Some recently published art titles . . .
Reviewed by Galleries writers. |
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LATEST REVIEWS
Ernest Zobole:
a life in art
by Ceri Thomas. 144pp, Seren (Poetry Wales Press, Bridgend), pbk.
Ceri Thomas’s loving and meticulous study of Zobole (1927-99) enhances
our understanding of what multi-culturalism
really means. Born of an
Italian immigrant father and a Welsh
mother, Zobole spent most of his life
in the Rhondda Valley, which he painted
with an infectious zest. His
canvases are a world away from the
dour industrial atmosphere you might
expect. Mysterious, naïve and
colourful, they feature bird’s eye views,
street views, night-time scenes and
interiors with jazzy compositions,
showing that he was acutely aware
of continental art movements, Matisse’s
work being a clear favourite. Charting
Zobole’s painting and teaching
careers in chronological order, Thomas
engages the non-specialist reader by
introducing wider social and political
issues (for example unemployment,
poverty, war) and beds his narrative
firmly in the place he is writing about.
CJ
The Railway: Art in the Age of Steam
by Ian Kennedy & Julian Treuherz.
288pp, 258 ills, Yale hbk £35
As the first mass transport system, the railway had an enormous impact
on 19th century society. This book
places the artistic response in context
through paintings, photographs and
prints from the 130-odd years of the
steam age, spanning the UK, Europe
and America with works by Turner,
Monet, Hopper, Kandinsky and many
more less familiar names such as
George Luks, William H. Rau and Winston
Link. Although serving as the
catalogue to the show at the Walker
Art Gallery, Liverpool (Apr 18 to
Aug 20), this really is exhibition-plus,
with twice the number of items and
eight thematic but broadly chronological
essays. The result is an authoritative,
readable and beautifully produced
survey of rail-related art. AA
Treasures of Botanical Art
by Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix. 272pp, col ills throughout,
Kew Publishing pbk, £24.95
Published to coincide with the opening of the elegant Shirley Sherwood Gallery
of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens,
this book accompanies the first exhibition
which skilfully combines works from
Kew's own collection, woefully undershown
in the past, with a selection of
Dr Sherwood's contemporary holdings. Kew has
around 200,000 works of art of exceeding
high quality, mainly collected for
scientific purposes, so there is
plenty to choose from. The Sherwood Collection
comprises 700 works, of which 113
are in the opening exhibition (on till mid
October 2008). The building has been
designed to mirror the proportions and lines
of the adjoining Marianne North Gallery,
its interior kept at 50 lux, 55% humidity
(most of the paintings are in watercolour,
many on vellum). The mix works well,
around a historical backbone, with
for example the striped tulips of Simon Verelst
(1644-c1721) and Georg Dionysius
Ehret (1708-70) hanging alongside those of Celia
Hegedus (b.1949) and Rory McEwen
(1932-82). The book follows the exhibition's
divisions into the ages of Antiquity,
Discovery and the Exotic, with commentaries
on the plants and biographies of
all the artists, and a lively essay by Dr Sherwood.
The next exhibition will take Trees
as its theme: if the catalogue is half as good as
this one it will definitely be something to treasure. SD
Essential Architecture:
The History of Western Architecture
512pp, col ills throughout, A &
C Black pbk, £12.99
The chunky little follow-up to Essential Art is aimed at students and enthusiasts
who
need a quick summary of facts, dates
and names. Its scope being so huge, it is not a
relaxed read, but it certainly covers
the ground. The introductions to each movement
or style are clear and should stimulate further enquiry: many hares are set
running
which deserve pursuit. Inevitably,
it's overweighted on the contemporary side (78 pages
for post 1945 compared to 42 for
the whole of Gothic) but at least the Norwegian
stave churches get a mention. SD
The Revenge
of Thomas Eakins
by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick. 576pp,
95 ills, Yale pbk, £16
"I see no impropriety in looking at the most beautiful of Nature's works,
the naked figure." Unfortunately
for Thomas Eakins, strait-laced Victorian
Philadelphia tended not to share
his more progressive views, and his four-
decade career was dogged by scandal
and rejection. He had only one solo
exhibition in his lifetime and was
dismissed from teaching at the prestigious
Pennsylvania Academy. Almost as interested
in medical science as
in art (two of his greatest works
depict operations) he might well have
turned his talents in that direction.
However this great realist painter (whose
heroes were Phidias and Velazquez)
persevered and the 'Revenge' of the
book's title is the fact that he
is now, a century later, recognised as perhaps
the greatest American portraitist.
It has been neatly said that he could capture
subjects "at the moment when
they lapsed into themselves." This is a well-
paced, clearly written account of
an influential painter, originally published in
2006 and now available in paperback.
AA
Charles Sheeler:
Modernism, Precisionism and the Borders of Abstraction
by Mark Rawlinson. 210pp, 37 ills,
I.B. Tauris pbk, £18.99
Painter and photographer Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) is often hailed as a
'stark poet of the machine age' with
his pared-down, peopleless images of
inter-War America - factories, skyscrapers
and industrial machinery. Mark
Rawlinson argues that the 'Precisionist'
artist who trod the borders of realism
and abstraction was far from 'precise'
in technique, and that rather than being
viewed as an apologist for industrial
capitalism or at least ambivalent towards it,
his work can be read as a “deeply
negative meditation on American modernity”.
This is a worthwhile, if academic
re-appraisal, but be prepared for discussions
of critical theory and headings such
as 'The Mimesis of Reification'; it is also
somewhat underpowered on the illustration
front. (Readers wishing to pursue
the subject further will find the
catalogue to the National Gallery of Art,
Washington's, 2006 show 'Charles
Sheeler: Across Media' useful.) AA
How To Read
Buildings: A crash course in architecture
by Carol Davidson Cragoe. 256pp, ills throughout, A&C Black pbk, £9.99
A nicely illustrated pocket guide by an architectural historian, with sections
on period styles, building types,
materials and individual elements - arches,
vaults, windows, ornamentation, etc.
