P.O. Box 50096
Seattle, WA 98145-5096
Email: uwpord@u.washington.edu
Internet: www.washington.edu/uwpress/
Sam Hunter
64 pp. 33 color illus. Cloth $25.00
Sculptor Isamu Noguchi's ties to Seattle are significant and enduring. Black Sun, a granite disk, is situated before the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park, and has become one of the city's most beloved landmarks. Sky-Viewing Sculpture at Western Washington University in Bellingham is user-friendly and popular. Born in 1904 in Los Angeles, Noguchi spent his early years in both Japan and the United States. In 1927 a Guggenheim Fellowship took him to Paris where he became Constantin BrancusiUs studio assistant and plunged into abstract and geometric work. Studies in China and Japan led to an appreciation of Zen gardens and a respect for nature. This book illustrates a number of his works.
Hsingyuan Tsao
76 pp. 39 illus., 30 in color. Paperback $22.50
Differences Preserved presents works excavated from two sets of tombs in northern China. Tomb objects from the ninth to twelfth centuries, along with reproductions of the lively and vibrant tomb wall murals, serve as the basis for a cultural reassessment of the Liao (907-1125) and Song (960-1127) dynasties. Objects such as fine ceramic pots and bowls, tea services, and furniture present a story of daily life and of how people thought of themselves. Hsingyuan Tsao's innovative analysis represents a new direction in Chinese scholarship by considering the overlooked accomplishments of non-Han groups within the history of Chinese culture.