UCSB’s ARTstor contribution of African field slides

We’re getting closer to realizing our first big contribution to ARTstor – “Herbert Cole: African Art, Architecture, and Culture (University of California, Santa Barbara)”.   Visual Resources Collection staff have worked with ARTstor to contribute 1,026 images from “Skip” Cole’s field research in the 1960s and 70s in Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire.   The collection should be fully available online in another three months. You can read more about these wonderful images here on the ARTstor news site.

Santa Barbara image content in MDID

We now have over 500 images relating to Santa Barbara in our VRC image database (MDID), and continue to add more images regularly.  These include historic and contemporary images of architecture, historic sites, murals,  UCSB buildings,  and architectural plans and drawings.

To search, select “Records with Images” under Search Options, and in the Title Field put “Santa Barbara”.

OIV now compatible with Mac Snow Leopard

ARTstor announced they have fixed the OIV compatibility issue with Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard). For more information and download instructions, click here.

Note: ARTstor recommends deleting any previous installation of OIV you have on your computer first (to do this, simply drag the existing OIV icon from your Applications folder to the trash, then empty the trash before proceeding).

Richard Ross Photography Collection Part II now in MDID

The second phase of Richard Ross’ photography is now available through the VRC image database, MDID.  This includes material from his books/projects “Man Up”, “Waiting for the End of the World” and “Suitable Placement: Juvenile Justice in America”.   This brings the total to 481 images.  You can read more about Richard and his work at his website.

New: VRC Digital Order Form

Have you ever worked from home (or even abroad) and found a great source from which you would like images scanned? Well, we have good news: The VRC now has a Digital Order Form! This form, a digital version of our paper form, can be downloaded, filled in, and saved from any computer equipped with Adobe Reader 7 or higher.

To save the filled-in document, click on the diskette icon at the upper left just above the form; make sure you’ve included your name in the document title for easy retrieval. After saving it, either print a hard copy and hand it in to the VRC with the book/source during your next visit, or attach the saved file to an email to vrc.ucsb@gmail.com. You can then drop off the book/source at your earliest convenience (and if there is a problem, contact us so we can make other arrangements).

If you have trouble downloading the order form here, we’ve also added it to the VRC page of the department website.

Jeanne-Claude dead at 74

Jeanne-Claude, artist and wife of Christo, has died. Their creative collaboration produced over 50 years of “wrapping” projects, such as the Reichstag in Berlin (1995) and more recently “The Gates” in Central Park in New York (2005). The couple had been working toward completing “Over The River” and “The Masteba“.

via the LA Times

Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest on Flickr

Steve Tatum, Visual Resources Curator at Virginia Tech, has taken some beautiful and instructional images of Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, the president’s personal retreat near Forest, VA, and has uploaded them on Flickr. The estate, begun 1805 or 1806, is being extensively restored in the same order that Jefferson built it. These photos show the states of restoration in November 2008 and one year later in November 2009.

These images can be downloaded for instructional use–Poplar Forest welcomes any and all publicity (note that permission from Poplar Forest is required to publish them).

Artists go to Obama for copyright support

Over 11,000 visual artists, authors, filmmakers, architects and other artists who are part of the Copyright Alliance have signed a letter sent to the Obama administration asking for stronger copyright policy and support.    Read more about the movement at the Copyright Alliance.  And you can read the full text of the letter here, which highlights the cultural and monetary contributions of artists.

Recent ARTstor collection releases and agreements

ARTstor has announced that 833 images (69% of the roughly 1,200 projected total) from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum are now available in the Digital Library [keyword search: okeeffemuseum].

Additionally, agreements have been reached with the following institutions and should be available by April (all image counts are approximate):

• Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA): 1,380 images digitized from a rare collection of photographs created in conjunction with the seminal 1986 exhibition “Diego Rivera: A Retrospective”
• Ellsworth Kelly: 200 high-quality images from the artist, who will also provide accompanying cataloging information
• Beverly Willis: 50 images of works of architecture
• Foundation for Landscape Studies: 5,000 contemporary photographic images from around the world that offer an overview of landscape studies, encompassing all cultural landscapes, including gardens, parks, cities, suburbs, rural areas, and the humanized wilderness

Leonardo da Vinci in Los Angeles

The Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles will host a short-run exhibition that features a rare showing of Leonardo’s drawing Angel in the Flesh (c. 1513-1515). Also included will be selections from Leonardo’s The Theatre Sheet (c. 1506-1508, from the Atlanticus Codex) and video artist Bill Viola’s installation The Last Angel (2002). Opening night, scholar Carlo Pedretti will discuss the installation and Leonardo’s works with Viola and will conclude with the screening of two short documentaries about the Renaissance artist. The exhibition will run December 2-12, 2009.

via Culture Monster (who also reminisces elsewhere about the Leonardo that got away…)