1 comments about Dutch Treat.

1. Rien Poorvliet was a Dutch artist and writer of incomparable talent. He was rightly considered a national treasure in the Netherlands, and his death was a national tragedy. Most of his books are free-ranging collections of his superior drawings and paintings interspersed with cursive text narrative about the subject at hand. This book happens to be an account of his life, family, pets, love of animals, culture and country as he experienced it - past, and (at the time) present in the Netherlands. His artwork is extremely expressive and entertaining - he was a master draftsman, and the work ranges from very spontaneous pencil, charcoal, and conte drawings, along with watercolor, and well-finished oil paintings which provide a wonderful visual story of the man's life. The textual narrative is extremely interesting and engaging - you truly feel like you're in the Netherlands, and you're experiencing what he's illustrating and describing. These are more illustrated "picture" books than textual books, but the finely-woven combination of words and pictures completely immerses the reader in Poortvliet's life. He had a wonderful outlook on life, and a fine sense of humor, despite having lived through some very hard experiences. Whether writing and illustrating historical types of subjects (such as this book), or dogs, or horses , or gnomes, or Noah's ark, Poorvliet never failed to completely enthrall the reader. These are books that make you smile from the moment you open the cover, and you hope will never end.

5 comments about Dali's Mustache.

1. We saw this at l'Espace Salvador Dali in Paris and loved it, but didn't want to pay museum/weak dollar prices. It was a good value on Amazon, and my son (a big Dali fan) loved it for Christmas. It's a photographic interview with Dali about his mustache. Each question is followed by a short answer with illustrative photograph of the artist's mustache in various wild, waxed poses. The photos are hysterical; the humor all Dali.



2. This book is mainly pictures of Salvador Dali's mustache in different poses. His whiskers have stand straight up, go straight out, and everything in between. There is some some dialogue that is nothing more than questions and answers. For instance, it is asked why Dali paints. On the next page his mustache is shaped like an 'S' and there are two paint brushes running across his face to complete the dollar sign '$'.
   
   I love this book because I am a big fan of Dali. Also my daughter has come to love it and usually asks for this book for her bedtime story. It makes her giggle because some of the pictures are just so strange. Although the picture of Dali as the Mona Lisa is quite disturbing.
   
   The book can be read in under three minutes, but for fans of "The Dali" it can bring a lifetime of pleasure.



3. I was surprised to see that this Dali book is more a book of photography than of any of Dali's art. I mean, I knew it was mostly pictures of him, but it turns out to be all these complicated photographs of Dali! It's pretty interesting, especially if you're into photos. And what makes the book is the last section where there are descriptions of how all the weirdest pictures were taken. To think that all of them could have been done effortlessly on a computer these days says something about Philippe Halsman's dedication. Kudos!



4. I'm not an educated art critic or even really a big art fan, but I take an art class for my high school and one day my teacher showed us this book. I thought it looked weird and since thats the type of art I like i picked it up and read it. This book is very weird and funny. The ways they can get the moustache to stand are really cool. I especially like the fishing pole one and the graph but really all the pictures are good. This book has turned me on to the weirder side of art.



5. I thoroughly enjoyed the photos in this book, but that is all there was to it. There are about 40 really great photos of Dali doing strange things with his mustache. It is certainly not, as I was led to believe by the other reviewer, a novel. One can easily read the whole book in just a few minutes. It is called a photographic interview and just has some questions, each followed by a crazy photo with a caption.

4 comments about Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art.

1. I collect art books and am particularly fond of Vincent Van Gogh, the fabulous Dutch artist of the 19th Century, who is probably the most popular of all artists--EVER (certainly my favorite!!). I have taken several art history courses with Van Gogh as subject, seen all the "Van Gogh" films, etc. I own many books about Van Gogh including a few I picked up in the Netherlands. What could anyone else possibly say about him that I have not already heard? The answer as it turns out is plenty. I had not yet read Debora Silverman's VAN GOGH AND GAUGUIN: THE SEARCH FOR SACRED ART.

   Silverman has taken a different tact in writing about the artists Van Gogh and Gauguin--who will linked together through eternity if for no other reason than the episode in Arles with Van Gogh's "earlobe" (not ear). Like many, I have wondered just why these two men behaved so antagonistically towards each other. I have heard about personality conflicts, differing life styles, and mental illness, but somehow these reasons have never resonated with me. The explanation for the Gauguin-Van Gogh conflict according to Silverman was owing to nothing less than their conflicting interpretations of the meaning of life.

   Gauguin was raised Roman Catholic and attended a Catholic boys school where he was taught the theology of bearing one's cross and dying to the material world to attain the transcendent good--paradise. Van Gogh came from a humanistic Dutch Reformed background in an era when this church was focused on the need for a consolatary religion in the face of EVOLUTION. Their conflict seems to have been a feud of a particular kind as both men attempted to understand the eternal truths, grapple with the new reality of science, and abandon their relgious upbringings.

