Book Description

Robert Rauschenberg is one of the most important visual artists of the second half of the twentieth century. In Random Order, Branden Joseph examines Rauschenberg's work in the context of the American neo-avant-garde. One of the foundations of his study is Rauschenberg's professional relationship with experimental composer John Cage. From the moment of their encounter at Black Mountain College in 1952, Joseph argues, Rauschenberg and Cage initiated a new avant-garde project, one that approached the idea of difference not in terms of negation but as a positive force. Claiming that Rauschenberg's work cannot be understood solely from the standpoint of the Frankfurt School--whose theories have dominated discussions of avant-garde and neo-avant-garde aesthetics--Joseph turns to the theoretical positions of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida. Rauschenberg's neo-avant-garde was not a simple repetition of earlier avant-garde movements, Joseph shows, but a series of practices that opposed the rise of postwar spectacle, commodification, and mass conformity.

Beginning with the White Paintings, Joseph examines Rauschenberg?s artistic development from 1951 to 1971. He looks at the black paintings, Red Paintings, Elemental Paintings and Elemental Sculptures, Combines and Combine paintings, transfer drawings and silkscreens, performances, and explorations in art and technology. Joseph?s study not only offers new interpretations of Rauschenberg?s work, but also deepens our understanding of the entire neo-avant-garde project. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fascinating introduction
Ms. Chave's book is quite a good introduction to 1950's abstract-expressionist art in general, and to Rothko in particular. She convincingly traces his development from realistic imagery through Miro-like surrealism to his distinctive ethereal but emotional rectangles. Along the way, she makes a good case for his stubborn insistence that his work did, in fact, have a subject. At least one other art-thinker, Georgia O'Keeffe, caught on to this (in a documentary made a few years before she died, O'Keeffe commented that a Rothko piece in the MOMA seemed like a timeline of a man's life), as did at least one of Rothko's more sensitive collectors (this is chronicled in the book). This, in my opinion, is why Rothko's work isn't ideally suited for calm meditation, unlike that of some other abstract artists (which is not to say that being meditative is a bad thing, by the way). I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't quite get modern art, and is willing to put some effort into the task. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Only a Teaser
This book is a nice introduction to Pontormo's work, but not that satisfactory. His best paintings and drawings are brilliant, and one suspects that the publishers could have included more reproductions of his finer works. Many of the paintings in here are mediocre/ deteriorated/ or plainly less accomplished. The book is from a series on Italian masterpieces, and is limited to a standard number of pages. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

No modern artist is more controversial than Jackson Pollock, whose life is the subject of a new feature film starring Ed Harris. With an intense, troubled personality that many see reflected in his radical "drip" paintings, Pollock was the first American painter to be hailed internationally as an innovator. Even before his death in a drunken car crash in 1956, he was mythologized as Abstract Expressionism's quintessential bad boy. But he was also respected for his sincerity, loved for his sweet nature, and envied for his brilliance. Today Pollock's legend looms larger than ever, inspiring poets, playwrights, composers, and choreographers, as well as visual artists. The film Pollock starring Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock, Marcia Gay Harden, Val Kilmer, and Jennifer Connelly is set to be released late Fall 2000. His art, never popular in the conventional sense, has a growing cadre of dedicated enthusiasts. Why is Pollock such an enduring touchstone of American culture? This collection of writings, interviews, creative responses, and personal revelations - many never before published or long out of print - examines the multiple dimensions of his impact and influence, and proves that the real Pollock is even more fascinating than the myth. The book includes never before published art, photos, letters and interviews from the Pollock-Krasner House archives, new contributions by actor/director Ed Harris and musician Patti Smith, and interviews with Patsy Southgate and Willem de Kooning, as well as Clement Greenberg, Peggy Guggenheim, Hans Namuth, Frank O'Hara, Jeffrey Potter, Norman Rockwell, and Barney Rossett. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great source of material
This is a great collection of information on Pollock. One of the greatest things to note is the inclusion of material from after his death in 1956, his influence on society. This includes editorial cartoons, poems written about and inspired by Pollock and his work, as well as scripts from plays based on his life. I would have to say that if you were looking for a good introduction to the man, the artist, and the influence he had/has on contemporary society, then pick this collection up. ... Read more

Book Description

"No painter, dead or alive, has ever made us more aware of our eyes than Bridget Riley."-The New Statesman

Uncompromising and remarkably innovative, Bridget Riley is one of the most respected artists working today. This comprehensive survey of Riley's 40-year career, published to accompany a major exhibition at Tate Britain, London, includes key examples in lush colorplates of all phases of her work.