Spanning the ancient and the modern
it also includes a handy glossary
of terms. A perfect starting point for those
who don't really know their apse
from their ogee . . . AA
William Crozier
ed K. Crouan, essays S.B. Kennedy,
P. Vann.
208pp, 200 ills, Lund Humphries hbk,
£35
Crozier is not readily thought of as Scottish artist yet he was born and
educated in Glasgow. Through a long
committed career he is rightly
regarded as a major contributor to
post war figurative painting. This
welcome monograph traces the development
of his work within the wider
context of international modern art
and ideas. His painting is also seen
within an inherited Scottish tradition
through his synthesising of the decorative
and the expressive, the sensual and
the uncanny. This dialectic tension
always gives vital energy to Crozier’s
painting and the high quality colour
reproductions throughout this informatively
written publication does full justice
to the work of this distinguished
artist. BH
Modern Painters:
The Camden Town Group
ed. Robert Upstone. 184pp, 120 ills,
Tate Publishing pbk, £24.99
The years immediately preceding World War I saw considerable social
change in Britain – the campaign
for female suffrage, pensions, health
and unemployment insurance,
the impact of the motor vehicle, mass
transportation and the rise of suburbia;
this was also the time of the short-lived
Camden Town Group, whose best known
members were Walter Sickert,
Robert Bevan, Harold Gilman, Charles
Ginner and Spencer Gore. They
merged into the longer-lived London
Group after just three shows and
most of them spent the war
years painting the Home Front. The final image,
Walter Bayes' depiction of shelterers
in the Underground, is a portent of the
unfolding 20th century . . . This
fine catalogue to the Tate Britain show
(until May 4 2008) sets the Group
in context with eight scholarly, readable
essays then provides detailed notes
on the 100 pictures by these
unsentimental, often grittily realist,
painters of modern life. Malcolm
Drummond, for one, deserves wider
renown. AA
The Cornish
Wonder: a Portrait of John Opie
by Viv Hendra. 220pp, 16 col ills,
Truran Books pbk, £11.99
The story of John Opie (dubbed 'The Cornish Wonder' as an early
publicity ruse) is a classic 18th century rags-to-riches tale retold
by Viv Hendra with a panache that fits the period. There may be too
many 'sparkling eyes' and 'warm bodies' for some, but the basic facts
of Opie's meteoric rise to become one of the most successful painters
of the age and Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy to boot are
fleshed out successfully enough to make an entertaining and
informative read. Though buried alongside Reynolds in St Paul's,
Opie's reputation did not endure in the same way - it is hoped that
The Royal Cornwall Museum's accompanying show (until January 19 2008)
went some way to redress the disparity. PP
The Genius of Photography
by Gerry Badger. 256pp, fully illustrated,
Quadrille hbk, £25
Accompanying the 2007 BBC TV series of the same name, this attractive
book sets out to explore the nature of photography and to reveal what
makes a great photograph. Practitioner/curator Gerry Badger looks at
key images and their makers from the early pioneers Niepce and
Daguerre through Cameron, Stieglitz, Evans, Cartier-Bresson and Capa,
to Sherman, Goldin and the digital revolution which has led to such
extraordinary proliferation. Much interesting detail is revealed in
the picture analyses - the first people photographed were a shoeshiner
and his client captured incidentally by their relative immobility
during the long exposure time of an 1838 Daguerre street scene - and
there is a useful technical glossary together with a timeline at the
back. 80 years ago Laszlo Moholy-Nagy said that "the illiterate of the
future will be the man who does not understand photography". Even a
browse through here should dispel fear of that. AA
St Ives 1975-2005, Art Colony In Transition
by Peter Davies. 148pp, fully illustrated,
St Ives Printing and Publishing Co
pbk, £18
Peter Davies' erudite and informative new survey is a timely reminder
that the story of its art colony is a continuum. From the death of
Hepworth, Hilton and Wynter in '75 Davies traces its later history and
uses chapters dedicated to Landscape, The Figure, Potters, Hard Edge
etc., to list and expand on the work of many recent and contemporary
artists. One hesitates to recommend any book as a definitive 'must
have' but for collectors, students and anyone with an interest in
recent British art and the St Ives connection, this surely comes
close. PP
Bird on a Wire: The Life and Art of Guy Taplin
by Ian Collins. 224 pp, 250 ills,
Studio Publications hbk, £29.95
Street-trader, life-guard, fashionable 60s belt-maker, Bird Keeper
at Regent's Park, bird decoy collector - East Ender Guy Taplin's route
to becoming the most sought after bird sculptor of his generation on
either side of the Atlantic has, to say the least, not been a
conventional one and certainly never involved art-school - quite
possibly to the huge benefit of his art! It is, as they say, a helluva
story and one Ian Collins, art correspondent for the Eastern Daily
Press, tells with characteristic verve and warmth, his keen
journalist's eye for a story transforming the usual concept of an
artist's monograph into something closer to biography/social history.
