Reviews (2)

Dali is Different
Seventy-one illustrations, including 40 plates in full color, are inside this great book, taken from the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersberg, Florida. Dali, born in Figueres, Spain on May 11, 1904, is probably my favorite Surrealist painter.

What I enjoy the most are the color plates; however, a close second is the illuminating commentary by Mr. Wach of which he discusses the works' styles as well as the psychological content, both in succinct detail.

The book is broken up into six parts:*Preface and Acknowledgments, *Salvador Dali: An Introduction (including many pencil, ink and charcoal drawings as well as his life and influences,) *Colorplates (with commentary opposite pages,) *Biographical Chronology (full of seemingly day by day happenings of his life and works,) *Selected Bibliography and *Index.

For those considering purchasing this book, here are most of the color plates (*** stars are favorites of mine):
**View of Cadaques with Shadow of Mount Pani, ***Port of Cadaques (Night)["Contemporary witnesses recounted seeing the young Dali painting two canvases at once--one with his left hand and one with his right...one of the first hints at his later interest in double images and in stereoscopic vision." from the commentary. I love this haunting painting.] **Self-Portrait (Figueres,) **Still Life: Pulpo y Scorpa, **Still Life: Sandia ["...he was concerned with the more formal relationships of shapes that characterize the art of Cubism..."], **The Basket of Bread, **Femme Couchee, **Apparatus and Hand [...one of the most accomplished works of this period...this painting announces a fresh Mediterrean luminosity that was to stay with Dali, together with a more uninhibited repertoire of images and associations..."], **The Bather, **Beigneuses [sic], **Dit Gros, Platja, Luna i Ocell Podrit (Big Thumb, Beach, Moon, and Decaying Bird), **Ocell...Peix, [..."the painting's dark sky betrays its orgins in the Surrealist's experimental technique of grattage--a method of pictorial generation that relied upon the uncovered images formed by scratching back layers of ink or thin bitumen spread over preexisting work..."], **The First Day of Spring, **The Profanation of the Host, **The Average Bureaucrat, **Au Bord de la Mer, **Shades of Night Descending ["...drawn from childhood memories of the Playa Confitera, a beach known and loved for its candy-shaped pebbles..."), **Memory of the Child-Woman, ***Sugar Sphinx ["...The large expanse of sky creates a quietly contemplative effect that is unique and hints at the solemnity of the theme..."], ***Portrait of Gala [I wish I could include the entire commentary!], **Skull with Its Lyric Appendage Leaning of a Night Table Which Should Have the Exact Temperature of a Cardinal Bird's Nest [love this wacky title], **The Weaning of Furniture Nutrition, **Decalcomania, **Morphological Echo, ***Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in Their Arms the Skins of an Orchestra, **Tristan Fou, **Daddy Longlegs of the Evening--Hope!, **Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy (The Three Ages), **Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man, **Christ in Perspective, ***The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, ***Nature Morte Vivante (Still Life-Fast Moving), ***The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, *** The Ecumenical Council ["...The faith is mediated by the floating image of Gala as St. Helena,...The corss that she holds reflects the one in the hand of Christ, above her, who points upward to its spiritual significance..."] ***Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid [sic] (Homage to Crick and Watson)[say that fast three times! Heh.] and the final colorplate is from the book's cover, ***The Hallucinogenic Toreador.

I have enjoyed perusing over this fine book. Recommended for eye-opening insight into Dali. A few of my favorites paintings, "The Persistence of Memory," and just two or three others are missing. But for what you get here, its definitely 5 stars. A very well planned, and organized, fun to read volume. Bravo Wach!

Breton's definition of Surrealism (from _Manifesto of Surrealism_ in 1924:)
"Surrealism, noun, masculine. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express--verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner,--the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absensce of any control by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern. Encyclopedia, Philosophy: Surrealism is based upon the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin, once and for all, the other psychic mechanisms and to subtitle itself for them in solving all the principle problems of life."

Soar!

great masterpiece from a great artist
same as abov ... Read more

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An excellent overview of master works
Albrecht Durer was a Master artist in many forms and this book does justice to his work. It has excellent plates and detailed text, and is a worthy addition to any library, expecially one which concentrates on fine art books.

If you are not familiar with the works of Durer, this is an excellent introduction. His attention to detail is unsurpassed in an artist of his time. If you are already an admirer, the text will give you some insights into his life and times that you had not before been aware of. It is a good quality book and well worth the purchase.

