Books for People who Miss Ann Arbor's Art Fair

Ann Arbor's largest outdoor gathering, the Ann Arbor Art Fair, is cancelled for this year. It would have been occurring July 15-18 throughout downtown and the U/M campus. We thought we'd offer you titles to get you through what would be your art-filled week: books about art and color as well as novels surrounding art and artists, models and muses, art heists and mysteries. Get lost in art with this list created by Literati staff Vicki, Jeanne, and Shannon.

 

Books: 
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The Story of Art By EH Gombrich Cover Image
$49.95
ISBN: 9780714832470
Availability: Usually Available in 2-5 Days
Published: Phaidon Press - September 9th, 1995

One of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, this four-decade worldwide bestseller has been admired as a pleasure to read as well as a pleasure to handle.This 16th edition has been completely redesigned. The color illustrations have been improved, with six fold‐outs. The text has been revised and updated and a number of significant new artists have been incorporated. This classic work continues its triumphant progress tirelessly for yet another generation, to remain the title of first choice for any newcomer to art or the connoisseur.


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Design as Art By Bruno Munari Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780141035819
Availability: Usually Available in 2-5 Days
Published: Penguin Classics - October 8th, 2019

Bruno Munari (1907–1998) was an Italian artist and designer who contributed in both visual (paint, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphics) and non-visual arts (literature, poetry). Described by Picasso as “the new Leonardo,” Munari insisted that design be beautiful, functional and accessible. This enlightening book sets out his ideas about visual, graphic and industrial design and the role it plays in the objects we use everyday. Lamps, road signs, typography, posters, children's books, advertising, cars and chairs are just some of the subjects to which he turns his illuminating gaze.

 


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Color: A Natural History of the Palette By Victoria Finlay Cover Image
$20.00
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ISBN: 9780812971422
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - December 30th, 2003

The history of art is inseparable from the history of color. Were it not for Cleopatra, purple might not have become the royal color of the Western world. Without Napoleon, the black graphite pencil might never have found its way into the hands of Cézanne. Without mango-eating cows, the sunsets of Turner might have lost their shimmering glow. And were it not for the pigment cobalt blue, the halls of museums worldwide might still be filled with forged Vermeers. Revel in a treasure trove of fun-filled facts and anecdotes that are all about color.

 


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And the Pursuit of Happiness By Maira Kalman Cover Image
$30.00
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ISBN: 9780143122036
Published: Penguin Books - October 30th, 2012

Inspired by the 2008 elections, artist Maira Kalman spent a year in Washington, DC investigating American democracy and its workings. The result, through her iconoclastic illustrations, is her vision of history and contemporary politics and the evidence of democracy at work all around us. She cleverly and creatively captures why we are proud to be Americans in hundreds of colorful drawings. 

 


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A Feast for the Eyes: Edible Art from Apple to Zucchini By Carolyn Tillie Cover Image
$19.95
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ISBN: 9781789140637
Published: Reaktion Books - July 10th, 2019

Embark on a delicious adventure that redefines the world of art as you explore the artistry of apple-head dolls, butter sculptures, coffee paintings, and a grand cathedral carved entirely from salt. Learn about the ancient role of food creations in ritual and global folk art. Experience the modern magnificence of electrified vegetable sculptures and ethereal molecular gastronomy. Discover why Salvador Dalí had an obsession with lobsters and why there is a giant palace in the American Midwest made entirely of corn. For food lovers and art aficionados alike, A Feast for the Eyes serves up an aesthetic banquet that will delight the senses while it nourishes mind, body, and soul.

 


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The Portland Vase: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Mysterious Roman Treasure By Robin Brooks Cover Image
$14.99
ISBN: 9780060511005
Availability: Usually Available in 2-5 Days
Published: Harper Perennial - August 9th, 2005

An enigmatic and astonishingly beautiful piece of Roman art has captivated those who have come in contact with it for thousands of years. Made before the birth of Christ, the Portland Vase, as it is called, is renowned for both its beauty and its mystery. Author Robin Brooks takes us on a vivid journey across Europe and through the centuries, as this delicate piece of glass, less than ten inches in height, passes through the hands of a stunning cast of characters, including the first Roman emperor, Augustus; a notorious tomb raider; a reckless cardinal; a princess with a nasty gambling habit; the ceramics genius Josiah Wedgwood; the secretive Duchess of Portland; and a host of politicians, dilettantes, and scam artists. Rich with passion, inspiration, jealousy, and endless speculation, the vase remains one of the art world's greatest enigmas.

 


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The Artist's Way: 30th Anniversary Edition By Julia Cameron Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780143129257
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: TarcherPerigee - October 25th, 2016

A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life. The book has inspired the genius of Elizabeth Gilbert, Tim Ferriss, and millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Readers are guided in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery.

 


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A Piece of the World: A Novel By Christina Baker Kline Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780062356277
Availability: Usually Available in 2-5 Days
Published: Mariner Books - January 30th, 2018

Christina Olson's entire world is her family farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine to which she is tied because of health and circumstance. She becomes Andrew Wyeth’s first great inspiration and the subject of one of the best-known paintings of the twentieth century, Christina’s World. As she did in her bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction to vividly reimagine a real moment in history. A powerful story of the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, her complicated relationship to her family and inheritance, we learn how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.

