Artists Books

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Artists Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

In Her Hands: Craftswomen Changing the World

Published in Paperback by powerHouse Books (2004-01)

Authors: Paola Gianturco and Toby Tuttle

List price: $35.00

New price: $3.63
Used price: $3.63

Average review score:

Fantastic , Beautiful, Inspiring, Sacred Book No Less!!!!

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-12

This book is absolutely all that the other readers have said. It is precious and very important for all the reasons above. In addition, it has excellent Cooperative and Fair Trade resources. I left my copy in Brazil for others,am now in Mexico, and must have another copy to share with others, and for my home. This book lives in my dreams and adds color, meaning, and celebration to our world. Thank you!!!!
Sakanta Running Wolf

This book does make a difference!

Helpful Votes: 15 out of 15 total.
Review Date: 2001-02-19

The glorious color photos and stories have inspired me to meet the craftswomen. I took the book with me on assignment in Guatemala with women weavers and watched the delight and pride from the weavers as they enjoyed the pictures of women like themselves. Each story is a challenge to all of us to seek out these crafts and use them in our daily lives. The well written stories by Paola and the personal essays by Toby are inspirational. They captured the reality of life and the possibilities. I left my copy in Guatemala and just ordered two more as gifts. This is a beautiful book.

Truly Great Book!

Helpful Votes: 24 out of 24 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-07

Amazing photography and unique insight into far lands and distant peoples. "In Her Hands" takes you on a journey to the places you've always wanted to go and into the lives of the people you wish you'd meet when you travel. Women around the world, working to create art and improve their lives. No flashy get-rich-quick success stories, no explosive dot-com egos, but real people who truly earn their success, day by day. The book deals fairly and honestly with complex issues of traditional societies around the world, as women invest their own money in the education of their children and change their local economies.

Beautiful, color-rich images help tell the tale all along. Like photography from LIFE magazine or National Geo, the photos make stories of In Her Hands almost leap from the page.

I highly recommend this to anyone and will be buying many copies as gifts for the holidays!

A wonderful holiday gift for all my female friends

Helpful Votes: 45 out of 45 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-10

In Her Hands: Craftswomen Changing the World is a gorgeous photojournalistic volume about women around the world who make indigenous crafts. The crafts, varied and wonderful as they are, are sold at market so that the women can have an income stream to improve their economic situation. Money earned this way is most often used to pay for children's education and improved nutrition. These are often women who live in abject poverty, many without the help of income-generating husbands, who are passionate about giving their children better lives. One admires their focus, their intelligence, and the joy with which they live their lives, as documented by the two author/photographers, Paola Gianturco and Toby Tuttle. This is a wonderful coffee-table sized book with glorious images for anyone who loves crafts, travel, photography and for anyone who thinks and cares about the lives of women around the world. Well-done! I've already bought three!

In the Belly of the Moon

Published in Paperback by Outskirts Press (2005-12-28)

Author: Ruth Dombrow

List price: $29.99

New price: $24.93
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Average review score:

Poignantly aware, achingly sweet, tragically blunt, and sadly born

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-19

First printed in Rose & Thorn Literary Ezine

Tuesday, September 12, 2006
IN THE BELLY OF THE MOON
By Ruth Dombrow
OutskirtsPress.com

Reviewed by Kathryn Magendie

RUTH DOMBROW's IN THE BELLY OF THE MOON, a selection of original artwork and poetry, caught my attention at once with its captivating title and bold cover art in variations of greens, yellows, and the predominant raging reds, perfect for the words contained within.

Each poem is presented by her art work, which at first glance seems chaotic and wild, then the eye takes in the detail, the perfect placement of line, image, color, and hidden meaning. Her art and poetry cradles the unsaid, but more often celebrates the blatantly blunt message. Bold, rageful, the unsettled work of one who opens up wounds and explores them, bleeding out poison, and then leaving the edges jagged so they can not be forgotten by time and circumstance.

Dombrow's poetry reveals family: father mother daughter grandmother
grandfather, and the title poem IN THE BELLY OF THE MOON--Light shears off a comet, sails through the fiery sky, a glimmer of Venus in the armpit of Mars--is ethereally beautiful, yet there are meanings hidden in the belly of the poem which one reads, and then reads again, letting the words settle on the skin until absorbed. Then, there are those who hover peripherally, but importantly, in the poet's life, as in FLIRTING WITH INFINITY--With his dark mustache and easy smile, he reveals more and more of what she aches to know--beckoning the reader into an understanding with the poet about relationships. Feelings of accepted loss and love, or loss because of love, continue throughout her work.