Great source book
This is a wonderful source book for all of Durer's graphic work and should be in every one's library interested in master prints. ... Read more

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Excellent primer on the life of a unique genius.
This small, well-organized, and beautifully illustrated book is an unexpectedly thorough and complete reference on the life of Leonardo da Vinci, from his birth in Italy to his death in France.
Chronologically organized and succinctly written, but without being a mere biography, this book presents a well-researched portrait of one of the greatest geniuses of the Renaissance. Often citing historical sources and quoting entries from the artist's own notebooks, the author presents an insightful account of Leonardo's views, research and achievements in both art and science, as well as many firmly accepted anecdotes and little-known facts about his character and personal life.
For those interested in a deeper treatment of the subject, the choice bibliographic reference titled Further Reading, located at the back of the book, will be of particular value.

Compact, comprehensive, with great pictures
I really enjoyed this very good entry-level treatise on L.d.V. In my opinion the emphasis is correctly placed and pictures of great quality (although some are small in size) help the reader grasp the essence of Leonardo's spirit and become familiar with the best-known parts of his work. ... Read more

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Marcel Duchamp interviewed late in life.
This interview with Marcel Duchamp by Pierre Cabanne provides clarity to the myth that surrounds Duchamp and his non art. Duchamp gave the interview about 2 years before his death. He answers directly and in context the meaning of his work and non work. Others books attempt to tell us not only what his production means but try to tell us what his words mean as well. This books makes clear that Duchamp did not like the art world (although he used it to his advantage), he did not like art that appealed to the eye, he did not make art, he amused himself making objects and he played games. Its an honest interview and needs no interpreters. You can understand the valve of this mans ideas and what they mean to current conceptual art. Or is it conceptual non art. ... Read more

Book Description

The Cambridge Companion to Delacroix serves as an introduction to one of the most important and most complex artists of the nineteenth century.Providing an overview of his life and career, this volume offers essays by leading authorities on the artist's pictorial practice, the stylistic range over classicism and Romanticism, his writings, both private diary notations and published articles, and his impact on modern aesthetics, among other topics. Designed to serve as an essential resource for students of French nineteenth-century art history, cultural history, and literature, The Cambridge Companion to Delacroix also provides a chronology of the artist's life, set into its political and cultural contexts, as well as a list of suggested further reading in the topic areas. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1933, Walker Evans traveled to Cuba to take photographs for The Crime of Cuba, a book by the American journalist Carleton Beals. Beals's explicit goal was to expose the corruption of Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado and the long, torturous relationship between the United States and its island neighbor. The photographs Evans made during his visit to Cuba are fascinating for both their subject matter and the evidence they provide of the young photographer's artistic development. Walker Evans: Cuba brings together more than sixty of these images—all from the Getty Museum's extensive holdings of the photographer’s work—along with an essay by the noted writer and commentator Andrei Codrescu.

Codrescu's spirited text helps to provide a sense of the aesthetic and political forces that were shaping Evans's art in the early 1930s. He argues that Evans's photographs are the work of a young artist whose temperament was distinctly at odds with Beals's impassioned rhetoric. Looking closely at individual photographs, Codrescu shows that Evans was just beginning to combine his early, formalist aesthetic with the social concerns that would figure so prominently in his later work. Evans's images and Codrescu's lively, insightful essay provide a compelling study of a major artist at an important juncture in his career. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

to unravel Cuba
. I first took a look at the photographs in the book and I guess made a few assumptions about the pictures. Then, I actually took the time to really read the whole thing, then my previous opinions changed. See when a person first looks at photograph they don't see everything. After reading the text I really enjoyed what was said about each photograph. The descriptions took the photographs into a different setting and it broadened my view on matters.
It was interesting how Carlton Beals, the radical journalist would have described some of the photographs. I was surprised how negative Beals wanted everything to be. Evans just allows the audience to have an open mind when viewing his photos, not like Beals who wants to tell you the way he wants things to be. Regardless, people will have their own opinions about certain photos, but that is what makes photography so interesting. The text is not very long, but it goes a long way in giving insight to the status of Cuba in 1933. After reading and looking at this book I have a better understanding of how Walker Evans works his magic. This is a great book to own!!

THEY DIDN'T SMILE AS MUCH BEFORE CASTRO!
Everybody knows the stereotype all too well of the joyous Cubans, with their 8-day Carnavals, incredible music and high culture. As someone who visits the island frequently (my wife lives there) the happiness of the people is so uplifting. The suicide rate is so much lower there. The murder rate is way below that of the US. It is a cocaine-free society because of all of the anti-cocaine canine patrols in the major cities. It's really a revelation being there. No drugs, no homelessness (the right to shelter is guaranteed under the Cuban constitution), a LOWER infant mortality rate than the United States, more doctors per capita than Canada, Sweden, and the US, a 97 per cent literacy rate.

