Book Description

Reading Rembrandt explores the potential for interdisciplinary methodology between literature and visual art. In a series of close analyses of works by Rembrandt - works whose attribution is still challenged, but can still be considered within the context of this study - and texts related to those works, Mieke Bal questions the traditional boundaries between literary and visual analysis. Bal also studies Rembrandt's complex handling of gender and the representation of women in Rembrandt's painting. Although Reading Rembrandt's methods originate outside the history of art, the book demonstrates nonetheless the author's sensitivity to the visual aspect of Rembrandt's work. The works by Rembrandt gain in depth and interest, but an original perspective of the role of visuality in our culture emerges, which ultimately has consequences for our views of gender, the artist, and the act of reading. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

What's a genius anyway?
John Berger is a critic with a real sense of decency: never too high-falutin, smart and responsible. He asks us to see beautiful objects, not in their staid isolation in the museum setting, but in the context of social history. It is obvious that Picasso was a genius. He saw and drew things that evoke wonders and passions. But is that all?

The central essay here is "The Moment of Cubism." Berger paints a general portrait of a distinct era of possibility: artistic and social and political. The explosion of Cubism is but a moment in a larger moment of real revolution. Not just "ways of seeing" but ways of living, thinking, hoping. Berger reminds us that Picasso needed the times (Europe), he also, more specifically needed friends and support. After all, there were two who brought forth cubism; moreover, there were the likes of Cezanne.

Berger asks the question that is overlooked in the constant reverence of Picasso's potency (echoing Benjamin Buchloh on the "ciphers of regression"): was Picasso genius throughout his career or was that moment (historical and aesthetic) the real genius?

(For more on Berger, read his two inspired novels: "G." and "To the Wedding.") ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very abstract
This book contains many ink drawings by picasso. The drawings are not very detailed and very abstract. They mostly show a model standing in front of picasso while he is drawing. Very little detail is present. If you like picasso's abstract work and want to see more, this book is ok. Not great, but ok. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Rubens for amateurs!
...This small book is a treasure for those who are just going into the Art world and Rubens...it is a piece of a collection worth having...it gives you a little about the artist...and his most important paintings...I started my collection a year ago, and can tell you for the price there is not a better buy! ... Read more

Book Description

Well known for his sketches, paintings, and sculptures of the Old West, Charles M. Russell (1864–1926) was also an accomplished author in the humorous genre known as "local color." Raphael Cristy sorts Russell’s writings into four general categories: serious Indian stories, men encountering wildlife, cattle range characters, and nineteenth-century westerners facing twentieth-century challenges.

Russell’s art is often misinterpreted as mere longing for a fading open-range west, but his writings tell a different story. Cristy shows how Russell amused his peers with stories that also delivered sharp observations of Euro-American suppression of Indians and humorous treatment of wilderness and range issues plus the emergence of women and urbanization as bewildering agents of change in the modern West. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

BEST Book on Rauschenberg, Johns, et al.
Incredibly informative. Thomkins provides excrutiating detail in the most interesting way. Never a dull moment. If you have any interest in Rauschenberg, Johns, Happenings, etc., then you should read this book. There is no way that you will walk away without learning MANY new things.

A fascinating insider's view of the New York art world
Lucky, lucky, lucky. That's how I felt after a friend lent me a copy of this out-of-print book. Here was a first hand chronicle of the New York art scene from the 50s to the 70s. Although Rauschenberg was the main artist featured, interesting vignettes about other artists were included, from Jasper Johns to Marcel Duchamp, from De Kooning to Andy Warhol. Did you know that it was Rauschenberg who influenced Jasper Johns to quit his bookstore job and go full-time into art? Rauschenberg's career is fascinating itself. Read and enjoy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Pictures tell much less than a thousand words...
The price is great on this book but don't expect anything more than the title says. There are 61 black and white pictures of picasso lithographs with VERY LITTLE information on each piece. I thought that this book was going to concentrate on one specific run of lithographs but it is just a hodge podge or pics. ... Read more