 


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Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art By Laney Salisbury, Aly Sujo Cover Image
$20.00
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ISBN: 9780143117407
Published: Penguin Books - May 25th, 2010

Filled with fascinating characters and told at breakneck speed, Provenance reads like a well-plotted thriller, though is absolutely not fiction. It's the astonishing narrative of one of the most far-reaching and elaborate cons in the history of art forgery. Stretching from London to Paris to New York, investigative reporters Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo recount the tale of infamous con man and villain John Drewe and his accomplice, artist John Myatt. Together they exploited the archives of British art institutions to irrevocably legitimize the hundreds of pieces they forged, many of which are still considered genuine and hang in prominent museums and private collections today.

 


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A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the New York Art World By Marcia Tucker, Liza Lou (Editor), Liza Lou (Afterword by) Cover Image
By Marcia Tucker, Liza Lou (Editor), Liza Lou (Afterword by)
$24.95
ISBN: 9780520265950
Availability: Usually Available in 2-5 Days
Published: University of California Press - May 20th, 2010

Marcia Tucker was the first woman to be hired as a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. Coming of age during the budding feminist movement and the 1960's New York art scene, this is a memoir of a unique time in American art history and the reshaping of the way art museums consider contemporary art. As curator of painting and sculpture at the Whitney, Marcia Tucker organized major exhibitions of the work of Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, and Richard Tuttle, among others. As founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, she organized and curated groundbreaking exhibitions that often focused on the nexus of art and politics. 

 


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The Last Painting of Sara de Vos: A Novel By Dominic Smith Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781250118325
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - April 4th, 2017

In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in Holland as a master painter, the first woman to be so honored. Three hundred years later, only one work, a haunting winter scene, attributed to de Vos is known to remain, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the Manhattan bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Uh-oh! Half a century later, as she's curating an exhibition of female Dutch painters, she discovers that both versions threaten to arrive.

 


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The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) By Donna Tartt Cover Image
$22.99
ISBN: 9780316055444
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Back Bay Books - April 7th, 2015

Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by a longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into a wealthy and insular art community. A hypnotic, can't-put-down story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention. Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, The Goldfinch remains a must-read bestseller.

 


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My Name Is Red: A Novel (Vintage International) By Orhan Pamuk, Erdag Goknar (Translated by) Cover Image
By Orhan Pamuk, Erdag Goknar (Translated by)
$17.95
ISBN: 9780375706851
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - August 27th, 2002

A diabolically devious mystery, a seductive love story, and an analysis on the power of art. A transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of 16th-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers. Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is a kaleidoscopic journey to the crossing of art, religion, love, sex and power.

 


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Waiting for Tomorrow: A Novel By Nathacha Appanah, Geoffrey Strachan (Translated by) Cover Image
By Nathacha Appanah, Geoffrey Strachan (Translated by)
$16.00
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ISBN: 9781555978037
Published: Graywolf Press - April 3rd, 2018

The story revolves around the relationship of Anita and Adam, two artistic individuals who are drawn to each other because they are both perennial outsiders: Anita is a dark-skinned foreigner and Adam is from the countryside. The life of the artist, the question of cultural differences within a marriage, and the creation and the destruction of a family are examined. 

 


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The Secret Lives of Color By Kassia St. Clair Cover Image
$23.00
ISBN: 9780143131144
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - October 24th, 2017

"The unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them in a beautiful multi-colored volume. The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh's chrome yellow sunflowers or punk's fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of color tell the vivid story of our culture. "A mind-expanding tour of the world without leaving your paintbox. Every color has a story, and here are some of the most alluring, alarming, and thought-provoking."--Simon Garfield, author of Just My Type

 


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The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art By Sebastian Smee Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780812985078
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - May 16th, 2017

"Picasso & Matisse. Manet & Degas. Pollack & de Kooning. Lucian Freud & Francis Bacon. This is the story of four pairs of artists--each linked by friendship and a spirit of competitiveness. Taken together, they form an impressive lineage stretching across more than 150 years. But in each case, these relationships had a flashpoint, a damaging psychological event that seemed to mark both an end and a new beginning, a break that led onto new creative innovations"

 


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Ann Arbor in the 20th Century: A Photographic History By Grace Shackman Cover Image
$31.99
ISBN: 9781531613648
Availability: Usually Available in 2-5 Days
Published: Arcadia Publishing Library Editions - September 25th, 2002

Ann Arbor began the 20th century as a modest manufacturing and farm trading center with a small co-existing university community. By the end of the century, Ann Arbor had developed into a cosmopolitan city, home to people from all over the world. Ann Arbor in the 20th Century details the important developments that occurred over a period of 100 years, as residents witnessed the growth of its neighborhoods, schools, shopping areas, and social services. Enormous changes to the physical landscape of the town-brought about by innovations in architecture, the influence of industry and entertainment, and the transition from horse-drawn vehicles to automobiles-are all documented through this collection of photographs. Images of famous visitors, such as Carrie Nation railing against alcohol and President Kennedy introducing the Peace Corps, are included.

 

 


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Downtown Ann Arbor By Patti Smith, Mayor John Hieftje (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Patti Smith, Mayor John Hieftje (Foreword by)
$31.99
ISBN: 9781531670283
Availability: Usually Available in 2-5 Days
Published: Arcadia Publishing Library Editions - November 3rd, 2014

In 1824, John Allen and Elisha Rumsey established the first homestead in what is now downtown Ann Arbor. The story goes that the community got its name when the two founders' wives, both named Ann, were seen lounging in a grove of trees. In reality, Ann Allen and Mary Ann Rumsey were never in town at the same time, but how it actually was named is unimportant when considering what Ann Arbor grew into. Early settlers gave the town schools, an expansive courthouse, a beautiful post office, and streetcar lines that spanned downtown. They built this town, and their legacy is present in every walk up Huron Street, drive down to William and Main Streets, or bike ride over to Kerrytown.