Taken together with the evocative location photography of Andrew
Montgomery - it makes you want to go straight out onto those remote
Essex marshes that are Taplin's real studio - and some handsome art
photography by Robert Cotton, Ronald Blythe's observation that Taplin
is "the poet-artist-ornithologist of the shoreline" seems to capture
the true spirit of his achievement exactly. NU
Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs
ed. Andrea G. Stillman. 440pp, Little,
Brown hbk, £40
Ansel Adams (1902-84) is the doyen of American landscape photographers
and unquestionably ranks among the medium's finest artists,
technicians and teachers - 'the negative is the score, the print is
the performance'. He was a passionate defender of the American
wilderness (his ashes were scattered on Mount Ansel Adams in Yosemite
National Park) and this excellent compendium of his work over 50
years, the largest ever published, includes many of his most
celebrated images. They're beautifully presented, one per page, with
just the bare minimum of introductory text and notes, often in his own
words, on around 80 of them. A real treat. AA
A Singular Vision: Dod Procter 1890-1972
by Alison James. 144pp, fully illustrated, Sansom & Company pbk,
£19.95
In 1927 Dod Procter's 'Morning' was the toast of the Royal Academy's
Summer Exhibition. Its immediate purchase 'for the nation' by the
Daily Mail, followed by a tour of twenty-three provincial art
galleries and a trip on two of Cunard's liners, secured Dod Procter
not just national but international fame. Less than forty years later,
the Thames and Hudson Encyclopedia of British Art contained no mention
of her and under 'Newlyn', where she had studied, lived and worked,
she is notable only by her absence. Written to accompany the
exhibition at Penlee House, Alison James' sensitive and well rounded
new biography traces the parabola of Dod's long and productive life
and demonstrates that, as the title suggests, it was the strength of
her vision as an artist which not only sustained her through the ups
and downs of her career but kept her painting till its end. PP
Millais
by Jason Rosenfeld and Alison Smith. 272pp, 200 ills. Tate Publishing
hbk £35, pbk £24.99\
The most successful of Victorian artists, Sir John Everett Millais is
best known for 'Ophelia' floating in her pool and 'Bubbles', whose
model (his grandson) became an Admiral in a career much prone to
teasing. This image, with Millais' approval, was used in a celebrated
advertisement for Pear's soap and led to accusations of him 'selling
out'. The wide range of his output and his prodigious ability is well
presented in this Tate Britain show and catalogue, which aims also to
portray him as 'a fundamentally modern artist' and to redress the
decline in his reputation prompted by the sentimental nature of some
of his work which jars with modern tastes. A large group of his late,
little known landscapes (painted outside like his cross-Channel
confreres) is offered here, but perhaps most impressive are his
characterful portraits, notably those of prominent contemporaries such
as Gladstone, Disraeli and Tennyson. AA
Where the Sea meets the Land: Artists on the Coast in
19th century
Britain
by Christiana Payne. 224pp, 100 col & 15 b&w ills, Sansom & Co pbk,
£29.95
Not another account of complicated relationships in remote colonies of
artists, you'll be relieved to hear, but more an intriguing look
at the role the sea came to play in the cultural, scientific and
social life of the nation in the century that gave us 'Dover Beach'
and 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'. Much territory is covered, from
rock pool to dune, but the author has little sympathy for the
mischievous Victorian delight in the absurd. Everything is taken
seriously, opinions are measured, sentences well-balanced, even
when the subject is the odd behaviour the beach so frequently inspires
and which is caught so brilliantly by Rowlandson, Doyle and Leech. The
illustrations are excellently selected, one just longs for a little
unbuttoning. SD
Great Collectors of Our Time: Art collecting since 1945
by James Stourton. 480pp, 300 col ills, Scala Publishers hbk, £45
James Stourton as Chairman of Sotheby's UK is in a strong position to
produce an overview like this, though overview is too slight a term
for such a prodigious labour. He has gone for a geographic analysis,
dividing the book into seven sections: Paris, America, Switzerland,
Germany, Oriental, London and Europe since the 1950s. Inevitably
readers will find one area of greater interest than another and wish
that more had been written about it. He is, for example, very good on
Sir Denis Mahon, particularly in his poignant account of visiting his
empty house in Cadogan Square which bore just the vestiges of the
dispersed collection of Italian Seicento paintings. Daniel Katz also
earns special mention. As with artists, it's easier to write about the
collectors one has met rather than those one hasn't: personal reaction
is a necessary leaven to what might become indigestible. Because
Stourton is the quintessential diplomat, disapproval is kept for
between the lines, which makes it even more delicious. When he does
approve, he is fulsome, as here on J. Paul Getty Jr: "To those of us
interested in the mechanics of collecting, there is sheer amazement
that he was able to assemble such a library at the end of the 20th
century. Great wealth of course was used to good effect, but the
library bears the unmistakable mark of its founder." And that, in a
nutshell, is what makes a collector truly great: they collect with
their whole being - heart, mind and eye. SD
C'est Votre Passion, Monsieur!
by Fred Yates. 109pp, 100 ills, KeyWest Editions hbk, £20
This colourful book pairs the exuberant fauvist paintings of
octogenarian painter Fred Yates with extracts from his
journals/letters from the last 15 years spent in rural France. The
effect is endearing, life-affirming. His vivid, energetic pictures of
French village life are joyful and harmonious. The text expresses an
almost boyish wonder at the simple beauties of Provencal life and his
good fortune in being there. His eye (Manchester-born) has to adjust:
"At first I was confused. The colours were not English colours. It is
beautiful, but much too green for my vision . . . Suddenly . . . I
began to see other colours. So simple: if the trees are all green, the
shadows cannot be green . . ." RC
War Paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain 1939-1945
by Brian Foss. 254pp, 200 ills, Yale University Press hbk, £35
During World War II, the War Artists' Advisory Committee commissioned
6,000 works from over 400 artists of the calibre of Ardizzone, Eurich,
Moore, the Nashes, Ravilious and Sutherland. All these and more
feature in this expanded doctoral thesis, which started life as an
examination of the committee's administration, but now covers the role
of women, national identity, the depiction of conflict, censorship,
state funding for the arts and much else. Extensively researched, it
does occasionally reveal its academic origins by lapsing into jargon
of the 'valorisation of her attainment' variety. There is too a
certain unfamiliarity with military terminology ("royal army", "cannon
gun"), but such minor flaws are redeemed by the range of material and
excellent choice of illustrations. It certainly deserves a place on
the bookshelf alongside Meirion and Susie Harries' still indispensable
'The War Artists' (1983). Interestingly, few of the images are of
'action'. As Herbert Read put it, "though the English are energetic in
action, they are restrained in expression . . . war cannot change us,
and we are fighting this war precisely because in these respects we
refuse to be changed." AA
The Writer's Brush
by Donald Friedman (essays by J. Updike & W H Gass). 457pp, 400 ills,
Mid-List Press hbk, £25
"The line between picture and symbol is a fine one . . ." writes John
Updike, "the tools are allied, the impulse is one." This collection
of
paintings by writers from Goethe to Kathy Acker is a fascinating
glimpse into parallel creative expressions. Some writers' paintings
contrasted strikingly with their literature (Edward Lear's magnificent
landscapes, Charles Kingsley's erotic drawings). Others famous for
challenging prose traditions were curiously moderate in their art
(Baudelaire, Ibsen). Lovers of literature will want to dip repeatedly
into this book, with its short biographies and pictures on 200
writers, indices and bibliography. Some lovely discoveries were Henry
Miller's childlike paintings and Herman Hesse's harmonious landscapes
which he credited with saving his life: "Painting is marvellous; it
makes you happier and more patient." RC
Roger Hilton: the figured language of thought
by Andrew Lambirth. 288pp, 230 ills, 200 in col, Thames & Hudson hbk,
£35
Roger Hilton was in many ways a disagreeable man - he had an instinct
for someone's weak spot and had no compunction in going for it - but
he did inspire a loyal band of friends, including Terry Frost, Sandra
Blow and the poet W S Graham. More important than all this, he was one
of the most original artists to appear in this country last century,
someone who though not an intellectual thought long and hard about
what he was doing. This excellently written and illustrated monograph
achieves the difficult task of concentrating on the work while giving
us a powerful feel of what Hilton's life was like, the flavour of both
the man and the art. The life was anything but simple, the glory years
short, the decline and death a long drawn out affair. What remains
though are paintings that pulsate with emotional intelligence, that
seize you by the scruff of the neck and shake you back into
observation. As Hilton said, "The more alive a person or picture, the
better they are." LH
London Art Deco
by Arnold Schwartzman. 154pp, over 200 col ills, Aurum Press pbk,
£14.99
Excellent collection of photographs of London's Deco buildings which
will make us look up a bit more as we stroll round town. Buildings in
their entirety feature alongside details, all too often overlooked but
integral to the overall design. Senate House looks stunning against a
butterfly blue sky, but how many of us have noticed the fine metal and
glass lamp on the main gate posts? The book is divided into sections -
corporate buildings, stores, hotels, cinemas, factories etc, and is a
mine of information about architects, influences and social history.
