Re: Some good art history books
koda...@gmail.com
Art. Mind blowingly good. I found a copy for $83 but it is ordinarily
well over $100. Amazing book and well worth the $83.
Tom Roach
Erik A. Mattila
> 2006 has, so far, been a banner year for art history books. Here are three
> that every artist or person interested in art will find indispensable:
>
> New Art City -- Jed Perl. The best book on New York art scene in the 50s
> I've ever read. Provides an in-depth look at the art and artists, including
> info on lesser-known artists and events. If you only ever read one book
> about NYC and abstract expressionism in the 50s, read this one.
>
> Modigliani -- Jeffrey Meyers. Meyers has gone much farther than June Rose
> in his biography of Modi. As with Jed Perl, he illuminates the scene and
> the times with information on lesser-known people and events.
>
> The Judgement of Paris -- Ross King. Discusses the advent of Impressionism,
> focusing on the lives and careers of two polar opposites of the time:
> Messionier and Manet. Messionier was the Kincade of his time; Manet one of
> the first modern painters.
>
> All three books are written with scholarly rigor and read like good novels.
With a pun like "The Judgement of Paris" how could you go wrong?
CB
"Dan Fox" <danfoxa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:20060414221349.311$f...@newsreader.com...
> The Judgement of Paris -- Ross King. Discusses the advent of
Impressionism,
> focusing on the lives and careers of two polar opposites of the time:
> Messionier and Manet. Messionier was the Kincade of his time; Manet one of
> the first modern painters.
>
I've thumbed through that book & have been tempted to buy it. Maybe this is
all I need to push me over the top :)
On the subject of Paris - particularly the period from 1848 to the Commune -
one book that came out recently which I have quite liked is David Harvey's
"Paris/Capital of Modernity". It's a social history of the city over the
period, and he provides an in depth look at every thing from working and
living conditions to the political struggles and the Haussmanization of the
city. Plus it's well written.
An older, somewhat more turgid, but still (IMO) excellent view is in T.J.
Clark's "The Painting of Modern Life". Although in terms of fine art he
focuses mostly on Manet (and it would be interesting to compare his
treatment with King's) with excursions to a number of others, his main
emphasis is on how the new art of that period expressed - and was driven
by - the profound changes happening in French society at the time (the
closest current parallel would perhaps be China, which is struggling with
many of the same issues). It's a good book to read as a follow on to his
work on Courbet ("Image of the People"). and art and politics during the
1848-51 period, "The Absolute Bourgeois"
Cheers;
CB
CB
> that every artist or person interested in art will find indispensable:
> The Judgement of Paris -- Ross King. Discusses the advent of
Impressionism,
> focusing on the lives and careers of two polar opposites of the time:
> Messionier and Manet. Messionier was the Kincade of his time; Manet one of
> the first modern painters.
>
Well, thanks for the recommendation - I just finished the book. On the
downside, I'm not fond of the style (it tends to be very anecdotal, rather
artificially structured, especially in the early chapters). On the bright
side however, it does provide a significant amount of information -
particularly w/r to Meissonier - of which I wasn't previously aware. A
surprising aspect is the degree to which the author rehabilitates Meissonier
(particularly w/r to the really tedious Academics, like Gerome and Cabanel)
both as a person and an artist. In that sense he is very much challenging
the more commonly accepted portrayal of Meissonier. Personally I wouldn't
tend to compare him at all with Kinkade (who is simply a fraud in the great
tradition of American TV evangelists); I would tend to put the
Meissonier/Manet issue perhaps on the level of comparing Frank Sinatra with
John Lennon. Which, of course, is almost like comparing apples and
oranges...
And Ross King does bring forward some telling points - as in his example w/r
to the nostalgic aspect of Meissonier's work, for which he was harshly
criticized - but which also plays a big role in the supposedly antithetical
works of the Impressionists, with paintings of countryside delights (which I
think has been discussed more fully by TJ Clark, but I can't remember with
any certainty...).
There is also a fair bit of information for those interested in an
introduction to the period (political, social, artistic, etc.) as a whole,
but it seems to lack a certain coherence.
Anyway, I'd rate this book as one to definitely get from the library, or buy
once it hits the remaindered table.
