SERVING UP THE BIG PICTURE; ART, ARCHITECTURE, PHOTOGRAPHY AND HISTORY COME ALIVE IN VOLUMES MADE FOR GIFT-GIVING.

Byline: Rob Lowman Daily News Book and Entertainment Editor

If you thought I was done last week, you're wrong. I haven't scratched the surface. Unfortunately, time and space prevent me from writing about all the great holiday/gift books that are out there. So, without further ado:

Art

There are a number of volumes dealing with the new Getty Center, which opened last week. ``Making Architecture: The Getty Center'' (Getty Trust; $50 paperback) is a visual journal on the museum complex's construction with essays by its architect Richard Meier, among others. Meier has his own book about the 110-acre cultural center called ``Building the Getty'' (Knopf; $35). The architect got what's been called ``the commission of the century'' in 1984, a mere five years after his first large museum competition in Frankfurt.

``The J. Paul Getty Museum and Its Collections: A Museum for a New Century,'' by John Walsh and Deborah Gribbon (Getty; $65), also documents the building of the center but, in addition, gives a fair overview of its collections.

``Architecture: The World's Greatest Buildings Explored and Explained,'' by Neil Stevenson (DK Annotated Guides; $24.95), is a handsomely illustrated guide that explains why the Empire State Building narrows at the top. The volume also looks at such architectural wonders as the Taj Mahal.

``The Architecture Pack,'' by Ron Van Der Meer and Deyan Sudjic (Knopf; $50), is a unique three-dimensional tour of architecture over the centuries from the Egyptian Imhotep to the American Richard Meier. It shows sophisticated pop-ups of buildings from around the world. A fun volume.

``History of Art: Fifth Edition Revised,'' by H.W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson (Abrams; $65). This giant survey, one of the most comprehensive available, includes 736 color reproductions and 500 black-and-white illustrations.

``The Impressionists: Their Lives, Their World and Their Paintings,'' by Eileen Romano (Penguin Studio; $29.95), looks at the society in which artists such as Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Monet and Renoir lived.

``Kandinsky,'' by Thomas M. Messer (Abrams; $24.95), contains 82 illustrations, 40 in color, of the work of Vasily Kandinsky, one of the main founders of abstract painting.

``The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum,'' edited by Peter H. Hassrick (144 pages, Abrams; $35), is a catalog from the institution devoted to the artist that opened last summer in Santa Fe, N.M. It raises the question why another book is needed on the American artist whose work seems to be everywhere. But for those not overly familiar with her work, the essays should be quite interesting.

``American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America,'' by Robert Hughes (636 pages, Alfred A. Knopf; $65), was highlighted in L.A. Life earlier this year, but this volume bears another look. Robert Hughes is a marvelous art critic who is able to make difficult ideas comprehensible. ``American Visions,'' a companion book to the PBS series, makes a wonderful gift.

``Michelangelo: The Last Judgment, a Glorious Restoration,'' by Loren Partridge (Abrams; $65), shows the newly cleaned fresco in the Sistine Chapel. It contains 150 full-color images. Michelangelo painted the fresco more than 20 years after completing the ceiling. In it, the artist left a grim self-portrait. On a cloud just below the Lord, the apostle Bartholomew holds a human's skin, the face of which is Michelangelo's.

``Norman Rockwell,'' by Karal Ann Marling (Abrams; $45), looks at the work of the popular American artist. Most art critics don't take Rockwell's work, which appeared mostly in magazines, seriously, but there is no doubt that he struck a chord with the American public. Amply illustrated, this is probably for those who already love him.

``Paintings,'' by Stan Rice (Knopf; $35), contains more than 100 vivid primitive paintings and text by the poet. By the way, Stan Rice is not the most famous Rice in his family. He has a wife by the name of Anne. No doubt about it - one strange couple.

``The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book,'' by Peter Poplaski (Little, Brown; $40), covers the adult comic book artist's whole career. ``From shack to chateau'' is featured in this big book with more than 250 illustrations.

``Frank Lloyd Wright'' (Phaidon; $79.95) provides a critical overview of the accomplishments of the architect whose work includes New York's Guggenheim Museum and numerous houses across the country. There are 650 illustrations, more than half in color, and every assignment ever given Wright is listed.

``Buddha Book: A Meeting of Images'' (Chronicle; $19.95) includes 95 reproductions dealing with Buddha, from the expected - carved stoneworks in India - to the unexpected - a miniature-golf Buddha in Biloxi, Miss. With an introduction by noted Buddhist scholar (and father of Uma) Robert A.F. Thurman.

``Goddess: A Celebration in Art and Literature'' (Stewart, Tabori & Chang; $50) is more a concept book than a study of art. It brings together the pre-historic Venus of Willendorf, the Venus de Milo, a Botticelli ``Annunciation,'' Romare Bearden's 1985 ``High Priestess'' and more in images set amid essays and poems.

``The Shaker World: Art, Life, Belief'' (Abrams; $60) is a well-illustrated study of the sect by art historian John T. Kirk.

``Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance'' (University of California Press; $60; $29.95 paper) contains essays by several authors on the connections of that art moment with movements in Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa.

``Chihuly'' (Donald Kuspit, Abrams; $60) is a look at Dale Chihuly, the leader of what is known as the American studio glass movement. The levitating glass ``balloons'' on the cover illustrate how Chihuly has taken his work, which began as bowls, etc., into the museums.

``Unauthorized Portraits by Edward Sorel'' (Knopf; $40) reproduces some of the best of the caricaturist's drawings of the the last 30 years. The targets of his witty and sharply satirical works include mostly politicians as well as other newsworthy luminaries such as Rupert Murdoch and Woody Allen.

