As the Fall Arts Season begins in the Bay Area, the staff at the Mechanics' Institute shares with its members their favorite books on Artists and Architects. If you can’t make it out to your favorite museum this fall or are looking to learn more about your favorite artists, check out the September Staff Picks display.
Kevin recommends The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art (704.042 G935)
The Guerilla Girls are a group of artist activists who rethink art history from a feminist perspective. They present their message with intelligence, wit, and guerrilla masks!
Craig recommends The Andy Warhol Diaries edited by Pat Hackett (92 W275)
Published in the late 1980s just after Warhol’s unexpected death, this hefty work is over 800 pages long. It’s a fascinating look inside the head of the somewhat mysterious personality. This book is a veritable who’s who (and where) of the 1980s. For example, Warhol comments on Bianca and Mick Jagger’s ugly split, Truman Capote’s passing, crushes on rock stars, celebrity parties, and catty remarks about friends and foes, all observed and written about with Warhol’s trademark deadpan charm.
Heather recommends Shocking Paris: Soutine, Chagall and the Outsiders of Montparnasse by Stanley Meisler (759.4 M515)
You may know something about the School of Paris, a group of painters and sculptors-including greats such as Modigliani and Chagall-who emigrated between the two World Wars and dominated the Montparnasse art scene. But have you heard of Chaim Soutine? Many School of Paris painters considered him to be their most talented contemporary. Soutine was intense, the archetypal tortured artist, and this shows in his demented landscapes, which first captured my attention during a visit to Musee de L’Orangerie in Paris. This book explores the short, tumultuous life of one of the most quietly influential artists of the Twentieth Century. You can see one of his paintings closer to home at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (The Russian, Portrait of Woman), or ask a librarian to help you find images of my favorite landscapes, “Arbre Couche”, online.
Taryn recommends Julia Morgan: Architect of Beauty by Mark A. Wilson (720.92 M84w)
In this gorgeously illustrated book you’ll learn so much about the talented lady who recently won AIA’s Gold Medal for excellence.
and Bernard Maybeck: Architect of Elegance by Mark A. Wilson (720.92 M46wi)
This author, who is a regular speaker at The Mechanics’ Institute hits a home run with this beautiful volume.
and Enamored with Place: As Woman and As Architect by Wendy Bertrand (720.92 B551)
Written by a Mechanics Institute member, this is a good read, memoir, travel, architecture and interesting relationships all in one book!
Diane recommends, for the fiction readers, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan and The Women by T.C. Boyle.
Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect of renown, who built houses of enduring beauty and style –many of which I have toured and loved. However, he was also a man who was selfish, egotistical, and a womanizer. The novels, Loving Frank and The Women explore Wright’s fascinating personal life through the women who loved him.
and Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
Louis Comfort Tiffany designed and created beautiful stained glass creations (windows, lamps, etc.) that were first featured at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Unknown until the late 20th Century, Clara Driscoll was the actual designer behind many of the iconic Tiffany lampshade designs including the Daffodil and Dragonfly designs. Clara and Mr.Tiffany relates Clara’s story and her relationship with Mr. Tiffany in the early 1900’s as a valuable, but dispensable (because she was a woman), artist in the Tiffany workshop.
Kristin also recommends for the fiction readers The Great Man by Kate Christensen
This book focuses on the mostly female survivors of a fictional New York painter whose art and life were built around dominating women. In different ways, all of these women come to terms with what the painter turned their lives into. It’s a bittersweet read.
and The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
An unusual and interesting historical novel based on the creation of what is considered to be one of the finest medieval tapestries of the same name (Lady and the Unicorn). Tracy Chevalier gives her readers a sense of place and insight into the complex world of tapestry weaving.
