Tom Wolf – författare

Let Secret Berlin guide you around the unusual and unfamiliar.Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Berlin guide book and let our local experts show you the well-hidden treasures of this fascinating city. Ideal for local inhabitants, curious visitors and armchair travellers alike. Wander around the hotel lobby where a glass floor reveals excavations of the old medieval townTake a seat in an amphitheatre where animal dissections once took placeLet yourself be moved by the sounds of the largest pipe organ, still used today to bring silent films to lifeTake a break in one of the few well-preserved Baroque vaults housing coffins fitted with windowsClimb onto a bunker that contained anti-aircraft guns during the Second World War and accept a Russian soldier's invitation to admire it from withinTake a dip in one of the most beautiful bathing spots built during Europe's Art Nouveau movementEnjoy a stroll under the Spree riverGo see the very first computer (designed by a Berliner) or the first synthesizer of East GermanyScale the mountain of rubble where a Skiing World Cup race was heldStation yourself at the peak of the artificial hill where aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal made his first attempts at flightGrab a bite on the island in the Havel river where Werner von Braun launched his first rocketAbsent from the usual "must-see" lists despite residing in the heart of the bustling capital, fascinating historical treasures can be found all over Berlin's city centre and its large surrounding neighbourhoods. Take another look and discover the hidden gems eluding those who think they know Berlin inside out.

Japanese-born artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi's career and art evolved from innocence and early success to complexity and disillusionment. Born in Japan in 1889, Kuniyoshi arrived in the United States as a teenager and studied art in New York. He came into prominence during the 1920s through his distinctive modern figural style, original subjects, and humour. His work became more sensuous and worldly after two long stays in Paris, as he painted moody, reflective women and still lifes with unusual objects. Kuniyoshi was thoroughly integrated into American life and the art world-in 1948 the Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his work, the first retrospective that museum ever devoted to a living artist-but immigration law prevented him from becoming an American citizen. Classified an "enemy alien" after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he remained steadfastly on the side of his adopted country during the painful war years, working with the Office of War Information to create artworks indicting Japanese atrocities. After the war, Kuniyoshi developed a compelling late style, with bitter subjects and paradoxically bright colours. The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi is a welcome introduction to this complex artist's entire career, featuring seventy of his best works from public and private collections in America and Japan. More than half a century after his death in 1953, this is a chance for a new generation to assess and enjoy Kuniyoshi's life and art. AUTHOR: Tom Wolf is Professor of Art History, Bard College, NY. An artist, he has had paintings exhibited at Artists Space, New York; Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art; Koslow Gallery, Los Angeles and Art Gallery of Western Australia. He is a recipient of Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, and Winterthur Museum and Library Fellowships. 155 colour illustrations

Berlin – A Secret Atlas is a richly illustrated coffee table book exploring the city’s hidden places, overlooked histories and unexpected curiosities.Step beyond the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag Building and the traces of the Berlin Wall into a curated atlas of Berlin’s lesser-known places and surprising stories. This is a treasure trove for those who love to explore beyond the obvious and uncover the city’s lesser-seen layers of history, architecture and urban curiosity.Guaranteed to delight and inspire, here you can:Discover a forgotten remnant of the Berlin Wall, still quietly marking the city’s divided pastEncounter a hidden sand dune within the city, an unexpected pocket of wilderness in urban BerlinStep inside an Expressionist church with a remarkable interior of colour, form and light rarely seen by visitorsSee a vast concrete testing structure used for soil experiments, an extraordinary relic of Cold War engineering ambitionStroll a residential street that closes at night to protect local beavers, where urban life and wildlife unexpectedly intersectBerlin is renowned for its landmarks and turbulent history. But if you are drawn to hidden Berlin and off-the-beaten-path discoveries, Berlin Secret Atlas reveals a more unexpected side of the city - where Cold War echoes, architectural experimentation and everyday life intersect in surprising ways.Written by local experts and brought to life with sumptuous illustrations, this handsome hardback is as visually striking as it is informative. It forms part of the acclaimed Secret Atlas series, known for its curated discoveries and distinctive visual identity.A captivating keepsake for travellers, armchair explorers and lovers of German history, architecture and urban curiosities alike—a book designed to be both read and displayed.

The first scholarly exhibition catalogue of the work of Eugene Speicher (1883-1962), one of the foremost American realists of his generation, who was closely associated with George Bellows, Robert Henri, Leon Kroll, and Rockwell Kent.Called "America's greatest living painter" by Esquire magazine in 1936, Speicher (1883–1962) was one of the foremost realists of his generation, closely associated with George Bellows, Robert Henri, and Leon Kroll. The exhibition catalogue examines Speicher's oeuvre, including his artistic development, subject matter, choice of models, influences, and the critical reception of his work. The catalogue contains three essays. The primary essay by curator Valerie Ann Leeds consists of a general assessment and critical review of Speicher's career and his place in the art world of his day. Another essay authored by Tom Wolf explores Speicher and his relationship to Woodstock. A third essay, by Daniel Belasco, surveys Speicher's drawings. The catalogue is the first to present a significant body of Speicher's work in color.

Presents new scholarship, images, and primary sources that explore the art and legacy of a critical yet under-recognized figure in Abstract Expressionism and twentieth-century American art."The gentleman Abstract Expressionist," in the words of poet John Ashbery, Bradley Walker Tomlin was known for his elegance in both painting style and personal comportment. The book includes over forty paintings, works on paper, and printed materials, charting Tomlin's development from art nouveau illustrations of the 1920s to large-scale Abstract Expressionist paintings of the 1950s. The exhibition explores his formative years in Syracuse, early patronage by Condé Nast, and the important role played by the Woodstock art colony. Tomlin is best known as a key figure in the New York School and had close friendships with Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, and Robert Motherwell. Unlike most of his peers, Tomlin focused on the impersonal possibilities of art. His carefully orchestrated paintings resonate with our time's renewed interest in abstraction and design.

Arthur Carhart (1892 -1978), America's first champion of wilderness, the first Forest Service landscape architect, and the most popular conservation writer of mid-century America, won none of the titan status of his contemporary Aldo Leopold. A political maverick, he refused to side with any major advocacy group and none has made him its saint. Carhart was a grassroots thinker in a top-down era.Arthur Carhart, the first biography of this Republican environmentalist and major American thinker, writer, and activist, reveals the currency of his ideas. Tom Wolf elucidates Carhart 's vision of conservation as "a job for all of us," with citizens, municipal authorities, and national leaders all responsible for the environmental effects of their decisions. Carhart loved the local and decried interest groups - from stockmens' associations to wilderness lobbies - as cliques attempting blanket control. He pressured land management agencies to base decisions on local ecology and local partnerships. A lifelong wilderness advocate who proposed the first wilderness preserve at Trappers Lake, Colorado, in 1919, Carhart chose to oppose the Wilderness Act, heartsick at its compromises with lobbies.Because he shifted his stance and changed his views in response to new information, Carhart is not an easy subject for a biography. Wolf traces Carhart's twists and turns to show a man whose voice was distinctive and contrary, who spoke from a passionate concern for the land and couldn't be counted on for anything else. Readers of American history and outdoor writing will enjoy this portrait of a historic era in conservation politics and the man who so often eschewed politics in favor of the land and people he loved.