Spring Break Hours – March 5th -11th

The Visual Arts Library will be open for reduced hours during the Spring Break.
Mon-Thur (March 5 – 8) – 9am-6pm
Fri – Sun (March 9 – 11) – CLOSED

We will resume normal hours on March 12th.

Ephemeral Absurdities – a postcard slideshow

Apparently a century ago there was a thought that on Leap Day (today, February 29th), the tables of social decorum were turned and women “allowed” to propose to men. In turn men were obliged to say yes. Slate has an article on the history of this odd custom, plus a slideshow of goofy postcards celebrating it. What customs from today will seem so laughable in a hundred years?
For more on postcards in the library:

Postcards : ephemeral histories of modernity / edited by David Prochaska – NC1872 .P76 2010

Boring postcards / Martin Parr – NC1879.7.U5 B67 1999

Folk photography : the American real-photo postcard, 1905-1930 / Luc Sante – E169 .S323 2009

Art of the Japanese postcard : the Leonard A. Lauder Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – NC1871.B67 M87 2004

As we were : American photographic postcards, 1905-1930 / Rosamond B. Vaule – E168 .V385 2004

Real photo postcards : unbelievable images from the collection of Harvey Tulcensky – E169 .R277 2005

Eleanor Callahan, RIP

The wife and frequent model of photographer Harry Callahan,
Eleanor Callahan, passed away yesterday at the age of 95.
>>“I never initiated any of the poses myself,” she said in a 2006 interview with the curator Julian Cox. “Everything, photographically, was purely from Harry.” She confessed to being “a little uncomfortable about frontal nudity,” but noted that “there was not too much of that.”<<

To see more of Eleanor and Callahan’s work:

Eleanor / Harry Callahan ; essay and interview by Julian Cox – TR647 .C33 2007

Eleanor / edited and designed by Anne Kennedy, Nicholas Callaway – TR680.C27 1984

Callahan / edited with an introduction by John Szarkowski – TR650.C199

Harry Callahan : the photographer at work / Britt Salvesen – TR650.C19 S35 2006

Comics Around the World, In Your Library

The three main cultures of comics traditionally have been the US/Canada, France/Belgium, and Japan, but combining pictures with words to tell stories is a human impulse. The last few years have been a burgeoning market for international comics, bringing heretofore unavailable work to print in the US. Below are a few collections for those looking to go beyond the big three of comics. To explore further, come in and browse at call number PN6790, where you will find more great comics makers like Jason (Norway), Rutu Modan (Israel), Joe Daly (South Africa), and Marguerite Abouet (Ivory Coast).

International comics collections:

Africacomics / Al’Mata & Sapi Gampez – PN6790.A342 A37 2006

Finnish comics annual 2011 – PN6790 .F56 2011

The tango collection: Over 50 Comic Creators from Australia and New Zealand / edited by Bernard Caleo – PN6790.A83 T36 2009

Angst : the best of Norwegian comics – PN6790.N679 A64 2007 v.01-04

Hong Kong comics : a history of manhua / Wendy Siuyi Wong – PN6790.C4 W66 2002

&
From the shadow of the northern lights : an anthology of Swedish alternative comics. – PN6790.S8 F76 2008 Vol. 1
From the shadow of the northern lights Vol. 2 – PN6790.S8 F76 2010

Cindy Sherman, 18 feet tall

In connection with the just opened MoMA retrospective titled Cindy Sherman (take a look at the site for a large collection of images from the show), New York Magazine commissioned a set of photos from Sherman, as well as an appreciation by Jerry Saltz. Don’t forget, your SVA ID gets you into MoMA free.
MoMA created a short video of the process of hanging Sherman’s photographic mural, with its enormous figures – the largest she’s done thus far.

To delve further in the library:

Cindy Sherman : a play of selves / ed. by Metro Pictures – TR647 .S468 2007

Early work of Cindy Sherman / with music/sound by The Glove Compartment ; foreword by Edsel Williams. – TR647 .S468 2000 (Audio CD at Circulation Desk)

Cindy Sherman : the complete untitled film stills – TR647 .S468 2003 v. 1 & 2

Cindy Sherman transformations / Paul Tschinkel, producer/director – V-A S547 Tra DVD

Fitcher’s bird / photography by Cindy Sherman ; based on a tale by the Brothers Grimm. – PZ8.S34267Fi 1992

Office Killer / directed by Cindy Sherman – V-F S538 Off DVD

Phone, Borrow or Lend

Did you know there are 13,659 phone booths in NYC? Neither did we. Architect John Locke has an idea to transform those booths to host impromptu street libraries, where folks can find books or leave their own. The shelves fit into existing booths and do not interfere with the use of the phone. Talk about better urban living through design!