This book however is a REAL eye-opener. I have only experienced Cuba after President Castro took office. I have only seen his good work in a country where EVERY schoolhouse now contains at least one Pentium III computer or better (don't you wish you could say the same about the USA?).

The fotos inside this book are unbelievable. Absolute abject shoeless, starvation poverty, photos taken from a pre-Castro Cuba. Looks like modern day Haiti, a country which has subjected to US policies from Papa Doc, to Baby Doc, to Aristide, all handpicked by the CIA and look what a mess that country is.

These fotos and the commentary inside are a revelation. If you EVER wondered why the people revolted and continue to adore President Castro, buy this book! These fotos don't lie. There is NO ONE living like this in present-day Cuba....

Incredible images from pre-revolutionary Cuba
Walker Evans was one of the greatest social realists and here he displays the same eye for understated emotion and quiet resistance that he showed in his famous WPA photographs in the American South. If you're familiar with the work of the visionary Brazilian Sebastião Salgado, Evans shows an earlier, perhaps gentler aspect of that vision of Latin America's poor.

The idea that photographing the poor in pre-revolutionary Cuba is "shameful" is in itself shameful. Did you want pictures of gangsters in nightclubs living the high life?

Shameful
I bought this book as a present for my grandparents who are native Cubans. Cuba is a beautiful country with some of the most amazing art, food, music, people, and architecture. This book shows nothing of that Cuba. If you want to see photographs of people living in poverty, than this book is for you. If you want to see the real Cuba, look elsewhere. The photography itself is decent, but the subject matter is just shameful.

Great black and white photos of Cuba in 30s
These black and white photos by the famous documentary photographer, Walker Evans, shows what life in Cuba was like before WWII. He captures everyday life in all of its majesty, his subjects ranging from the downtrodden to the affluent. This is a remarkable book of great interest to students of pre-1959 Cuba. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In both his art and his life, Salvador Dalí always courted controversy. Undoubtedly one of the most technically gifted of all the surrealist painters, Dalí was condemned for both his increasingly commercial output from the 1930s onward and his politically naive support for the Franco regime. More recently, Dalí's life and work have undergone something of a reassessment, nowhere more so than in Ian Gibson's magnificent biography The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí. Coming hard on the heels of that work, this book, edited by Haim Finkelstein, adds yet another fascinating dimension to our understanding of this charismatic yet often repulsive enigma of Spanish painting.

Finkelstein's collection is the first comprehensive English translation of Dalí's writing from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. As he points out in his introduction, writing was in fact a vital dimension of Dalí's artistic identity, which is reflected in some truly weird, wonderful, and poetic essays from the 1920s on photography, jazz, and film, including the original shooting script of Un Chien Andalou. What comes across in these early writings is Dalí's enthusiasm for a popular culture that many presumed he regarded with contempt. However, Dalí's intellectual petulance and arrogance are never far away in this collection, and despite the interest of his flirtation with Freud in his "paranoiac-critical writings," the collection soon finds Dalí on all-too-familiar ground: posturing, conservative, and intellectually superficial. Although the writings shed little further light on why Dalí became such a cynical conservative in later life and art, it is interesting to watch how the loss of intellectual curiosity in his prose is reflected in the loss of artistic innovation in his paintings. The Collected Writings of Salvador Dalí is a fascinating book, a major event, and required reading for Dalí aficionados--and anyone intrigued by one of the flawed geniuses of 20th-century painting. --Jerry Brotton ... Read more

Reviews (1)

inside Dali
The Collected Writings of Salvador Dali provides an inside view of a surrrealist painter. It includes poetry, philosophy, some pictures and explanations of the progress of Dali. Dali's philosophies are very left feild from the norm. ... Read more

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in all: Old Testament, St. Jerome, Passion, Life of Virgin, Apocalypse, many others. Introduction by Campbell Dodgson. "...it was in woodcut design that the creative genius of Dürer reached its highest expression...The only available source for many of these works."—Antique Monthly.
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Spectacular talent
Albrecht Durer was one of the most talented artists the world has ever seen, and his woodcuts, especially those of apocolyptic visions are spectacular. This book reproduces these woodcuts faithfully, and the images are not diminished by the format of the book as is often the case.