Riley first attracted critical attention with the dazzling black-and-white paintings she began to make in 1961 under the "Op Art" banner. Popularized through the mass media and widely "borrowed" by the fashion industry, these images came to epitomize an era. Since then she has remained at the forefront of developments in contemporary painting, making highly distinctive works that articulate an abstract language in which relationships of color and form generate powerful visual sensations.

Each new development in Riley's work generates fresh interest in her art. Here, Paul Moorhouse, Richard Shiff, and Robert Kudielka provide an overview of her work and career, and fresh analyses of the ways in which her work relates to theories of aesthetic perception. ... Read more

Book Description

Henri Rousseau, called le Douanier because of his early career with theFrench customs service, is one of the most important, and fascinating and least studied oflate nineteenth-century artists. His determined and unapologetic primitivism distanced hiswork from that of most of his contemporaries, but he was widely admired by Picasso,Apollinaire, and Kandinsky and is now seen as one of the pioneers of the modernmovement. This beautiful book offers a detailed portrait of Rousseau's life and career aswell as sensitive interpretations of his unusual, individualistic art.

Götz Adriani tells Rousseau's strange life story: his petty bourgeois background, hisattempts to establish himself as an independent artist after leaving the customs office, andhis reaction to the derision with which his art was greeted in his own time. Adrianidiscusses the paradox that Rousseau had reactionary views about art and politics but wastaken up by the French avant-garde. He describes Rousseau's particular brand of visualand conceptual realism and the way he set the exotic animals, figures, and plants of hisdreams against the bland background of the Parisian suburbs. He explains Rousseau'scontact with Alfred Jarry, Apollinaire, Picasso, and other artists of the Parisian avant- garde. Finally, he examines a selection of little-known and well-known paintings,provides details about their subjects, provenance, and reception, and shows how theyinfluenced other artists. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Venezia finally gets around to one of my favorite painters
Henri Rousseau has been one of my favorite painters for a long time so I was glad to see Mike Venezia finally got around to doing this book for his Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series. Ironically, although Venezia includes seventeen Rousseau paintings in this book (which may well be a record for this particular series), my favorite is not included. Go figure. Venezia provides a basic biography of Rousseau, who always wanted to be a famous artist even though he never went to art school. Consequently it makes sense that Rousseau would be perhaps best known for his jungle paintings despite the fact he never traveled to any jungles, just to the Jardin des Plantes, a huge greenhouse filled with plants and trees from all over the world. Rousseau tended to put he mysterious and faraway lands he dreamed about into his paintings and most of his best work exhibits a compelling quirkiness, such as "The Merry Jesters," which shows monkeys playing in a jungle with a back scratcher and a milk bottle or "Tropical Landscape--An American Indian Struggling with an Ape," which shows an American Indian struggling with an ape in a tropical landscape. His most famous painting, "The Sleeping Gypsy," shows a strange meeting between a curious lion and a sleeping musician on a moonlit night. No wonder I always found Rousseau's work compelling. This particular Venezia volume gets high marks for including so many examples of Rousseau's work, along with key paintings by some of his contemporaries, who turned out to be much bigger supporters of his work than the public at large. Usually I like to see more specifics on the artist's work, because reading these books this year is a key part of my do-it-yourself art appreciation course. However, to be fair, once you cover Rousseau's use of strange images and multiple shades of green in all those jungle paintings, there is not much left to say in that regard. I was also happy to see that this time around some of the paintings reproduced were almost as big as Venezia's original cartoons depicting the artist's life. This series features great artists from Sandro Botticelli to Grant Wood, and every time I think I have almost read them all I discover another half-dozen or more I need to track down. Certainly there are other art books and other series that can provide more insights into these great artists, but Venezia does a fine job of introducing young readers to their lives and works. ... Read more

