Studio jewelry dissolves the modern distinction between decorative and fine arts. The 60 pieces in this lively volume, collected by Donna Schneier and donated to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, were created primarily from the early 1960s to the present day and show a fluid engagement with various traditions in jewelry-making―from old masterworks to contemporary pieces―as well as various 20th-century art movements such as Conceptual art, Arte Povera, and Surrealism. Unique by Design draws attention to these dazzling small works of art, most of which have never before been published. Although these pieces incorporate a variety of materials, ranging from the precious to the ordinary, they share some common traits that reflect the collector’s tastes: wit, elegance, fantasy, imagination, social observation, and technical virtuosity. Above all, these works were made to be worn and to create a dynamic engagement with a body.

Unique by Design: Contemporary Jewelry in the Donna Schneier Collection

Arts & Photography

Ramljak, Suzanne

History & Criticism

Metropolitan Museum of Art

From the beginning of time, armor and amulets have been used for protection and are found in cultures across the globe, and those who crafted them have been esteemed as artists by their communities. The contemporary examples showcased here, in 200 eye-catching images, demonstrate the enduring artistry of the forms and the crucial role such objects can play in safeguarding body and soul, especially in our current Age of Terror. An exciting array of protective hardware (armor, barriers, wearable weaponry) and protective "software" (charms, amulets, talismans), reveal a broad range of strategies for human defense. Focusing on work from the twenty-first century, this captivating book features some of today's finest artists and metalsmiths and testifies to the continued relevance of this creative pursuit. An introductory essay charts the wider cultural terrain of protective ornament--touching on issues of history, anthropology, and psychology, while portfolio sections spotlight subsets of defensive and offensive wear. Among the works of art are helmets, elaborate knuckledusters, pendants, collars, rings, bracelets, metal jackets, and chain mail, all designed for safety.

On Body and Soul: Contemporary Armor to Amulets

Religion & Spirituality

Schiffer+publishing Ltd

Works by&nbsp;nearly 100 of today's most prominent artists--including Willie Cole,&nbsp;Mark Dion, Mona Hatoum, Peter Saul, Yinka Shonibare, and Laurie Simmons--raise&nbsp;questions about the many issues that&nbsp;firearms trigger, leaving answers up&nbsp;to&nbsp;the reader. This invigorating survey of contemporary art and guns offers insight into the mixed associations of firearms in our culture. Situating these artworks within the contexts of fire domestication, weapon history, social movements, and art history, the book touches on subjects&nbsp;of power, equality, and access, and the current debates surrounding gun use. What emerges is the inherently dualistic nature of firearms, which are both protective and destructive, empowering and enfeebling, supporting peace and war, life and death. While this central ambivalence can't be captured in statistical data or media sound bites, it thrives within these complex visual works.&nbsp;This collection reveals a striking diversity of viewpoints on guns, highlighting their inescapable duplicity and the compelling role they have come to play within our lives and imaginations.

Loaded: Guns in Contemporary Art

Schiffer

The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection is one of the world's premier collections of lathe-turned wooden objects. Comprising more than 125 extraordinary works by 43 craft artists, the collection ranges from bowls and vessels to abstract sculptural pieces, many made from exotic or unusual woods. The artists represented include most of the major figures in the field of wood turning from 1960 to the present-such as Virginia Dotson, David Ellsworth, Ron Kent, Mark and Mel Lindquist, Ed and Philip Moulthrop, and Bob Stocksdale-men and women who have used their artistry to reveal and heighten the natural beauty of wood. 
This sumptuously illustrated book, the companion volume to a traveling exhibition organized by Mark Richard Leach, director of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, North Carolina, features illuminating essays by two leading craft experts as well as by Arthur Mason himself. 
141 illustrations, 130 in full color, 9 x 11 1/2" 
SUZANNE RAMLJAK, a curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts and a guest curator at the American Craft Museum, writes frequently for ARTnews, Art &amp; Antiques, and American Craft. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. 
MICHAEL W. MONROE is the former director of the American Craft Council and the former curator-in-charge of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art. He is also the author of Abrams' The White House Collection of American Crafts. He lives in Reston, Virginia. 
MARK RICHARD LEACH is director of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was formerly curator of 20th-century art at the Mint Museum of Art. He lives in Matthews, North Carolina. 
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE Mint Museum of Craft + Design,Charlotte, North CarolinaMay 20-Oct. 8, 2000

Turning Wood into Art : The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection

Monroe, Michael

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Harry N. Abrams

Artists such as Maya Lin, Roxy Paine, and Dustin Yellin show the impact of human interventionon our ecosystem through a mix of installations, video, photography, and sculpture. Natural Wonders spotlights the works of thirteen artists who work in various media to depict themes of nature—both its beauty and its more disquieting aspects—from painting and sculpture to 3-D landscapes and botanical replications to dioramas and lenticular prints. The range of works encourages us to be more attentive to our natural surroundings and address timely issues such as habitat loss, environmental toxins, bioengineering, and increasing alienation from nature. Ramljak’s essay provides a broad cultural and historical context for the contemporary artworks, complemented by artist statements and an interview between environmentally minded artists Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman.

