Galleries - December 2018

DECEMBER 2018 GALLERIES 11 fascinating to both those that love a camera and those that love a picture. And then there’s the pictures – intriguing, mesmerising studies, her infamous celebrity portraits – possibly the best photo you will see of the Queen. Maggi Taylor Michelangelo Sculptor in Bronze by Victoria Avery, Philip Wilson Publishers £75 It appears that, in addition to his other many magnificent artistic achievements, Michelangelo was also one of the most significant and successful makers of bronze sculptures in Renaissance Italy. Unfortunately not one of his large scale bronze commissions survive. Bronzes are often recast as cannon in times of war. And Florence's "bronze zeitgeist" arose from the persistent Italian Wars of 16th century. Initiated by recent re-attributions to Michelangelo of the Rothschild bronzes, a team of international academic experts at the University of Cambridge have researched the artist's work as a sculptor in bronze. The comprehensive interdisciplinary study was directed by Dr Victoria Avery, an authority on the history, art and technology of bronze casting of the period. This lavishly illustrated and scholarly book is the result. Fascinating reading. Rosemary Clunie Paolozzi At Large In Edinburgh by Christine De Luca and Carlo Pirozzi Luath Press £25 The publication of this book coincides with a focus on Paolozzi and Warhol’s synchronus popart view at the SNG of Modern Art, Modern 2 which might lead many to Edinburgh until June 2019. With this book in hand as an adjunct, you have an inspired guide to 12 of the artist’s works stationed around the public streets and gardens of Edinburgh. The text comprising anecdotal recollections of Paolozzi, his ways of working and preoccupations, biographical essays describing life phases and influences and significantly responsive poems written by former Edinburgh Makar Christine De Luca and new artworks inspired by his oeuvre. Living there, going there? A read to aquire . . . Paul Hooper artBOOKS Mary Newcomb: Drawing from Observation by William Packer and Tessa Newcomb Lund Humphries & Crane Kalman Gallery £35 This beautiful book explores the pristine visionary nature of paintings and notebook drawings by Mary Newcomb (1922-2008). “The country is companionable” she wrote. “I am just trying to say something about peace and calm and space round itself.” Her intuitively sophisticated works evoke myriad aspects of Suffolk (and, on occasion, Hebridean and French Riviera) life incisively and with spacious clarity: its stalking cats, “magpie dogs”, a “Poor Dead Bee”, British saddlebacks, country shows and markets, apple-picking, workers in fields, ladies wrestling, river trips, cockerel weathervanes, “things bright in the sky” such as stripy hot air balloons, ornamental fish, “inadequately potted urns” and “a football match seen through a hole in an oak leaf eaten by a caterpillar”. Unsurpassably magical. Philip Vann Paul Feiler by Michael Raeburn, Lund Humphries £40 Raeburn's monograph is a comprehensive, insightful account of Paul Feiler's unique artistic journey. Feiler (1918-2013) wrestled with the Cornish landscape and abstraction in the 1950-60s (with Lanyon et al). His major contribution remains, however, the sublime masterworks of his last 40 years: vibrant and mysterious series of paintings, resembling ikons or mandalas, created from circles, squares and uprights like pillars, in exquisite gradations of radiant subtle colour. The harmonies of form and colour affect the viewer like sacred music. Names like 'Adytum' and 'Sekos' refer to the inner sanctum sanctorum of Egyptian or Greek temples. Feiler said “I am very concerned with the unknown.. the infinite... the remoteness of one’s existence.” His late paintings resonate with the inner spaces of the soul. Rosemary Clunie Annie Leibovitz At Work by Annie Leibovitz, Phaidon £39.95 Climbing Mt Fuji with her brother in the late 1960s was a seminal moment for Annie Leibovitz as she realised that the life of a photographer meant carrying the camera – like an extra limb – wherever she went. Studying painting at San Francisco Art Institute she started taking pictures for Rolling Stone admitting that she didn’t know much about rock and roll but as a fledgling photographer, was just delighted to see her pictures in print. The rest, as they say, is history, for today Annie Leibovitz is in her rightful place being considered as one of the greats of our time. This latest book, just out, is an update from an out of print 2008version; it is an immensely easy read, a real insight into the life of Leibovitz which is