2 comments about Henri Matisse (Portfolio).

1. Pretty good book. I used it for an essay at school and it provided some valuable information and was my primary source. I thought it was a little quote heavy, as half the book is quotes from Matisse or art critics. Some are valuable, but others are just useless fluff. For example, in the begining there is a page long paragraph devoted to why everyone called Matisse a "doctor" and a hedonist or something. It bears no significance to what Matisse did.
   
   I also wish that the book would have talked more extensively about his impact and effects on art. The book says some but the information isn't really centralized and its sort of here and there throughout the book. I wish there would have been a couple pages at the end or something about it.
   
   Otherwise there is a lot of pictures and they're all real good quality. Also had pretty good analysis of some of his paintings, like their meanings and compositional elements that make it great etc... It also covers his entire life, before Fauvism to paper collages. I recommend it.



2. This is a wonderful book. The color seems very accurate. There are many artbooks with inaccurate color reproduced. I compared several photos in this book with the real Matisse's paintings, the color is all accurate.

No comments about Painting as Model.

1 comments about Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris.

1. After a long while of chewing on Crow's hundreds of proper names and knot of labyrinthine politics, I can now reflect upon the text with 20/20 hindsight and testify to its utility. Though I certainly didn't find it an easy read, or even a particularly enthralling one, Crow did lay the foundation now supporting my knowledge of French painting. The professor I had who required this book (and whose own book is a marvel: see Grigsby's _Extremities_) told us to forget about the names and focus on the general motions. That is sound advice for any bravehearted soul reading this book. All in all, Crow only rarely waxes pompous, vague, or self-contradictory (his analysis of a Rubens-Watteau parallel seems a bit heavy even for him). This text is dense and shoots to a high level of reader: I commend Crow for having with any success managed to navigate his way through sentences of such length and complexity. Not for the faint of heart, but a vital groundbreaker for the student of French revolution, politics, and painting.

2 comments about Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975 (American Federation of the Arts).

1. -very good essay, decent reproductions, good selection of Color Field paintings, BUT, the binding is bad. The inner hinge is very poorly designed: thin glossy paper glued to boards over rough cloth tape, which is very visible and ugly. This is one that would be better in paperback.



2. This book represents the catalog for a circulating museum show devoted to the prime movers (Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski and Helen Frankenthaler) in the Color Field school of painting, also called "post-painterly abstraction" by Clement Greenberg, in order to differentiate it from the more autographic type of paint handling found in Abstract Expressionism, the style that preceded it. The advocacy of the autocratic and well-hated Greenberg, America's leading art critic of the 20th century, has done much to inhibit proper scholarly and market respect for the style. The essay by Karen Wilkin, an independent art historian with a long-standing interest in the subject, is clear, concise and beautifully illustrated. My major criticism is that the enthusiasm of the author leads her to several dubious conclusions and a general lack of critical and/or comparative thinking: none of the artists have weaknesses, everyone is a good and worthy contributor, in other words, "thank you for sharing". For example, both the exhibition and the essay try to make the case for a number of secondary, even minor or weak artists (e.g. Walter Darby Bannard and Friedl Dzubas) as vital members of the movement. There is also an attempt to include major abstract expressionists like Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, Barnet Newman and Mark Rothko in the group rather than considering them strictly as precursors or major influences on the development of the style. The primacy of Frankenthaler over Louis is also subtly argued for and highly debatable; the invention of a technique (the stained and poured canvas) is not the same as making a dramatic change in the quality and intent of an art form. There is a structural clarity, chromic inventiveness, absence of draughtmanship and coolness in Louis and Noland that is quite distinct from the decorative and tasteful art of Frankenthaler; these features make Color Field painting in their hands a close relation or precursor (as Wilkin points out) to 1960s Minimalism. At the same time, it is very refreshing to see an important writer give some credit, in proper proportion I might add, to Sam Gilliam, an African-American and a Washington artist like Noland and Louis, and to Ronald Davis, a Californian, who is more often remembered, if at all, in relation to the reductive abstraction of Frank Stella. Overall, this is an extremely fine contribution to the field; it covers the widest number of artists and properly situates Color Field painting alongside Minimalism and Pop as one of the major artistic developments of the turbulently productive 1960s.

4 comments about Time's River: The Voyage of Life in Art and Poetry.

1. I remain dubious about books that have a coffee-table look, but the poetry selections in this one are excellent (if generally fairly well known) and concordant with the illustrations. The pairing of these paintings with these poems is truly inspired at times. The idea sounds hokey: the production is not. This anthology is a winner for it poetry alone. The sequals have not been as good, but this is one to read.



2. This is one of the most beautiful poetry anthologies I have ever read. After I finished reading through it the first time, I read it twice more during the same weekend. The poetry is at turns passionate and serene, and the art works are an added bonus to a beautiful and worthwhile book which leaves you feeling as though the world will, no matter the latest fear or disaster, continue on a path as carefully laid as the stars are placed in the heavens. I highly recommend this anthology.



3. I truly enjoyed reading this anthology. I own numerous collections of poetry but have never found one that combines poems of such passion with such beautiful art (art that in fact echances the poems). I hope that Kate Farrell will continue to put together such collections of verse as this one. This book containes a number of poems that I remembered reading a long time ago, wanted to read again, but could never find. I am glad that some of my searching has ended. This is a tremendous and admirable achievement. I highly recommend it.



4. As a writer, I was given this book as a gift by my best friend. It is like no other poetry or art anthology I have seen. The colors, thoughts, images, and ideas combine to form a breathtaking view of life and all its idiosyncrasies. Wisdom shines through the pages. I highly recommend it.

No comments about Still Life Artist's Sketching Bible.

