Off the Shelf
Apollo’s selection of recently published books on art, architecture and the history of collecting
Kintsugi: The Poetic Mend Bonnie Kemske Herbert Press, £30 ISBN 9781789940008
Kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, embodies the idea that imperfections can be beautiful. The author traces the history and contemporary practice of this technique, talking to artists in both Japan and the US.
Living with Architecture as Art: The Peter May Collection of Architectural Drawings, Models and Artefacts Peter May, Maureen Cassidy-Geiger et al. Ad Ilissum, £260 ISBN 9781912168194
One of the world’s largest private collections of architectural drawings is now presented in two lavishly illustrated volumes, which include sketches and models ranging from to the mid th century.
Rarities of These Lands: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Dutch Republic Claudia Swan Princeton University Press, £54 ISBN 9780691207964
How did traders from the Dutch Republic deal with Islamic rulers in the Indonesian archipelago and in the Ottoman world? Swan examines what they brought back home – and by what means – and how Dutch artists responded to their hauls.
Women Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna Babette Bohn Penn State University Press, $74.95 ISBN 9780271086965
Why was Bologna such a comparatively good place to be for women artists? Bohn has uncovered no fewer than artists from the th– th centuries – greatly adding to the number we already know of – and looks at the reasons for their success.
Anthony van Dyck and the Art of Portraiture Christopher White Modern Art Press, £35 ISBN 9780956800794
Christopher White brings a lifetime’s learning to this study of Van Dyck’s portraits, comparing the painter with his contemporaries and following him across Europe and to the English court.
Arthur Dove: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Things Debra Bricker Balken Yale University Press, £100 ISBN 9780300251654
The neglected American modernist, who was part of the circle of young artists that gathered around Alfred Stieglitz, now has a fully illustrated catalogue raisonné that presents all his paintings and the assemblages he referred to as ‘things’.