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Fernande Olivier was Picasso's first great love. Happily for us, she had a lively writing style and a keen eye for detail. Illustrated with more than 80 contemporary photographs and paintings, Loving Picasso: The Private Journal of Fernande Olivier is a compulsively readable account of the quarrels, escapades, pleasures, and privations of the young artist and his circle between 1905 and 1912. The two met when Olivier was working as an artist's model, having escaped a loveless childhood and a disastrous early marriage. This book smoothly melds retranslated material from her 1933 memoir (Picasso et ses amis) with the posthumously published Souvenirs intimes and selections from her correspondence, including her plaintive letters to Alice B. Toklas during a lonely holiday with Picasso in rural Spain.

Honest to the point of bluntness, Olivier--whom Picasso eventually abandoned for Eva Gouel, a younger, more passive friend of hers--sums up her lover as a workaholic, an impulse buyer (when he had cash) of bric-a- brac and good furniture, a contrarian who found charm in wearing peculiar outfits and pretending he had no taste, and a jealous lover who often kept her locked up when he went out. She describes their home, the Bateau Lavoir in Montmartre, as "a weird, squalid building echoing from morning to night with every kind of noise: discussion, singing, shouting, calling, the sound of buckets used to empty the toilet clattering noisily on the floor ... doors slammed, suggestive moaning coming through the closed doors of the studios."

As Picasso biographer John Richardson relates in an afterword, Olivier never rebounded from her rejection by Picasso. Her middle years were dogged by faithless lovers, financial woes, and Gertrude Stein's deviousness (agreeing to help Olivier publish her memoirs, Stein instead wrote her own version of the era). --Cathy Curtis ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Challenging Life!
Loving Picasso is a book that will touch your heart, and my moisten your eyes.

When we visit a museum and see wonderful paintings of striking women, seldom do we think about the conditions under which the art was created. Did the artists and the model have a relationship? If so, what was it? Did they have enough to eat while the work was done? Were they considerate of one another? Was the studio warm or cold? What was the model thinking about as she posed? How had the woman come to model? And so on.

I will never look at another painting or sculpture again of a human model without being filled with such questions, as a result of reaching about the life of Fernande Olivier from her private journal, letters, and memoir as presented in Loving Picasso.

This beautiful, charming woman lived an extremely difficult life. It was so challenging that few could have emerged from such awful circumstances without being distorted in mind and personality. Yet, Ms. Olivier seems to have avoided both, and been a light in the life of her many male admirers, female friends, and an inspiration to Picasso in his most innovative years.

From the book's title, you will think that the material is mostly about the years when Ms. Olivier and Picasso lived together, but that's only about half the book. The book is really an autobiography through the time when the two split up for the final time in 1912.

Readers will be rewarded with many intriguing views of the lives of "starving" artists in Paris, the many distinguished friends of Picasso and Ms. Olivier, and how Picasso changed as he went from an unknown to one of the recognized leaders of avant-garde art along with Matisse.

Having read about Picasso's troubled relationships with other women, I was surprised to see that his relationship with Ms. Olivier was one of the most pleasant and productive connections he had in his life. Certainly, he often chose her as a model for his work, and we will always see her as the young person she was then. Many other details in here will either surprise or shock you about Picasso, and expand your understanding of his creative methods and personality.

One of the most charming parts of the book can be found in the many images of places where she lived, the people she knew, the paintings and sculptures for which she was the model, and her own drawings.

For those who have enjoyed Gertrude Stein's, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, you will probably be interested to know that Ms. Olivier's writing is considered to be a more accurate and complete version of many of the same events. In fact, there is an interesting view of Ms. Stein's apparent efforts to keep Ms. Olivier's writing away from an American audience to preserve the market for Ms. Stein's own writing on this subject.

After you finish this rewarding memoir of a most unique person, I suggest that you think about what the purpose of life is. That's a question with which Ms. Olivier had trouble coming to grips.

Follow your purpose!

