(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) — The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute’s exhibition catalogues Picasso Looks at Degas and Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450-1850 have been recognized in the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards. In the Fine Art category, Picasso Looks at Degas was awarded the silver medal, and Eye to Eye received the bronze. Books are judged on content, originality, design, and production quality, and judges include experts from the fields of editing, design, reviewing, bookselling, and library.

“We are very pleased to have received this recognition,” said Curtis Scott, the Clark’s director of publishing and information resources, who accepted the awards at a ceremony in New York on Monday. “Whereas most book awards are based on either content or presentation alone, this competition considers the quality and impact of the entire publication.”

In the groundbreaking study Picasso Looks at Degas, Picasso expert Elizabeth Cowling and Degas scholar Richard Kendall present well-documented instances of Picasso’s direct responses to Degas’s work, as well as more conceptual and challenging affinities between their oeuvres. Designed by Susan Marsh and printed by Trifolio, Verona, the book features richly illustrated essays that explore the artists’ parallel interests in subjects including modern urban life, ballet dancers, and intimate activities such as bathing, as well as in the mediums of photography and sculpture.

 

Eye to Eye

Eye to Eye: European Portraits 1450-1850 features thirty paintings by master artists from the late fifteenth through the early nineteenth centuries, including a number of previously unknown works. The catalogue includes stunning color reproductions of each work, as well as numerous full-page details. Texts by curators Richard Rand and Kathleen Morris, together with an essay by independent scholar David Ekserdjian, provide a fresh look at the range of styles, themes, and approaches in European portraiture. The book was designed by Susan Marsh and printed by Meridian Printing, East Greenwich, R.I.

The “IPPY” Awards were established in 1996 “to bring increased recognition to the thousands of exemplary independent, university press, and self-published titles published each year.” This year’s competition received more than 3,000 entries from 9 countries in 69 national categories. They are open to authors and publishers worldwide who produce books written in English and intended for the North American market.