Book Description

Scrutinizing his own features time and time again, Rembrandt left an extensive pictorial autobiography-his surviving self-portraits include 45 oil paintings, scores of drawings, and over 30 etchings. This absorbing book explores how Rembrandt`s self-portraits developed over his life span, why the genre was so important in his work, and how his innovative style influenced his contemporaries. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The Master
It's about time that I found a (good) book on this subject. Rembrandts self-portraits (I feel) are of his most important work. The quality of the prints are wonderful...unlike 90% of the art related books floating around. The color reproduction is more accurate than most. This is a must have for any fan of Rembrandt...or for any true lover of painting.

Wonderful book on the self portraits of the master.
This book is facinating. It includes three good and fairly dry essays on the topic of Rembrandt's self portraits. More interesting are the prints of all the works that are considered his self portraits, and the detailed commentary on these works. The prints are very good and quite useful for the lover of Rembrandt. ... Read more

Book Description

French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) enjoyed life to a degree seemingly denied most artists, and this joie de vivre is reflected in the lighthearted, sensual, and luminous elements of his work. Full-color reproductions and thorough text provide a quick yet solid introduction to this master. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Joy For Any Home!
WOW! What a collection in this book!

For any Renoir lover, student, artist, teacher or simply someone who wants to see a fantastic collection by one artist in one book.

Unsurpassed as a coffee-table conversation piece.

"A Dream of Harmony"! ... Read more

Book Description

Two important collections of Rubens’ oil sketches and drawings are brought together in this revealing look at the artist’s inspiration, technique, and place in history.

The Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens created a breathtaking body of work, which included many altarpieces, murals, and triptychs commissioned by wealthy patrons. The sketches and paintings Rubens created as foundations for these works reveal much about the artist’s working practices. This volume reproduces more than seventy works from the celebrated collections at The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and London’s Courtauld Institute Gallery. It allows readers to follow the development of such masterpieces as The Descent from the Cross, The Medici Cycle, and the Ceiling of the Banqueting House in Whitehall.

Four major essays and several accompanying texts written by experts in Flemish painting discuss the significance of preparatory studies against the backdrop of Early Modern Europe, trace the fascinating history of one such collection, capture the artist at a particularly fertile period of his career, and focus on the ceiling of The Banqueting House. A treat for Rubens scholars and fans of Baroque art, this book is an important contribution to the study of the man often referred to as "the God of painters." ... Read more

Book Description

Rembrandt's intriguing painting technique has stirred the imagination of art lovers during his lifetime and ever since. In this book, Rembrandt's pictorial intentions and the variety of materials and techniques he applied to create his fascinating effects are unraveled in depth. At the same time, this "archaeology"of Rembrandt's paintings yields information on many other levels.

In art-historical research, the work of art as a material object is used increasingly as an important source of information about the painting itself, as well as about historic studio practice in general. The range from practical workshop devices to aesthetic and art-theoretical matters combined in this book offers a view of Rembrandt's daily practice and artistic considerations, while simultaneously providing a more three-dimensional image of the historical artist. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Everyone can be Rembrandt... NOT.
OK, so I read it all. Yep, everything in it, every inch of it. This includes in-depth discussions on materials, choices of colors, choices of canvases, panels, brushworks, techniques, history... of this genius painter. I also gobbled up scientific results on samples taken from his paintings, using such cutting-edge technologies as mass spectrometry (MS), x-ray analysis, and so on and so forth. Hurrah! All secrets revealed! I even read "between the lines" and "looking into" layers of colors in each painting with the hope of educating myself further how to think like Rembrandt, see like Rembrandt, and paint like Rembrandt. After all, I am on a mission here. You probably get the idea by now of how great this book is. Otherwise, I would have not bothered. Yep, you can count on it, it is GREAT! But... Yeah, without the 'but', then perhaps thing is just perfect, hence surreal. Some presumption in scientific testing seems to leave me a little "bitter aftertaste". Well, I said too much. It is time for me to stop and for you to read the book to find out for yourself.