The 1933 bas-relief Labour and Technology' panels at Derry & Toms in
Kensington High Street included a monoplane being handstarted by
swinging its propeller: five years later on the front of a
neighbouring building, Barkers, among a low-relief montage of up-to-
the-minute transport is a futuristic Vee-wing jet engine aircraft. SD
Christian Art
by Rowena Loverance. 248pp, 160 col ills, The British Museum Press,
hbk, £20
Such a huge subject in such a compact volume. Who is it for? The
author is a specialist in the interpretation of Roman and Byzantine
culture, and, interestingly enough in view of their general aversion
to visual imagery, a Quaker. The 12 chapters side-step chronology in
favour of themes such as "Embodying the divine" and "Forging
solidarity" which are explained and justified in the first chapter
(where the problems facing Christian art at this time, mainly through
growing ignorance of the Christian tradition, are also squared up
to). One of the strong points of this thoughtful book is the
opportunity it affords to show lesser known works: the art illustrated
is largely drawn from the collections of the British Museum. Many
other works are referred to in the text so it's quite handy to have a
selection of books to hand unless one carries, for instance, the
Monreale sequence of mosaics in one's head. My main gripe is the
author's strange assertion that "Women do not play major roles in the
Christian story and hence do not feature strongly in the subject
matter of Christian art". As she then goes on to disprove this
extraordinary statement, I just put it down to the illogicality that
is said to occasionally afflict the female sex. SD
Rubens
by Susan Lawson. 192pp, 128 col/b&w ills, Chaucer Press hbk, £30
In her introduction, Lawson asks whether people have fallen out of
love with Rubens, and examines the reasons for contemporary
discomfort with an artist who once commanded such high esteem. The
National Gallery's recent exhibition of work carried out in his
formative Italian years (1600-1608) has perhaps opened eyes and minds,
and this well-written and intelligently planned book should continue
the process, even though it does slightly push the parallels between
Rubens' concerns and practices and those of contemporary artists. If
some of the reproductions are not brilliant, this just encourages one
to try and see the paintings 'in the flesh': only then can one get any
idea of their dazzlingly potency. SD
RECENT REVIEWS
Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals (Review posted 10/07)
ed. Quentin Buvelot, etc. 280pp, 140 ills, National
Gallery/Mauritshuis pbk, £19.95, hbk £35
Shave the men's beards, soften the women's hairstyles, change the
(beautifully rendered) 17th C. clothing and you feel you know people just like these, painted with intense character and bravura by Hals,
Rembrandt and 27 other artists. A joint production of the Mauritshuis
in The Hague and London's National Gallery, this outstanding show
celebrates the immense skill and variety of portraiture depicting the
affluent burghers of the Dutch Republic, from domestic intimacy to civic meetings. Even if you can't make it to the exhibition - until
September 16 at the National Gallery - do invest in this excellent
catalogue with its essays, detailed entries on each picture and fine
illustrations.
AA
www.nationalgallery.co.uk
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Life's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists' Brush With Leisure, 1895-1925 (Review posted 06/07)
by James Tottis et al. 216pp, 125 ills, Merrell hbk, £29.95
Merrell have done well by the 'Ashcan school' in recent months; first a monograph on George Bellows (see review here) and now this admirable survey of their depictions of the leisure activities of all classes, less familiar than their pictures of the harsher side of urban life in the early 20th century, from which they derive their nickname. The companion publication to a touring show originated by the Detroit
Institute of Arts, it reproduces the 75 paintings by theme, sets the
scene with five illustrated essays and includes short biographies
of the artists - Bellows, Henri, Sloan and the rest.