Poignantly aware, achingly sweet, tragically blunt, and sadly born, Ms.
Dombrow's book of art and poetry will linger far after the last page is
turned.

Triumph

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-23

Ruth Dombrow's IN THE BELLY OF THE MOON is a remarkably successful fusion of poignant but powerful verse and an exciting selection of her equally vivid collages. The poetry is a finely and accurately rendered record of triumph over pain and betrayal. The pictures, to my mind, record this triumph in exuberant design and color.

Sensual Pleasure

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-22

Dombrow's beautiful book is replete with vibrant, beautiful, abstract collages, each one on a page that seems to reflect, in some way, the astounding poem on it's facing page. The poems reach deep into the heart, evocative of loss, love, life, pain and joy. Her use of language is extraordinary. A lovely book to peruse, or read through; a wonderful gift; a book to leave out on the coffee table or on your night table to read and re-read.

This book is truly lovely

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-05-16

An intimate reflection on the poet's life, from what seems to have been a very difficult childhood to a contented present. Illustrated by beautiful collages and paintings by the author, who is an accomplished visual artist and psychologist as well as a poet. This is truly a lovely book.

In the Shadow of the American Dream: The Diaries of David Wojnarowicz

Published in Hardcover by Grove Pr (1998-10)

Author: David Wojnarowicz

List price: $23.00

New price: $9.95
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Average review score:

Reflections

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-23

It's indeed strange to read about oneself after 30 years-to relive those moments-to know for the first time that you actually helped someone you loved and to wonder why you did not express your feelings more directly in your personal relationship that lasted sporadically for those many years. David's years from age 14 to 21 or 22.

Required Reading

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-01

Despite the fact that I am already reading 3 other books concurrently, I am revisiting David Wojnarowicz for the umpteenth time. I simply can't stay away. There is no amount of time that can pass where I will have found that I'm still not in love with the man. And not just because I'm queer but because I am truly in love with his heart and the everlasting life of his spirit. No other writer has touched me so deeply or influeneced the reconstruction of my ethics as him. I could only dream of living a life so passionately and generously, a life which is evidenced by this book.

Powerfully Poetic/Disturbingly Realistic

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 1999-03-30

Thank you, Amy Scholder (editor and introductionalist). I have just read a review of "In the Shadow of the American Dream" in one of Seattle's weekly newspapers, and I am so glad that I did. Immediately, my curiosity was peaked. Not having ever heard of David Wojnarowicz, I am now a devoted fan of his work. As an artist and a writer, David Wojnarowicz speaks with a rare truthfulness unlike any other writer that I have read in recent times. Wojnarowicz speaks of a world not many people are aware of, the world of "seedy Times Square" where he spent his youth hustling, desperately trying to make a living by selling his body to total strangers; the world of a gay activist, vehemently seeking to make the world a more tolerant place for all; the world of a Person Living with AIDS, conciously, creatively expressing his pain, his hurt and his sadness, but not without hope. "In the Shadow of the American Dream" is a collection of excerpts of the 31 diaries that Wojnarowicz spent his life writing, from the age of 17 until he died of AIDS in 1992. With writing such as "I saw a face in a passing car that looked like someone I once knew. It's like that when you move on to other places in your life--memories of faces fading like thin ice sheets in winter sidewalk puddles, they melt, become only a part of the water so you can't separate them ever again, but they do remain there." Wow! Like passing an automobile accident, you don't want to look (or read) but then you can't put it down. I highly recommend "In the Shadow of the American Dream" to anyone who is slightly interested in what artistry, activism, creativity, and hope really means.

The life and times of a gay writer and artist.

Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1999-04-02

These journals of David Worjnarowicz are an account of the famed writer, artist. They begin when he is seveteen years old and end at the time of his death. The beginning explains some of his troubled background: his alcholoic father, his street hustlering in Times Square at a young age, and so on. The entries are most appealing when David speaks about his relationship with other men, especially about his love affair with Jean-Pierre, a man he meet while in Paris. These entries are fluid, full of a joy that one is in touch with when in the throes of love. Eventually David leaves Paris and is back in New York. It is this particular time and place, New York in the late 1970's to early 80's do we see an extreme sexual behavior of many gay men. This is seen not only with this work, but in the photos of Mapplethrope, and many accounts of gay men that have lived in this time period. The other entries concerning his HIV status and all the myriad emotions concerned with the fatal disease are rivetting. The diaries are, at times, disjointed, and some of the early entries I feel really don't need to be within the book. However, the book reveals a man of true in insight, an artist who felt everything, and wrote it all down word for word. A very good book!!!

In Your Face

Published in Paperback by Zippity Publishing (2005-08-29)

Author: Dan Lee

List price: $15.00

New price: $15.00

Average review score:

A precious window

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-11-10

'In Your Face' is a precious window allowing us to see thru Dan's eyes; it's refreshing & enjoyable seeing his work in raw & humane style, after viewing his commercial work at Pixar.

Great book, tragic story

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-18

I've been a big fan of Dan Lee's work for quite some time now. His characters in the Pixar films have brought many a smile to my face. This is a fun little book...you get see regular everyday people through his eyes. There is a lot of personality in these pages, and they are all so very simple. I am an artist myself, and "cafe" sketches are not as easy as Mr. Lee makes them look. But he had a gift, and I am gald I was able to enjoy that gift. It's such a shame he had to leave us so soon...the world would benefeit from more people like him. Thank you Dan, and thank you to all who contributed in putting this little gem together. Though the Pixar films and "art of" books will keep his memory alive for generations to come, this book just makes it feel a little more personal.

An inspiring peek through an accomplished artist's eyes.

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-01

Great book! After seeing the end-result of his work in Monsters Inc and Nemo, it's wonderful to see the day-to-day drawings he did in his spare time. A fun and inspiring way to experience how Mr Lee saw the people who moved through his world.

Buy this book!

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-31

A wonderful collection of some of Dan's character drawings. The personalities jump off the page. Highly recommended.

Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau

Published in Library Binding by Rebound by Sagebrush (2003-07)

Author: Jon Agee

List price: $13.10

Used price: $3.99

Average review score:

an original, funny book

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2001-02-28

My kids loved it; highly recommended! It's so nice to find an intelligent children's book that amuses adults.

A Story for Artists of All Ages

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1998-08-24

An excellent story for artists of all ages. It is short and simple, with a wonderful twist at the end. I have presented this book as a gift to more than one artist friend, and the reaction has always been positive. A truly "cool" book.

Old plot. New twists.

Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-09-24

The notion of paintings that have the ability to come to life is not a new one. I suspect I'm the only person alive today who remembers a bizarre made-for-tv movie entitled, "The Peanut Butter Solution", but I assure you that living paintings were integral to the plot. Similarly, the book, "Liang and the Magic Paintbrush" by Demi is a Reading Rainbow selection about a boy and his ability to create living creatures simply by drawing them. Heck, "Harold and His Purple Crayon" by Crockett Johnson covers similar ground as well! So I was not initially impressed by the notions behind Jon Agee's, "The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau". Reading it, however, I found it to be much different from these other drawings-come-to-life plots I'd heard of before. Above all, it's humorous, something the other books definitely lack.

It begins with a contest. At the Royal Palace of Paris a "Contest of Art" is held for all the painters in the city. People come from miles around to display their work, and one of them is Felix Clousseau. Clousseau presents his painting, a mere slip of a work of a duck, and the judges are embarrassed for him. When the painting quacks, however, they can't give Felix the top prize fast enough. Suddenly everyone in the city wants a Clousseau of their very own. The trouble is, sometimes Felix's paintings cause more damage than good. With no one to really blame but the painter himself, the owners of the erroneous works of art throw him into prison forthwith. It is only the timely intervention of a thief and a watchdog artwork that shows people the true advantages of owning Felix's paintings. Our last shot is of Felix trudging merrily into his studio... and into a painting of a street. As the book points out, he "returned to his painting".

