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- <text id=91TT2794>
- <title>
- Dec. 16, 1991: O Come All Ye Faithful Readers
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Dec. 16, 1991 The Smile of Freedom
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BOOKS, Page 81
- O Come All Ye Faithful Readers
- </hdr><body>
- <p>From fossils to cuff links, Kuwait to Hollywood, Mickey Mouse to
- Michelangelo, here is something for everyone
- </p>
- <p>By Stefan Kanfer and Richard Stengel
- </p>
- <p> THE LAST WILDERNESS by the Canadian Nature Federation and
- Freeman Patterson (Rizzoli; $50)
- </p>
- <p> One hundred and forty photographs equal one editorial. It
- argues eloquently for the preservation of Canada's vast but
- endangered forests, locales where fish school in crystalline
- water and polar bears wander over surfaces as yet unmarked by
- the snowmobile.
- </p>
- <p> THE PRADO by Santiago Alcolea Blanch (Abrams; $95)
- </p>
- <p> No wonder connoisseurs call it the museum lover's museum.
- The Madrid structure has works by virtually every consequential
- artist, from the medieval masters to the Italian, Flemish and
- Dutch schools to Spain's most prominent painter, Picasso, whose
- monumental Guernica has come home after nearly 50 years of
- exile.
- </p>
- <p> ISLAMIC ART AND PATRONAGE edited by Esin Atil (Rizzoli; $65)
- </p>
- <p> More than 100 of Kuwait's artistic treasures are on view
- in this extraordinary exhibit without walls. It demonstrates
- anew that war is not the Middle East's only legacy. The region
- remains a primary font of religious and aesthetic genius.
- </p>
- <p> APPEARANCES by Martin Harrison (Rizzoli; $65)
- </p>
- <p> Style is substance, and fashion follows form in this
- collection of strikingly seductive fashion photographs since
- 1945. From Richard Avedon's dramatic compositions to Irving
- Penn's crisp images to Deborah Turbeville's diaphanous
- fantasies, these images reflect the vision of the photographer
- far more than the fashions they are designed to sell.
- </p>
- <p> BEDS by Diane Von Furstenberg and Stewart O'Shields
- (Bantam; $35)
- </p>
- <p> The bed has always been the still point of a turning life.
- From the plush regal litter of the empress Josephine to the
- spartan mattress of the painter Francesco Clemente to the
- author's own seductive boudoir, the beds depicted in this dreamy
- book are not simply places to sleep but shrines to art,
- imagination and fantasy.
- </p>
- <p> THE SISTINE CHAPEL by Frederick Hartt, Fabrizio Mancinelli
- and Gianluigi Colalucci (Knopf; two volumes; $1,000)
- </p>
- <p> Michelangelo's mission was to reveal the beauty of God's
- creation; these books reveal the beauty of Michelangelo's
- creation. Scholars once spoke of the artist's "sober coloring."
- These sumptuous volumes, depicting the chapel's restoration,
- reveal just how wrong they were.
- </p>
- <p> THE ATLANTIC SALMON FLY by Judith Dunham and John Clayton
- (Chronicle Books; $39.95)
- </p>
- <p> Forget the fish, the flies that attract them are so
- exquisite it seems a sin to get them wet. With such tantalizing
- names as Silver Monkey, Colonel's Lady, Pompadour and Easy Off,
- the flies in this beautifully photographed book are the real
- trophies that should be mounted on the wall.
- </p>
- <p> CUFF LINKS by Susan Jonas and Marilyn Nissenson (Abrams;
- $35)
- </p>
- <p> Since the 18th century, cuff links have been the way for
- a man to wear his art on his sleeve. They bring a touch of
- elegance to the male uniform of tuxedo or business suit. This
- richly illustrated book, which features cuff links ranging from
- the sporty--fishing flies under crystal--to the fanciful--a
- pair of gold nuts and bolts--will make every man yearn for
- French cuffs.
