Get smart about art

The visual and kinetic arts are alive in the Newport Beach Central

Library’s newest collection of Timeless Treasures. Selected to

support the Newport Beach Arts Commission’s 2003 lecture and

performance series, the collection includes works about Picasso,

dance and the art of surfing.

Among the most lavish is “The Ultimate Picasso,” an authoritative

account by Brigitte Leal, Christine Piot and Marie-Laure spanning a

modern master’s entire career. More than 1,200 reproductions,

biographical details and discussions about key works paint a vivid

portrait of a contemporary icon.

More personal particulars are in “Loving Picasso: The Private

Journal of Fernande Olivier,” translated from the French by Christine

Baker and Michael Raeburn. With diary entries and letters, Picasso’s

first great love documents their stormy relationship and offers

insight into the art milieu of turn-of-the-century Paris.

At work and at play, Picasso collaborated with filmmaker Edward

Quinn in the making of “Picasso: The Man and His Work,” a two-volume

video. With footage of the master at home and in his studio, Quinn

chronicles the artist’s career over 75 years, through Cubism, the war

years and his work with ceramics and sculpture.

To learn about the transforming power of another art form, Janet

Roseman interviewed some of the country’s leading choreographers for

“Dance Masters.” Ballet, Baroque and modern dance are represented in

a volume that explores the creative process, philosophies, careers

and the spiritual aspects of dance.

Maureen Needham continues the process in “I See America Dancing.”

With essays about Native American dances to the revival of swing, the

Vanderbilt University dance historian looks at dance from colonial

times to the present.

Numerous videos, DVDs and CDs capture the magic of diverse

performances. Check out “Firebird” to view one of Igor Stravinky’s

landmark ballets. Watch Agnes de Mille’s “Dance to the Piper” to

learn about a life in dance that spanned nearly a century. Enjoy the

work of innovative troupes with “Dance Theatre of Harlem” and “The

Parsons Dance Company.”

The grace of dance combines with the power of nature in a sport

revered in Fred Hemming’s “The Soul of Surfing.” Read about the

history of an activity that harnesses the sea for pleasure in this

tribute to what Jack London called the “sport of kings. Revisit its

heyday with “The Fantastic Plastic Voyage,” Brian St. Pierre’s

account of traveling the South Pacific with surfers and a film crew

that documents the energy of the ‘60s.

That energy will come to life at “The Art of Surfing,” a free

program at the Newport Beach Central Library, at 3 p.m. on Saturday,

April 12. See what surfers do on their boards, but without their

boards, in this exuberant stage experience punctuated by beach

blanket banter.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach

Public Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams in

collaboration with Sara Barnicle. All titles may be reserved from

home or office computers by accessing the catalog at

www.newportbeachlibrary.org.