Originally written in 1988 (the same year as "Liang and the Magic Paintbrush", but we won't dwell on that fact) the book is a lovely book to look at. Agee uses beautifully angular black lines to draw everything from affectionate boa constrictors to dapper men in suits. The colors in this book are muted reds, greens, with a lot of grey and brown around them. I don't think I'm wrong when I say that the illustrations in this book are simply a joy to look at in and of themselves. Felix himself is a particularly odd creation. Wearing a beret, a green suit, and spiffy spats you can make out nothing of his face except his beard, nose, and glasses. You never see him actually painting anything, which is odd as well, but then you don't really see him doing much of anything at all in this book. He trudges along with hardly at glance to either side of him. There's not a lot you can gather from a fellow like Felix Clousseau. He obviously keeps to himself.

In the end, it's a lovely book. If you have kids that fall in love with it and insist that it be read to them over and over again, you won't cringe at the thought. When a book is this lovingly thought out, it's a pleasure to peruse. "The Incredibly Painting of Felix Clousseau" may tread over familiar ground, but it does so in a way that is particularly of its own devising. It's hard not to have fun with a book that's so clearly well written. A tip of the hat to Jon Agee's creation.

Entertaining, novel story!!

Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-04

When the Royal Palace hosts an art contest, all the great artists come out to submit their paintings, like Gaston du Stroganoff with his painting, "The King on his Throne". However, an unknown artist named Felix Closseau also enters the contest. Except where everyone else's paintings are huge and feature the king, Felix's painting is small, and is of a duck.

Considering how seriously the French take their art, you can imagine the uproar at this ridiculous painting. That is, until the duck QUACKS. Then, the duck merrily waddles OUT of the picture itself, and off on it's way. Felix wins first prize.

At first, everyone wants to own a Closseau, until disaster strikes wherever his works are hung. A painting called "The Sleeping Python" is held in high regard, until the Python wakes up one night!! Volcanoes fill rooms with smoke, waterfalls gush gallons onto the floor, Closseau himself is put into jail! That is, until one night when a thief breaks into the royal palace to steal the crown...

Jon Agee has written or illustrated over a dozen books, including books playing with language-books of oxymorons and palindromes, most noticeably. However, "The Incredible Painting..." ranks as one of my personal favorites because of it's original story and fun ending. It's story is fun, quick moving and easy to read (though beginning readers may have difficulty decoding some of the French-ish names). Closseau himself is quite a character, too: a short stooped man with beret and enormous graybeard that successfully hides his face (and most of the rest of him!). Very young children will love the fun absurdity of things coming out of the pictures, while older children will appreciate the havoc that a living painting can wreck! Fun and highly recommended!

The INDIANA DUNES REVEALED: The Art of Frank V. Dudley

Published in Paperback by University of Illinois Press (2006-09-22)

Authors: James R. Dabbert, J. Ronald Engel, Joan Gibb Engel, Wendy Greenhouse, and William H. Gerdts

List price: $29.95

New price: $19.20
Used price: $20.89

Average review score:

Indiana Dunes Saved For Me

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-12

This book is a wonderful history of the saving some of the Indiana Dunes for our use today. Dudley's pictures were used in the early days of trying to get the dunes set aside for future generations. It also is the history of landscape art in the late 1800's to the mid 1900's. The paintings are beautiful landscapes.

Great book chronicling an undiscovered treasure

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-09

Frank Dudley was a gifted artist who became passionately interested in the grass-roots campaign to save the Indiana dunes from predation by Northwest Indiana's steel mills, other industrial encroachment, and pollution. For years, he captured the wild beauty of the region on canvas and, as his fame spread, so did his message. His painting of the 1917 Indiana Dunes Pageant, a sweeping outdoor presentation that attracted over 25,000 viewers willing to trek across sand dunes to see it, remains one of the only eyewitness paintings of the event still extant. This book chronicles Dudley's development as a painter and his life in the dunes; the plates are superb, and if you were unable to view them at Valparaiso University's recent exhibition, this keepsake volume will be the next best thing to seeing his original works firsthand. As an aside, I went to the Dudley exhibit at Valparaiso University, where the book was selling at list price. A few mouse clicks later, I had ordered the book at a deep discount at Amazon.com. Three more days, and it was in my hands. It doesn't get much better than that!

