Calder: An Autobiography with Pictures (1966)
Filed under book | Tags: · art, biography, circus, kinetic art, puppetry, sculpture
“Born in Philadelphia at the turn of the century, Alexander Calder was the son and grandson of renowned sculptors. Originally trained as an engineer, he turned to art in his twenties. From the early days of his famous wire circus performances all the way into the 1960s, marked by free floating forms of his stabile and mobile sculptures, Calder unfolds the story of his life. With the informality he was loved for, he talks as if he were reminiscing with his friends around a table with a carafe of wine, a loaf of bread, and a cut of cheese in front of them. And like wine, bread, and cheese these memoirs have genuineness, substance, and flavor. Numerous snapshots from his family album, many drawings by himself and his friends, letters, mementos, and a large selection of photographs of his works complete this rare document.” (from the book jacket, edited)
Publisher Pantheon Books, 1966
285 pages
PDF (72 MB, no OCR)
+ Watch Le Cirque de Calder, a film by Carlos Vilardebó, 18 min, 1961, on UbuWeb.
Comment (0)Calvin Tomkins: The World of Marcel Duchamp, 1887–1968 (1966/1972)
Filed under book | Tags: · art, art history, avant-garde, biography, collage, cubism, dada, drawing, installation, painting, surrealism
The book draws on interviews and materials gathered for Tomkins’ 1965 profile of Duchamp in The New Yorker. Fully illustrated, with color and black and white reproductions and photographs.
By Calvin Tomkins and the Editors of Time-Life Books
Publisher Time-Life Books, New York, 1966
Revised 1972
192 pages
PDF (56 MB, no OCR)
See also chapter on Duchamp in Tomkins’ The Bride and the Bachelors (1965/76) and his collected interviews with Duchamp ([1964] 2013).
Comment (0)Charles Rosen: Arnold Schoenberg (1975)
Filed under book | Tags: · biography, composition, expressionism, music, music history, music theory, serialism
In this lucid, revealing book, pianist and scholar Charles Rosen sheds light on the elusive music of Arnold Schoenberg and his challenge to conventional musical forms. Rosen argues that Schoenberg’s music, with its atonality and dissonance, possesses a rare balance of form and emotion, making it, according to Rosen, “the most expressive music ever written.” Concise and accessible, this book will appeal to fans, non-fans, and scholars of Schoenberg, and to those who have yet to be introduced to the works of one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century.
Publisher Viking Press, New York, 1975
ISBN 06701331617
113 pages
Review (Joel Sachs, The Musical Quarterly, 1977)
Review (Joseph Horowitz, Music Journal, 1976)
Review (Robert Craft, The New York Times, 1975)
PDF (17 MB, no OCR)
More works by and on Schoenberg (Monoskop wiki)