The portrait of a city . . is in a way like a portrait of a person--the difficulty is to catch not only the superficial resemblance but the inner self. The spirit, that's what counts, and one should strive to portray the soul of the city with the same care as the soul of a sitter. ---Childe Hassam, 1913

Relates the true story of masterless samurai (ronin) who avenged their lord's death and came to represent the ultimate ideal of self-sacrifice.

Illustrated by over 50 of Edward Hopper's most powerful evocations of New York, Avis Berman's essay explores how Hopper and his work illuminate each other by analyzing what his New York is - and is not. Ever the contrarian, he offers an alternative to what other American artists seized on - the new, the gigantic, the technologically exciting. Hopper stayed away from tourist attractions or landmarks of the city's glamorous skyline. His preference for nondescript vernacular buildings is emblematic of the larger Hopper paradox: he makes emptiness full, silence articulate, banality intense, plainness mysterious, and tawdriness noble.

Stewart, the senior staff photographer for Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a longtime friend of Bearden, photographed the artist from the late 1970s until Bearden's death in 1988. A select group of the b&w photos are collected in this volume, each accompanied by a brief caption of the places and people depicted, many of them African-American luminaries of art, music, and dance. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Like a crack archaeologist who extracts a wealth of historical information from a minor artifact, Paul Duchscherer takes a very specific, mundane aspect of residential architecture--the bungalow door--and explains how it came to reflect the aesthetic principles and shifts in taste that influenced bungalow design in general. A restoration consultant, Duchscherer also offers advice to current bungalow owners on evaluating and improving their own front doors. Douglas Keister's full-color photographs focus primarily on the front door but include examples of interior and side doors, as well as close-up shots that illustrate the handsome metalwork, art glass, and joinery that were hallmarks of Arts and Crafts design.

Frank Lloyd Wright devoted his revolutionary creativity to refining his Prairie style, especially in Racine, Wisconsin, called "Invention city" for all the innovative products developed there. After 1900, Racine witnessed the most significant stages of the architect's career. Mark Hertzberg explores Wright's buildings with striking photographs accompanied by a well-researched compendium of warm, lively, and revealing anecdotes from people who lived in Wright's private homes and worked in his public buildings. Special attention is devoted to the SC johnson Administration Building, the subsequent Research Tower, and the Wingspread residence--Wright's last and largest Prairie home, and built in a unique pinwheel design. Other important commissions discussed and photographed include the Hardy and the Keland houses, the unrealized Roy Petersen house, the YWCA, and the airport lounge/cafe project. Hertzberg also briefly touches on the Monolith and the Johnson homes, Wright's dreams for affordable housing.