These images are the stuff of nightmares - hell, torment, torture and death, and yet the images are so startlingly realistic as to be almost poignant in their representations. Enjoyt the images for what they are - works of genius. In addition the commentary is worthwhile, with interesting observations of Durer's life and techniques.

A valuable addition to an art lover's library, but also a fascinating book for anyone who is interested in genius.

timeless evil
The woodcuts in this book leap out at you with a ferocious and violent intent. I've seen the originals and the reproduction job here is nothing short of superb. It's hard to believe that such visions of the apocolypse come from Germany in the early part of the millenium. You can't miss this book! The engraving book is also way kool. ... Read more

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Excellent
Excellent printing, great selection of works with close-ups of most. I use mine as a painting reference when I can't get to the Met. If you are a painter and like Sargent or Valasquez, then you should own this book.

FOR ART HISTORIANS AND AFICIONADOS
His dramatic use of light - often placing the source of illumination within the picture - enchants, conveying a sense of serenity, calm.

The works of La Tour, apotheoses of seventeenth century French classicism, are unified in remarkable composition by warm, rich colors and placement of light. His body of paintings, rendered with brilliant luminosity, are unforgettable. So is this magnificent monograph by College de France professor and specialist in seventeenth century art, Jacques Thuillier.

A lushly beautiful volume, Georges De La Tour, holds over 300 stunning illustrations and a comprehensive catalogue of works. Both art historians and aficionados will delight in the flawlessly reproduced full-color double-page illustrations that remind one of the artist's deft touch and draftsman's skill.

A tribute to La Tour is long overdue, but worth the wait when the end reward is this work of impeccable scholarship and illustration. ... Read more

Book Description

Surrealist artist Max Ernst defined collage as the "alchemy of the visual image." Students of his work have often dismissed this comment as simply a metaphor for the transformative power of using found images in a new context. Taking a wholly different perspective on Ernst and alchemy, however, M. E. Warlick persuasively demonstrates that the artist had a profound and abiding interest in alchemical philosophy and often used alchemical symbolism in works created throughout his career.A revival of interest in alchemy swept the artistic, psychoanalytic, historical, and scientific circles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Warlick sets Ernst's work squarely within this movement. Looking at both his art (many of the works she discusses are reproduced in the book) and his writings, she reveals how thoroughly alchemical philosophy and symbolism pervade his early Dadaist experiments, his foundational work in surrealism, and his many collages and paintings of women and landscapes, whose images exemplify the alchemical fusing of opposites. This pioneering research adds an essential key to understanding the multilayered complexity of Ernst's works, as it affirms his standing as one of Germany's most significant artists of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Book Description

This expanded edition of the fall 1994 special issue of October includes new essays by Sarat Maharaj and by Molly Nesbit and Naomi Sawelson-Gorse. It also includes the transcript of an exchange between T. J. Clark and Benjamin Buchloh which presents new responses to the problems raised by this immediately popular (and now out of print) issue of the journal.

The Duchamp Effect is an investigation of the historical reception of the work of Marcel Duchamp from the 1950s to the present, including interviews by Benjamin Buchloh (with Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Robert Morris), Elizabeth Armstrong (with Ed Ruscha and Bruce Conner), and Martha Buskirk (with Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, and Fred Wilson) and a round-table discussion of the Duchamp effect on conceptual art.

Contents

IntroductionBenjamin H. D. Buchloh
What's Neo about the Neo-Avant-Garde?Hal Foster
Typotranslating the Green BoxSarat Maharaj
Three Conversations in 1985: Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Robert MorrisBenjamin H. D. Buchloh
Interviews with Ed Ruscha and Bruce ConnerElizabeth Armstrong
Echoes of the Readymade: Critique of Pure ModernismThierry de Duve
Concept of Nothing: New Notes by Marcel Duchamp and Walter ArensbergMolly Nesbit and Naomi Sawelson-Gorse
Interviews with Sherrie Levine, Louis Lawler, and Fred WilsonMartha Buskirk
Thoroughly Modern Marcel , Martha Buskirk
Conceptual Art and the Reception of DuchampOctober Round Table
All the Things I Said about Duchamp: A Response to Benjamin BuchlohT. J. Clark
Response to T. J. ClarkBenjamin Buchloh ... Read more

