No comments about Dutch Flower Painting, 1600-1750.

1 comments about Cowboy Artists of America.

1. The Cowboy Artists of America Museum (now the National Center for American Western Art) was built several years ago near the location of the trails I rode as a teenager growing up in Kerrville, Texas. I visit the museum every time I am in Kerrville and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area. For years, I have wished for a book that contains a wide representation of the paintings of the members of the Cowboy Artists of America, and this book surpasses my greatest expectations. It is always a challenge to reproduce great art in book form, but Greenwich has done a superb job. The book is very well organized and contains interesting biographies of the artists, along with a collection of the paintings of each. I would recommend it without reservation to anyone interested in art, especially Western art. The reproductions are almost as breathtaking as the actual paintings, not an easy task to accomplish.

No comments about American Genre Painting: The Politics of Everyday Life.

1 comments about Turner and Venice.

1. JMW Turner goes in and out of phase as far as appreciation for his gifts as a painter. There have been periods in history where his works were dismissed as irrelevant and of poor technical quality. But despite the varying critical evaluations, Turner's inimitable style of finding the transparency of that plane where water and air admix has always been viewed by those who are fortunate enough to approach his great works as that of an idiosyncratic romantic poet.
   
   No subject better provided a venue for his vision than the mysterious and magnificent 'La Serenissima' - Venice, Italy. It is in this city that floats like a transient tenant on the sea, laced with canals, bathed in fog and rain and mist that Turner found the essence of the spirit of Venice. This lavishly designed and illustrated volume originally served as a catalogue for the exhibition by the same title that was staged at the Tate Museum in London and traveled thereafter. Curator Ian Warrell is to be commended for this largest collection of Turner's paintings and drawings ever to be assembled, and to top his achievement he produced this monograph which not only illustrates in rich color separations the glories of the paintings and the detail of the sketches, it also is graced by excellent essays by travel writer Jan Morris, historian David Laven and Venice specialist Cecelia Powell.
   
   While there have been several fine books on Turner, this is the finest assemblage of works that inherently relate, a fact which induces a deeper appreciation for Turner's talent. Setting his paintings in context with the works of other painters, both his contemporaries and others, shows not only the 'how' of Turner's techniques, it informs us of the context of the views both historically and artistically.
   
   The quality of the reproductions is first class and the quality of the paper of this book is of the highest order. This is simply a magnificent book visually and educationally...and romantically! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, April 05

3 comments about The Rohan Master: A Book of Hours.

1. the most beautiful manuscript ever !
   the hardcover is recomended.



2. I too am biased (I'm a historian of Italian Renaissance art), and while the as yet unknown master who illustrated the Rohan Hours meets none of the usual criteria for "beauty" in 15th-century painting (say, the style of Fra Angelico's angels or Botticelli's maidens--both of these painters produced fine book illustrations), there is no question that he was a brilliantly inventive, keenly expressive artist. His illustrations for the standard repertoire of Christian Bible stories totally push the envelope of what was usual within a book's pages. He combined achingly precise realistic description with a total freedom in the scaling and placement of figures, and a luxuriant decorative sense, creating powerful images that virtually burst from the page. Gestures, facial expressions, accessories from hair to drapery, seem driven by powerful currents generated from the prayers to which they give shape. A Renaissance original, with a refined, if bold, technique.



3. This is one of many fine reproductions produced by the Geo. Braziller company. This particular manuscript is a 15th c. book of hours generally considered to be a masterpiece in the book-art community. It's a very nice reproduction.

   My personal opinion, of course, colors my perception of the quality of the art of the Rohan hours. Frankly, I think the art in the Rohan Hours is of medium quality; its miniatures are cetainly emotional, but the technique is rougher than most of the books of this era that are considered to be "masterpieces."

   Individuals who find the art charming, of course, would give this book a higher star rating, because it has all the usual nice qualities of a Braziller publication. There is an essay detailing the history and discussing some of the manufacture information , followed by lots and lots of pictures of manuscript pages accompanied by a short paragraph detailing the actions of the people in the pictures. The clor reproduction is nice.

