Stanley Library Calendar: August 2020

Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) is widely considered the greatest American photographer of the nineteenth century and arguably the most influential artist of his era. He is best known for his pictures of Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. Watkins made his first trip to Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove in 1861 just as the Civil War was beginning. His photographs of Yosemite were exhibited in New York for the first time in 1862, as news of the Union's disastrous defeat at Fredericksburg was landing in newspapers and while the Matthew Brady Studio's horrific photographs of Antietam were on view. Watkins's work tied the West to Northern cultural traditions and played a key role in pledging the once-wavering West to Union. Motivated by Watkins's pictures, Congress would pass legislation, later signed by Abraham Lincoln, that preserved Yosemite as the prototypical "national park," the first such act of landscape preservation in the world.

"Featuring the works and words of twenty-four prominent artists: Jennifer Bartlett -- Lynda Benglis -- Louise Bourgeois -- Deborah Butterfield -- Louisa Chase -- Janet Fish -- Audrey Flack -- Jane Freilicher -- Viola Frey -- Yvone Jacquette -- Marisol -- Joan Mitchell -- Elizabeth Murray -- Adrian Piper -- Faith Ringgold -- Dorothea Rockburne -- Miriam Schapiro -- Cindy Sherman -- Alexis Smith -- Jaune Quick-to-See Smith -- Pat Steir -- Idelle Weber -- Jane Wilson -- Jackie Winsor."

Drawing from historical and private collections around the country, Samella Lewis has gathered an impressive representation of the work of African American artists, from the 18th century to the present. For this edition she has provided a new chapter on art of the last decade. Handsomely and generously illustrated, this book reveals a rich legacy of work by African American painters, sculptors, and graphic artists.

Art [assembled and introduced by] Judy Kay Collischan van Wagner ; foreword by Thomas W. Leavitt ; introduction by Judith Wilson.

Follows the life of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe and her tumultuous relationship with her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. As their relationship suffers, Alfred takes a younger lover. Georgia's search for solace moves her west, where she finds new inspiration for her paintings, and ultimately her own voice, in the New Mexico landscape.

Emile de Antonio was a close friend to many New York painters who later went on to become famous. He filmed and interviewed them informally in their studios. Artists included are Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jules Olitski, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, Phillip Pavia, and Hans Hoffman.