Photography

``California,'' by Ansel Adams (Little, Brown; $50), consists of photos of the Golden State by its most famous photographer. Included are some rarely seen images.

``Pilgrim,'' photographs by Richard Gere (143 pages, Bulfinch; $75), is one more example of a celebrity capitalizing on his fame to publish a book of photography. Luckily, in this case, Gere is not untalented. The actor, an activist on behalf of Tibet, has collected 64 photographs from his many trips to that country. They are mostly hits, and Gere's passion to capture Tibet's plight in his pictures is evident. Proceeds from the book go to Tibetan charities through the Gere Foundation.

Anyone who saw Brad Pitt play Heinrich Harrer in ``Seven Years in Tibet'' will be interested in the paperback reprint of ``Lost Lhasa: Heinrich Harrer's Tibet'' (Abrams; $24.95). It's a collection of photographs Harrer took in Tibet in 1946-53. Harrer was not a professional photographer, and he was working with some old movie film that he cut into rolls for his borrowed Leica. However, many of the images are quite striking, and his photos remain an important document of a unique spiritual civilization that was ruthlessly suppressed by the Chinese

``Weegee's World,'' by Miles Barth (Bulfinch/Little, Brown; $75), is a collection of more than 250 photographs shot by the notorious news photographer. Weegee, a k a Arthur Fellig (1899-1968), was a chronicler of New York street crime and the demimonde of Bowery bars and Times Square burlesque. Gangland slayings, suicides and accident victims were his specialty, but he also excelled at capturing the expressions of onlookers as they gazed at the grisly scenes. In addition to crime, he photographed people at the movies, the opera and the circus, all in his gritty style.

``Highway: America's Endless Dream,'' with photographs by Jeff Brouws and text by Bernd Polster and Phil Patton (Stewart, Tabori & Chang; $29.95 paperback), takes us on a scenic excursion of America's roads and roadside culture.

``Scavullo: Photographs 50 Years'' (Abrams; $60) is a stunning collection of the photographer's works. It seems that you're really not famous until you pose for Scavullo, who is primarily known as a fashion photographer (Jerry Hall, Iman, Christie Brinkley, Veruschka). But throughout the years artists (Louise Bourgeous, Andy Warhol, Louise Nevelson, Salvador Dali), writers (Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Edward Albee), dancers (Tommy Tune, Mikhail Baryshnikov), choreographers (Agnes De Mille), actors (Brad Pitt, Paul Newman, Jeremy Irons), actresses (Elizabeth Taylor, Faye Dunaway, Sophia Loren, Glenn Close, Jodie Foster), musicians (Madonna, Sting, Annie Lennox), athletes (Bruce Jenner, Muhammad Ali), designers (Bill Blass, Calvin Klein, Halston) and even Lassie have posed for him. There is something beyond mere composition that set many of his pictures apart. Just look at the sequence he took of Janis Joplin. Although she was hardly a beauty, Scavullo captures both her vulnerability and vitality, the joy and the underlying sadness. There is even an interesting section on drag queens, including Warhol's actress Candy Darling and Divine from John Waters' films. Scavullo offer some commentary, but in the long run, the photos speak for themselves.

If you're looking for something, say, more spiritual, try ``Illuminations,'' by Joyce Tenneson (Bullfinch/Little, Brown; $45). Tenneson's work can best be described as otherworldly, if it can be described at all. Some of the photos, like ``Man Divided in Three,'' can function as statements on the human condition, but others seem to be an attempt to look into the soul. Whatever you think, you will look.

Animals/nature

``The Complete Dinosaur,'' edited by James O. Farlow and M.K. Brett-Surman (Indiana University Press; $59.95), is a terrific compilation about dinosaurs. Some of the 47 scientists involved in this work are at odds about theories and what the data means about these extinct creatures but that - and the glossary of dinosaur films - give the volume its spice.

``Eye to Eye: Intimate Encounters With the Animal World,'' by Frans Lanting, edited by Christine Eckstrom (Taschen; $39.95), contains more than 135 color photos of animals in the wild. Fascinating photos, since most of us will never get that close to some of these animals in their native habitat - that is, of course, unless we're lunch. Lanting, however, has gotten close, sharing rivers with hippos and crocodiles, open savannah with lions and black rhinoceroses. A great skua (a gull-like, predatory bird), defending its nest in the Falkland Islands, proved too much, knocking out one of the most famous nature photographers of our time.

``Penguins of the World,'' by Wayne Lynch (Firefly; $35), contains charts, maps and information about the flightless bird from in the Antarctic. Take it on your next trip to Sea World.

``Forest Cats of North America,'' by Jerry Kobalenko, with photos by Thomas Kitchin and Victoria Hurst (Firefly; $19.95), examines the habits and habitats of cougars, bobcats and lynx, including those living in California.

One of its senior writers and photographers takes us behind the American scene in ``National Geographic: On Assignment USA,'' by Priit Vesilind (National Geographic Books; $50). Included are more than 200 of the magazine's finest photographs; some go back to the early years of this century.

``Everest: Mountain Without Mercy,'' by Broughton Coburn (National Geographic Books; $35), follows a 1996 climbing team that was preparing to shoot the first-ever IMAX movie footage from the top of the world's highest mountain. Tragedy struck when a storm killed eight people. One of the climbers, Jon Krakauer, told that story in his best-selling book, ``Into Thin Air.'' Using 120 photographs, this book relates the story in spectacular fashion.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Christie Brinkley is one of the many famous faces in ``Scavullo: Photographs 50 Years,'' a collection of the fashion lensman's work.

(2) With 150 color images, ``Michaelangelo: The Last Judgment, a Glorious Restoration,'' is an exhaustive look at the artist's fresco, which was painted more than 20 years after he completed the ceiling.