Who knew that Norman Mailer had a drawing side. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and literary legend also had a penchant for drawing and one of his major influences happened to be Pablo Picasso. A gallery of Mailer's Picasso-inspired drawings is now on view at POBA, a new online platform devoted to "preserving, showcasing, and promoting the work of artists who died without recognition of the full measure of their talents." Taking its name from the phonetic pronunciation of the Tibetan word "phowa," which refers to the transfer of consciousness at death to a new life, POBA plans to digitally preserve works...
Bringing Good Books to Life: Self-Portraits by Pierre Beteille
French photographer Pierre Beteille has produced a series of self portraits where, with a little digital magic, the text and the reader morph into some pretty cool imagery. From Robinson Crusoe to Charles Bukowski's Notes of a Dirty Old Man and plenty in between enjoy this trip through Beteille's reading life. [caption id="attachment_5558" align="aligncenter" width="640"] reading Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski[/caption] [caption id="attachment_5560" align="aligncenter" width="640"] reading Robinson Crusoe[/caption] See the rest of the portfolio at 500px ISO h/t Shelf Awareness
Holy Robot: Exhibit features robotic rendering of the Torah
"The Creation of the World. Illustrated Manuscripts from the Braginsky Collection," currently on view at the Berlin Jewish Museum features both a robot and a rabbi transcribing the torah. The yet unnamed Torah-writing robot comes to us courtesy of the German artists' group robotlab. The installation is titled"bios [torah]" and: refers to the activity of Torah writing performed in the Jewish tradition by a specially trained scribe, the Sofer. While the Sofer guarantees the sanctity of the Scripture, the installation highlights its industrial reproducibility. It simulates a centuries-old cultural technique that has long since been overtaken by media developments...The installation title refers to an...
Stained glass with books
Books & Ideas. Arthur Stern, 2008. Elk Grove Library Here are handful of stained glass pieces infused with books. From rural Kansas to Elk Grove, California books are seeing the light. Custom made by Terraza Stained Glass This pair of stained glass bookends commissioned by the colleagues of a librarian who was retiring from his post. From Mungo Works Mcpherson, Kansas library Chantal Larochelle
Books in art help tell the story
‘Madame de Pompadour’ by Francois Boucher, 1756, As many of you who regularly check in with Book Patrol know, the representation of the book in art is one of the cornerstones of our foundation. Over at the British Library's Collection Care blog Christina Duffy looks at the value of books depicted in art as it relates to the history of bookbinding. Fueled by her week of studying European Bookbinding (1450-1820) at the London Rare Books School Duffy shows us how the "keen eye of the artist has captured precise details when depicting books throughout history, showing sewing structures, stitch types, supports, covers and even how...