Search Results

Nature Over Again: The Garden Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay

Though Ian Hamilton Finlay''s (1925-2006) famous work, Little Sparta, was voted the most important work of Scottish art, his influence--and works--is found worldwide. "Nature Over Again "reveals the story behind Finlay''s renowned horticultural works, presenting the first study that examines all of his garden designs and "interventions."
An accomplished Scottish poet, writer, artist, and gardener, Finlay infused his garden designs with his distinct aesthetic philosophy and poetic sensibility. John Dixon Hunt situates his analysis of Finlay''s gardens in the context of that broader philosophy and poetic work, drawing on Finlay''s writings about the art and practice of garden design. From the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart to the University of California at San Diego campus, the book documents how Finlay built an oeuvre of international renown--ultimately arguing that Finlay''s innovations are best understood in the context of the long tradition of European gardens. Copiously illustrated, "Nature Over Again" brings the work of this distinguished modernist to vivid life.

Gardens and the Picturesque: Studies in the History of Landscape Architecture

John Dixon Hunt is widely considered one of the foremost of today's writers on the history and theory of gardens and landscape architecture. 'Gardens And The Picturesque' collects eleven of Hunt's essays--several of them never before published--that deal with the ways in which men and women have given meaning to gardens and landscapes, especially with the ways in which gardens have represented the world of nature 'picturesquely.'

The Figure in the Landscape: Poetry, Painting, And Gardening During The Eighteenth Century

Eighteenth-century England saw the rise of a "peculiarly English" art form -- landscape gardening -- and a corresponding change in attitudes toward the natural world. While the French, who lived under tyranny, had tightly organized, restrictive gardens, the "free" English enjoyed gardens where they were at liberty to wander. John Dixon Hunt examines eighteenth-century letters, literary and critical works, biographies, paintings, prints, and drawings to trace the gradual movement from formal regularity toward a carefully calculated naturalness.

Art, Word and Image: 2,000 Years of Visual/Textual Interaction

What does it mean to say that a painting has been "invaded" by language?" Art, Word and Image "answers this question by exploring how visual images and writing can work in dialogue in an artwork. Whether the picture frame is encroached upon by doodlings, as with Adolf Wolfli's seemingly irrational scribbles, or a plea to spirituality is blazoned across a vast canvas, as in the moving images of Colin McCahon, we can be sure that words here have a special meaning, one beyond everyday communication. "Art, Word and Image," one of the first books to examine the use of language in art, is constructed around three major chronological essays by renowned scholars John Dixon Hunt, David Lomas, and Michael Corris. Their essays chart the use and significance of words in art--from Classical Greece through the middle Ages and Renaissance to modern digital media. The three central essays comment upon a variety of movements, and woven throughout are more than 300 images from many very well-known artists, including Picasso, Max Ernst, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Paul Klee, and Jasper Johns. Also featured are shorter essays that spotlight work by some artists who engage substantially with the intersection of the visual and written. "Art, Word and Image" will be an influential volume in art criticism, providing the framework for future scholarship in the field.

Greater Perfections: The Practice of Garden Theory

See all 1 Used + Rare copies from $47.78

Prices updated daily. May not reflect current price, depending on availability.

If gardening is most usually thought of as a practical activity, John Dixon Hunt's book explores the theoretical or conceptual basis of garden art. This involves taking a coherent and large-scale view of the garden in human culture throughout different times and places and treating the garden as the epitome of place-making or what is nowadays termed landscape architecture.

Greater Perfections explores the meanings of "garden" and its relationship to other interventions into the natural world. It looks at the role of verbal and visual languages in place-making as well as the fashion in which gardens have been represented in the visual and literary arts. But above all, it offers a new and challenging account of the role of representation in garden art itself.

Though his book draws upon many different historical traditions and archival materials (including a rich array of visual illustration), Hunt undertakes one main historical excursus: into the exciting theoretical world of the late seventeenth century,,in and around the figure of John Evelyn. This example of the contemplation or deep scrutiny and understanding of design from with in its own praxis sustains the final section of the book on contemporary landscape architecture. Hunt calls for a new history of landscape architecture as the basis for redirecting its energies and vision into built work, some recent examples of which are considered.

Greater Perfections seeks to celebrate the rich traditions of place-making, along with the equally diverse topics that its practitioners have addressed through their work, and connect them with the contemporary perception and design of sites. Wide-ranging in its references -- from Babylon toBattery Park City and Parc Bercy, from Renaissance villas to reconstituted wetlands, from Elizabethan poetry to Wallace Stevens and Ian Hamilton Finlay -- Greater Perfections proposes a wholly fresh basis for the understand

The Afterlife Of Gardens

See all 4 Used + Rare copies from $46.07

Prices updated daily. May not reflect current price, depending on availability.

Most historical and critical discussions of gardens focus on their design. What happens after the completion of the design, however, is largely ignored, which neglects a much larger part of the site's interest and potential. For gardens, John Dixon Hunt contends, are experienced, often by a succession of visitors at different times and often from different cultures; this experience, though determined by the original design and its subsequent modifications, also augments the site's potentialities, and this "afterlife" of gardens comes to enhance the original moment of creation.
One way of exploring the experience of designed landscapes is to adapt literary reception theory to the study of gardens. Hunt argues that such an approach via the reception or experience of gardens enlarges how we should understand their significance and meanings.
It is generally assumed that the experience of gardens became a prime ingredient of late eighteenth-century landscapes-picturesque literature especially highlighted how visitors responded to their surroundings, reading inscriptions and recognizing the significance of carefully placed architectural items or fabriques. But there is considerable evidence for a much earlier interest in how experience came to constitute an essential aspect of a site beyond the intentions of the original designer or patron. Among other early examples, Hunt examines the book "Hypnerotomachia Polifili" (1499) to show how its protagonist is shown exploring and negotiating a series of strange and baffling landscapes. Through other inquiries-particularly into the role of movement in such different situations as Versailles, and Chiswick or along modern highways-"The Afterlife of Gardens" provides a fresh approach to the study of designed landscapes that goes beyond their production and into how they exist and are understood by their users.
In this ambitious new book the author shows how the complete history of a garden must extend beyond the moment of its design and the aims of the designer to record its subsequent reception. He raises questions about the preservation of historical sites, and provides lessons for the contemporary designer, who may perhaps be more attentive to the life of a work after its design and implementation. This book will interest all who have a professional interest in gardens, as well as the wide general audience for gardens and landscapes of past and present.

Garden And Grove: The Italian Renaissance Garden In The English Imagination, 1600-1750

See all 8 Used + Rare copies from $23.47

Prices updated daily. May not reflect current price, depending on availability.

"This is a major work and, I think, Hunt''s best. . . . Once picked up, the book cannot be put down, for it is an exciting exegesis of the continuing Italian influence upon English garden art."--

ART DU JARDIN & SON HISTOIRE

See all 2 Used + Rare copies from $36.75

Prices updated daily. May not reflect current price, depending on availability.

Wider Sea

See all 13 Used + Rare copies from $7.36

Prices updated daily. May not reflect current price, depending on availability.