5 comments about Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas.

1. Opening the package as it arrived from Amazon, easing this massive catalogue from its slipcase triggered a memory: walking to the edge of the Grand Canyon. With similar impact: awe. David Anfam brings the reader with him to encounter, view, & experience Rothko's work. His ten-year dedication paid off with the discovery of "lost" titles, setting the chronology of 836 works on canvas, (he couldn't have been afraid to get his hands dirty) & analyzing the slow struggle, sporadic leaps engendered by the painter in the evolution of the oeuvre. As scholar, teacher, critic, curator, & especially writer, Anfam proves the perfect choice to perform the daunting, almost impossible task of bringing Rothko into focus.

   The author insightfully tracks the early representational beginnings, (his foray into narrative linked with crossing boundaries is totally appropriate for the artist from Dvinsk, Portland, New York) through the mythological (application of Kermode's distinction between "Chronos" & "Kairos" is utterly intriguing), & makes a case for Rembrandt as the source for Rothko's obsessions with tragedy & darkness, Vermeer his source for color's sensuality. Anfam traces in detail, using numerous examples of the brilliant reproductions, how the multiforms foreshadowed the work of the classic period. The architectural contexts for the Chapel are pure genius: Vincent Scully's, "The Earth, the Temple, & the Gods"; Joseph Rykwert's, "The Dancing Column"; & Leo Bersani's, Ulysse Dutoit's, "Arts of Impoverishment."

   Anfam's breadth of vocabulary is English, yet he has benfitted from years in the States with a rapid, laconic language that impels the reader forward, informs succinctly. Purposely parrying time-worn quarrels, he unearths the more "thorny," "shady" aspects of dilemmas presented by such a complex art.

   Two things happened as a result of reading MARK ROTHKO / THE WORKS on CANVAS / CATALOGUE RAISONNE. During a recent visit to C&M Gallery in NY for a show of eight Rothko's, alone in the second room, I heard them. A few nights ago I had a dream of a handwritten note on a table in the front room of an auction house that said, "The Last Painting." Rereading Helene Cixous's essay by that name (subtitled, "Or the Portrait of God"), she writes, "I think of the last Rembrandt. A man? Or a painting?" [in Cixous', "Coming to Writing and other Essays."] Anfam has presented us with the triumphant Rothko.




2. This is the first publication with his entire collection of works on canvas. Even lost paintings are represented by old black and white photographs. The images are not large, but the quality of this book is wonderful. By far the best buy for any Rothko fan (besides an original...)



3. Anfam's study is a great deal more than a much-needed reference book. Anyone interested in the history of modern art would find this study illuminating and exciting. Not only does it provide the first complete catalogue of Rothko's paintings on canvas (almost all in gorgeous color reproduction), it also includes numerous fresh and original insights concerning Rothko's intellectual and artistic sources. A monumental scholarly achievement, this volume will long remain a model for the field.



4. David Anfam has given students of twentieth-century art the much needed and previously missing in-depth study of Mark Rothko, a key figure in understanding the esoteric art of this century. Lesser studies by lesser minds have failed where Anfam has not -- scholarly attention to detail; carefully informed visual analysis of ALL the works on canvas; subtle conclusions; historical context. Anfam's rasionne is a must read!



5. A work of major importance in the history of modernism, David Anfam's catalogue raisonne is brilliant, lively, entertaining, and handsome. Combining vigorous scholarship with creative imagination, it offers the best ever understanding of Rothko and must be considered a prerequisite to any and all encounters with Rothko. Anfam's eloquent text takes the reader through the paintings in a most delightful way while the paintings themselves are a joy to see thanks to what surely were monumental efforts on the part of all those involved with design and production. This book is the best of its kind in every way and a bargain at the price!

1 comments about Palestinian Art.

1. 
   This book is an excellent study of Palestinian art and its history. Art work of Ismail Shammout, Sliman Mansour, Kamal Boullata are extensively described with the relevant context to the times and loss of Palestine inhabitants.
   
   One comes across not only paintings but also other forms of expression - 'mud on wood'(page 84).
   
   One of the paintings 'Whereto?' on page 49 shows the effect of influence of 'absence of a character (part of defined standard of family)' by exclusion from the figure-ground of a painting but not from a higher space of our understanding. While paintings are assumed to be more real by blending into the atmosphere i.e extending onto the walls that they are placed. This one creates a great seperation. It is to such art that you get introduced to in this book.
   Mona Hatoum's work is described , most of which is daily home objects turned useless in a very prickly way, the source of it being her sense of alienation from home.
   The same themes are explored in works of Khalil Rabah and Asad Azi.

1 comments about Portraits and Figures in Watercolor (Artist's Painting Library).

1. I have several Charles Reid books, as I really like his style of painting. This is the first book of his I purchased and I was able to teach myself to paint figures and portraits with this book, although my style is not the same. Mr. Reid teaches you step by step with very clear illustrations how to paint and the colors to use to mix flesh tones. The lessons start out in black and white and then move to lessons in color. There are some very nice examples of his work also. There are 80 pages - not as long as some of his other books.

1 comments about Steps to Success in Watercolor: Learn Eight Valuable Principles for Planning Your Next Watercolor Painting (Artists Library).

1. I actually took a workshop from the author, and a lot of what she taught there is in the book. Her ideas are solid and very helpful, she teaches design and composition very well, her technique is great, her approach is practical, and her hints are very specific and easy to put to use. I also love the compact size -- you can throw it in your art bag as a ready reference and refer to it often. After I got mine i liked it so much I bought one for my dad and my sister as well. (Her other book, keeping a watercolor sketchbook, is also excellent.)