Stars in living color

What color ... what style ... what pizzazz! If you're in DC this summer, hot foot it over to the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution. On exhibit until September are these and 20 more "tri-color carbro" magazine images by Harry Warnecke done for the New York Daily News in the 1940s. At right, Louis Armstrong; below: Lucille Ball, Dale Evans, and Irene Dunne.

Did that hairdo really need to be topped by a clashing-color hot mess of a headpiece AND a veil?

I so wanted to be Dale Evans when I grew up.

Now this was a time when a movie star never stepped out without an outfit to die for!

Antique bookplates

The Ex Libris illustrations below were culled from the gigantic John Starr Stewart Collection at the University of Illinois. Which one suits your literary personality?

Stop by our bookplate page for some more eye-catching, artistic creations.

Amazon: boon or bane?

Cover design by José Chicas

Amazon's predatory pricing and the use of loss leaders to undercut everyone else seems to be a good deal for customers but rings a death knell for the publishers and bookstores who generate books and interest in them in the first place. As reported by the publishing blog Shelf Awareness, The Nation has stepped into the fray with a special issue devoted to the merchandizing behemoth. Among the highlights:

In his article "The Amazon Effect," former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review Steve Wasserman chronicled the history and current status of the company. He observed that from the start, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos "understood two things. One was the way the Internet made it possible to banish geography, enabling anyone with an Internet connection and a computer to browse a seemingly limitless universe of goods with a precision never previously known and then buy them directly from the comfort of their homes. The second was how the Internet allowed merchants to gather vast amounts of personal information on individual customers."
"Why does Amazon now have customers do the search chores it used to do for them, and in innovative ways?" That question was addressed by Anthony Grafton in "Search Gets Lost."
Michael Naumann, editor-in-chief of the German magazine Cicero who headed Holt in New York City in the late 1990s before becoming Germany's culture minister for three years, examined "How Germany Keeps Amazon at Bay and Literary Culture Alive," looking at ways the country's fixed-price laws "curtail the power of retail chains and help to sustain a vibrant literary culture." Introducing its slide show "Ten Reasons to Avoid Doing Business with Amazon," the Nation asked "what's at stake in the battle over e-commerce and why should you avoid doing business with Amazon.com?"

It's a worrisome issue providing much food for thought. Sweatshop conditions and no unions, monopolistic practices, invasion of privacy, evasion of taxes, etc etc... is this any different from the robber barons?

From Japan to the West and back again

“Tipsy,” a print by Kobayakawa Kiyoshi, 1930.

Japonisme was all the rage with European artists at the end of the 19th century, and when the Art Deco movement came along, the Japanese returned the favor by adapting the style to their own artworks. A richly varied show of Japanese Art Deco pieces in multiple genres—both fine art and popular/ commercial art—is going on in New York at the Japan Society. "A section of the show is devoted to the modern woman," writes the New York Times, "one who enjoys a liberation paralleling that of her Jazz Age sisters in America and Europe. In numerous paintings and sculptures, women dance, drink, smoke, relax in states of near nudity and otherwise revel in hedonistic freedom that recalls the old, Edo-period district of pleasurable pursuits known as the Floating World." The works come mostly from the collection of Robert and Mary Levenson of Clearwater, FL, although  five of the paintings are on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Tsuda Shinobu (1875–1946). Deluded Demons Run Away: Roaring Chinese Lion. Cast bronze, 1938. (11 x 17¼ x 5½ in.). Photograph courtesy of The Levenson Collection.

Hayashi Bunshū (born 1895), with Gyōzan, Shōsai, and Mikizō (dates unknown), Box with Celestial Horse Ascending to the Sky. Lacquered wood with silver and gold inlay, 1937. (13 x 10 x 5 in.). Photograph courtesy of The Levenson Collection.

Salon's "Five-Minute Museum" series has a slide show, and there's a wealth of information in the video overview below, with enlightening commentary by several curators.

If this subject intrigues you, don't miss The Influence of Japanese Art on Design, which details the movement from East to West, or The Ideals of the East: with Special Reference to the Art of Japan.

Contemporary children's book illustrators: BEA auction

Here are some samples of the more than 100 pieces of original art for children's books that will be auctioned in New York City next Wednesday at BookExpo America (BEA). The proceeds benefit the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and its defense of the free speech rights of young readers. Which work(s) would you bid on?
BEA is the annual extravaganza of the book publishing industry, featuring author signings, chi chi receptions, and media events galore. Besides hosting Booth #4322 at the Javits Center, Daedalus Books employees are fanning out to attend seminars on e-book publishing, social media, and all kinds of groovy stuff. Yours truly will be learning how to be a better blogger!

(All rights to images reserved by Annual Children's Art Auction at BEA: 2012)