   I own it; it's a pleasant enough book. I don't mean to discourage a lover of the illuminated manuscript from buying this book. However, you should also be aware that the art of the Rohan Hours isn't quite as finely done as you might expect.

1 comments about Early American Modernist Painting 1910-1935.

1. Davidson's book is an extremely clear, straight-forward account of modernist painting in the United States before World War II and the rise of the U.S. as world art capitol. It is the most comprehensive survey of the topic to date that is still in print. This comprehensiveness is the result of the book's strictly defined limits; sculpture, architecture, design and so on are excluded. It is commendable for its well-sturctured organization of a mountain of material about which little specialized, scholarly literature had been written before a survey was attempted. Davidson's book is equally commendable for the efficiency of its text; it summarizes a great deal of information in a smooth, orderly, useful way. It brings to the reader's attention many artists and works of art that are virtually unknown to most art admirers, including those interested in both American and modern art. The usefulness of the book is diminished, however, because there are very few color illustrations and the black-and-white illustrations are rather poor (especially a problem in a little-known branch of modernist art where the reader is not likely to be familiar with the material) and the scholarship on the various movements and artists covered has developed considerably since the book was published nearly twenty years ago. The book is now older than most of the scholarship such a survey text would rely on for support. It does suffer from the same problem that survey books often do; it covers so much material with minimal depth that a true, lasting appreciation for the material covered is not forthcoming.

1 comments about Matisse: A Way of Life in the South of France.

1. As an artist who loves to paint and cook, this book really captures everything that i possible would love to take me to the south of france. Its beautiful colaboration of matisse paintings and tastes of recipes, really inspires one to want to paint a colourful table for dining. The recipes aren't exactly the normal cuisine you would desire to serve everyday however the colours and textures of foods play with those in his decorative work. Its just quite an inspirational book for those who love to master a composition like matisse did - my husband bought this book for me just because he knew i love matisse and i love to cook. Its a colourful book which you want to pick up and flip through just to take you to another place another time affecting all your senses and memories. Enjoy!

1 comments about Taiga's True Views: The Language of Landscape Painting in Eighteenth-Century Japan.

1. Ms Takeuchi has presented an excellent appraisal of the life and work of Taiga. After a detailed biographical section, the artist is considered in relation to his contemporaries and to developing theories about the relationship between landscape and pictorial representation. Particular attention is paid to the theories of Gyokushu, who assigned Taiga a central position in the new Nanga movement in Japanese art. Finally, the meanings of the concept "shinkeizu", or "true-view", as applied to Taiga's work, are helpfully clarified.

   Taiga is shown to occupy a pivotal position, reinterpreting Chinese traditions of landscape painting to give new impetus to topographical art during the Tokugawa period. His genius is shown to reside in his simultaneous innovation, and respect for tradition.

   This book is generously illustrated in colour and monochrome, and benefits from some very helpful appendices, including a section on the personal seals used by Taiga on his pictures.

5 comments about John Currin.

1. really enjoyed the book. great reproductions and lots of insight into the artist's thought processes.



2. The first time I saw some paintings by John Currin they appealed to me right away. I did not need a second look or to hear some long winded explination like from art school about why I should appreciate them. The simple fact is they connected to me and I picked up my first book on him.
   
   He is an excellent painter but that is just incidental to his work. There are a lot of excellent painters in this world but skill alone does nothing for art. An artist has to have something to communicate, something to show beyond his talent as a painter or draftsman. John Currin definitely has something to show. He paints mostly women but that too I feel is mostly incidental. Men as a rule of thumb love to paint women. It's a tremendous lure to paint that which we find so beautiful.
   