Book Description

The enigmatic paintings of Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), with their dreamlike imagery of deserted city squares filled with mysterious shadows, stopped clocks, and sleeping statues, had a profound influence on modern art. A key to understandingde Chirico's œuvre is an early series of eight paintings of the mythical Greek princess Ariadne. This theme, to which de Chirico returned again and again throughout his life, exhibits a serial approach to making art that foreshadows the work of Andy Warhol. Some 180 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and documentary photographs, as well as essays considering the literary, artistic, historical, and philosophical meanings of this series of paintings, including an unpublished text by Max Ernst, constitute an unparalleled range of primary research materials, and provide the best overall account of de Chirico's career. ... Read more

Book Description

Jim Dine is a consummate draftsman whose images of tools, large-scale nudes, self-portraits, and studies from nature and after antiquity are among the most accomplished and beautiful drawings of our time. This exhibition, the first major survey of Dine's drawings in 15 years, will feature over 100 of the finest examples from the 1970s to the present. During the 1960s, Dine's name was inextricably linked with Pop art. But he made a dramatic shift during the 1970s, devoting himself to drawing from life. Drawings of Jim Dine examines the artist's accomplishment by focusing not only on works on paper but also on drawings in a purer sense: ones that largely incorporate line and rely heavily on materials such as pencil, chalk, and charcoal. Although many examples in the exhibition deviate from this standard, the emphasis is on works that demonstrate the artist's skills as a draftsman and underscore his traditional underpinnings, even as he breaks new ground. Today, drawing remains at the core of Dine’s range of expression. Through a restricted assortment of obsessive images, which continue to be reinvented in various guises--birds, Pinocchio, and others--Dine presents compelling stand-ins for himself and mysterious metaphors for his art.Since the last major survey of Dine’s drawings, the medium has served as an indispensable component of his creative endeavor, in many ways representing the essence of his artistic achievement. Jim Dine:Drawing is not an exercise. Exercise is sitting on a stationary bicycle and going nowhere. Drawing is being on a bicycle and taking a journey. I knew drawing was essential to me.It kept alive the need I have for a family.It gave me a line of tradition that led me back to artists I admired, not just Rembrandt and Picasso, Matisse and Degas, but others who are dismissed but who gave their lives to drawing. I am not erasing because I couldn’t get the object accurately, but because I am hoping for grace to come to me. I don’t think hard work makes a good drawing.... If I erase, it’s because I didn’t get what I wanted the first time, and if I don’t get it by the 20th time let’s say, and the paper is halfway gone, then I start to patch the paper.... The quest is to keep the thing alive—the drawing and the state of grace. Edited and with an Essay by Judith Brodie. Clothbound, 11.75 x 12.25 in. / 192 pgs / 125 color and 5 b&w. ... Read more

Book Description

plates show devel- opment from youth to full style. Many favorites; many new. Introduction by Al- fred Werner. "The fascination of the drawings is inexhaustible; the skill in- credible; the upshot—delight."—BOSTON GLOBE.
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Reviews (1)

Enspired by the Art of Albrecht Durer
When I was in high school I found myself doodeling alot. Getting into trouble from being side tracked with school work. I went to the school library and was looking at books of art and found a specific book by Albrecht Durer. I have looked through many books of art but none has ever caught my attention like this one. No other book has been of interest since. I checked out the book several times to learn his art and it inspired me to take my doodeling to the next level. I have never forgot his name or his art and I never will. I rate this book a 5 star, the best inspiring book, a book that sent me on my way to art. ... Read more

Book Description

Former Life photographer records the blizzard of ‘47, the Louis-Walcott fight at Madison Square Garden, the "dimouts" of WW II, the burned-out hulk of the Normandie, etc. 162 photographs. Introduction and captions.
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NY in the 40s
Compared to Dover's Old New York in Early Photographs you really see how NY has changed. The photos are starting to get very familiar. Maybe you even ask yourself, as an Italian, living in a medievil town, why did they knock down those beautiful late 19th century buildings for sky scrappers. The photo of of "fisherman on Sheepshead Bay" offers us the only sense of tranquility. Scary. ... Read more

Book Description

German text and instructions, explaining how to assemble the multi-dimensional, colorful, fold-up cutout forms using M. C. Escher designs. Book measures 12x9" (30x22.5cm), 40 pages, and has a maize-yellow cover with pictures of 8 of the models described in the book. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Excellent Tessalated Kaleidocycles
Now this book has intricated patterns and complicated designs. It took me a long time to develop one. Once I got the hang of it I thought students how to do them and they really enjoyed.If you are into art this is a great book for projects and designs

Excellent for Artist and Mathematicians
This book is great for teachers in art as well as math. The book comes with full detailed explanations as well as separate sheets to make copies. There are many different designs to choose from. Excellent source of reference.