Cheers;
CB
Mani Deli
wrote: On the bright
>side however, it does provide a significant amount of information -
>particularly w/r to Meissonier - of which I wasn't previously aware.
If you want information on all those other great artists of that 19th
century which contemporary art history books almost totally ignore
check out ark.
A
>surprising aspect is the degree to which the author rehabilitates Meissonier
>(particularly w/r to the really tedious Academics, like Gerome and Cabanel)
>both as a person and an artist. In that sense he is very much challenging
>the more commonly accepted portrayal of Meissonier. Personally I wouldn't
>tend to compare him at all with Kinkade (who is simply a fraud in the great
>tradition of American TV evangelists);
He's no more a fraud than Mondrian, Rothko or Pollock etc.
aest...@hotmail.com
CB
"Mani Deli" <ma...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:hr7e429qf83o1ebef...@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 21:42:00 GMT, "CB" <caldwell...@gmail.com>
> wrote: On the bright
> >side however, it does provide a significant amount of information -
> >particularly w/r to Meissonier - of which I wasn't previously aware.
>
> If you want information on all those other great artists of that 19th
> century which contemporary art history books almost totally ignore
> check out ark.
>
I assune you mean ARC ( http://www.artrenewal.org ) ? I do, regularly. I
appreciate the work they do getting these images online. OTOH, the writing
is generally terrible and the dedication to cheesy soft porn gets a little
overwhelming; for a typcal example, read Sherry Ross' review of "The
Victorian Nude" Show.
(http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2002/Exposed_Victorian_Nude/sherry1.asp)
A big problem with ARC is that they sidestep any real attempt to put work
into the context of it's time. That makes sense from a Platanist POV, but
that's a position I have no sympathy for.
> A
> >surprising aspect is the degree to which the author rehabilitates
Meissonier
> >(particularly w/r to the really tedious Academics, like Gerome and
Cabanel)
> >both as a person and an artist. In that sense he is very much challenging
> >the more commonly accepted portrayal of Meissonier. Personally I wouldn't
> >tend to compare him at all with Kinkade (who is simply a fraud in the
great
> >tradition of American TV evangelists);
>
> He's no more a fraud than Mondrian, Rothko or Pollock etc.
>
Maybe, but Kinkade is alive, and they're dead. But it would be entertaining
to look for parallels between the two approaches. But personally I don't see
any attempt at fraud on the part of the modernists you mention, where as
Kinkade (according to the latest news reports) is obviously not the
christian he would like the world to see him as.
CB
>
CB
"Dan Fox" <danfoxa...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:20060414221349.311$f...@newsreader.com...
> 2006 has, so far, been a banner year for art history books. Here are three
> that every artist or person interested in art will find indispensable:
>
> I've ever read. Provides an in-depth look at the art and artists,
including
> info on lesser-known artists and events. If you only ever read one book
> about NYC and abstract expressionism in the 50s, read this one.
Well, I've got that one on order, but when I was out looking for it I came
across a book that - at least through the first few chapters, looks like a
keeper. It's Rothko's "The Artist's Reality". Partly polemic, partly
philosophy (and not history, which is why I changed the subject line a
little); very well written and quite clearly directed. Apparently it's a
book he worked on mostly when he was young, and then off and on (I skipped
the intro by his son) through his life; his son just published it in 2004
from collected typescript pages. The book was never finished. But so far
(and it's early going yet) it's quite recommendable. (FWIW, I never enjoyed
Greenberg & have a positive loathing for Danto. But this book - mostly
because of the clarity of Rothko's ideas - seems like it may well be
destined for the same "first" shelf as Schiller, Proudhon, Zola, and van
Gogh, as writers on art.).
Cheers
CB
Dan Fox
Hi, Chris -
You're going to like New Art City. I have the Rothko book and should've
included it in my recommendations. Thanks for doing so. I agree -- often
the artists themselves have the clearest ideas about their work and art in
general. I'll join you in highly recommending The Artist's Reality.
zeno
Mani Deli wrote:
>
> He (Kinkade)is no more a fraud than Mondrian, Rothko or Pollock etc.
aest...@hotmail.com
- In the art world, there is an enormous bottom-line calculation by
artists at this point, a matter of what is this season's hot kind of
style.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=82740§ion=artstravel