Valentin Lustig, the child of Holocaust survivors, studied painting and art history in Cluj and Florence. The horrific surrealism of his work, reminiscant of Hieronymus Bosch, expresses the view of an extremely sensitive human being who is preoccupied with the Holocaust and the fate of the Jewish people. Full of symbolic images, his paintings are not explicit representations of the Holocaust. His subject matter and message are very subtle, sophisticated, and complex. 25 color plates with explainations.

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Although much has been written over the years about the ancient mystery religions and their influence on the intellectual life of the Renaissance, scholars have neglected their role in art. This is a serious omission in the case of one of the most popular cultic deities, the Mother Goddess, whose colorful myths and exotic rites, described in fascinating detail by classical authors, became a rich source of imagery for Renaissance writers, antiquarians, and artists. In this ground-breaking study, Edith Balas draws upon a wide range of humanistic learning to examine the significance of the Mother Goddess and her cult in the works of such major figures as Botticelli, Mantegna, Michelangelo, Titian, and Raphael, as well in those of a host of other lesser artists.

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This collection of essays is based on 35 years of Edith Balas's scholarship of Constantin Brancusi, the twentieth century’s most influential sculptor. In her 1987 book, Brancusi and Romanian Folk Traditions, Balas convincingly demonstrated that Brancusi's sculpture is rooted in his Romanian peasant origins, his artisan training and the folklore familiar to him. The present collection now explores how this giant of the twentieth century also related to his Parisian environment. Brancusi's artistic evolution followed a tortuous path. Trained in his youth as an artisan he became a sophisticated artist of international renown. When along with others of his generation he rejected academic conventions, he evolved his artisan heritage into the modern sculptural language for which he is known today. In this collection of essays Balas shows that in doing so Brancusi is a product of his Parisian environment, and that his modernism grows from the interface of his Romanian origins with the art of the Parisian avant-garde. Without sacrificing his notorious independence, Brancusi was well informed about every contemporary artistic trend in Paris. Edith Balas shows not only how Brancusi became a pioneer of modern sculpture and one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century but also why his legacy continues into the twenty-first century.

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A new translation of this classic play.

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From Carnegie Mellon's own Studio for Creative Inquiry comes this beautiful new book of local photographs!

You may know the landscape of Pittsburgh by its hills, rivers, roads, buildings, and trees, but the eye is strongly drawn to the text and symbols of the signs that comfort with familiarity, that irritate you with their distractions, that please you with their symmetry, or that illustrate the economic condition of a neighborhood. Signs are always trying to say something. Signs make our spaces a mongrelization of type-styles, graphics, and fashions: The futuristic becomes the modern becomes the dated becomes the retro. The passage of time provides the subtexts of rust, faded paint, and delamination. Signs are necessarily brash, democratic, and confessional. But I've said too much. Let the signs speak for themselves.

The Pittsburgh Signs Project invited photographers from the 14 counties of southwestern Pennsylvania to submit images and comments and the result is Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania, a full-color book showcasing the signs of our region, past and present. Published by Carnegie Mellon University Press, the project was made possible in part by a grant from Pittsburgh 250 Community Connections.

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Item: 088748510

Each poem is a new occasion and wants a fresh set of responses from us. We need to be nimble, alert and improvisational in our writing, playful in our seriousness. The DNA of old poems and habits is always in us, and familiar skills can sustain us, but it’s important to leave plenty of space for the newness of really fresh expression. In this book, Browne explores ways of detecting what this poem, none other, is asking of us, and how we can bring all of ourselves to it.

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Described admiringly as "a scrappy little beast" in Salon magazine in 1997, Karr is a controversial figure in the American poetry "establishment," thanks to her Pushcart-award winning essay, "Against Decoration." She's gained wider acclaim for her award-winning The Liar's Club. Abacus, her first book, which has been out of print for nearly twenty years, is again available in the Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporaries Series.

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"Suzanne Cleary writes about the American sublime, the ways in which our commonplace lives achieve glamour and transcendence in an Airstream trailer or dinner conversation with friends, in an encounter with a famous jazz singer or in the durable habit's of a grandparent's immigrant speech. We are constantly intersecting with history in small but important ways, unforgettable ways, as they are recorded by this poet. One poem here, one of the best, is entitled 'True.' 'True' could be the title of every poem in this book. Cleary's is a genuine lyric gift as rich as it is rare." --Mark Jarman

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