Artists & Prints: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art

Corot to Monet (National Gallery London)

Life of the City: New York Photographs from The Museum of Modern Art (Photography)

Rembrandt by Himself (National Gallery of London)

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was not a handsome man. He was, however, an exceptional painter of himself. This sumptuous catalogue, published to coincide with the exhibition of his self-portraits at the National Gallery in London, has glossy reproductions of all the paintings and etchings from the show, plus copies of lost ones and those not released by galleries or private collectors, thoroughly annotated to elucidate their history. The scholarship is impressive, being mostly drawn from the Rembrandt Research Project, which for years has been working with a combination of X-ray technology and patient research to ascertain the age of the pictures and the identity of their painter. This is not as obvious as it sounds; Rembrandt had many pupils, and he encouraged them to copy his own self-portraits as practice, leading to the unusual situation of a host of Rembrandt self-portraits not by Rembrandt. The findings of the project have been contentious, with paintings unexpectedly relegated or elevated through reappraisal. What shines through, though, is the sheer diversity of Rembrandt's genius, from the early paintings and etchings where he gurns in a mirror to study expression, through the periods of dressing up as variously an oriental potentate, a soldier, an artisan and St Paul, to the famous trilogy of self-portraits painted in his last year which seem to show a man old beyond his years. The catalogue also contains a selection of works by his pupils Gerrit Dou and Samuel van Hoogstraten, and essays by Rembrandt scholars that seek to revise the somewhat Romantic conceit that the series is some sort of spiritual autobiography. However, a difference between art and art history is the "now" factor, which means that as perceivers inextricably bound up with a modern sense of introspection we cannot avoid imposing a narrative that imbues an existential beauty. Rembrandt By Himself, an intelligent and resourceful accompaniment to the exhibition, will continue to transport the reader when the portraits in the exhibition have long returned to their respective homes. --David Vincent

Rembrandt by Himself: Catalogue to the National Gallery Exhibition

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was not a handsome man. He was, however, an exceptional painter of himself. This sumptuous catalogue, published to coincide with the exhibition of his self-portraits at the National Gallery in London, has glossy reproductions of all the paintings and etchings from the show, plus copies of lost ones and those not released by galleries or private collectors, thoroughly annotated to elucidate their history. The scholarship is impressive, being mostly drawn from the Rembrandt Research Project, which for years has been working with a combination of X-ray technology and patient research to ascertain the age of the pictures and the identity of their painter. This is not as obvious as it sounds; Rembrandt had many pupils, and he encouraged them to copy his own self-portraits as practice, leading to the unusual situation of a host of Rembrandt self-portraits not by Rembrandt. The findings of the project have been contentious, with paintings unexpectedly relegated or elevated through reappraisal. What shines through, though, is the sheer diversity of Rembrandt's genius, from the early paintings and etchings where he gurns in a mirror to study expression, through the periods of dressing up as variously an oriental potentate, a soldier, an artisan and St Paul, to the famous trilogy of self-portraits painted in his last year which seem to show a man old beyond his years. The catalogue also contains a selection of works by his pupils Gerrit Dou and Samuel van Hoogstraten, and essays by Rembrandt scholars that seek to revise the somewhat Romantic conceit that the series is some sort of spiritual autobiography. However, a difference between art and art history is the "now" factor, which means that as perceivers inextricably bound up with a modern sense of introspection we cannot avoid imposing a narrative that imbues an existential beauty. Rembrandt By Himself, an intelligent and resourceful accompaniment to the exhibition, will continue to transport the reader when the portraits in the exhibition have long returned to their respective homes. --David Vincent

The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261

The Glory of Byzantium (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600-1700 (National Gallery London)

Turner at the Tate

Turner at the Tate

Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Corfe Castle (National Trust Guidebooks)

Paris in the Age of Impressionism: Masterworks from the Musee d'Orsay

Unclassified: A Walker Evans Anthology - Selections from the Archive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Walker Evans, one of the 20th century's most important photographers, was also a talented and prolific writer. Unclassified: A Walker Evans Anthology collects much of the writing that Evans authored in his lifetime and bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art upon his death. The primarily previously unpublished short stories, poems, criticism--mostly of photography--translations of French literature by the likes of Baudelaire, Cocteau and Gide, and personal letters offer insight into Evans's aesthetic, cultural, and artistic concerns. Readers learn that Evans admired the objective, journalistic quality of August Sander's portraits of German workers and Eug&eagrave;ne Atget's poetic interpretations of Paris, but he held deep disdain for the photos of both Alfred Stieglitz (too "arty") and Edward Steichen (too commercial). What is also evident in these pages is Evans's active interest in the way in which American culture pictures itself. He assiduously collected family photographs taken by his mother, sister and countless anonymous penny photographers along with picture postcards and snapshots clipped from magazines and newspapers. There are rather personal and emotionally telling writings here, too, including his long-term correspondence with his close friend, the artist Hanns Skolle, in which Evans often describes the details of his daily life. A somewhat strange list dated 26 December 1937, is a document of things for which he professed to hold contempt, including "gourmets", "writers", "readers of the New Yorker", and "whatever is meant by the American Spirit".