Picasso and__________. Relationships absurd as his art!
This is the third Picasso and ____ book I've read. There are likely more, but the others I've seen are Picasso and Dora (his mistress in the late forties and Life with Picassoby Francoise Gilot who had his attention in his later years.

This book along with the others read like a three part trilogy - this latest one covering the earliest relationship. The book is very good and seems to be honest. Quite readable.

This book should be on the reading list of anyone interested in probing what the heck Picasso was about. Note that he does not get any less difficult in his relationships!! This book is fantastic to see that Picasso is as childish and monstrous in his early relationships as he is in his later ones!

some people are just crazy
This book is about Fernande Olivier, Picasso's lover during his formative years as an artist. It's about a relationship based on control -- Picasso won't let Fernande have shoes so she won't be able to leave the house. This book is extremely interesting but you can't help being astonished by how naive and foolish Fernande is. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Absolutely beautiful...
I bought this book for my husband who loves the work of Rossetti -- I found this book after scouring five different bookstores for collections and being disappointed with every other one I found.

This book has full-page prints of almost every painting he has ever done with detailed background information on the opposite page. The preface is facsinating -- it details his life as well as the evolution of his style. It is thorough and well-written; although it can't replace a complete biography on Rossetti, it comes close. It includes some of the sketches he had done as preliminary work as well.

The other books we found either reprinted his paintings as small pictures in the text (which of course limits your enjoyment and examination of them) or they only had a few of his pictures or the text was hopelessly stuffy and academic.

My husband loved the book... and so will you! ... Read more

Book Description

This beautifully produced, oversized monograph on the American artist Mark Rothko, presents over 100 of his works in full-color plates that reveal his remarkable genius. Rothko is one of the towering figures of Abstract Expressionism, and in fact, of 20th-century painting as a whole. His paintings, predominantly in a large format and featuring horizontal layers of pigment on a monochrome foundation, will forever be in our pictorial memory as the epitome of classical modernism. By considering Rothko's central groups of works from all creative periods-among them the Rothko Room in the Phillips Collection and the Harvard Murals at Harvard University-this book documents the artist's continuous struggle to arrive at "a consummated experience between picture and onlooker." Rothko's adamant insistence on controlling the presentation of his works set him apart from the art scene as early as the 1950s. His pictures were to be hung closely together in small rooms, in which soft lighting and his large formats were to provide an immediate viewing experience. This book attempts to recreate that atmosphere with a large, uninterrupted plate section that brings to life the vibrancy and power of these paintings, especially when looked at in abundance. In addition to the over 100 color works, "Mark Rothko" includes essays about specific groups of work, an extensive, year by year, descriptive chronology of his life and work, and an exhaustive bibiography of writings about him from the past five years. An essential addition to any collection on 20th century art.

Mark Rothko was born in Russia in 1903, and emigrated to the United States as a child. He studied at Yale University and the Art Students League in New York. He was a founder of the Expressionist group "The Ten" in 1935. He continued to work and exhibit until his death by suicide in 1970. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions both during and after his life at major public institutions throughout the United States, and is in most major collections of modern art.

Essays by Marjorie B. Cohn, Franz Meyer, Eliza E.Rathbone, Jeffrey Weiss and Oliver Wick.

102 color and 52 b&w illustrations

11 x 12.25 inches ... Read more

Reviews (10)

One of the Greatest Artists that Ever Lived
This book is just mesmerizing - it is so beautiful. Mark Rothko took art to a spiritual level that has seldom been achieved. The beauty of his colors and the simplicity of his work mesh to dominate the field of art, and make him a true master of our times. This particular book is full of color pictures of his work. Highly recommended for any art lover.

as if Rothko becomes color blind
the layout of this book is fine, but the printing is poor, the color is just not there...Rothko's work always evoke something in me when i look at it, but the coloring is so bad that it was just like looking at black and white rectangles in this book. Very disappointed. (refer to paper back edition)

An exquisite presentation
American artist Mark Rothko's artworks represents the very foundations of the Abstract Expressionist movement, and his key works are here presented in full-page color, introduced by essays from his contemporaries. This superbly produced volume with its exquisite presentation considers all of Rothko's works and contributions and is an essential acquisition for any serious collection on the Abstract Expressionist movement.