The art of placemaking : interpreting community through public art and urban design / Ronald Lee Fleming – NA9052 .F54 2007

Design and landscape for people : new approaches to renewal / Clare Cumberlidge and Lucy Musgrave – HT170 .C86 2007

Design for ecological democracy / Randolph T. Hester – HT167 .H472 2006

If you lived here : the city in art, theory, and social activism / a project by Martha Rosler ; edited by Brian Wallis – N72.S6 D57 1999

You Are the Target

The psychology of a making a sale is as old as commerce, but with the developing technology of data mining and consumer psychology, it is growing ever more refined. A recent article in the NY Times Sunday Magazine, How Companies Learn Your Secrets, detailed how the consumer giant Target hired a consumer psychologist to determine when women were pregnant. It turned out that by watching the purchases of certain items (like unscented lotion and mineral supplements), they developed an eerie ability to do just that.
For all of you marketeers looking to learn how the mechanisms work and for those looking to evade Big Brother’s data driven grasp, here are some titles to consider:

How customers think : essential insights into the mind of the market / Gerald Zaltman. – HF5415.32 .Z35 2003

The hidden persuaders / Vance Packard – HF5822 .P3 2007

A consumers’ republic : the politics of mass consumption in postwar America / Lizabeth Cohen – HC110.C6 C537 2003

Predictably irrational : the hidden forces that shape our decisions / Dan Ariely – BF448 .A75 2009

Waiting for your cat to bark? : persuading customers when they ignore marketing / Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffrey Eisenberg with Lisa T. Davis. – HF5415.32 .E37 2006

Consumer behavior and culture : consequences for global marketing and advertising /Marieke K. de Mooij – HF5415.32 .M66 2004

Return Your Books… Or We’ll Invade Your Food! (Librarians in Comics)

Cartoonist Michael Kupperman addresses an important point in his latest weekly strip for Fantagraphics. While librarians would rather maintain our normal size and stay out of casserole dishes, sometimes extreme measures are required to ensure the timely return of library materials!

Please check out some Kupperman in the library, just be sure to return them by their due date:

Snake ‘n’ Bacon’s cartoon cabaret / Michael Kupperman. – PN6727.K86 S65 2000

Tales designed to thrizzle : volume one / Michael Kupperman – PN6727.K86 T354 2009

Strange tales – PN6726.S72 M38 2010

Kate Beaton – Comics Industry Q&A

Kate Beaton, she of Hark! A Vagrant – a historical/literary comic with a Canadian focus recently collected into a Drawn and Quarterly tome (see below), has a kindly posted a Q & A where she answers readers’ questions about the comics industry. After you soak up her secrets, be sure to explore the rest of her Tumblr, which features her rough sketches and visual interests.

In the library:

Hark! a Vagrant / Kate Beaton – PN6733.B42 H37 2011

And for more on working on making comics in the era of the web:

Reinventing comics : how imagination and technology are revolutionizing an art form / Scott McCloud – PN6710 .M34 2000

How to make webcomics / Brad Guigar, Dave Kellett, Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub. – NC1764 .W58 2008

Webcomics / Steven Withrow and John Barber. – NC1764 .W579 2005

The business of comics / Lurene Haines.- NC1764.5.U6 H35 1998

The education of a comics artist : visual narrative in cartoons, graphic novels, and beyond / edited by Michael Dooley and Steven Heller. – NC1320 .E29 2005

Eye Fake Death, Secret Sketch of Squalor – new books!

Gaylord Phoenix / by Edie Fake – PN6727.F35 G39 2010

Araki: love and death / a cura di Francesca Bernasconi, Fuyumi Namioka. – TR647 .A693 2010

Bento’s sketchbook / John Berger – NC242.B47 A4 2011

Korean eye: contemporary Korean art / edited by Serenella Ciclitira – N7365.6 .K67 2010

The Art of the secret world of Arrietty / Hayao Miyazaki – NC1766.J33 A78 2012

The marriage of reason & squalor / by Jake Chapman – PR6103.H37 M37 2008