Let me say that being able to hold this treasure in my hands and to feel the souls of both the artist and those within, provides an experience I never thought I would have. This book is a road map to the soul of all of us and it is my wish for everyone who is fortunate enough to see it that the door to the inner self that shines from Bergman's work is opened to them. It is a rich feeling indeed to be able to open the book at any point and see the face and love of God. Bergman is blessed with a vision that has brought this to Everyman. A KIND OF RAPTURE is a great and universal gift.

These are images that go beyond being visually powerful, they also have a profound spiritual, emotional and intellectual meaning. Toni Morrison's provocative meditation, "The Fisherwoman", is an integral part of this great work of art and provides a perfect entree into a gallery of sacred beauty.

This superb book is nearly uncategorizable. The portraits contained in this volume, described as "color pictures of everyday people" taken with "a simple 35-mm camera, amateur film, no tripod, and no special lighting" are unlike any other photographs ever published. On a technical level, Robert Bergman's work equals the best of any of photographer now working (including any of a number of celebrity lensmen) while his painterly use of color, texture, and composition is unrivaled. This in itself would be enough for most photographers: in sensual terms there's much to startle and delight the eye. But for Bergman, the revelation of the inner life of the subject reigns supreme, and his masterly technique is entirely in the service of his manifest sympathy for each person whom he presents to us. It's here that these images depart so markedly from what we are used to seeing in a photograph of a person--each individual is revealed with the most penetrating gaze, but with such tenderness of spirit as to leave his or her human dignity unsullied. It's not photography, it's art. As Toni Morrison concludes in her Introduction, "Occasionally there arises an event or moment that one knows immediately will forever mark a place in the history of artistic endeavor. Robert Bergman's portraits represent such a moment, such an event."

This is actually two essays written at different times and compiled into book form. The first, written by Schapiro in 1960, gives the book its title, and is a basic defense of abstraction in general, having little to do specifically with Mondrian or his work.

The second, much longer essay "Mondrian: Order and Randomness in Abstract Painting," was written in 1978, and concentrates on a few specific works by Mondrian. This is again written as a justification, but focused on the importance of Mondrian. Schapiro draws useful comparisons between Mondrian's work and other paintings by important modern masters, such as Degas and Picasso.

These essays are not biographical, but should be regarded as criticism, although Schapiro does briefly discuss various phases of Mondrian's development, and the overall tone is wholly postive. Small color and b&w reproductions of the paintings of Mondrian and other modern painters are included.

As an art student Paul Cezanne became the paragon upon which I measured all other subsequent painters. The writer that taught me to see him as the North Star in that vast, swirling sky of artists was Meyer Schapiro. Having read the above book literally a dozen or more times I have found that it is an inexhaustible treasure. Mr. Schapiro's insights are both scholarly and poetic. He above all seems to understand that Cezanne, while instrumental as a precursor to cubism, was first and foremost a great individual artist. Going to the Cezanne retrospective in Philadelphia several years ago I remember the first thing that came to my mind was how right Mr. Schapiro had been to avoid all the fussy and downright foolish connections that other critics are constantly making between Cezanne and modern art. What Mr. Schapiro concentrates on rather is Cézannes paintings and not his influence - this is most refreshing. He above all others I have read seems to have an uncanny understanding of Cezanne as both a man and an artist. He writes that Cézanne's; "...detached contemplation of his subjects arises from a passionate aspiring nature that seeks to master its own impulses through an objective attitude to things." I can only think that this must be true of Mr. Schapiro also. Each sentence is laid down with the care that Cezanne put into laying down each stroke of paint and as such his writing possesses a gravity that I have never found in another critic's work with the exception of Roger Fry. The beginning of the book provides a comprehensive overview of Cézanne's work and a brief outline of his life but the final 3/4 quarters of the book is structured as follows: superb color reproduction on the right hand page and a few paragraphs of commentary on the left page. These enables one to simply open it at any given time, find a desirable painting and read the commentary directly next to it. Structure in this way, the book became for me a source to meditate upon the good in art when I was surrounded by the confusion of trying to find myself among other young artists. Not being a scholar I found this book to be accessible and enriching. Mr. Schapiro writes with such sincere warmth and wisdom that when I heard of his death a few years ago I was saddened as if I had lost a friend and mentor. I hope this wonderful book brings as much joy and inspiration to you as it has for me.

This is one of the great books of art history, and, more importantly, of the theory of seeing. It has had endless consequences for my own work.

This unusual book was quite a find. It was made using a binding process I've never seen before. The pages actually unfold in a variety of ways to present images of Van Gogh's best loved paintings in a highly effective manner. Some pages fold out horizontally and present four works side-by-side, others fold out twice forming small posters. The quality of the graphics is excellent--especially the minute details shown in some of the enlarged reproductions. A beautiful volume and an asset to anyone who loves art.

Unaware that Meyer Schapiro is considered to have been one of America's greatest art historians, I wasn't prepared by the title of his book for an historical account of visual language going back to the 10th century. Although initially feeling somewhat disappointed that this wasn't a more "contemporary" approach to the subject, by the middle of the first essay I was engaged by Schapiro's rich narrative on the relatively narrow subject--Exodus 17:9-13: how artists chose to illustrate not only the text, but how the illustrations reflected the culture in which those texts were considered. I found the second essay to be even better as it covered a longer period in exploring how artists have incorporated text within their illustrations, and how the rendering itself exemplified a period. These two essays aren't easy reading, but if you're willing to invest some mental energy, Schapiro documents a rich tradition of how pictures have been used not only to illustrate text, but to create meanings beyond the text. This historical perspective informs a growing interest in visual language and communication.