User:D6WNP

My current "to do" list includes the creation and organization of wikipedia pages devoted to publishing companies such as Abaris Books, an authoritative art history and reference publisher, and their premier reference collection, The Illustrated Bartsch. Also, I hope to clean up many of the slightly mistaken sections dealing with Art History, in order to further wikipedia's goal of having an accurate compendium of knowledge.

Beginning of The Illustrated Bartsch stub:

For over 40 years, The Illustrated Bartsch has maintained its position as a premier reference work in the field of European master prints. The Art Newspaper considered the collection as "...the most ambitious project by art historians ever undertaken" (1974). Indeed, it has taken the consideration, cooperation and contribution of many of the worlds finest art historians to continue the expansive work.

The first 48 volumes of The Illustrated Bartsch present every master print in le peintre-graveur, a 24 volume list made famous by Count Adam von Bartsch in the eighteenth century. The first edition of this collection was published in 1978, under Dr. Walter A. Strauss's publishing company, Abaris Books. Strauss's General Plan for The Illustrated Bartsch began execution in the early 1970s, and after his death, Abaris Books was reacquired, and immediately continued and expanded upon the General Plan. The Illustrated Bartsch has since grown to more than 100 volumes, as Bartsch's omission of many prominent artists gave rise to the necessary addition of Commentary and Supplementary volumes. The Illustrated Bartsch contains prints from around 1400, entirely manually created and pulled prints, until the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, around 1850. This 450 year span details the origins of printmaking, from entirely manually created and pulled prints, to the introduction of mechanical printing presses and photography.

The first 48 volumes are referred to as “Picture Atlases". Individual “Picture Atlases” are often paired with one or more Commentary volumes, which detail progression of European master prints after Bartsch.  In favor of creating a truly consequential collection, Abaris Books took note of other artists omitted by Bartsch, and later amended the General Plan to include Supplementary volumes as well.  The art world is not stagnant, and any authoritative chronicle of its history should reflect this.

The Commentary volumes of The Illustrated Bartsch focus on the progress of art scholarship. Their emphases on new attributions, de-attributions, additional states, and copies (among others) seek to maintain the usefulness and pertinence of the historical art collection as scholastic reference works. Supplementary volumes detail those artists unknown to, overlooked by, or rejected by Bartsch.