Weekly Perusables: Gathering Light, Richard Ross

Etruscan Tomb, Tarquinia, Italy, 1992

This book is a beautiful meditation on the essence of photography, which is quite literally the gathering of light. From a fluorescent lit warehouse to an ancient Asian temple to Las Vegas, light is the subject matter of these images. In the book’s introduction, David Hickey states, “By taking light itself as the subject of his new photographs, Ross addresses the central irony of photography: the fact that photography, which lives in and by light, can no more look directly at it than ancient believers could look upon the face of God.” 

Gathering Light

Richard Ross

TR654 .R665 2000  
stacks

image source

(blog entry by Jessica Sowls) 

Weekly Perusables: Shifting Paradigms

Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics showcases the entire Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio collection from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  The collection, donated to the Museum in 2007, has examples from over five decades of modern and contemporary ceramics, with a focus on works that challenge the medium.  Included artists such as Ralph Bacerra, Marek Cecula, Ken Ferguson, Anne Kraus, Ron Nagle, Richard Notkin and Beth Cavener Stichter trace the developments in American ceramics.  A diverse group of international artists are also represented.

Stop in to take a look at this, and several other new titles on ceramics currently located on our new books shelf:

Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics The Garth Clark & Mark Del Vecchio Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston

The Vase and Beyond: The Sidney Swindler Collection of the Contemporary Vessel, Daniels and Drexler Lynn

Clay's Tectonic Shift, 1956-1968: John Mason, Ken Price, Peter Voulkos, edited by Mary Davis McNaughton

Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California 1945-1975, American Museum of Ceramic Art

Sources
Image: Aoki Katsuyo's "Predictive Dream" from MFAH Shifting Paradigms press release.

(blog entry by Sara O'Sha)