   While Gauguin's paintings reflect the transcendent as "otherworldly" and point the way for later abstract symbolists such as Picasso, Van Gogh's works are tied to the sacred presence of the eternal in the natural world. In painting after painting, Gauguin flattens the canvas, uses paint sparingly and depicts scenes of misery and suffering, sin and redemption. On the other hand, Van Gogh focuses on the sacred nature of work and rural life--threshing, weaving, milking, and rocking the baby by the fireplace. Where Gauguin creates angels strugging with men and flying cows, Van Gogh paints wheat fields and grape vineyards filled with sowers, thrashers, and harvesters. Where Gauguin sees classical elements such as the three muses and a Greek temple and admires Delacroix, Van Gogh sees bridges, sailboats, looms, and walls, and adores Millet.

   During their short time together in Arles, Gauguin sought to influence Van Gogh--to have him paint from memory, flatten surfaces, and introduce overt religious symbolism into his work. Van Gogh did partially adapt some of Gauguin's techniques such as cloisonism (black outlines separating flat patches of color), but while Gauguin continued to tackle the sinful ways of man (and apparently sin quite heavily when he wasn't working) Van Gogh adapted Zenlike techniques reminiscent of Hiroshege and other Japanese artists who saw no boundary between the divine and natural worlds.

   Silverman writes beautifully (I read every word..this is a powerful book) and there are hundreds of drop-dead beautiful facsimilies of the works of Gauguin and Van Gogh. I think Silverman favors Van Gogh, and I do too so I was not disappointed (though she covers Gauguin quite well). She spends a great deal of time on style and technique, which I also liked very much. She is not merely pointing out technical differences, however, she is showing how their respective techniques were tied to their philosophical outlooks. Several "sets" of paintings by both men are discussed in detail--Van Gogh's Langlois bridge paintings (all nine are reproduced) and the Berceuse paintings (she who rocks the cradle); as well as Gauguin's repeated use elements such as the women of Brittany, cows, angels, and "the dead."

   This is a wonderful book and if you love Van Gogh and want to better understand his painterly ways, you must have it. It will enrich your life.




2. Although a non-scholar, I have a keen interest in art history and thus was delighted to receive a copy of this book as a holiday gift from my daughter. The subtitle indicates Silverman's thematic objective: To examine "the search for sacred art." She provides her reader with a brilliantly written narrative during which she shares a wealth of information about Van Gogh and Gauguin, of course, in combination with hundreds of illustrations (many in full-color) which are skillfully correlated with the text. Here is how the material is organized:

   Part One: Toward Collaboration [two "Self-Portraits"]

   Part Two: Peasant Subjects and Sacred Forms [eg Van Gogh's "Sower" and Gauguin's "Vision After the Sermon"]

   Part Three: Catholic Idealism and Dutch Reformed Realism

   Part Four: Collaboration in Arles

   Part Five: Theologies of Art After Arles

   Part Six: Modernist Catechism and Sacred Realism

   Silverman carefully identifies and then eloquently explores all manner of comparisons and contrasts between the lives and art of Van Gogh and Gauguin within an historical, theological, and anthropological context. Hers is a magnificent achievement.




3. a work of genius and a pleasure to read. this book is essential for any museumgoer and the general reader with any interest in either artist. revealing the mutual respect and support between two very different men, with outstanding illustrations and insightful prose. i cannot remember any art history book so erudite and approachable.



4. "Christ alone -- of all the philosophers, Magi, etc. -- has affirmed, as a principal certainty, eternal life, the infinity of time, the nothingness of death, the necessity and the raison d'etre of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as a greater artist than all other artists, despising marble and clay as well as color, working in living flesh. That is to say, this matchless artist, hardly to be conceived of by the obtuse instrument of our modern, nervous, stupefied brains, made neither statues nor pictures nor books; he loudly proclaimed that he made... living men, immortals. This is serious, especially because it is the truth." Vincent van Gogh wrote these words in a long letter to Emile Bernard, his close friend and painter. He wrote them in Arles, where was working particularly hard, at the end of June 1888. The greatest artistic achievements where still before him, as well as unexpected illness and pity death. Debora Silverman exhibits to us another great event of Vincent's life: short and vehement artistic friendship with Paul Gaugain, that inspired Vincent much and may be even more costed. They knew and write each other for some years. They spent together same weeks in Arles working and fiercely discussing many artistic topics. Unexpectedly, in a while of serious depression Vincent decided to punish his comrade. With dark intentions in the mind he even picked up a razor. But his own illness won. Next day Gaugin found him laying unconscious, all in blood, with one ear cut. Silverman asks how possible was this strange and strangely fruitful friendship. She explores complicated cultural and religious background of both the painters. "I was intrigued -- writes in the Introduction -- by how Gauguin may have assimilated from his seminary training certain mental habits and attitudes toward the visual that were profoundly discordant with those I had identified in van Gogh's formative period in his Dutch theological culture, and I suspected that these distinctive mentalities had implications for the form and content of their work". There have been no similar studies up now. Religious life of Vincent van Gogh have been explored only very recently by Tsukasha Kodera (Vincent van Gogh. Christianity versus nature), Katheleen Power Erickson (At Eternity's Gate), Cliff Edwards (Van Gogh and God) and others, but never in relation to the southern France Catholicism, in atmosphere of which Vincent spent his recent years. Catholic background of Gaugin himself is even less known. Their mutual cultural and religious interferences, and their own personal achievements of this field finally received an abundant and complete description grace to Silverman research.