AA
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The Green Fuse: Pastoral Vision in English Art 1820-2000 (Review posted 05/07)
by Jerrold Northrop Moore. 255pp, 203 col ills,Antique Collectors' Club hbk, £35
In the short epilogue, the author asks whether the traditional English combinaton of pragmatism and romance will find a solution
to multiplying populations and a government apparently set against
all that remains of country life. He detects a new generation
of artists reluctant to accept that a way of looking based on personal discovery and private illumination has had its day. In an
incisive introduction Moore (author of an acclaimed biography of
Elgar) traces what he regards as the distinguishing mark of the
English tradition, "the envisioning of local land and light as an
essence of character", before moving on to his specific subjects:
Samuel Palmer, William Hyde, F.L. Griggs, Edward Gordon Craig, Paul
Nash, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, John Minton and the Neo-Romantics, and, finally, the Ruralists. Of these, the revelation is Hyde (1857-1925), master of the monochrome, of atmospheric light and shadow, darkness and dusks. This is the first attempt to piece together his story, one of dogged persistence and belief in the importance of personal vision, and for that alone this thoughtful book should find a place in any collection on English art. SD
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The Artists of the Alpine Club: A Biographical Dictionary (Review posted 05/07)
by Peter Mallalieu. 219pp, 98 ills, The Alpine Club and the Ernest Press hbk, £20
Beautifully produced, small landscape format and easy to use, this book is a delight. Whether your taste is more Loppé than Lory, Piercy than Pierse, this record of the men who go up mountains carrying sketchbooks and canvases whets the appetite for more. Founded in 1857, the Alpine Club has built up an enviable collection, almost entirely the result of gifts from members, families and friends (150 works, together with Whymper's tent, were recently on show at John Mitchell's Gallery in Old Bond Street to celebrate the club's 150th anniversary). Peter Mallalieu has been Keeper of Pictures since 1996 and has done much to make the collection more widely known and appreciated. His lucid entries for each artist are temptations to dig deeper: hardly surprising when there are such characters as Teddy Norton or Howard Somervell. One of the artists describes how his subject 'is there before him, overwhelmingly obvious, impossible to imitate'. The vigour of contemporary painting in tackling this dilemma is heartening, with a roll call that includes Julian Cooper, James Hart Dyke and George Rowlett. SD
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Camouflage (Review posted 04/07)
by Tim Newark (intro Jonathan Miller). 192pp, Thames & Hudson hbk, £24.95
Accompanying the exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, this is an abundantly illustrated, stylish survey of the art of camouflage, from its origins in nature, through the two world wars to the present - not forgetting its impact on culture and fashion. Dazzle-painting ships was supposed to confuse the periscope-view of U-Boats, 'disruptive pattern material' is meant to blend troops with their background; camouflage couture, on the other hand, is contrived to make you conspicuous. There's really something for everyone here in over 100 years of artifice and design: paintings by Nevinson, Bomberg and Ravilious, sniper suits and a Gaultier chiffon gown, speckled Focke-Wulf aircraft and pink stilettos - even the nude-but-camouflaged photograph of Lee Miller that surrealist Roland Penrose used to spice up Home Guard lectures . . . AA
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George Bellows: An Artist in Action (Review posted 04/07)
by Mary Sayre Haverstock. 160pp, 120 ills, Merrell hbk, £29.95
Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1882, George Bellows was one of the leading lights of what was later dubbed the Ashcan school, gritty American realist painters who flourished at that transitional moment between 19th C. and Modernist art. A keen sportsman, the technically adept Bellows' vigorous brushwork brought him early artistic success and he was elected to the prestigious National Academy at just 26. This is a beautifully illustrated, workmanlike account of the life and work of a significant American painter, who died suddenly from peritonitis in his early 40s. He's probably best known for his boxing pictures and was an accomplished portraitist, but it's the bustling urban scenes, the coastal and other landscapes that really hit the mark . . . AA
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The Abu Ghraib Effect (Review posted 03/07)
by Stephen F. Eisenman. 144pp, 66 mono ills, Reaktion books hbk, £14.95
The notorious Abu Ghraib torture pictures aroused widespread outcry, yet polls showed most US citizens were unconcerned and George W. Bush
was re-elected to the Presidency soon afterwards. One explanation, argues American art historian Stephen Eisenman, is the nature of the images themselves. Showing the victims engaged in apparently sexual acts makes them seem complicit - even deriving pleasure from the experience - and this echoes a stereotype which he traces back through Greco-Roman, Renaissance and later artistic representations of abuse.
AA
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ARCHITECTURE
Gaudí: Builder of Visions (Review posted 1/03)
by Philippe Thiébaut. 127pp, 60 col, 53 b&w ills, Thames & Hudson pbk £6.95
One of the admirable New Horizons series, designed to go with you on your travels. From the 12 line synopsis of Gaudí's life and work on the first page to Evelyn Waugh's article in 'Architectural Review' of June 1930 in which he talks about the shock of a first encounter with his creations ("it is not so much propriety that is outraged as one's sense of probability"), this small book tackles the difficult task of encapsulating and making sense of an architecture even less easily reducible than most to the confines of text and photographs.
SD
web http://www.thamesandhudson.com
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The Look of Architecture (Review posted 8/03)
by Witold Rybczynski. 130pp, 34 b&w ills. Oxford University Press pbk £7.99
Based on a series of lectures given under the auspices of the OUP and the New York Public Library, this small book explores the role of style in architecture. The author roams backwards and forwards from the classical period to the latest work by the likes of Greenberg, Jacobsen and Norten, drawing comparisons and lessons with apparently effortless skill. He is particularly acute when analysing the discomfort many architects feel with the word "style" and advances the idea that architecture, interior design and fashion are intimately connected, contrary to received opinion which prefers an absence of people and their clutter. (Have you noticed how architectural photographs always make buildings look more like works of art than constructions with a functional purpose?) His three essays "Dressing Up", "In and Out of Fashion" and "Style" provide an excellent synopsis of American architecture, besides giving much food for thought. It's pure delight to see hoary old maxims like "Form follows function" being given such elegant short shrift.
SD
web http://www.oup.com
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Mackintosh's Masterwork: The Glasgow School of Art (Review posted 7/04)
ed. William Buchanan, 198pp, 200 b&w/col ills, The Glasgow School of Art Press/A & C Black, hbk £ 30
Second edition, redesigned and expanded, of 1989 celebration of the country's most easily identifiable art school. Succinct accounts of the influences at work on Mackintosh, his planning ability and interest in contemporary technology (a facsimile of the explicit Competition Conditions, dated June 1896, is included) combine with excellent photographs to show why this building continues to inspire and enthuse. If only London's Royal College could achieve such a happy outcome.