Natural Wonders: The Sublime in Contemporary Art: Thirteen Artists Explore Nature's Limits

Rizzoli Electa

Crafting a Legacy: Contemporary American Crafts in the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Published to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Philadelphia Museum of Art craft show, Crafting a Legacy showcases the Museum's burgeoning collection of contemporary American crafts. More than one hundred color plates illustrate many of the Museum's prime holdings in ceramics, wood, fiber, glass, metal, and furniture. Entries on sixty-four featured artists, including Dale Chihuly, Wharton Esherick, Sheila Hicks, and Peter Voulkos, place their work in the context of the dynamic field of American crafts. Suzanne Ramljak reveals the valuable role that crafts play in contemporary culture and artistic practice. In a world of bland, mass-produced consumer goods and technologically mediated virtual experience, Ramljak argues that crafts-one-of-a-kind handmade objects-can reawaken our senses. In his introduction, Darrel Sewell, the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Curator of American Art, outlines the history of the crafts collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as the vital role Philadelphia has played as a center for innovation in contemporary crafts. The book also includes an illustrated checklist of the Museum's more than three hundred holdings in contemporary crafts. 
Crafting a Legacy will be of interest to artists, collectors, and anyone who appreciates the beauty of finely crafted handmade objects.

The evolution and cultural implications of the artist's remarkable sculpture, furniture, jewellery, public art commissions, and functional objects. Oka Doner translates organic forms into objects of natural seduction.

Michele Oka Doner: Natural Seduction

Hudson Hills

Elie Nadelman: Classical Folk is a fully illustrated catalogue that focuses on the figural sculpture of Elie Nadelman (1882-1946) reappraising the artist's distinct position within twentieth-century American sculpture. It details the artist's years in the United States (1914-1946), when he merged classical and folk art sources to create a unique fusion of past and present, traditional and modern, and high and low. The essays provide multiple perspectives on Nadelman's art. Curator Suzanne Ramljak examines Nadelman's achievements in the classical figural tradition, while an essay by Avis Berman examines the artist's involvement with folk art. Klaus Kertess writes on Nadelman's late plasters, and Valerie Fletcher focuses on the materials and working processes of the artist. Finally, the text is complemented by an illustrated chronology of the artist's biography with artistic milieus by Cynthia Nadleman, the artist's biographer and granddaughter.

Elie Nadelman: Classical Folk

American Federation of Arts

Berman, Avis

Fletcher, Valerie J.

Frick Art & Historical Center

Kertess,klaus

Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum

Nadelman, Elie

Nadelman, Cynthia

Decorative Arts & Design

Amer Federation of Arts

Highlights the ecological concerns shared by two closely allied artists.\nContemporary artists Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman are widely recognized for work that engages issues of natural history, scientific practice, and the imperiled environment. This catalog, which accompanies the first two-person survey exhibition of the artists, spans thirty-five years of their work and offers a compelling tour into the shadowy depths of the threatened natural world, spotlighting some twenty-five sculptures and paintings, along with selected works on paper and an epic collaborative diorama created especially for this exhibition. Featuring an introduction by Suzanne Ramljak, an essay by Lucy R. Lippard, and a joint interview with the artists by Patrick Jaojoco, the book probes our strained relationship with the environment and the consequences of reigning ideologies about nature.

Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld

Hirmer Publishers

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ramljak, Suzanne. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ramljak, Suzanne

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ramljak, Suzanne. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Unique by Design: Contemporary Jewelry in the Donna Schneier Collection

On Body and Soul: Contemporary Armor to Amulets

Loaded: Guns in Contemporary Art

Turning Wood into Art : The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection

Natural Wonders: The Sublime in Contemporary Art: Thirteen Artists Explore Nature's Limits

Crafting a Legacy: Contemporary American Crafts in the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Crafting a Legacy: Contemporary American Crafts in the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Michele Oka Doner: Natural Seduction

Elie Nadelman: Classical Folk

Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld