New DVDs in Art, Architecture, Design

The following DVDs have been recently added to our collection or are on order. The titles are linked to our online catalog. They can be checked out for 7 days.

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens. Directed by
Barbara Leibovitz.

Profiles the celebrity photographer from her Connecticut childhood to her current work for Vanity Fair. Originally broadcast on television as an episode for the PBS series "American masters" in 2006.

Art: 21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century. Season 1 & 2. Created and produced by Susan Sollins, Susan Dowling ; directed by Catherine Tatge and Deborah Shaffer.

Meet diverse contemporary artists through revealing profiles that take viewers behind the scenes into artists' studios, homes, and communities to provide an intimate view of their lives, work, sources of inspiration and creative processes.

Bauhaus: The Face of the 20th Century. Written and narrated by Frank Whitford ; producer, Julia Cave.

Looks at the development of the Bauhaus and at the key figures involved in it, including the founder Walter Gropius, his successor Mies van der Rohe, Lásló Moholy-Nagy and Josef Albers. The program also sets the history of the Bauhaus in the context of the political unrest and economic chaos of the Weimar Republic in Germany. Former students discuss their time at the Bauhaus and architect Philip Johnson tells how it influenced his work. Contains rare archival footage of the Bauhaus at Dessau and looks at the architecture of Chicago, much influenced by Mies van der Rohe, who emmigrated there after the Bauhaus was shut by the Nazis in 1933.

Dutch Masters. Kultur Video, 2006. 6 DVDs.

This unique series chronicles the life, times and works of the greatest artists in history. Includes: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Bosch and Bruegel.

 
 

Genius of Design. produced by Wall to Wall Media for BBC 2 ; directed by Chris Wilson, Chris Rodley, Peter Sweasey. Originally broadcast on television in 2010.
 
The art, science and development of design and how people are impacted when interacting with what has been designed are explored in five episodes.

The Impressionists: their lives, times and works. 6 DVDs.
 
An in-depth look at the lives of six artists of the Impressionist movement. Monet -- Degas -- Renoir -- Pissarro -- Seurat -- Manet.









The Mystery of Picasso. A film by Henri-Georges Clouzot. Originally released as a motion picture in 1956.

Explores the mind and motivations of Pablo Picasso as he creates over fifteen works before the camera. Using a specially designed transparent 'canvas' to provide an unobstructed view, Picasso creates as the camera records. He begins with simple works that take shape after only a single brush stroke. He then progresses to more complex paintings, in which he repeatedly adds and removes elements, transforming the entire scene, until at last the work is complete.

Painters Painting: a candid history of the New York art scene, 1940-1970. A film by Emile de Antonio and Mary Lampson. Originally produced in 1972.

Artists, critics, and patrons discuss post-war art in New York City against the backdrop of footage of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition "New York painting and sculpture, 1940-1970.







Restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's Heurtley House.

The Heurtley House is located in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright constructed the house in 1902.

Van Gogh: a Brush with Genius. Directed by Francois Bertrand.

Bertrand takes the viewer into the heart of van Gogh's paintings and life. His letters are used to explain his art. The locations that inspired him are also part of the film.

Vermeer: Master of Light. A National Gallery of Art Film.
directed by Joseph J. Krakora. Narrated by Meryl Streep.

Explores Vermeer's paintings, examining his techniques of lighting and composition.

New Nonfiction Books in the 700s

We just updated our Bookletter service for the following subject areas:



Crafts, Needleworks and Fashion Design










Architecture, Decorating and Garden Design








Art and Photography










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Fallingwater - 75th anniversary

America's most iconic residence - Fallingwater - was constructed in 1936, 75 years ago. It is located southeast of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, above a mountain stream called Bear Run. The architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was 68 years old in 1935 when he designed Fallingwater as a weekend house for Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann who owned and operated Kaufmann's department store in Pittsburgh. Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece is considered the most important building of the 20th century based on a poll conducted by the American Institute of Architects. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of Fallingwater, a book with newly commissioned color photographs by Christopher Little was published in 2011 by Rizzoli. The book's editor, Lynda Waggoner, is the Director of Fallingwater.

What was it like to live and work in this special house? Find out with the Fallingwater Cookbook. It features recipes and anecdotes by Elsie Henderson, the longtime cook and baker for the Kaufmann family. Elsie Henderson, born in 1913, recently celebrated her 98th birthday. She grew up the youngest of 13 children and lost her father at age 2. In her own words: "I had a library card by the time I was six and I used it.” Even though she left school after 11th grade, she never lost her love of the printed word. Her mother taught her some baking and cooking, and she also took a cooking class at the Red cross. With little formal culinary training, she became a sought after cook among wealthy Pittsburgh families. She worked for the Kaufmanns at Fallingwater, from 1947 to 1964.
Other books of interest:
The Iconic House: Architectural Masterworks since 1900 By Dominic Bradbury, 2009.

Frank Lloyd Wright: American Master
By Alan Weintraub, 2009.