- </p>
- <p> THE ART OF MICKEY MOUSE edited by Craig Yoe and Janet
- Morra-Yoe (Hyperion; $35)
- </p>
- <p> Andy Warhol draws and quarters him on silk screen. Bob
- Buccella places Mickey's hat on Van Gogh--minus one ear. Keith
- Haring and many other artists similarly deconstruct their
- subject, but Disney's founding rodent keeps smiling, confident
- that he will outlast them all.
- </p>
- <p> THE CELTS edited by Sabatino Moscati, Otto Hermann Frey,
- Venceslas Kruta, Barry Raftery and Miklos Szabo (Rizzoli; $85)
- </p>
- <p> To the people of ancient Greece and Rome, the Celtic world
- B.C. was narrow and barbaric. Actually it reached from the
- British Isles to Asia Minor and had a highly developed
- civilization--as shown by finely wrought objects in bronze,
- silver and glass.
- </p>
- <p> A DAY IN THE LIFE OF IRELAND (Collins; $45)
- </p>
- <p> On May 17, 1991, 75 photojournalists fanned out over the
- Emerald Isle for a period of 24 hours. The resulting contrasts
- are lyric enough for poetry (brides and nuns, musicians and
- farmers) or too bitter for words (glowering British soldiers in
- Belfast, homeless Dubliners sheltering in an abandoned car).
- </p>
- <p> GEMS OF COSTUME JEWELRY by Gabriele Greindl (Abbeville; $65)
- </p>
- <p> Rhinestone, long a synonym for the meretricious, has its
- reputation restored in a glamorous collection of brooches,
- necklaces, tiaras, shoe buckles, bracelets and earrings. Then
- again, even Styrofoam would glitter on such icons as Marlene
- Dietrich, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.
- </p>
- <p> THE AMERICAN BILLBOARD 100 YEARS by James Fraser (Abrams;
- $49.50)
- </p>
- <p> The billboard seems just the right size for the American
- landscape, while its boldness seems the perfect mirror for the
- American sensibility. From the sentimental images that sold soap
- in the 1920s through the stark, wordless Nike billboards of
- today, this book traces the evolution of a quintessential form
- of American advertising.
- </p>
- <p> THE SPLENDOR OF FRANCE by Laure Maurat and Roberto Schezen
- (Rizzoli; $110)
- </p>
- <p> Some 40 very private residences are opened to voyeurs of
- exquisite architecture, interiors, private wineries and
- landscaped gardens. Fully restored after centuries of war and
- revolution, these chateaus prove that when the French say a
- man's home is his castle, they mean it literally.
- </p>
- <p> ACTING HOLLYWOOD STYLE by Foster Hirsch (Abrams; $60)
- </p>
- <p> In dazzling photographs and sprightly prose, Acting
- Hollywood Style probes how and why movie stars move us. The
- author dissects Hollywood acting through discussions of body
- language, voice and the landscape of the face--how we read
- emotions into the luminous but blank gaze of Greta Garbo.
- </p>
- <p> FOSSILS by Niles Eldredge and Murray Alcosser (Abrams; $60)
- </p>
- <p> Ancient bones are the first stop-motion pictures of
- evolution--life frozen in its tracks eons and epochs ago.
- Astonishing photographs examine the evidence of prehistoric
- dragonflies, early fish, flying reptiles, horned dinosaurs and
- human ancestors. A lively text explains the close-ups from
- nature's family album.
- </p>
- <p> ARTS & CRAFTS STYLE by Isabelle Anscombe (Rizzoli; $50)
- </p>
- <p> In the 1870s an influential movement, based on the
- medieval craft guilds, managed to overthrow the "gigantic
- weariness" of Victorian design. Philosophers and artisans worked
- together, raising tables and chairs, textiles, kitchenware--even fireplace ornaments--to the realm of art. Their
- achievements still glow in this profuse and discerning history.
- </p>
- <p> TICKET TO PARADISE by John Margolies and Emily Gwathmey
- (Bulfinch; $29.95)
- </p>
- <p> Every American town had its Roxy, its Bijou, its Majestic.
- The great movie theaters built between the '20s and the '50s
- were cathedrals of popular culture. This book provides a
- sentimental journey to these palaces, evoking a time when life
- seemed like a Saturday matinee.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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