is all in here.
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007This book contains the most inspiring and simply incredible modern structures that exist anywhere, including works by Herzog & de Meuron, who were, at one time the architects assigned to give us our new Blanton. Ah well.
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007by Amanda Eubanks Winkler Bloomington , 2006
Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007Discusses the design, meaning and purpose of public memorials built to commemorate wars and tragedies. This documentary asks: why do some memorials move us, why are others forgettable, what do they really mean, and are memorials still relevant today? The program covers a specific group of memorials, including: the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Pan Am Flight 103 Memorial Cairn, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and plans for the first African-American lynching monument (the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial), among others. Examines what we can learn from controversial memorials and the many complex issues involved in memorializing the victims of crimes against humanity and terrorism. Great example of Performance as Public Practice.
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007I saw this exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was blown away. The images are so real, so creepy. Through the portraits you get a true glimpse into the mindset, attitudes and experience of Germany during the ’20s. Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, and George Grosz are just a few of the artists featured. If you did not get to New York to see this show, you must see this exhibition catalogue.
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007People have called this self-proclaimed “Opera For Television” the first distinctly American opera. John Cage said expressed his favor in an over-the-top fashion, “Who needs the Bible? We have Perfect Lives.” In either case, the sentiment of an enlightening and utterly singular experience is well-placed. You won’t see any of the classical influence here except in its grand scope and ambition. Despite its low video production values, Perfect Lives truly shows a great potential for television accommodating high art, if it isn’t already a perfect fit.
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007Great photos!
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007