5 comments about Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life (Phoenix Giants).

1. Briefly, what Julia Frey manages to do is to bring the soul and genius of Henry Toulous-Lautrec to life. Compounding fact on fact, she slowly reveals the life and times of a complicated son, man, artist and genius, who lived in a major transitional time period as social classes were dissolving and artistic trends and beliefs were being wrenched from their moorings. This 'little man'-who evokes our pathos as well as love-broke down more walls than any army could have, and he did it with style, guts and humor. It's an intense journey which could easily bog down in the details, yet I came away feeling like I knew his soul, could feel his deepest despair and witness his drive, ambition and frustation. What a marvel! His art is illuminated by Frey in a fresh way as she helps explain how he almost single-handedly invented posters-as-art, but also why he was a brilliant painter who created a style that was bold and unique.
   
   What Frey manages to do is to humanize Toulous-Lautrec so that he's not a cartoon character, not the oddity that he's often reduced to. This is a brave man, an honorable man, a complictaed man who came from a complicated family. Bravo for them for sharing these letters, and for Julia Frey for putting the puzzle together afresh with such respectful illumination. It will break your heart but it will lift you higher. And you will feel like you lived in Paris in the late 1800s with the most phenomenal docent...one of the greatest artists of all time, Henry Toulouse-Lautrec!



2. What I loved about this book was how it seemed to capture the spirit of the Montmartre during the "gay nineties". For me it was the next best thing to actually having been there.



3. I must agree with some of the other reviews that have appeared on this book. I got this book with the intention of learning something more about Toulouse Lautrec. I really like all aspects of his work and wanted to find something that would be more true to life than the the movie "Moulin Rouge." Usually in most biographies of artists there is a more than passing interest in the work. I did not find this aspect in this book. Instead the author focuses on rather facile Freudian looks at the paintings themselves. As Freud himself observed, "sometimes a cigar is only a cigar." Elements of composition are subjected to a desire to demonstrate some sort of unified field theory toward Toulouse Lautrec's art. I am still looking for a book that illuminate's Toulouse Lautrec's art and life for this clearly is not it.



4. I was excited with the prospect of reading a well written, well researched biography of one of the great artists. Well I was put off from the first. Referring to Henri's body as tiny, painfully deformed. I thought "Oh boy!" "Here we go again". It made me wonder how many people with disabilities she had ever met and that way of thinking that poor Henri could never find true love because of his size. Hmmm? What about Danny De Vito, Paul Williams, even throw in Truman Capote. All of these men are(were) small of height and ther lives were NOT dictated by the fact of not being six feet tall. Other than that their were no fresh insights, maybe just a tidbit here and there. Also did we really need those wonderful photos of Henri defecating on the beach?



5. I read Frey's work on Lautrec and enjoyed it very much, but then read Henri Perruchot's work, published in 1962, and felt like I was rereading Frey's book. This leads me to believe that Frey used Perruchot's work as an outline and fleshed it out with the originally unpublished letters of Lautrec to his family.

   If you want the definitive work on Lautrec, find an old copy of Henri Perruchot's work, which is more consise. If you can't find a copy, Frey's work is good, but more drawn out in unnecessary details.

   I should comment that the great thing about Frey's book is the reprint of Lautrec's work, which I continually referred to while reading.

5 comments about 2007 Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market.

1. This is a great book of sources for freelance projects. It has interesting articles and tons of people to contact. You do need to read through carefully to pick publishers who are more likely to need your services.



2. essential to the start-up freelancer or the old pro who wants new contacts for work. I wish they had this when I was starting out...



3. Don't waste your money. As an art-rep I think this book is depressing and does not give a complete view of the choices that artists have. I found many mistypes and I believe that their sources are not a good spread of the market. My advice is to get it from the library and explore your options on the web. Just like anything start at the bottom, be nice, willing to learn, and stick to it. It is possible to make it.
   -KTB



4. Full of information and where to submit things. It is really helpful. I'm so glad there is a book out there like this.



5. This book is so inspiring. I have not yet sent any art off to the world, but I feel confident now..before I had no idea how to go about it.

1 comments about Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church.

1. I love it! If you love Fredric Church this book is a must have. Besides his countless breath taking paintings, it also invites you into his world
   and the place he loved the most. It's a treasure of a book.

No comments about Animated Painting.

No comments about Designers Are Wankers.

1 comments about Glorious American Quilts: The Quilt Collection of the Museum of American Folk Art.

1. This comprehensive guide to the quilts in the collection of the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City offers readers an excellent study of quiltmaking in American history. Color photos of 141 quilts, collected from across the country, represent traditional and contemporary styles. The accompanying text provides extensive information about the quilts and the people who made them.

No comments about Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool (Yale Center for British Art).

1 comments about Giorgio Morandi: The Art of Silence.

1. I found the book to be very revealing about the misconceptions of the artist Morandi. It gives the political and cultural backgrounds of the artist's life in Italy. It traces the hopes of fascism and its ultimate disappointments.
   While revealing much about the life and times of the artist it leaves the mystery and beauty of his work intact. Knowing about the forces against him made me more appreciative of his unigue gift.
   I would have liked to see more reproductions of the paintings mentioned in the text. I get annoyed reading about a painting I can't see for my self.
   Over all I found it a rewarding reading experience.

No comments about 1000 Stencils Argentinian Graffiti.

No comments about 1000 Erotic Works of Genius.