SD
web http://www.acblack.com
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Modern: The Modern Movement in Britain (review posted 12/05)
by Alan Powers, Photography by Morley von Sternberg. 240pp, 250 ills, Merrell hbk, £35
The sensual enjoyment and intellectual appreciation of modern architecture in this country has long suffered from a reactionary
'carbuncle' complex. This book on the British modern movement in the 1930s radically sets out to overturn that prejudice through the sumptuous illustration of stunningly innovative buildings and a lucid and highly informative commentary. A beautifully produced publication and genuine eye-opener with an illuminating and challenging presentation of a relatively neglected subject.
Bill Hare
web http://www.merrellpublishers.com
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ARTISTS
Anthony Fry (Review posted 5/02)
162pp, 153 col ills. Longfellow/Umbrage Editions hbk, £50
A celebration of the "poet of colour", magnificently illustrated but not just a picture book: contributions by John Berger, Bryan Robertson, Andrew Lambirth and Tom Stoppard, together with Cathy Courtney's interview with Fry for the Artists' Lives series at the British Library, make this a comprehensive and refreshingly idiosyncratic monograph of a painter who has drawn inspiration in
particular from North Africa and India ("I can't paint unless I'm warm").
SD
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Art by Film Directors (Review posted 12/04)
by Karl French. 208pp, 82 col ills. Mitchell Beazley Press hbk, £25
23 film directors' art held between these pages - from the more established work of Jean Cocteau and Derek Jarman to the insecure
cartoons of Alan Parker and Akira Kurosawa's accomplished paintings.
For some, like Wim Wenders, his photography feels more akin to location shots or unrealised films than stand-alone art. But by not getting too hung-up around the interpretation of art it does give a wide overview of a film director's influences, interests, beginnings and personal creative expression that happens off-camera.
ST
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The Black Paintings of Goya (Review posted 2/04
by Juan Jose Junquera. 96pp, 50 col ills. Scala pbk, £12.95
The black paintings - 14 terrifying murals painted on the walls of his country house (the Quinta del Sordo) and the culmination of
Goya's art - now hang in the Prado. I can testify to the power of these works - the blood-curdling image of Saturn devouring the
head of one of his children is branded on my mind. This is a brief,
if opaque, study of master works whose influence extends to Motherwell, Kline and Bacon inter alia: "Their darkness has been the guiding light for (those) artists . . . who have best captured
these facets of the collective unconscious."
RC
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Botticelli (Review posted 6/04)
by Susan Legouix. 128pp, 75 col/b&w ills, Chaucer Press hbk, £15.99
Botticelli is one of those artists whose work suffers badly in reproduction. We miss what Walter Pater called "the peculiar sensation, the peculiar quality of pleasure which we cannot get
elsewhere". This book struggles gamely with the problem, with a few
layout hiccoughs (Mars' knees disappearing between pp.110-111) and should serve as a useful aide-mémoire. As well as containing much interesting and worthy information such as the diagram of the original scheme of the Sistine Chapel and a plan of where to find Botticelli's work in Florence, there is a well written account of the development of Botticelli's style and personal idiom, and the varying status accorded him over the centuries. The careful research is what we'd expect from the author of the acclaimed 'Gainsborough in Bath'.
SD
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Daemons and Angels: A Life of Jacob Epstein (Review posted 7/02)
by June Rose. 300pp, 25 ills, Constable hbk, £20
Born New York (1880) into a family of Polish Jewish merchants, Epstein arrived in London in his 20s armed with a recommendation from Rodin and was soon impressing arty bigwigs over here such as George Bernard Shaw. His powerful, often controversial works and turbulent career culminated in a knighthood in 1954 and recognition as a major player in 20th C. sculpture. Still, June Rose feels his contribution to the cultural life of this country has been "shamefully neglected", which she hopes to help rectify with this biography, launched at the Boundary Gallery's July 02 show for the artist.
AA
web http://www.constablerobinson.com
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Daumier (Review posted 11/04)
by Sarah Symmons. 128pp, 109 col/b&w ills, Chaucer Press hbk, £15.99
Well-illustrated thematic survey of the career of the great caricaturist of mid-19th Century France. An outstanding draughtsman, Daumier produced thousands of satirical lithographs on social and political themes, though his aspirations for recognition as a painter remained largely unfulfilled in his lifetime. Indeed his sole (well-received) painting exhibition took place the year before his death aged 71 in 1879, though he could count Degas, Delacroix, Millet and Corot amongst his supporters. By the end of the century, however, his stature was such that forgeries of his work became common.
This revamped edition of a 1979 title contains a useful chronology
of his career, perceptive illustrations of his artistic influences
and extensive captions for the featured prints, paintings and sculpture. AA
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David Blackburn: The Sublime Landscape (Review posted 3/03)
by Charlotte Mullins. 120pp, 60 col ills, Hart Gallery hbk £30
One of the illuminating and cheering facts gleaned from this thoughtfully illustrated and written book on the much travelled (but
endearingly non-driver) Blackburn is that he didn't visit Cornwall until 2001, and then only to prepare his exhibition at Hart South
West. This immediately brands him an individual, and his unswerving devotion to the medium of pastel confirms him as such. The chapter on his technique is perhaps the most interesting in the book, which concentrates on work since the 1994 retrospective at Huddersfield Art Gallery. As is de rigueur with monographs these days, an interview with the artist, by Ron Phillips, is included.
SD
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An Artist Against The Third Reich: Ernst Barlach 1933-38 (Review posted 7/03)
by Peter Paret. 248pp, 38 b/w ills, Cambridge University Press hbk,
£25
"Art", in the view of sculptor and playwright Ernst Barlach, "is not subject to the strictures of a political view of the world." Hitler, of course, thought otherwise, seeing the artistic front as another on which to wage the ideological struggle for National Socialism. As the new regime came to power Barlach, an established Expressionist artist in his 60s, soon came under attack; 400 of his works were removed from museums, public sculptures were destroyed and he was included in the notorious 'Degenerate Art' exhibition of 1937. His bid to maintain artistic independence, however, ended the following year when he died of heart failure. Peter Paret adroitly recounts this assault on freedom of expression and analyses Hitler's rejection of modernism as part of his wider contempt for liberal Western culture. Absorbing, thoughtful and admirably succinct.