The best monograph on Rembrandt ever printed
Rembrandt is perhaps the greatest painter in the history of the western cannon and this is the finest book on his work ever printed. The abundance of detailed enlargements -which really make an art book great and which are all too often lacking- are the next best thing to being in front of the paintings. They show Rembrandt for the enormous genius he was, both synthesizing the techniques that came before him as well as creating methods of application which to this day remain an enigma and elusive mystery. Rembrandt, a great draughtsman and technician, was also an outrageous innovator. The details in this book show sections of paintings that would make any abstracts expressionist's head spin. The scholarship of the text, clearly a lobour of love and lifetime devotion, are as worthy as scholarsip can be of art this magnificent.

What a lovely book.
This book has incredible prints and very good information on Rembrandt's painting technique. It is a wonderful book for anyone interested in how Rembrandt painted.

authentication
i have a painting of rembrandt and i want some one to email me back so i can contact some one to authenticate it contact. the painting is 1653 my email address is chivalry@bellsouth.net

Clear, detailed look into the painting methods of Rembrandt
Clear, open-minded, intelligent, detailed, and written with expert knowledge and love of the subject. Figures are high quality, very relevant, and informative.

Wetering writes as a scientist with an artist's eye.

Fascinating discussions of Rembrandt's use of underpainting and subsequent background to foreground painting method, the ingredients of his painting medium (no resin!), the effect of yellowing in the protective varnish layer, and other fundamental aspects of Rembrandt's art.

Read for the latest scientific insight's into Rembrandt's working methods and for greater appreciation of Rembrandt's abilities and works. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Paris dada manifesto of 1921 "Dada Overthrows Everything" posed a dare to posterity: "What does Dada do? 50 francs reward for anyone who finds the way to explain us." Cultural historian Herbert Lottman finds a great way to explain dada: by focusing on its court photographer, Man Ray. Man Ray's Montparnasse brings you into the salons of Peggy Guggenheim and Gertrude Stein, and gives context to his dazzling photos: his naked mistress Kiki impersonating a violin; Duchamp impersonating a woman named Rrose Selavy (pronounced "c'est la vie"); Picasso as a toreador; and Proust on his deathbed, asleep at last, seemingly at peace and in some sort of reverie.

If one man's life could sum up the explosively creative international arts enclave Montparnasse in Paris between the wars, doubtless it would be Man Ray. Who else crossed paths with Hemingway, Mayakovski, Calder, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Atget, Satie, Cocteau, the battling bohemians André Breton and Tristan Tzara, and Arno Breker, who wound up as Hitler's favorite sculptor? It was a tumultuously innovative time. The antiwar Swiss loathed the elitist French dadaists; dadaists quarreled with surrealists. Breton broke a writer's arm with his cane because he badmouthed Picasso, Duchamp, and Gide. When Malcolm Cowley punched out a reactionary restaurateur, it was a great career move--his fame spurred his nascent literary career. Apollinaire warned young dada friends against Cocteau ("Don't trust Cocteau! He's a cheat and a chameleon!"), because he was a darling of high society. Eluard said the surrealists would "shoot him down like a stinking animal."

What made Man Ray an instant insider was his skill with the camera and his refusal to join the culture wars. "My neutral position was invaluable to all," he said. "I became an official recorder of events and personalities." "He was like the kid on the block with the guitar invited to everyone's party," writes Lottman. "He lived a double life, dressing for dinner in society, then reassuming a bohemian posture for life among the writers and painters."

Lottman's book is delightful, a quick read that makes legendary names in the history of art come alive as wildly misbehaving young people. When Henry Miller would drunkenly harangue a café, he earned a catcall: "Why don't you write a book?" Reading Lottman, you get a vivid sense of how the overlapping lives in that astounding time and place erupted in art. It's a privilege to be invited to such a historic party. --Victoria Ellison ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Don't do Paris without it! A great book on Paris history
It was merely coincidence that one day after returning from Paris (I always stay in a small hotel on rue Delambre in Montparnasse) I was in a bookstore in Colorado and picked this up just for the title.