Do the Aftermath
The basic ideas in this book have been an inspiration to me for years. I had just enough background in engineering and drafting to realize that I could duplicate the basic patterns here to create my own little twisty things whenever I want to produce an amazing surprise. With color photocopying on cardstock, and by laminating photographic paper which was too flimsy to work with, it has been possible for me to create hundreds of these converging convolutions of my own design within the last six years.

In the edition I have, a design called "Heaven and Hell" is discussed on page 44. The basics are pretty obvious, like "wingtips of angels and devils are joined to form the outline of right triangles contained in a square." Overall, what is illustrated is that "Interlocking motifs depicting opposites" can be used to emphasize "the inability to recognize one without the other."This kind of playing with opposite valuations makes the most sense in a context like jokes,! where only people who dare to get in trouble would try anything which might be considered too personal.I was younger when I thought that these things might be a lot of fun, and I have given away most of the items that I was able to produce from the book, while I still have a vast quantity of the ones which I designed myself.The main reason I know better now (the ones in the book are not as intrusive) is because my own personal applications have often encountered morality on a level that is frightening to particular individuals.I should refrain from offering any samples of how a Pop Up Poem Book could make some aspect of a person (or worse, a line someone said which would be perfect in a poem) into poetry in motion, but such a person might become too self-conscious to continue to be subject to such scrutiny. It happens.As with my reviews, my own designs try to reflect some aspect of myself, as when they contain some kind of surprise, and I've started calling them nuker!plunkers instead of convolutions, so people have the opportunity to use their imaginations in considering what I might be giving them when I tell them, "Have a nukerplunker."

This marvelous book will keep you engrossed!
Escher's cunningly planned magic in geometric expression is fully explained and clarified in this mesmerising book. It is a must for the skilled mathmetician or graphic designer. This book includes seventeenfull-color models that begin as two-dimensional designs and fold into threedimensional kaleidocycle forms. ... Read more

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Living in the Shadow of Henri Cartier-Bresson
Robert Doisneau is probably best known for his photo of a couple kissing-on-the-fly on a Paris street. Another of his greeting card images is of a line of boys, back to the camera, peeing at urinals, with a white dove on the head of one of the boys.

Doisneau was one of the very best "street photographers" ever, who documented Paris life from the 1940s to the 1970s in classic black-and-white. His ability to capture candid moments was first rate. His photos maintained a whimsical mood, for the most part, which probably kept him from being as famous as his contemporary Henri Cartier-Bresson. Personally, I think he was better than Cartier-Bresson, in terms of timing, composition, and consistency. But Cartier-Bresson emphasised subjects with more gravity, so his pictures get the nod of history, and deservatively so. (See Cartier-Bresson's monumental retrospective "The Man, The Image, & the World" -- Thames & Hudson 2003) But Doisneau documented the ordinary, with a sense of gentle irony, so his imagery gets relegated to greeting cards.

As a portrait of Paris, as a representation of Doiseau's work, and as a lesson in photographic timing and composition, this book is better than you could ask for. The opening essay by Brigitte Ollier is overly emotional (overly French?), though informative. The pictures, however, speak for themselves, and I'd bet Ollier would be the first to say so.

The price of this book is a bargain, with 665 pages of some of the best photographs by a photographer who deserves more than greeting card consideration. Truth be told (and as a HUGE fan of Cartier-Bresson), I didn't know how absolutely incredible Doisneau was until I got this book. So you should get it, too. ... Read more

Book Description

Walker Evans (1903-1975) ranks with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Paul Strand as one of America's greatest photographers. When originally published in 1994, Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye was the first book to survey every significant aspect of the artist's oeuvre. This reduced-format version, identical in content to the previous volume, includes 300 beautiful duotone photographs.

Evans was largely self-educated and began photographing regularly in 1927, using a small hand-held camera. He specialized in the life of the street-carefully observed views of American architecture, the roadside, and the people who lived in the nation's cities, towns, and villages. Beginning with Evans's early abstractions, continuing through his three-year involvement with the Farm Security Administration and his breakthrough exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and concluding with the artist's experimentation with color late in his life, Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye remains the most complete and authoritative view of this American photographic master. AUTHOR BIO: Gilles Mora has been editor-in-chief of Cahiers de la Photographie since 1981. He has written essays for two collections of Walker Evans material. John T. Hill, a friend and colleague of Evans and the executor of his estate, has coedited three book collections of the photographer's work. ... Read more