There are very few photographs in this book, but its visually focused designers include facsimile copies of many of Evans's typed and handwritten papers, which lend it an archaeological quality most Evans fans will enjoy. This deeply satisfying anthology includes a sampling from its subject's vast negative archive (around 30,000 frames), replete with his handwritten negative sleeve notes. And, read in concert with a viewing of his photographs, the book offers as complete a view of the master photographer's work and ideas as any Evans admirer could possibly hope for. --Jordana Moskowitz

Leonardo Da Vinci, Master Draftsman

Artist, theorist, scientist and inventor--these words cannot capture the genius that is Leonardo DaVinci. However, curator and editor Carmen C Bambach brings us a little closer to unlocking his mystery in Leonardo DaVinci: Mater Draftsman. The book comprises a collection of 11 essays by world-renowned Leonardo connoisseurs, along with 515 exquisite illustrations, to create a perfect balance between scholarship and aesthetics. Serving as the catalogue for the exhibition of the same name at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the book focuses on Leonardo's drawings: his studies for some of his unfinished, lost, or unrealised paintings and projects, stunning anatomical and engineering studies, eight pages from the Codex Leicester (Leonardo's draft for a treatise on the dynamics of water), and his studies of grotesque physiognomies, which taken together, reveal the master's notion that beauty and ugliness are reciprocally enhanced by their juxtaposition. The result also sheds light on his extraordinary contribution as a draftsman "to the design process of narrative composition".

Leonardo has left us a mere handful of mostly unfinished--albeit magnificent--paintings. Yet, as Bambach explains, the quantity of his extant drawings (about 4,000 or more) is about four times that of the most prolific 16th-century draftsman. To be sure, it is through these drawings, along with the eloquent commentary, that Leonardo's infinite and dynamic creative power can best be glimpsed. From the whimsical to the sublime, from the scientific to the mechanical, these drawings reveal Leonardo's dependence on observation and nature, as well as his tireless use of drawing as a means to explore and express his ever-probing mind. The catalogue takes us on a chronological journey, revealing the vast influence of Leonardo's teacher Andrea Verrocchio, and subsequently shows us Leonardo's influence on his students and beyond. The beauty, power and scope of this book are evidence that there is no end to pondering his remarkable and enigmatic genius. --Silvana Tropea, Amazon.com

Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Artist, theorist, scientist and inventor--these words cannot capture the genius that is Leonardo DaVinci. However, curator and editor Carmen C Bambach brings us a little closer to unlocking his mystery in Leonardo DaVinci: Mater Draftsman. The book comprises a collection of 11 essays by world-renowned Leonardo connoisseurs, along with 515 exquisite illustrations, to create a perfect balance between scholarship and aesthetics. Serving as the catalogue for the exhibition of the same name at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the book focuses on Leonardo's drawings: his studies for some of his unfinished, lost, or unrealised paintings and projects, stunning anatomical and engineering studies, eight pages from the Codex Leicester (Leonardo's draft for a treatise on the dynamics of water), and his studies of grotesque physiognomies, which taken together, reveal the master's notion that beauty and ugliness are reciprocally enhanced by their juxtaposition. The result also sheds light on his extraordinary contribution as a draftsman "to the design process of narrative composition".

Leonardo has left us a mere handful of mostly unfinished--albeit magnificent--paintings. Yet, as Bambach explains, the quantity of his extant drawings (about 4,000 or more) is about four times that of the most prolific 16th-century draftsman. To be sure, it is through these drawings, along with the eloquent commentary, that Leonardo's infinite and dynamic creative power can best be glimpsed. From the whimsical to the sublime, from the scientific to the mechanical, these drawings reveal Leonardo's dependence on observation and nature, as well as his tireless use of drawing as a means to explore and express his ever-probing mind. The catalogue takes us on a chronological journey, revealing the vast influence of Leonardo's teacher Andrea Verrocchio, and subsequently shows us Leonardo's influence on his students and beyond. The beauty, power and scope of this book are evidence that there is no end to pondering his remarkable and enigmatic genius. --Silvana Tropea, Amazon.com

Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)