Sense, the tortoise, usually overtakes nonsense, the hare, even in this not quite perfect world.
(Clement Greenberg in Modernism with a Vengeance, p140)
Author: hhoward2
Quote of the week
The Ecole des Beaux-Arts seduced the weak with school triumphs and popular successes, and destroyed them in the end, while it identified, repelled, and strengthened the vigorous by forcing them to struggle with reality and to find their own way.
(Lorenz Eitner, in An Outline of 19th Century European Painting)
Type – a visual history of typefaces and graphic styles
Recently added to the Library are two amazing books about typography, published by Taschen. These beautiful volumes are a collection of type specimens, initial letters, decorative lettering, engravings, borders and ornaments. Volume 1 covers 1628 – 1900 and Volume 2 explores 1901 – 1938.
When you borrow the book you also gain online access to over 2000 high resolution, downloadable images , which are great for building up your own archive of reference material. An ID and password are required and these will be given to you when you borrow the book.
Quote of the Week
The making of superior art is arduous, usually.
(Clement Greenberg, Modernism and Postmodernism, Late Writings, p32)
Quote of the Week
The other – the others!
Millions of them are left to sink. They are asphixiated, starved, tortured, reduced to silence. Yet, at great risk, a few men and women refuse to bow down in front of hypocrisy, pseudo-truths, inflated authority. Loud or silent, their testimony sends endless echoes around the world.
(Dominique de Menil, Statement at the first Rothko Chapel Awards for Commitment to Truth and Freedom, 1981)
Quote of the week
We lose weeks like buttons, like pencils.
(Dave Eggars, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius)
New map georeferencing application
The National Library of Scotland has just launched an exciting new application allowing their early maps of Scotland to be georeferenced and viewed in 3D as an overlay in Google Earth.
Georeferencing is quick and fun and allows historic maps to be directly compared to present day satellite imagery.
It’s a collaborative online project where anyone with access to the internet can help to georeference various historical maps from the NLS collection.
More information can be found on the NLS website.
Quote of the Week
It is most often by way of errors, false starts, overrun objectives, and much groping and fumbling in general that great and original art arrives.
(Clement Greenberg, Affirmations and Refusals, p277)
Quote of the Week
Even when I was young, I said to myself that what is meant to be mine will come to me. I don’t have to go and look for it, just be attentive.
If there is any wisdom in life, it is knowing how to wait.
(José Saramago)
Visualising Urban Geographies
New dynamic maps of Edinburgh are now online through the National Library of Scotland’s collaborative Visualising Urban Geographies project with Edinburgh University. Included are 16 geo-referenced historical maps of Edinburgh from 1765-1940. They can all be compared together in Google Maps with present-day maps and satellite images. NLS have also created a 3-D representation of Edinburgh’s growth from 1450 to 1900 in Google Earth.