   To me, I love his work because with no more than a simple pose, or a well painted women with a heavily modeled pasty face, he is able to communicate the awkward nature of day to day life. Figures with uncomfortable inner thoughts and feelings show overly affected smiles or looks. Stamford After Brunch, Park City Girl, The Activists, and Brown Lady all have this feel to them. Something is lurking in the inner psyches of these people. Women they may be, but people they surly are and something is a bit off below the surface of their lives. The masks that we all put on are communicated with the actual heavily modeled pasty made up faces of some of the women.
   
   There is also a restless longing in many of his paintings. Paintings such as: Lovers 1993, Lovers in the Country 1993, Portrait 1993, and The Never Ending Story. These paintings seem to show that something is missing from the lives of the men. In a few of them a woman is present but she seems to be there for her man, perhaps to help aid him in what ever way she can. The man in each case appears like some kind of bizarre perversion of Abe Lincoln meets Uncle Sam meets Colonel Sanders with some Mr. Rogers thrown in. These paintings, to me, have a very distinct American feel to them. All 4 paintings have clouds and appear to be set in large open spaces where the man is gazing far and wide while he thinks about what it is exactly that is missing from his life or his country. The men and women in the paintings may in fact be metaphors for America itself, looking lost like some odd flustered older man but with all the help and appreciation of a young mistress by his side.
   
   Currin is most definitely pointing out what he likes and does not like about this world often in the same painting. Things are not clear cut black and white, good or bad, it's messier than that and more complicated.
   
   Day to day life as a human is complicated. We all have these powerful brains and they ceaselessly function and generate thoughts and communicate ideas, impulses and urges almost all the time. I personally find life to often be quite awkward for people in general. Adulthood is mostly a veiled childhood where we think way too much about what others are doing, thinking, and how they are acting. many facades go up and come down. People see others and desire what they have, the spouce someone has, or their house, possessions, situation and the like. All the while we are bizarre animals with all sorts of odd functions that also function ceaselessly beyond our control. All the while we have the urge to sleep, eat, fornicate, and all this while we try and do better for ourselves and appear as normal as possible within the confines of what ever community we find ourselves in. For me John Currin's paintings show this day to day struggle we all have with the awkward nature of existence and the strains that having a large brain in a complex world put on a person with urges, and longings that often happen in direct contradiction to what is expected of one in this world, country, town, street, or home. Also there is the deeper thoughts that we mostly as a society tend to uncomfortably ignore. Where did we come from? Where did the universe come from? Why does anything exist at all? These thoughts are ones that as animals we are privileged to have. Still they have boggled man for ever and humans at home who are not great thinkers can contemplate this too. We all carry these unanswered questions around with us all the time. We may not know it but we carry a bit of fear with us as a result of these unanswered questions about existence and the universe every day. They are deep in the back of our minds. I sense this in some of Currin's paintings.
   
   All this just scratches the surface of what I get from his paintings. Some of them are just beautiful portraits in their own rights and need not be viewed as more than that.
   
   He is definitely one of the few great contemporary American painters alive today and he has his brush on the pulse of the odd facade that is exhibited with the awkward doppelgänger that is writhing just below the phony surface of this country.



3. A great art book, undoubtedly. It actually is a catalogue raisonné, with all the information needed on the provenance, the size and the medium. Now isn't it a bit early in Currin's career? At only 45 years old, he has yet to prove that he can stand the test of time. If you try to set aside all the hype that has been surrounding the artist (the "very dear" of the the art world, in every sense of the word "dear"), I am not sure that you will find his works worth the weight and the price of this beautiful monography...



4. I was so excited when the big package containing this book had arrived at my door, Currin has been one of my favourite artists and during recent years I had the pleasure of starring at many of his masterpieces from up close.
   This may explain my disappointment with the selection of works & reproductions (yes, I do understand it is impossible to come close to the originals with 4 color printing, but the images in the book at least could have been larger, i dont need all this white space, and I guess theres a reason amazon didnt have a "look inside the book" for this one).



5. John Currin's work occupies a very odd space. I love it all.

No comments about Alice Neel's Women.