Little did I know it would explode with stories and much interesting history and anecdotes about the photographer Man Ray and all his notorious friends & lovers in the pre WWII era of Montparnasse when Dada and Surrealism were taking hold. As I had spent so many hours wandering the same streets and sitting in the same cafes it really grabbed me and was a very interesting read.

In short, if you: (any or all of the below)-

Love Paris; plan to go there; have interest in the "lost generation/cafe society" era of Paris and particularly Montparnasse (one of my favorite areas in Paris);

then you are crazy if you don't buy this book. I am taking it with me for reference on my Montparnasse cafe crawls when I return next year.
Highly recommended.

Fascinating View of Montparnasse
Although I cannot attest to the scholarly quality of "Man Ray's Montparnasse", I believe that Lottman provides insight into this Parisian art district.

The reader learns about the different bars/clubs that were important. He learns who met where; the locations of various artist studios; and the general feel of the era. The dissent in the da da movement and the surrealist movement was significant.

Man Ray's neutral role in all of this is interesting. Lottman makes it appear that obtaining portrait sitters was one of Ray's primary goals. That along with women and his cars.

I enjoyed the book and believe that there is much to be learned from it. Caveat: If there are historicals errors as the other reviewer mentions, then it is difficult to know what you can and cannot believe.

Shallow Scholarship
Man Ray's experience in Paris is a fascinating and complex subject, certainly worthy of a book unto itself. Unfortunately the author of this book seems content to present his readers with out-of-date information. I do not pretend to be an expert on Man Ray. But I have researched extensively the life and photography of Berenice Abbott, whose own career and reputation is remarkably tangled up with Man Ray's. In Paris she worked for him as his darkroom assistant, shared his fascination for Eugene Atget's photographs, was fired by Man Ray (when Peggy Guggenheim called him on the telephone and requested a portrait sitting with her instead of him) and, until she moved back to the States in early 1929, competed with him for fashionable Paris portrait sitters. What I discovered in reading "Man Ray's Montparnasse" is that Lottman has not dug very deep into recently published scholarship, and thus perpetuates certain inaccuracies. For example, Lottman writes that Julien Levy, a mutual friend of Man Ray and Abbott, loaned Abbott money to purchase the Atget's archive in 1927, shortly after Atget's death. In fact, Levy did not invest in the Atget archive until 1930, three years later. Perhaps this seems like a minor detail, but for me it raises questions about the accuracy of the entire project. Moreover, other recent scholars have gotten this detail right, including Bonnie Yochelson in her 1997 book on Abbott, "Berenice Abbott: Changing New York: The Complete WPA Project" and Ingrid Schaffner in "Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery" (1998). For those interested in a more scholarly treatment of Man Ray's life and work, I highly recommend Neil Baldwin's 1988 "Man Ray: American Artist." For those fascinated by Paris in the early 20th century, I suggest Billy Kluver and Julie Martin's richly illustrated "Kiki's Paris: Artists and Lovers 1900-1930." ... Read more

Book Description

The late Albert Elsen was the first American scholar to study seriously the work of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, and the person most responsible for a revival of interest in the artist as a modern innovator--after years during which the sculpture had been dismissed as so much Victorian bathos.After a fortuitous meeting with the financier, philanthropist, and art collector B. Gerald Cantor, Elsen helped Cantor to build up a major collection of Rodin's work.A large part of this collection, consisting of more than 200 pieces, was donated to the Stanford Museum by Mr. Cantor, who died recently.In size it is surpassed only the by the Musee Rodin in Paris and rivaled only by the collection in Philadelphia.In scope the collection is unique in having been carefully selected to present a balanced view of Rodin's work throughout his life. Rodin's Art encompasses a lifetime's thoughts on Rodin's career, surveying the artist's accomplishments through the detailed discussion of each object in the collection. It will begin with essays on the formation of the collection, the reception of Rodin's work, and his casting techniques. The entries that follow are arranged topically and include extensive discussions of Rodin's major projects. ... Read more

Book Description