Shelfology Book Pairing

by Eckhard Hollmann

KEYNOTE: This authoritative history of one of modern art's most important movements celebrates one hundred years since the inception of the Blue Rider artists' group. Although it only lasted three years--from 1911 to 1914--the collaborative force of German and Russian artists that made up "Der Blaue Reiter" had an amazing impact on the development of Expressionist art and, as a result, on modern art as a whole. This publication looks at the history of this group from the early artists' salons to its dissolution as a result of World War I. Richly illustrated with reproductions of iconic and lesser-known works as well as photographs of the artists, the book looks at the events and places considered the most formative to the movement, taking readers on the trail of the Blue Rider as they weathered intense criticism while inspiring dozens in their wake. The book considers many unresolved questions about the symbolism inherent in the group's paintings, and ends with an appreciation of the legacy these daring artists left behind. AUTHOR: Eckhard Hollmann is an art historian and the author of many books on art. ILLUSTRATIONS: 140 colour illustrations *

Black and White

by Alice Neel

Alice Neel's remarkable drawings are intimate explorations of her personal life: her loves and her family, her friends, people she met in New York and the art world. Spontaneous and dynamic, the works on paper in Black and White provide insight into her environments, exterior and interior. In them she positions universal themes -- motherhood, death, longing -- within the sphere of her private existence and her social unconscious. While a handful of the drawings are urban cityscapes and others are domestic settings, the majority are portraits. And when Neel, the self-named Collector of Souls, composed a portrait, she never posed her sitters. Instead, she studied and spoke intimately with her subjects as they unconsciously assumed their most natural attitude, which she believed exhorted all their character and life experience. The images she created, full of distinctly innate gestures, stemmed from her succinct understanding and assembled memory, and coalesced into a unique impression of a person.