Judith Shea

  • books Summer 1985

    Louise Dahl-Wolfe: A Photographer’s Scrapbook

    Louise Dahl-Wolfe: A Photographer’s Scrapbook.

    By Louise Dahl-Wolfe, NewYork: St.Martin’s Press, 1984, 145 pages, over 200 black and white illustrations.

    If you love the fashion work of Louise Dahl-Wolfe, her own A Photographer’s Scrapbook is not the best place to find it. The book intends primarily to present a fuller view of her interests in life and in photography. For this it is a good resource, but the best part is her wry look at the behind-the-scenes of the great, glamorous world of fashion. Dahl-Wolfe is discreet, generous, and concise in her text. She lets the photographs do most of the

  • books Summer 1985

    Women Shaping Art: Profiles Of Power

    Women Shaping Art: Profiles Of Power.

    By Judy K. Collischan van Wagner, New York: Praeger, 1984, 300 pp., 19 black and white illustrations.

    Women Shaping Art devotes a chapter to each of 19 women in American Modern and contemporary art. Focusing on art writers and dealers, the selection presents such strong figures and unlike minds as Betty Parsons, Katherine Kuh, Ileana Sonnabend, Paula Cooper, Rosalind Krauss, and Holly Solomon, to name a few, and includes a lineage of issues and ideas related to art, art business, art history, and feminism. The book serves as both a history and a collective

  • books Summer 1985

    The Carving Of Mount Rushmore

    The Carving Of Mount Rushmore.

    By Rex Alan Smith, New York: Abbeville Press, 1985, 415 pp., 66 black and white illustrations.

    American history; art in public places; the artist in American society; history, theory, and technique of monumental sculpture: if any of these topics interests you, read Rex Alan Smith’s The Carving of Mount Rushmore. It is a wonderful, detailed account of one of the biggest outdoor sculpture projects we have. With a keen eye to the questions and problems involved in such a feat, Smith’s book offers so much good factual information about the financing, politics, and

  • books December 1982

    Valentino

    VALENTINO IS NOT AMONG the great innovators in fashion history. He is, however, one of the few designers who still operates in the traditional style of the 20th-century couturier. He can use opulent materials to construct elaborate shapes, like his spiral-cut ruffled gowns in organza or his bubble dresses (recently referred to in Women’s Wear Daily as Christmas-tree ornaments), which are not and could not be produced in quantity because of the amount of skill and labor needed to make each one. He can tailor an impeccable suit by hand, and he can also cover up its beautiful lines with froufrou;