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G. Braque by Francis Ponge and Pierre Descargues. 261 pages. Abrams. $45. The strong point of this lavish volume is the meticulous reproduction, mostly in subdued, subtle colors, of 134 of Braque's works, including several of the undulating late canvases that are less familiar to museumgoers. Alas, the pictures are accompanied by a mawkish, oddly defensive, thoroughly Gallic text, which runs on about "things as they are at this moment of what is called history." $30 to $40
Gaudi the Visionary by Robert Descharnes, photographs by Clovis Prevost. 247 pages. Viking. $40. A dazzling visual tour through the dreams, means and extremes of Antonio Gaudi, Catalonia's greatest architect (1852-1926). Main subject: the design and construction of the Church of the Holy Family in Barcelona, an unfinished masterwork of sculpture encrusted spires and portals that is surely the 20th century's most fantastic piece of architecture. The text is brilliant, compassionate, often wildly funny.
Twenty Silver Ghosts: The Incomparable Pre World War 1 Rolls Royce. Paintings by Melbourne Brindle; text by Phil May. 139 pages. McGraw-Hill. $39.50. For the price of this 181n. by 151n. volume, one could easily buy into the troubled Rolls Royce company, whose common stock has sold for less than $5 a share. At worst, the book's flossy pages would make far more attractive wallpaper than old stock certificates. The paintings of these aristocratic vehicles show something of the flattering veneration that successful portrait painters inject into their likenesses of the rich and titled. Such vintage relics of the Edwardian Age as the Maudslay-Bodied Shooting Brake and the Self-Driving Phaeton with Dickey Seat are shining talismans to hold against the vision of an internal combustion apocalypse.
Eyewitness to Space. Text by Hereward Lester Coolce. 227 pages. Abrams. $35. Throughout the Apollo program, NASA commissioned painters to record their impressions all over the world —from the drama of recoveries to the intricacies of equipment. Did the artists accomplish what charts and cameras could not? The answer is yes. One lingers in silence over these images, away from TV's technical jargon, the spacemen's cliches and the hard, restless eye of the lens. The intensity of response can be surprising.
The Romance of Ballooning: The Story of the Early Aeronauts. 197 pages. Viking. $35. When French peasants saw the first successful balloon over the trees in 1783, they thought the moon had fallen to announce Judgment Day. Ever since, manned ballooning has caught the inquisitive and festive imagination of millions.
The pleasure of this historical survey is that, from the pioneering Montgolfier brothers to Modern Expert Fred Bolder, who offers a primer for the newly smitten, it almost exclusively uses the excited words and pictures of the enthusiasts themselves. It should be noted, though, that the price of a balloon ranges from about $6,000 to about $12,000. Gas is extra.