Purchasing Publications: 

All publications for sale can be obtained at the Brunnier Art Museum Store. Store open during regular business hours and 1 p.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday's. 515.294.3342

   

University Museums

Publications

Purchasing Publications: 

All publications for sale can be obtained at the Brunnier Art Museum Store. Open during regular business hours  and 1 p.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday's, or by calling 515.294.3342.

 

Farm House: College Farm to University Museum

The second edition of Farm House: College Farm to University Museum, written by Mary E. Atherly, is available for purchase in the Brunnier Art Museum Store.

The book provides readers with an in-depth view of the Farm House Museum, from past to present, beginning in the late 19^th century through the 20^th century. The new edition features a foreword by Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy, along with new photographs.

The book is $22.50 and can be purchased during regular store hours, Tuesday - Friday, 11-4pm, and Saturday and Sunday 1-4pm. The book can also be purchased at the Farm House Museum during their regular hours (M-F Noon-4pm while the University is in session).

 

BodyScapes & CounterPoints: The Prints of Beej Nierengarten Smith

Dr. Beej (Barbara Jean) Nierengarten-Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in the picturesque rural community of New Ulm. After her academic schooling, Beej’s career path centered on art history and art education, with successful careers in teaching and museum work, primarily as founding Director and Chief Curator of Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis. She taught herself ceramics, continued to take drawing and printmaking classes, became fascinated with bookmaking, and spent summer printmaking residencies at Penland School of Crafts, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center.

Beej’s home in St. Louis had a studio, and it was here that she made a series of autobiographical books in the late 1990s. In these books she used appropriated images and other techniques that are now the foundation of her prints. She also began to see that if she were ever going to make prints seriously, she needed to leave the museum world. This she did in 2001 when she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Now a full-time printmaker, Beej merges a personal iconography with a singular printmaking technique, creating remarkable images that allow her distinct voice to be heard. For more information about the artist visit: http://www.beejsmith.net/. Publication is full color catalogue of the 2009 exhibition at the Christian Petersen Art Museum.

 

Christian Petersen: Urban Artist

This book presents a look at the early years of Christian Petersen (1885--1961).  The artist spent the last half of his sculpting career in Iowa, from 1933 through 1955, and was consequently viewed as a Midwestern, regionalist artist. After his family’s emigration from Denmark when he was nine years old, Christian Petersen was raised on the East Coast where he was artistically trained at the Newark Technical School and the Fawcett School of Design in New Jersey, and later studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Art Students League in New York.  In 1920, he took an apprenticeship with the Boston sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson. Christian Petersen then maintained an active design and fine arts studio for more than a decade in Attleboro, Massachusetts, which was a short train ride from Providence, Rhode Island—a center of jewelry design and production. Christian Petersen: Urban Artist, 1900--1934 examines Christian Petersen’s early career and illustrates his evolution from craft designer to fine art sculptor and how that development ultimately lead him to the Midwest and Iowa State College. Dr. Lea Rosson DeLong is the author of Christian Petersen: Urban Artist, 1900--1934, which also includes a revised Catalogue Raisonné of Christian Petersen’s art.
 

Albert Paley Portals & Gates
M. Jessica Rowe
Hardcover: 144 pages 81/4" x 10 1/2"
Publisher: University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
180 illustrations, 156 in color.
Albert Paley Portals & Gates delves into the artist's creative process, illustrating how an idea emerges onto paper and jumps through the developmental stages in order to become reality.  Published to commemorate the opening of Christian Peterson Art Museum at Iowa State University, this book provides a detailed cross section of Paley's career beginning with his first major commission in 1974 and proceeding to his most recent piece, located at Iowa State and dedicated in September 2007.  This publication relates the uniqueness of his portals, gates, and passageways while chronicling his career and his artistic process through stunning color illustrations of both his drawings and his sculptural works.

 

 

When Tillage Begins, Other Arts Follow: Grant Wood and Christian Petersen Murals by Lea Rosson DeLong!
This publication includes the first look at the Iowa Public Works of Art Project directed by Grant Wood, and the three Iowa State murals by Wood and Christian Petersen that resulted from this 1930s federal program. The publication is 440 pages hardbound with 225 b/w images and 15 color plates. The cost of the publication is $55.00 (please add $3.95 for shipping if necessary). Published 2006.