1 comments about Courbet A&I (Art and Ideas).

1. I got this book out at a libray for a school report. I had it last minute and this book really saved me. It's got just about every aspect of Gustave Courbet's life explained in plain English. A great resource for a student or a teacher. A must buy for an art buff.

5 comments about The Make Believe World of Maxfield Parrish and Sue Lewin.

1. I was so tempted to give one star and probably would have if the author didn't stop when she did.
   
   The book has nothing of importance to say, no insights and only the author's opinions with very little to back it up.
   
   If tempted to purchase a book about the art of Parrish, avoid this one as it will disappoint.
   
   Perhaps the photo of the author in a sleeveless black frock and elbow length gloves was warning enough of the calibre of this insipid book.
   
   It is so bad, I wouldn't lend it or give it away. No one deserves to be punished by it.



2. I love the artwork and the story behind the art! This book was super interesting to me. Sue Lewin was a beautiful model and whether or not she really was Maxfield's lover really doesn't matter to me, although I really do believe that she was! Too bad that they never made it official.



3. Sue Lewin was the model for a huge number of Parrish's lovely, romantic paintings. She sat for the innumerable photographs that he used for his paintings, she tended his children, she lived with him for decades in his `studio' (a fair-sized house by any standard). He often painted her with a wedding band on her finger. He just never married her.
   
   Another woman, Lydia, was his wife. For many years, she lived in the other house on the property, almost a mansion. This peculiar split life, wife and mistress on the same estate, just a few yards a way from each other, was a permanent feature of the Parrish household.
   
   It seems to have started innocently enough, when Lewin was hired as nanny and maid to the Parrish household. Parrish had great financial success during his life, enough to build the two grand houses at `The Oaks.' Over time, Lewin became more involved with his art, posing and making costumes, cooking for him and fending off threats to his privacy. At the same time, Parrish became cordially estranged from his wife. There was a curtain of silence around the arrangements, but that is the story told in this remarkable book.
   
   It is clear that Lewin had enormous importance in Parrish's work, far more than hard evidence may ever tell. If you like Parrish's work - and it's easy to like - this brief book will give real insight into the art, the man who made it, and the woman who inspired it. The only disappointment in this book is that it doesn't show more of Parrish's famous illustration.
   
   //wiredweird



4. Any book containing attractive reproductions of Maxfield Parrish's work is bound to be visually stunning. But the text is loaded with partially informed speculation about the relationship between Parrish and Sue Lewin, his favorite model. The author is an art dealer, not a historian, and her lack of analytical training is a serious problem. Maybe Lewin was Parrish's lover. But where's the concrete evidence? Everything that the author presents to support her contentions is either hearsay or capable of more than one interpretion. The fact that they shared a house for several decades is a VERY persuasive fact, but Gilbert damages her credibility -- and her case -- by tossing in too much pointless guessing.



5. Being an admirer of Parrish's work since childhood, I had always wondered how he worked since his paintings had a sort of surreal realism to them. I was surprised to find that he utilized photographs instead of live models and that Sue Lewin was the model for the majority of his most famous works. The art is not only beautiful in the book, but the photos are just as incredible as the paintings themselves. A must have book for anyone who has admired Maxfield Parrish's work.

No comments about Luca Signorelli: The San Brizio Chapel, Orvieto (Great Fresco Cycles of the Renaissance).

1 comments about Portraits of the Renaissance.

1. A great and beautiful book - reproduction photographs are beautiful and
   the writing with each portrait is very precise. Highly recommended.

2 comments about Six Renoir Paintings Cards (Small-Format Card Books).

1. Good quality reproductions on heavy stock. Not the paintings I'd have chosen but that is a matter of taste. shipped within published time parameter.



2. One of a series from Dover that includes Cassatt, Dali, Degas, Gauguin, Homer, Kahlo...you get the idea. Ridiculously inexpensive, you should collect them all. Once you have them, you'll resist ripping them out of the cute little booklet & mailing them. Maybe, like me, you'll keep them in a drawer by your computer as handy fine art stress relievers.
   
   Bob Rixon

No comments about The Vikings and Their Origins: Scandinavia in the First Millennium.

2 comments about Art of Chinese Brush Painting (Artist's Library Series).

1. I love this book and I have several books on Chinese brush painting. (I'd not part with any of them.) What I like is that she gives you a sense of porportion and she teaches you how to not just draw the figures but how to add to the subject and balance the picture. Chinese painting is about simplicity and doing it has taught me how to do more with my other works. This is a bit pedantic for intermediate artists but everyone can learn from it.



2. I painted some of the pictures as she directed, and I wasn't exactly skilled as she and yet the results were so charming people like them enough to hang them on the wall. She teaches technique, and its wonderful. :>