Utter Beauty
Yes, the reviewer who commented on the quality of the prints needs to get their specs looked at. This book is wonderfully produced, from the quality of the printing to the quality of the paper. It will sit alongside Anfan's wonderful catalogue raisonee on my shelves. I only wish I had followed my urge to hop on the Eurostar train from London to Paris on a day trip to see the exhibition. The last full Rothko exhibition I saw was in London in 1987, a mind expanding experience. This book is a world better than the catalogue of that exhibition and is definitely a must for any Rothko admirer. I will be in the Rothko room of the new Tate Modern gallery almost every day.

Simply Beautiful
I completely disagree with the earlier review about the quality of reproductions in this work. The colors are stunning, and this book is so well organized and detailed that it makes it a real pleasure to dive into. Nothing can compare to seeing these inspirational works in person, but if you saw the show, you have to have this book. If you missed the show, you have to have this book. Lose yourself in these paintings and you will find so much...personal revelation, power and resolve. Its a must-own for the true Rothko fan. ... Read more

Book Description

The sheer beauty of the work of sixteenth-century artist Parmigianino (1503-40) makes it easy to imagine that he discovered his style without any effort. But nothing so elegant as his drawings and paintings could have been achieved effortlessly. A close study of the artist's work, particularly his drawings, reveals the sources of his style and the creative struggles he endured. This lavishly illustrated book offers a comprehensive reassessment of Parmigianino's work as a draftsman, discussing in detail more than eighty of the artist's works on paper selected from collections around the world. Among Renaissance artists, Parmigianino was perhaps more conscious than any of the potential of the graphic arts to convey, and indeed broadcast, complex ideas. He explored this potential by means of his numerous drawings and through the etchings he produced on his own as well as through the engravings and chiaroscuro that were made after his designs. In these media, the artist's influence traveled farther and wider than it could have through his paintings alone. ... Read more

Book Description

Lipsticks, automobiles, dishwashers, men in business suits, spaghetti, rockets, airplanes, hairdryers, ice cream cones and pigtailed girls. James Rosenquist has always known how to combine these seemingly disparate but always all-American elements into whirlwind, billboard-sized collages of airbrushed surreal euphoria, slamming colors, patterns and objects into one another with the eye of an advertising man and the heart of a Pop artist. This momentous catalogue, published to accompany the first in-depth survey of the artist's work since 1972, will give long-overdue, in-depth attention to Rosenquist's singular achievement in American art. Extensive illustrations cover major works in diverse media, including work on paper that reveals the artist's process, as well as extensive new and archival photography. Essays focus on areas that have only been superficially addressed in the literature to date, bringing the level of Rosenquist scholarship up to that of his Pop Art contemporaries. Curator Walter Hopps provides an overview of the artist's career; Julia Blaut considers the artist's source collages in the context of 20th-century collage; Ruth E. Fine addresses Rosenquist's prints; art collector and former aeronautics researcher Eugene E. Epstein relates the artist's work to scientific phenomena. Also included are a definitive biography, exhibition history and illustrated chronology. The imagery was expendable to me but it was the color and texture that I was interested in, for instance, if I thought I felt like painting red I might have painted a great big tomato. --James Rosenquist (1972) Essays by Julia Blaut,Ruth E. Fine, Walter Hopps and Sarah Bancroft. Clothbound, 11.75 x 10 in./472 pgs / 346 color 50 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20157 ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great!
As a catalog of the Rosenquist Retrospective at the Guggenheim, this is probably, if not, the best and most comprehensive book on the work of James Rosenquist available. My sister purchased it for me even before the show opened (which reminds me, I'd better see the show this week, as it's ending soon!), and it has fully satiated me as a source of Rosenquist's work.

It's a very nicely bound, thick book which I find to be a very good deal in terms of the $65 (retail) price tag. The images are vivid and very finely reproduced in print. The majority of the pages are of Rosenquist's finished paintings from the 1950's up to the recent and refined work such as "Stowaway Peers Out at the Speed of Light". There are several foldouts, and yes, the large-scale Rosenquist classic "F-111" is one of them.

