Books by George Philip LeBourdais
Ecocriticism and the Anthropocene in Nineteenth-Century Art and Visual Culture, 2020
In the early 1840s, George Henry Durrie started using snow to stop time. This chapter presents an... more In the early 1840s, George Henry Durrie started using snow to stop time. This chapter presents an ecocritical reading that considers snow, a typically unquestioned precipitate of winter, within a deeper spectrum of materiality and meaning. The artist molded snow into a passive foil for rising spirits and fortunes, making cold hardships all the sweeter to overcome. Cryoscapes reflect both the repressed material agency of snow as well as the fantasy that representing it amounts to the control of natural time itself. Painting “as a lover of Nature’s God,” Durrie had to weigh the ambivalent spiritual implications of his cryoscapes. Winter in the Country, a canvas from 1857, epitomizes Durrie’s reliable snow scene formula, in which life appears to soldier on through the year’s harshest months. Durrie’s paintings thus register as icons of domestic stability and antebellum peace for a generation that saw the social fabric unraveling before its eyes.
Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Albums presents over 150 images from three of Watkins's albums—Pho... more Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Albums presents over 150 images from three of Watkins's albums—Photographs of the Yosemite Valley (1861 and 1865-66), Photographs of the Pacific Coast (1862-76), and Photographs of the Columbia River and Oregon (1867 and 1870)—from the Stanford University Libraries Special Collections. These images represent the definitive collection of Watkins's highest achievements. In addition to the complete albums, the book also features fifteen essays by renowned scholars of the American West, including David M. Kennedy, Alexander Nemerov, and Richard White. Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Albums accompanies an ambitious exhibition of the same name, on view at the Cantor Arts Center from April through August 2014.
This five-volume collection surveys five decades of Gordon Parks’ photography. It is the most ext... more This five-volume collection surveys five decades of Gordon Parks’ photography. It is the most extensive publication to document his legendary career. Widely recognized as the most important and influential African-American photo grapher of the twentieth century, Parks combined a unique documentary and artistic style with a profound commitment to social justice. Working first for the Farm Security Administration and later for Life magazine, he specialized in extended narrative picture stories on difficult subject matter. Covering crime, poverty, segregation, the politics of race and class, and controversial personalities, Parks became legendary for his ability to meld penetrating insight with a lyrical aesthetic. He was thus able to introduce a broad and diverse public to people, issues and ideas they might otherwise have ignored. Parks was remarkably versatile, travelling the world to photograph news events and fashion, as well as the worlds of art, literature, music, theatre and film. Later in life, he reconceived his vision in fundamentally personal and poetic terms, producing colour photographs that were allusive rather than descriptive, symbolic rather than literal.
Vol. I, 1942–1947: 272 pages
Vol. II, 1947–1956: 322 pages
Vol. III, 1956–63: 232 pages
Vol. IV, 1963–98: 258 pages
Vol. V, Life Facsimiles, 1948–70
Texts by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah Willis, Maurice Berger, Barbara Baker Burrows, Paul Roth, George Philip LeBourdais, and Gordon Parks
Papers by George Philip LeBourdais
In Wake of Paris Attacks, Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Blocks Evoke the Human Impact of Climate Change
“Trees,” in the words of the American photographer Robert Adams, “smell good, feel good, sound go... more “Trees,” in the words of the American photographer Robert Adams, “smell good, feel good, sound good, and look good. And if that weren’t enough, they point beyond themselves.” Trees, in other words, are good for thinking about other things.
Supported by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for Curatorial Research, this catalogue explores three ways that trees can help us to think by situating art in a suite of conceptual frameworks: tree diagrams, figurative trees, and tree maps. It grows from an exhibition of the same title at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center (April 15 - July 20, 2015).
Embracing the curatorial framework of exhibition as form, Arboreal Architecture uses graphic wall installations to create these different conceptual structures in the gallery space.
Arboreal Architecture addresses many noteworthy representations of trees in the Cantor’s collection, including a sixth-century Egyptian medallion, Neo-impressionist painting from France, California photography by Ansel Adams, and a colored drawing of a tree by Leland Stanford Jr.
2013 Stanford MFA Thesis Exhibition Catalogue, Jun 2013
Book Reviews by George Philip LeBourdais
Great Plains Quarterly, 2020
Review of exhibition catalogue. Art of the West: Selected Works from the Autry Museum. Edited by ... more Review of exhibition catalogue. Art of the West: Selected Works from the Autry Museum. Edited by Amy Scott. Foreword by Stephen Aron. Afterword by Brian W. Dippie. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2018. vii + 144 pp. Illustrations, selected bibliography, index. $34.95, paper.
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Books by George Philip LeBourdais
Vol. I, 1942–1947: 272 pages
Vol. II, 1947–1956: 322 pages
Vol. III, 1956–63: 232 pages
Vol. IV, 1963–98: 258 pages
Vol. V, Life Facsimiles, 1948–70
Texts by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah Willis, Maurice Berger, Barbara Baker Burrows, Paul Roth, George Philip LeBourdais, and Gordon Parks
Papers by George Philip LeBourdais
Supported by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for Curatorial Research, this catalogue explores three ways that trees can help us to think by situating art in a suite of conceptual frameworks: tree diagrams, figurative trees, and tree maps. It grows from an exhibition of the same title at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center (April 15 - July 20, 2015).
Embracing the curatorial framework of exhibition as form, Arboreal Architecture uses graphic wall installations to create these different conceptual structures in the gallery space.
Arboreal Architecture addresses many noteworthy representations of trees in the Cantor’s collection, including a sixth-century Egyptian medallion, Neo-impressionist painting from France, California photography by Ansel Adams, and a colored drawing of a tree by Leland Stanford Jr.
Book Reviews by George Philip LeBourdais
Vol. I, 1942–1947: 272 pages
Vol. II, 1947–1956: 322 pages
Vol. III, 1956–63: 232 pages
Vol. IV, 1963–98: 258 pages
Vol. V, Life Facsimiles, 1948–70
Texts by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah Willis, Maurice Berger, Barbara Baker Burrows, Paul Roth, George Philip LeBourdais, and Gordon Parks
Supported by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for Curatorial Research, this catalogue explores three ways that trees can help us to think by situating art in a suite of conceptual frameworks: tree diagrams, figurative trees, and tree maps. It grows from an exhibition of the same title at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center (April 15 - July 20, 2015).
Embracing the curatorial framework of exhibition as form, Arboreal Architecture uses graphic wall installations to create these different conceptual structures in the gallery space.
Arboreal Architecture addresses many noteworthy representations of trees in the Cantor’s collection, including a sixth-century Egyptian medallion, Neo-impressionist painting from France, California photography by Ansel Adams, and a colored drawing of a tree by Leland Stanford Jr.