 

Grant Wood's Main Street
Art, Literature, and the American Midwest
By Lea Rosson DeLong. Contributions by Henry Adams, Sally E. Parry, and Kent C. Ryden
251pp., 12 color photographs of Grant Wood's work for Sinclair Lewis' Main Street and 81 black and white photographs.
ISBN 1-88822354-5 hardcover.



Original copy: $45.00
Limited edition: $125.00  (the limited edition is numbered 1-150/150 and has been signed by all the authors.) To order, call 515.294.3342. 

 In 1937, Grant Wood was asked to illustrate a novel that, like his painting American Gothic, had already become a classic:  Sinclair Lewis' Main Street.  Both Lewis' novel and Wood's paintings represented the American Midwest of the 1930's.  Today Sinclair Lewis and Grant Wood still endure as cultural figures who captured something distinctive yet elusive about the Heartland.  Grant Wood's Main Street explores the different perspectives of both  Lewis and Wood on the American Main Street  through the nine drawings Wood created for the 1937 Special Editions Club book, Main Street, as well as two self-portraits of the artist as a Midwesterner.  Grant Wood's Main Street also discusses Wood's art and his life as reflected in these extraordinary drawings.  The cross cultural effects of Lewis on art and Wood on literature are examined in this study of Main Street as an American symbol of both rooted ness and rejection.

 

University Museums Collection Handbook  
Object interpretations by Reneé Thomason Senter. Contributions by Mary Atherly and Lynette L. Pohlman.
196 pp., over 170 color photographs
ISBN 0-9311-09-3 softcover, $20.00

This handbook was published on the occasion of the University Museums' 25th anniversary, celebrated during the academic year 2000-2001. Composed of the Brunnier Art Museum, the Farm House Museum and the Art on Campus Program, the University Museums consists of collections made possible by the generous gifts of Iowa State Alumni, friends and enlightened university leadership, all dedicated to the institution's commitment to the arts.

This handbook is a visitor's map. It conveys valuable highlights of the collection reflecting its diversity in content, time and location. As visitors move from gallery to gallery, museum to museum, and across campus, they can see objects spanning from 2000 B.C. to the present day. Here in a brief format, it is possible to access 200 of the remarkable works of art and objects that the University Museums has secured for the campus and Iowa.

 

Christian Petersen, Sculptor.  
DeLong, Lea Rosson. Contributions by Patricia Lounsbury Bliss, Charles C. Eldredge, Dana L. Michels, Linda Merk-Gould and Lynette L. Pohlman.
242 pp., 150 black-and-white photos
ISBN 0-8138-2946-1 hardback $44.95
This book was published by Iowa State University Press on the occasion of the exhibition Christian Petersen, Sculptor at the Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, August 22 - December 31 2000.

"Christian Petersen spent twenty-one years - nearly his entire professional life and certainly the prime of that life - creating things of beauty at a land-grant institution, enhancing and enriching the living and learning environment for students, faculty and staff and visitors in a way that simply cannot be measured, indeed forming the foundation of a campus that has aptly been described as an artistic treasure." -  Dr. Gregory L. Geoffroy, President of Iowa State University, during his speech for the unveiling of the Cornhusker by Christian Petersen at the Smithsonian Museum of Art.

Through his twenty-one years as sculptor-in-residence and art faculty member, Christian Petersen literally changed the face of the Iowa State campus. Many decades and thousands of students, faculty members, administrators, and visitors later, Petersen's sculptures and murals still adorn the campus and influence the hearts and minds of all who view them.

Christian Petersen, Sculptor records more than 1000 of Petersen's works of art, highlighting those exhibited at Iowa State University's Brunnier Art Museum and confirming his significance in American art history. Almost 150 illustrations capture the beauty of Petersen's artistic gift while the text unfolds his personal story and places the sculptor within the context of twentieth-century American art. Included are:

• Illustrations of the artist's most important sculptures, preparatory models, and drawings

• Excerpts from the Art on Campus Poetry Collection, commissioned work based on Petersen's art

• Petersen's interpretation of America during the turbulent times of the Depression through World War II

About the Author: Lea Rosson DeLong, Ph.D., is a scholar of American art of the Depression era, and the guest curator of the exhibition Christian Petersen, Sculptor at the Brunnier Art Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Land of the Fragile Giants: Landscapes, Environments, and Peoples of the Loess Hills. 
Edited by Cornelia F. Mutel and Mary Swander. Additional material by Lynette L. Pohlman.
168 pp., 27 color and 31 black-and-white photos
ISBN 0-87745-477-9 paper $24.95
Published for the Brunnier Art Museum at Iowa State University by the University of Iowa Press.