AA
web http://www.cambridge.org
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Franz Marc (Review posted 9/04)
by Mark Rosenthal. 160pp, 71 col & 12 b/w ills, Prestel pbk £19.99
He painted brightly-coloured animals; founded with Kandinsky the Blaue
Reiter group; and was a close friend of Paul Klee. Like Van Gogh his early training was for the priesthood and was killed aged 36 in the Great War. Marc's distinctive paintings - rich colours, forms broken into facets - were strongly influenced by Delaunay whom he visited in Paris in 1912. Abstract painting ("mystic-inner construction") for Marc was spiritual: "This art is our religion . . . our truth." His Deer in a Monastery Garden is moving and mysterious, the deer at the heart of a jewel of deeply coloured resonating triangles. This beautiful book consists of big colour plates, mainly of works between 1910 and 1914, with a concise, readable introduction.
RC
web http://www.prestel.com
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Friedrich (Review posted 11/04)
by William Vaughan. 352pp, 190 ills, Phaidon pbk, £12.99
Thirty years ago, a list of 'Greatest 19th Century Painters' would have been unlikely to include Caspar David Friedrich; now, though, he
has undoubtedly claimed a place in the Premier League of Romantic
era artists alongside Goya, Gericault or Constable. As curator of the 1972 Tate show - the first major 'international' - William Vaughan must claim some of the credit for this promotion and here he provides an up-to-date overview of Friedrich's career. This latest 'Art & Ideas' title amply fulfils the series mission statement of providing jargonless, authoritative introductions that set the subject in context. My only quibble, as always with this otherwise excellent series, concerns the typography. The over-bold, grey font and eccentric line-spacing really do impair readability.
AA
web http://www.phaidon.com
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Gainsborough (Review posted 5/02)
by William Vaughan. 224pp, 172 ills, Thames & Hudson pbk, £8.95
An idiosyncratic bunch, the Gainsboroughs. 'Scheming Jack's' largely abortive
enterprises included a self-rocking cradle and attempts to tackle the
longitude problem (finally solved by John Harrison's celebrated chronometer);
fortunately his younger brother Thomas's artistic genius secured the Gainsborough
name's place in history, though he too did not entirely escape the family
trait of eccentricity, nor indeed did his daughters, appealingly depicted
by him as youngsters in 'The Painter's Daughters Chasing a Butterfly'
at the National Gallery. For this new title in the ever-expanding 'World
of Art' series, William Vaughan provides a diverting and informative resumé
of the great landscape and portrait artist's career, identifying the visual
perceptiveness and pictorial intelligence which lay at the centre.
AA
web http://www.thamesandhudson.com
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Gainsborough in Bath (Review posted 1/03)
by Susan Sloman. 266pp, 173 col/b&w ills, Yale University Press hbk £35
Concentrating on Gainsborough's middle period (c.1758-74), Sloman has painstakingly unearthed a welter of information that does much to explain how he achieved a commanding position within the contemporary art world while living in a provincial city, albeit one as forward-looking and enterprising as Bath. Whether talking about heights of windows, women entrepreneurs or Gainsborough's refusal to be browbeaten by the RA "set", this book is at times, in its enthusiasm for every last detail, a little reminiscent of the dissertation it began life as, but it is never dull.
(SD
web http://www.yaleup.co.uk
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Gaudier-Breska: An Absolute Case of Genius (Review posted 3/04)
by Paul O'Keeffe. Penguin hbk, £25
In the opening paragraphs of this excellent biography O'Keeffe compares the technical ferocity of carving in stone to the shattering,
fatal impact of a First World War Mauser bullet on the body of the 23 year-old sculptor. A well-researched account of an extraordinary life at a particularly interesting moment in English Art.
JS
web http://www.penguin.com
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Giambattista Tiepolo: fifteen oil sketches (Review posted 11/05)
by Jon Seydl. 95pp, 37 col, 24 b&w ills, J. Paul Getty Museum, distributed through Windsor Books, Oxford. Pbk £12.99.
Any publication that helps one understand an artist's modus operandi is to be welcomed. By concentrating on Tiepolo's oil sketches, particularly those held by the Courtauld Institute in London (part of the Seilern bequest), this book elucidates the relationship between his preliminary, often emotional and exuberant thoughts and the final, more considered results. Dr Jon Seydl, Assistant Curator of Paintings at the Getty Museum, manages to incorporate much fairly indigestible art historical material into a totally readable and even engaging volume. Only once did I detect American jargon creeping in, something to do with "valorizing" if I remember correctly. For the most part he writes in a refreshingly straightforward manner which really encourages one to look. Alas, where the final painting has been destroyed (for example the Apollo and Phaeton fresco from the Palazzo Archinto, Milan) some of the comparisons can only ever be with photographs, and the widespread dispersal of the surviving fragments of the Aranjuez altarpieces makes Seilern's success in bringing together the five preparatory sketches even more remarkable. The book accompanied an exhibition at the Getty (what Seilern would have thought of these works crossing the Atlantic has been hotly debated) but anyone visiting Venice would do well to have it along with them: the explanation of iconography is particularly lucid and would apply to the work of many artists besides Tiepolo.
SD
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Gilbert & George (Review posted 4/04)
by Robin Dutt. 144pp, 100-plus col ills. Philip Wilson Publishers hbk, £25
Most of us know that G&G have managed to become, at one and the same time, object and artist. What the author, no shrinking violet himself, does in this stylish volume is to unpick the motives and causes of their work - humanity, fear, unhappiness, but also an inextinguishable gusto for life.
SD
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Hokusai (Review posted 10/04)
by Matthi Forrer. 96pp, 50 col ills. Prestel (Pegasus) pbk £8.99
Isn't it strange that all of Hokusai's great works were painted between the ages of 71 and 77? He only came back to painting at 70
from retirement because his grandson practically bankrupted him. It
would seem that the history of art owes his reprobate grandson a great debt. His financial folly was our artistic gain. Hokusai had been a popular artist but his art hadn't reached the zenith of the Great Wave that swept the artistic world with a bewildering series of influences. The late works are endlessly inspiring: the mastery of composition and execution, the richness of colour and variety of subject matter. But what moves me particularly is his feeling for ordinary people: 2 men washing a horse in a waterfall, fishermen drawing in a net, palanquin
bearers on a steep hill, hunters by a fire in the snow. His eye reveals compassion for humanity in all its pathos. Because of the
illustrations this is a precious book; the text is short and dry. But Hokusai reminds us that it's never too late to make a great wave.
