Unit Price: $75.00 $50.00
(hardcover, high quality art stock), 9 x 12, 128 pages
ISBN: 1-55783-517-9
Unit Price: $75.00 $50.00
(hardcover, high quality art stock), 9 x 12, 128 pages
ISBN: 1-55783-517-9
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HIRSCHFELD'S HARLEM
(NOT AVAILABLE OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA)
"The book of original lithographs by Al Hirschfeld should be a prize for modern art lovers."
—Harper's Bazaar, 1942
"Harlem tells a racy, pungent story of life in that quarter.… Hirschfeld hasn't turned out anything livelier to date than this Harlem series." —New York Herald Tribune, December 21, 1941
"These prints possess an inherent American quality, comparable to the music of George Gershwin. They are convincing character studies, so much more emphatic than the thin and papery images of Grant Wood, or the strident caricatures of Thomas Benton. The original lithographs have attracted hordes of people to the galleries." —The Brooklyn Eagle, December 21, 1941
"Harlem people just keep on rising above whatever met them at eye level; regardless of the rugged terrain or the economic weather, Harlem residents had their own means of levitation. They performed an art form beyond the Arts, beyond the stage, beyond the Cotton Club. Very real people meeting reality head on and then stubbornly transcending it. Some commentators have made much of the fact that these aren’t Hirschfeld’s typical performers. Well, they’re not on the stretch of Broadway I had covered before or since. But these Harlemites are performers all right. They are in rehearsal for the performance of their lives. It’s that grand profound ritual I hope to have captured here.”
—Al Hirschfeld, 2003
“Opening this book is like stepping into the vibrant life of Harlem in the first half of the 20th century. Hurrah for this new, enlarged and expanded version, a marvelous combination of images, reminiscences and commentary on black American art and life. Each page has a magical intensity, depicted with rare honesty and warmth. Highly recommended for all public and academic collections as well as for anyone who loves New York City.” —Library Journal
“Smoky, sultry, sinuous: Hirschfeld’s Harlem is as exhilarating as a breath of late-night air. This book is just the tonic for a war-weary age.”—O, TheOprahMagazine
“A feast for the eyes. ‘Glorious’ is not too strong a word for these works of art.” —New York Observer
“A beautiful valentine to African-American artists of Harlem and beyond.”—BaltimoreSun
“Hirschfeld’s spectacular book captures the true Harlem beyond the tourists. The striking portraits in this large, lush volume include such African-American titans as Ethel Waters, James Earl Jones, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, a pictorial history of black entertainment in the 20th century.”—Playbill
“Beneath Hirschfeld’s celebration of Harlem is the tale of a people struggling to carry on and rise above an atmosphere of repression, hatred, and injustice. These drawings offer a glimpse of the spirit behind that struggle and of the wings that bore it up. . . . Hirschfeld’s exuberant crayon line swings and sweeps through the shapes of dance hall groups, lonely women, families, and jazz musicians. . . . Marvelously informative.” —Bloomsbury Review
No artist ever captured Harlem's dangerous highs and bluesy lows like this Master of the Performing Curve. Hirschfeld began his artistic Harlem odyssey six decades ago, charting that legendary New York neighborhood's special rhythms and moods in splashy feverish hues. Hirshfeld's Harlem opens onto a special portfolio of these color works, a pictorial essay of the Swing Era. Then it's back to Hirschfeld in his signature black and white takes on forty African American artists, including Ethel Waters, Whoopi Goldberg, James Earl Jones, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald.
AL HIRSCHFELD was designated a “Living Legend” by the U.S. Library of Congress. The U.S. Post Office issued -fifteen stamps of Hirschfeld drawings. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush. Hirschfeld was the recipient of two Lifetime Achievement Tony awards. His work is represented in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum, The Fogg Museum and the Harvard Theatre Collection. For seventy-five years, his work was the centerpiece of The New York Times’ Art & Leisure section. To commemorate his centenary, a Broadway theatre, formerly the Martin Beck, was re-christened The Al Hirschfeld.
With Commentary by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Savion Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Geoffrey Holder, Lena Horne, Quincy Jones, Eartha Kitt, Audra McDonald, Albert L. Murray, Bobby Short, Cicely Tyson, George C. Wolfe and Others
Introductory Essays by William Saroyan and Gail Lumet Buckley
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