Not since the early nineteenth century, when George Catlin and Karl Bodmer thoroughly sketched the area, have the rough-textured Loess Hills of western Iowa been artistically interpreted with any intensity. Now, inspired by this rugged landscape of steep-sided ridges and bluffs, Land of the Fragile Giants offers a collaboration of contemporary artists, scientists, and humanists all exploring and creating their interpretations of today's Loess Hills. Looking at the natural and the human features of the renowned Hills, personal essays blend with the works of art to create a verbal and visual panorama of the Loess Hills and a multidimensional view of a region that makes a deep impression on each visitor.

Working closely with Iowa State University's Brunnier Art Museum, twenty-seven professional artists from Iowa and the Midwest visited the Loess Hills at various times throughout 1993 to gather insight for their projects. The result: a dramatic exhibition of paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs that beautifully complement this volume's literary works. The twelve essayists also have strong personal ties to the Loess Hills. Each author has spent a significant portion of her or his life in the Hills. The scientists reinterpret their research within the framework of their personal experience; the humanists provide background and context for the scientists; the artists illuminate the whole.

The art and essays in Land of the Fragile Giants bring a meeting of broadly diverse minds and talents to an appreciation of the multiple beauties of Iowa's premier natural area. This striking and colorful volume will appeal to all those captivated by the Loess Hills and all general readers with interdisciplinary interests.

A Fragile Thread of Glass. Klee-Atlin, Karen. Comprehensive catalog of the traveling exhibition A Fragile Thread of Glass containing 500 pieces of decorative glass from the Brunnier Art Museum's permanent collection. 14 black and white figures. 13pp. $5.00

The Jeweled Past: Old-Russian Enamels. 1987. Exhibition catalog. Guest curator Sarah Pearre Lyon. Russian enamel history and techniques. 7 black and white figures. 12 pp. Partial support provided by the Institute of Museum Services. $2.00

Elegance and Utility: A brief history of Chinese Snuff Bottles. 1990. Marshall P.S. Wu, Ph.D. An exploration of the Chinese snuff bottles from the permanent collections of the Brunnier Art Museum. 4 color figures. 6 pp. $3.00. Partial funding from the Institute of Museum Services.

Centuries of Fascination: Art About Livestock. 1990. A catalogue of an art exhibition that celebrates human involvement with livestock. A history of the combination of sciences of agriculture with visual arts and the importance of domesticated animals. Selected works from museum, industry and private collections. Guest curators, Dr. Richard Willham, and C.F. Curtiss. Color cover (front, inside, and back). 88 black and white figures. 52 pp. $7.00

Interpretations of the Interpretations: Photographic Explorations by King Au of Iowa State University's Art on Campus Collection. 1995. Published on the occasion of the major exhibition, Interpretations of the Interpretations. Essays by Lynette L. Pohlman, King Au, and Sidney K. Robinson. 59 black and white figures. 112 pp. $19.95.

Contemplate Japan. 1987. This catalogue is published in conjunction with a series of exhibitions including prints, kimonos, dolls, and ceramics. Organized and administered by The University of Hawaii Art Gallery and the University of Hawaii Foundation. Partial support from the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Essays by Jane Farrell-Beck, Lynette Pohlman, Mary Ver Hoef, John Huseby, and Emiko Higo. 12 black and white figures. 16 pp. $3.00

Iowa State College Art Pottery 1920-1939. 1986. Exhibition catalogue developed to document the technical and aesthetic qualities of the pottery created at the Iowa State College Art Pottery Studio. Works made from local clays and featured design motifs appropriate to a prairie state. Essay by Susan Russo. 6 black and white figures. 4 pp. $4.00

Land of the Loess! 1995. A teacher unit prepared in conjunction with the exhibition: Land of the Fragile Giants: Landscapes, Environments, & Peoples of the Loess Hills. Featuring thirteen essays from guest authors. 81 pp.
Note: This manual is not for sale and is for teacher or reference use only.