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  Featured Books: Furniture
 
FURNITURE OF SPANISH NEW MEXICO
A Definitive Study of this Colonial Artform
By Alan C. Vedder

Illustrated, photographs, glossary

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

Traditional Spanish New Mexican furniture can best be characterized as simple, having straight lines and good, honest proportions, all of which give these pieces a particular type of dignity. As is true of other handmade objects in a given society, furniture made in New Mexico mirrored the lives of New Mexicans in the 18th and 19th centuries—isolation and a rugged existence. The earliest furniture was made for churches and a few rich families. Even well into the 19th century, the average home was devoid of pieces considered common today: chairs, tables and beds. The author regards the traditional period in Spanish New Mexican furniture to begin about 1776 and extend until almost 1900. The pieces in this book illustrate the important contributions made by the Spanish in the 18th and 19th centuries to this form of the decorative arts.

Alan C. Vedder, because of his interest in architectural and artistic fields and despite only general formal education in those areas, had a fascination for New Mexican culture. These interests were expanded and intensified when he began working with E. Boyd in the newly-established Spanish Colonial Department of the Museum of New Mexico. He worked closely with her for almost twenty years and together they explored, empirically, the Spanish cultural background of New Mexico. Mr. Vedder specialized in conservation of New Mexican Spanish Colonial objects, having conserved a famous bulto at El Santuario de Chimayo and the altar screens at Rosario Chapel in Santa Fe and at Santa Cruz Church in Española. He acted as a consultant to various museums including the American Museum in Britain at Bath, England, for which he collected, designed and installed their permanent exhibit of New Mexican rooms. Dedicated to all aspects of New Mexico’s Spanish Colonial culture, Mr. Vedder’s primary goal was to further the appreciation of traditional New Mexican furniture.

Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=BuoB_XNwgFUC

Softcover:
8 1/2 x 11
ISBN: 978-0-91327-066-0
98 pp.,$22.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-927-1
96 pp.,$9.99


A MORE ABUNDANT LIFE
New Deal Artists and Public Art in New Mexico
By Jacqueline Hoefer

LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR AND B&W

Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418

Artists began coming to New Mexico in the late nineteenth century. They came from everywhere, from Maine to California and a few from Europe. They were attracted by the dazzling New Mexican landscape, the hospitality of town and village life, and very important, the Indian and Hispanic cultures that had shaped the artistic imagination of New Mexico for centuries.

From an artist’s point of view it was a rich mix, and between art and odd jobs, they managed to make a living. Until the Great Depression of the 1930s. Then, as the artist Louie Ewing said, “the jobs ran out.” No matter what you were willing to do, there was no work, and nobody was buying pictures and pots.

Help came from Washington. New Deal planners offered artists jobs to “beautify” the community. Almost immediately, artists in New Mexico picked up their brushes and chisels, and for almost ten years, between 1933 to 1943, signed onto Federal programs.

How did artists, traditionally loners, like working for the government? When the Santa Fe artist William Lumpkins was asked, he said: “We thought it was heaven on earth to be paid to paint.”

Fortunately, many New Deal artists had the opportunity to speak for themselves. In state-sponsored interviews they tell us in their own words what the New Deal art programs meant to them. Their rich interpretations of that experience and a selection of the work they produced is what this book is about.

JACQUELINE HOEFER’s publications include Imagining the Garden, a book of poems; Weather Songs, three poems set to music by Lanham Deal; and critical essays on contemporary writers, among them, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Norman Mailer. Her latest book is Night in a White Wood, New and Selected Poems.

Mrs. Hoefer received a Ph.D. in American literature from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and in the early 1960s taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and at San Francisco State University. In 1967, she joined her husband Peter Hoefer in starting Hoefer Scientific Instruments, a San Francisco company specializing in producing instruments for biological research. After Peter Hoefer’s death in 1987, she carried on as chief executive officer. She is currently an editor for Sunstone Press.

Website: http://www.newdeallegacy.org
Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=TsiVodGK2cAC

Hardcover:
8 1/2 x 11
ISBN: 978-0-86534-305-4
196 pp.,$60.00

Softcover:
8 1/2 X 11
ISBN: 978-0-86534-371-9
196 pp.,$45.00


SOUTHWESTERN ORNAMENTATION AND DESIGN
The Architecture and Designs Of John Gaw Meem
By Anne Taylor, PhD

See PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK below.

The archives of the Meem Room in Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque contain a wealth of drawings done by one of New Mexico’s most renowned architects, John Gaw Meem. Meem’s legacy is in part his contribution to the preservation and renewal of historic American Southwestern architecture. Much of the indigenous building and craft work which inspired Meem is gone now, but his work remains as our model for historic architectural details and design. This book lauds Meem’s substantial use of crafted ornamentation and details such as gates, doors, corbels, fireplaces, metal work, light fixtures, etc., and shows his sensitivity to the cultural environment he in turn contributed so much to as an example for homeowners, builders, and designers everywhere.

Anne Taylor, PhD, is a University of New Mexico Regents professor and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) distinguished Professor Emerita. She was a professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico, and is known internationally for her research on physical environments and their effects on learning and behavior, and the teaching of architecture and design to children. Taylor is the author of Linking Architecture and Education: Sustainable Design of Learning Environments and many journal articles on the same subject. Southwestern Ornamentation and Design can be used by teachers, architects and others to explore with their students symbolic architecture and design thinking in a unique part of the United States.

“Anne Taylor offers a direct and knowledgeable analytical survey of one of New Mexico's most renowned architects. Black-and-white photographs drawn from the archives of the Meem Room in Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico help present John Meem's bold and visionary ideas to offer inspiration in their own right. A very highly recommended addition to professional and academic Architectural Studies collections.” —Midwest Book Review

Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=jsZH-md7jbwC

Hardcover:
8 1/2 x 11
ISBN: 978-1-63293-413-0
104 pp.,$32.95

Softcover:
8 1/2 x 11
ISBN: 978-0-86534-069-5
104 pp.,$19.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-389-7
104 pp.,$7.99


SPANISH COLONIAL FURNITURE
By Arthur Durward Williams

Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418

This book details the outgrowth of years of study of Spanish-American colonial furniture as it was developed in the vast territory now included in the states of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. In addition to a detailed explanation of the styles of furniture it contains designs of and directions for making fifty-seven pieces which are adaptations of authentic Spanish models. Projects cover a wide range, embracing trays, tables, desks, chairs, dressing tables, bookcases, benches, trasteros and amacens, the typical Spanish cabinets. Their presentations are comprehensive and simple, including accurate working drawings, photographs, a brief description of process, and a list of materials. The projects will give satisfaction both in making and in daily use, as well as helping perpetuate early American culture. There are elements of romance and beauty in this furniture which deserve to be widely used and enjoyed.

Arthur Durward Williams was a teacher in Native American and other schools for many years. As a result of his shop teaching, he recognized the need for projects for class use which are different and which have a definite place not only in the home but also in the history of the United States. His work brought him close to the finest examples of furniture in the American Southwest.


Hardcover:
8 1/2 X 11 Illustrated
ISBN: 978-1-63293-343-0
144 pp.,$$29.95

Softcover:
8 1/2 X 11 Illustrated
ISBN: 978-1-63293-293-8
144 pp.,$19.95


 
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