Books and Art

Picturing Haruki Murakami’s Women

Portland-based artist Johnny Acurso celebrates some of Haruki Murakami's most memorable female characters in his triptych painting 'Murakami's Women'.   "Granddaughter" from Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World "Sumire" in Sputnik Sweetheart ' "May" from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle    The originals were painted in oil on illustration board.  Prints are available here

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Yosemite in the 1880’s

  This month marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Yosemite Grant Act of 1864. The grant was one of the early seeds of our national park system. One of the pioneering photographers of the region was George Fiske who moved to Yosemite with his wife in 1879 and began shooting. On seeing Fiske's images a young Ansel Adams campaigned to have his parents take him to Yosemite! The images featured here are part of an album of 71 original photographic prints taken by Fiske in the 188o's  and currently being offered by the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop. Enjoy!       Full...

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The Book Architecture of Thomas Ehgartner

  It took 8,000 books for Thomas Ehgartner to complete his 2006 installation  "Meaning minus truth conditions"at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Completed for his senior project the piece also included two computer-generated voices that recited content from Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg. For Ehgartner the current state of information overload that permeates much of our waking life becomes the foundation for creating a "limited archive from a infinite whole."         and check out his follow up to the above, a facade built with chopped books!       View more of Ehgartner's portfolio at ARTDOXA 

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The Digital Side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Reading at a Table. Pablo Picasso, 1934  When word gets out the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the most significant repositories of art in the world, releases 400,000 images  into the digital wild it's hard not to go have a look to see what bookish goodness awaits. Our first trip brings us a hardy selection of work from Durer to Picasso. Stay tuned for more gems from the collection and our hats are off to the powers that be for releasing such a treasure trove of material. Enjoy! [caption id="attachment_4876" align="aligncenter" width="534"] "Alberti Dvreri pictoris et architecti praestantissimi De vrbibvs..."...

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