Pre-publication discount subscriptions are now
available for the catalog of
The
Book Cover Art of Thomas Watson Ball
Current discount price in effect through February 29, 2012.
Above: An 1898 T. W. Ball cover.
This is the first single-artist exhibition I have mounted in the
series on American publishers' bindings, which has already shown
1,500 works by 150 artists. For decades the works by Ball were
either listed as of unknown origin or were attributed to others,
such as The Decorative Designers, who copied his styles. He rarely
monogrammed covers that were done for his employer, Harper's, or for
the many other publishers to whom he sold his work. This exhibition
includes 60 books from 1897 to 1905, and many variants.
Ball was a master of silhouette and skyline, and excelled at
landscape and marine subjects. His abstract landscapes on book
covers predate Kandinsky and other modernists' ventures in that
direction, beginning in 1897.
Below: An 1899 T. W. Ball cover.
This is not intended to be a definitive exhibition or catalog, but
to provide a resource for scholars, librarians, curators, collectors
and dealers for identifying Ball's work, with the expectation that
more will be found as time goes on. It also provides inspiration for
book cover artists and bookbinders, with a richness of variety in
style and composition that can be reinterpreted today.
Please visit the Gallery web page just mounted for this exhibition,
where you can see part of the installation already online:
http://minsky.com/gallery.htm
For information about and online ordering for the Limited Edition
catalog:
http://minsky.com/orderform-subscriptionTWB.htm
--
Richard
http://minsky.com