Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Cassatt and artworks

  Nathalia Brodskaïa

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  Mary was born in Pittsburgh. Her father was a banker of liberal educational ideas and the entire family appears to have been sympathetic to French culture. Mary was no more than five or six years old when she first saw Paris, and she was still in her teens when she decided to become a painter. She went to Italy, on to Antwerp, then to Rome, andfinally returned to Paris where in 1874, she permanently settled. 
  In 1872, Cassatt sent her first work to the Salon, others followed in the succeeding years until 1875, when a portrait of her sister was rejected. She divined that the jury had not been satisfied with the background, so she re-painted it several times until, in the next Salon, the same portrait was accepted. At this moment Degas asked her to exhibit with him and his friends, the Impressionist Group, then rising into view, and she accepted with joy. She admired Manet, Courbet and Degas, and hated conventional art. 
  Cassatt’s biographer stressed the intellectuality and sentiment apparent in her work, as well as the emotion and distinction with which she has painted her favourite models: babies and their mothers. He then speaks of her predominant interest in draughtsmanship and her gift for linear pattern, a gift greatly strengthened by her study of Japanese art and her emulation of its style in the colour prints she made. While her style may partake of the style of others, her draughtsmanship, her composition, her light, and her colour are, indeed, her own. There are qualities of tenderness in her work which could have been put there, perhaps, only by a woman. The qualities which make her work of lasting value are those put there by an outstanding painter.

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  The Ugly One in the Middle - An...

  Alex Stan Campbell

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  The Ugly One in the Middle is about Stan Campbell's wicked, and often witty story of the search for two people, his birth mom, and the angelic, sensual woman of his dreams. Kind of romantic, right? But, wait...there is humor, mystery and intrigue. Just before Stan's sixteenth birthday, his Aunt Patsy accidentally let it slip that his mom and pop did not conceive him. No surprise. Parents having sex? Quel horror! His adoptive mom knew something dark, but she wasn't talking. It didn't matter much...then. Stan's top priorities of the day were drowning his bashfulness in a wine and rubbing alcohol mix. That didn't work. He threw up and fell down a lot. After leaving his rural Cape Breton home, Stan found periods of sobriety, interrupted by evenings of alcoholic blackouts, and the end of virginity, culminating in a terror-filled evening of lust. Stan's story is roller-coaster of multiple marriages, followed by multiple divorces, caused mostly by multiple affairs while pursuing a career as a big city radio DJ.

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  The Sonic Boom - How Sound...

  Tyler Gray, Joel Beckerman

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  A fascinating study on the influence of sound—and how companies wrangle its power to affect our moods, our shopping habits, and our lives.   From movie scores and national anthems to cell-phone dings and squeaky shoes, sound and music impact how we perceive the stories, situations, and products we encounter every day. In The Sonic Boom, composer and strategic sound expert Joel Beckerman reveals sound’s surprising power to influence our decisions, opinions, and actions in ways we might not even notice: discordant ambient noise can induce anxiety; ice cream truck jingles can bring you back to your childhood.   You don’t need to be a musician or a composer to harness the power of sound. Companies, brands, and individuals can strategically use sound to get to the core of their mission, influence how they’re perceived by their audiences, and gain a competitive edge. Whether you’re a corporate giant connecting with millions of customers or a teacher connecting with one classroom of students, the key to an effective sonic strategy is the creation of “boom moments”—transcendent instants when sound connects with a listener’s emotional core.   “Equal parts sociological study and business advice, using unique everyday examples—for instance, how the fate of the Chili’s fajita empire rested on the sound of the sizzling platter, and how Disneyland approaches soundscapes for a fully immersive experience—to explain how sound effects our mood and shopping habits.” —Entertainment Weekly   “Music defines us. Joel Beckerman knows. Let him tell you all about it.” —Anthony Bourdain   “The Sonic Boom reveals the music and structured cacophony of everyday life.” —Moby  

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  The Art of the Shoe

  Marie-Josèphe Bossan

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  What is more common than a pair of shoes? In a world where shoes have become an object of mass consumption, these accessories are now rid of any significance. The industry has accomplished its duty: producing a large quantity at a low price. But there was a time when the shoe symbolised the strength of the Roman legion, the power of the Medieval lords or the oppression of the Chinese woman. Its history is both vast and enthralling, as revealed by the author Marie-Josèphe Bossan. Supporting her analysis with an outstanding iconography, the author gives these commonplace objects a universal quality that sheds light on the whole of civilisation and elevates them to the rank of a work of art.

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  Earthbag Building - The Tools...

  Kaki Hunter, Donald Kiffmeyer

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  The only comprehensive, illustrated, step-by-step guide to building with earthbags. Over seventy percent of Americans cannot afford to own a code-enforced, contractor-built home. This has led to widespread interest in using natural materials-straw, cob, and earth-for building homes and other buildings that are inexpensive, and that rely largely on labor rather than expensive and often environmentally-damaging outsourced materials. Earthbag Building  is the first comprehensive guide to all the tools, tricks, and techniques for building with bags filled with earth-or earthbags. Having been introduced to sandbag construction by the renowned Nader Khalili in 1993, the authors developed this "Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique" over the last decade. A reliable method for constructing homes, outbuildings, garden walls and much more, this enduring, tree-free architecture can also be used to create arched and domed structures of great beauty-in any region, and at home, in developing countries, or in emergency relief work.This profusely illustrated guide first discusses the many merits of earthbag construction, and then leads the reader through the key elements of an earthbag building:Special design considerationsFoundations, walls, and floorsElectrical, plumbing, and shelvingLintels, windows and door installationsRoofs, arches and domesExterior and interior plasters.With dedicated sections on costs, making your own specialized tools, and building code considerations, as well as a complete resources guide,  Earthbag Building  is the long-awaited, definitive guide to this uniquely pleasing construction style. Mother Earth News  Wiser Living Series

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  Bikini Story

  Patrik Alac

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  It was in 1946 that the world first came to hear of a coral atoll in the Marshall Islands called Bikini. The following year, French couturier Louis Réard borrowed the name and applied it to a bathing costume for women. Breaking from decades of conformity, Réard dared to ‘undress’ women’s bodies in order to better emphasize what remained clothed - albeit in tiny wisps of material. By taking up the bikini as popular beachwear, women also found themselves thinking differently about their bodies. An ideal of perfection was reinforced by the appearance on the cinema screen of stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Ursula Andress, all of whom were featured in bikinis that accentuated their own curvaceous contours.
  More than a bathing costume, the bikini made its own contribution during the 1970s to the sexual revolution and to the changing relationship between men and women in general. This book investigates the history of the bikini and its effect on the evolution in the perception of women in society, as women regained responsibility for the way they look and laid claim once more to full sexual equality. A collection of images throughout this book illustrates this progression step-by-step over a period of more than 50 years.

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