RC
web http://www.prestel.com
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The Inward Laugh: Edward Bawden and his circle (Review posted 1/06)
by Malcom Yorke, 285pp, The Fleece Press, edition of 750 copies, £262
This sumptuously-illustrated volume vividly evokes Edward Bawden's personal character and artistic development, relating it closely to those of his companionable contemporaries: Eric Ravilious, Douglas Percy Bliss, and fellow Essex village artists. As a young man, prissy, taciturn and often rude, Bawden perhaps found himself during arduous years as a War Artist, then producing exquisite, soulful watercolour portraits of young soldiers. 'The Inward Laugh' was the way he evoked a recurrent secret feeling when working. We respond with similar enigmatic delight to his work's inimitable wit and madcap vigour.
Philip Vann
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Jacob Kramer: Creativity and Loss (Review posted 12/06)
by David Manson, 212pp, 37 col ills, Sansom & Company, hbk £19.95
This is a sensitive, well-illustrated biography of Jacob Kramer (1892-1962), the Ukrainian-born, Leeds-based painter. David Manson (himself once portrayed by Kramer) skilfully recreates the courtly Russia of Kramer's cultured forbears, poor Jewish turn-of-the-century Leeds, the artist's rousing time at the Slade with Bomberg, Spencer and Rosenberg, and later years of artistic decline. Kramer's early somewhat Vorticist pictures of Jews at prayer and both dynamically chic and anguished women are re-appraised as the taut, moving masterpieces they clearly are.
Philip Vann
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Jean Cocteau (Review posted 12/04)
ed Dominique Paini, 416pp, 470 b&w/col ills, Paul Holberton pbk £30
"Cocteau was very brilliant when we last met," said T.S. Eliot, "but he gave me the impression that he was rehearsing for a more important occasion". Trust a sensitive poet to encapsulate in a casual phrase something of Cocteau's elusive genius. A 20th C. French institution (poet, film-maker, novelist, photographer, graphic artist) Cocteau's quicksilver work nevertheless always suggested enchanted realms beyond the accessible. His enduring masterpieces are films such as Orphée, La Belle et la Bête, Les Enfants Terribles, inviolate and truly original. This compilation of essays and images is apposite: fragmentary, frustrating but inspired.
RC
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Kitaj (Review posted 9/04)
by Andrew Lambirth. 144pp, 66 col/b&w ills. Philip Wilson Publishers hbk £25
The greater part of this book derives from emailed questions and answers between the author and Kitaj, who now lives in California
"smouldering in his Yellow Studio like a volcano". Includes a
compressed introduction to Kitaj's entire career but its unique selling point is Kitaj's frank responses to Lambirth's probing questions. Mellowing he is not.
LH
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L.S. Lowry - Conversation Pieces: Andras Kalman in conversation with Andrew Lambirth (Review posted 12/03)
160pp, 94 col ills, Chaucer Press hbk £25
Andras Kalman (founder of the Crane Kalman gallery) was friends with L.S. Lowry for over 25 years and here recalls in a very personal and relaxed way many details about the man and his work. The beautifully produced book gives us a chance to appreciate the breadth and depth of
Lowry - seascapes, landscapes, portraits giving the lie to the idea that he was just a painter of 'matchstick men'. Each picture is accompanied by relevant comments from Kalman which are often very funny. Lowry may have been fond of saying, "I've a one track mind: poverty and gloom", but he said it with north country relish. An excellent Christmas present for Lowry enthusiasts.
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Lynn Chadwick: Sculptor (Review posted 8/06)
by Dennis Farr and Éva Chadwick. 468pp, 965 b&w ills, Lund Humphries hbk, £75
When Chadwick died in 2003 the reputation of his work was, after years of critical neglect, very much on an upswing and this massive volume, illustrating and cataloguing his entire output will, unquestionably, do much to reinforce this process of reassessment, as well as becoming the standard work of reference on him for many years to come.
NU
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Maggi Hambling The Works and conversations with Andrew Lambirth (Review posted 2/06)
240pp, 200+ ills, Unicorn Press hbk, £40
Suffolk-born painter and sculptor Maggi Hambling has known 'The Spectator's' art critic Andrew Lambirth for 20 years, and here they
range across her career from schooldays to the recent (and controversial) Scallop sculpture commemorating Benjamin Britten on Aldeburgh beach. Never a shrinking violet, Hambling's forthright and articulate reflections complement the excellent illustrations of her work.
AA
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Martin Johnson Heade in Florida (Review posted 2/04)
by Roberta Smith Favis, 184pp, 15col ills, University Press of Florida hbk, $29.95 (available in UK from Eurospan, 3 Henrietta Street, London WC2E 8LU)
A compelling and warm read to be savoured during the grey winter months. Many admirers of Heade's work are often as ignorant of his life in Florida (1883-1904) as they are of the history of the state itself - a flat, semi-tropical wilderness dominated by water and floating hammocks of palm trees, scrub, wildlife, flowers and mosquitoes that could only be developed using the tools of the twentieth century. Heade, already a painter of strange marshland and exotic birds and flowers, became the first artist of any repute to settle in Florida - "the new Eden, the last frontier east of the Mississippi". In the same year fate also saw the arrival in north Florida of property developer Henry Flagler who brought tourism and the railway to St Augustine where he built the luxurious Ponce de Leon Hotel. He decorated his "palatial resort" lavishly and commissioned monumental paintings from Heade. In this exciting & informative account Favis tells the fascinating story of how the lives of these two men intertwined and why Heade's neglected Florida landscapes represent a significant final period in the artist's life, as well as being intricately linked to the beginnings of tourism in Florida, the preservation of the wetlands and the creation of the Audubon Society.
Lesley Giles
web http://www.upf.com
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