But my main interest in getting hold of this book were the inclusion of Rosenquist's magazine cut-out collage maquettes that his large paintings were derived from. They obviously represent his influence into the pop art movement and are a development from his early career as a sign painter. After this section are the various edition prints which the artist is also well-known for. At the end of the book is a nice biography/chronology with photos of Rosenquist with family, at openings, etc.

I highly recommend this book as a definate must for any Rosenquist admirer, or anyone into pop art.

Eye Candy for JR fans
No doubt about it, this is the best art book I own. As a HUGE fan of this artist, I may be slightly biased... but there are no doubts about the quality of this book - it is superbly bound and the quality of printing is just excellent. This book is definitely a good buy for any Rosenquist afficionado. Books on his paintings are hard to find so this one is undoubtebly a masterpiece. It is beautifully illustrated and excellently documented. There are not really any faults with this book. There are plenty of wonderful full page illustrations and some like F111 has a 4 page pull-out. I do believe you will not be disappointed - I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

A great introduction to Mark Rothko.
This is a great introduction to the works of Mark Rothko. The reproductions of his work are very interesting. There is some background information on Rothko and some essays from other artists. ... Read more

Amazon.com

This second volume in Richardson's exhaustive and intense biography of the twentieth century's greatest artist covers the ten years from 1907, where volume one ended its epic story of youthful Bohemian struggle. Picasso was then 26; the decade covered here displays a journey to adulthood through astonishing artistic innovation, a growing renown, and the artist's turbulent sexual relations. Richardson details Picasso's public career, including the impact of Cubism, and his complex personal life, notably the artist's passionate and callous treatment of his wives and mistresses ("deification followed by a degrading process of psychosexual dissection"). Through perceptive analysis of Picasso's paintings, Richardson also offers a deep understanding of the inner demons that shaped his remarkable outer life. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Richardson Deserves Praise
This is the best biography I have ever read. It was absolutely brilliant. If you have ever wondered what it was like to live in Paris in the early twentieth century, as an emerging artist (what a cool daydream, right?) this is the book for you. All of those tales of Hemingway and Fitzgerald on the French Riviera, the women, the cafes; Richardson captures it here: the life of an artist realizing his potential as an artist -- it is truly amazing. His explanations accompanying each painting, the way they came to fruition, the stories behind the early masterworks, the market (Les Demoiselles [i.e., the 'most studied painting of the 20th Century' Richardson opines, and arguably the first cubist painting, so upset Picasso and unsettled his friends that he kept it virtually hidden for a decade [this was a young Picasso before his artwork {and ego} commanded millions] and it was touching to read and see this side of young Pablo). Sure, recent trends have tended to treat Picasso with great disdain, and while this IS only a biography, it is the most incisive biography into one of the most celebrated creative minds of the twentieth century that I have ever read. Honestly. The biography itself is an intense revelation -- thoroughly, exhaustively researched and written, and a credit to John Richardson as a human being, a researcher, and a biographical author -- an artist in his own right.

A Perfect Biography
I agree largely with the other review. One of the things worth mentioning is that this book is also one of the best descriptions of cultural life in France in the first and second decades of the 20 th century I have ever read. You meet people like Appolinaire, Gide, Max Jacob, Kahnweiler, Vollard, Gris, Matisse and Bracque and begin to understand the particular, immensely productive environment of pre-war France. It was also of huge interest to read about the real friendship between Bracque and Picasso and how this lead to such wonderful, very similar pictures like "Le Portugais" (Bracque) and "Man with Mandolin" (Picasso). I look forward indeed to the next volume and aim to read the first one immediately.

I inhaled the book
Please allow me to gush. I usually labor through biographies, but the two Richardson volumes are so well written and thoroughly researched that I was done before I knew it. The illustrations are black and white, but it was little trouble to go to my Picasso catalogs to see the things in color. I was quite disappointed when I was through with each volume. I enjoyed the second even though I'm not thrilled with Cubism. I can hardly wait for the third volume. I'm also interested in Richardson himself showing up in the biography. At the risk of sounding morbid, I pray to God John Richardson is in good health. I'm looking forward to the volumes dealing with Picasso in the 1920's and 1950's. ... Read more