Books, Arts & Photography, Schools, Periods & Styles, Prehistoric & Primitive

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Sharon Waxman
Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
by Times Books (Hardcover) (Release Date: 2008-10-28)

A journey across four continents to the heart of the conflict over who should own the great works of ancient artWhy are the Elgin Marbles in London and not on the Acropolis? Why do there seem to be as many mummies in France as there are in Egypt? Why are so many Etruscan masterworks in America? For the past two centuries, the West has been plundering the treasures of the ancient world to fill its great museums, but in recent years, the countries where ancient civilizations originated have begun to push back, taking museums to court, prosecuting curators, and threatening to force the return of these priceless objects.Where do these treasures rightly belong? Sharon Waxman, a former culture reporter for The New York Times and a longtime foreign correspondent, brings us inside this high-stakes conflict, examining the implications for the preservation of the objects themselves and for how we understand our shared cultural heritage. Her journey takes readers from the great cities of ...

Carol Strickland
The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern
by Andrews McMeel Publishing (Paperback)

This second edition of Carol Strickland's The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern offers an illustrated tutorial of prehistoric to post-modern art from cave paintings to video art installations to digital and Internet media.Featuring succinct page-length essays, instructive sidebars, and more than 300 photographs, The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern takes art history out of the realm of dreary textbooks, demystifies jargon and theory, and makes art accessible—even at a cursory reading. From Stonehenge to the Guggenheim and from Holbein to Warhol, more than 25,000 years of art is distilled into five sections covering a little more than 200 pages.

Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant
Subway Art
by Holt Paperbacks (Paperback)

Two gifted photographers have documented every aspect of this extraordinary urban subculture, complete with 239 full-color photographs.

Gregory Curtis
The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists
by Anchor (Paperback) (Release Date: 2007-10-09)

The Cave Painters is a vivid introduction to the spectacular cave paintings of France and Spain—the individuals who rediscovered them, theories about their origins, their splendor and mystery.Gergory Curtis makes us see the astonishing sophistication and power of the paintings and tells us what is known about their creators, the Cro-Magnon people of some 40,000 years ago. He takes us through various theories—that the art was part of fertility or hunting rituals, or used for religious purposes, or was clan mythology—examining the ways interpretations have changed over time. Rich in detail, personalities, and history, The Cave Painters is above all permeated with awe for those distant humans who developed—perhaps for the first time—both the ability for abstract thought and a profound and beautiful way to express it.

Mary Ellen Miller
The Art of Mesoamerica (World of Art)
by Thames & Hudson (Paperback)

"An essential guide to the art and architecture of ancient Central America."—Colonial Latin American Historical ReviewMary Ellen Miller evocatively surveys the artistic achievements of the high Precolumbian civilizations—Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Toltec, Aztec—as well as those of their less well-known contemporaries. Their pyramids and palaces, jades and brightly colored paintings emerge from these pages as vividly as when they first astonished Cortes's men in 1519.The fourth edition of this standard work includes exciting new discoveries, from Palenque, Mexico, where architecture and sculpture reveal a dramatic eighth century, to San Bartolo, Guatemala, where Maya paintings have riveted an international audience. Continuing hieroglyphic decipherments provide fresh insights. The revised edition of the Art of Mesoamerica is the ideal companion for art historians, students, and travelers alike. 220 illustrations, 136 in color.

Gisele Diaz, Alan Rodgers
The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript
by Dover Publications (Paperback)

First publication of remarkable repainting of outstanding Mexican codex (priceless original is in Vatican Library), thought to have originated in the Cholula area, ca. a.d. 1400. Seventy-six large full-color plates show an astounding array of gods, kings, warriors, mythical creatures and abstract designs. A work of rare power and beauty now available in this inexpensive, high-quality edition. Introduction.

David Lewis-Williams
The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
by Thames & Hudson (Paperback)

The breathtakingly beautiful art created deep inside the caves of western Europe has the power to dazzle even the most jaded observers. Emerging from the narrow underground passages into the chambers of caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira, visitors are confronted with symbols, patterns, and depictions of bison, woolly mammoths, ibexes, and other animals. Since its discovery, cave art has provoked great curiosity about why it appeared when and where it did, how it was made, and what it meant to the communities that created it. David Lewis-Williams proposes that the explanation for this lies in the evolution of the human mind. Cro-Magnons, unlike the Neanderthals, possessed a more advanced neurological makeup that enabled them to experience shamanistic trances and vivid mental imagery. It became important for people to "fix," or paint, these images on cave walls, which they perceived as the membrane between their world and the spirit world from which the visions came. ...

Elizabeth Wayland Barber
The Mummies of Urumchi
by W. W. Norton & Company (Hardcover)

William Manns, Peggy Shank, Marianne Stevens
Painted Ponies
by ZON International Publishing (Hardcover)

Painted Ponies is teh classic book of antique carousel art. This extraordinary coffee table style book presents the finest carving examples by the most renowned carousel artists. The rarest horses and most unique menagerie animals were selected from America's premier private collections and antique operating carousels. Painted Ponies contains useful guides, charts, and directories for collectors, carvers, artists, and enthusiasts. This book contains over 650 color photographs, 256 pages, 9"x11.5", deluxe hardcover edition.

Bill Holm
Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form (Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State M)
by University of Washington Press (Paperback)

"NORTHWEST COAST INDIAN ART is a very beautiful book and it is also an important contribution to the fields of art and anthropology, Its most distinguished feature is the author's sensitive yet scientific approach in coming firmly to grips with elements of art which often have been considered intangible".--THE BEAVER.

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