More than corn fields

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-24

This book is a testament to the fact that, contrary to public opinion, there are more things than cornfields in Indiana. Indiana is home to a diversity of unique landscapes and habitats not the least of which are the Lake Michigan dunes. Reproductions of Frank V. Dudley's brilliant impressionist paintings bring this glorious landscape to the fore in this scholarly tome. We learn from "The Indiana Dunes Revealed" that Dudley's work stretches far beyond artistic endeavor. He was also one of the leading U.S. environmentalists during the first half of the twentieth century. The only thing better than this book is viewing Dudley's many sumptuous paintings or actually standing on the sand overlooking the lake. Dudley convinces this reviewer that I am actually on an Indiana beach feeling the wind blow against my face and the surf move beneath my feet.

Recommended for supplemental reading lists in the areas of environmental studies and American Midwestern history.

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-05

The Indian Dunes Revealed: The Art Of Frank V. Dudley is written and edited by James R. Dabbert (Senior Lecturer in English, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago) with the assistance of J. Ronald Engle (Professor of Social Ethics, Meadville Theological School of Lombard College), Joan Gibb Engel (an activist and writer on Dunes ecology), i9ndependent art historian Wendy Grennhouse , and William H. Gerdts (Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Graduate School of the City University of New York). Frank V. Dudley (1868-1957) was a native of Wisconsin who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and eventually established a long exhibition record while dedicated more than forty years of his professional life as a landscape painter to the promotion and preservation of the Indiana Dunes - a unique geographical region enjoying state and federal protection while providing ecologists with a unique and truly 'living laboratory' for their studies. "The Indiana Dunes" is a team project that superbly showcases Dudley's life and work including 150 color reproductions of his paintings and another 70 black-and-white images. Because of the continual conflict between development and preservation over the decades, some of Dudley's paintings are the only record we have left of lost dunescapes. Also available in a hardcover edition, "The Indiana Dunes Revealed" is a splendid addition to academic library American Art History collections, and particularly recommended for supplemental reading lists in the areas of environmental studies and American Midwestern history.

Intimate Landscapes

Published in Hardcover by Lake Forest College (1994-03)

Authors: Arthur Lazar, John Hay, and Nancy Gutrich

List price: $60.00

New price: $60.00
Used price: $39.80

Average review score:

Great book/photographer

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-04

I have had the chance to know Arthur personally, he was my black and white darkroom photography teacher. The skills I have learned from him I will carry with me through my entire life. This book explains him greatly as a photographer, he is focused on detail and that is why he uses a view camera in his photography. I have heard the storys behind these photographs and it is wonderful how he captured them. This book is great as a gift or for yourself, I highly recommend it.

Intimate Landscapes

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2001-02-20

Arthur Lazar's photograghs are spiritual and captivating, he is truly one of the finest photographers today.

Want to master B&W Landscapes?

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-19

Pay attention to the photos in this book.

It's true what they say: many of the finest photographs you will ever see come from people you've never heard of. For every Ansel Adams, there are a dozen Arthur Lazar's hard at work. Perhaps you don't know their names, but the plain fact is, their images demonstrate not only a technical mastery, but a more human understanding of the medium as well.

I owe much of what I know about photography to Arthur Lazar, so I'm less than neutral. But that doesn't make the imagery in this book any less superb. Several images are among the very best I've seen; I wouldn't hesitate to compare them to the works of more famous artists like Adams or Weston. I was fortunate to be able to learn from this man; I just hope that with time my images will be equally compelling.

If you love B&W photography, get this book. You won't regret it.

A superb landscape photography book!

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1998-11-06

"Intimate Landscapes presents for the first time many of Arthur Lazar's finest landscape photographs. Uncommonly sensitive and lyrical, these pictures reveal a world which is intricate, mysterious, and sacred. Lazar's work celebrates what is worth caring for in the natural environment and offers a vision of what is important to nourish within ourselves."

A Is for Adultery, Angst, and Adults Only

Published in Hardcover by Workman Publishing Company (2002-10-21)

Author: Sara Midda

List price: $14.95

New price: $8.86
Used price: $5.94

Average review score:

A is For Adultery...

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-27

Do you love words? Do you love clever? Want to break the ice @ next soirée. Don't miss this. Added bonus: the wonderful drawings suggestive of not what you expected.

A Is For Adultery, Angst, and Adults Only

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-10

I thought this was conceptually quite clever. The chosen word choices, with attendant watercolor illustrations, were also very unique. There is no doubt this is a true artist at work.

Pleasantly shocked

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-29

Having been an instant fan of Sara Midda's previous works, I was pleasantly shocked at not only the illustrations but the content of this one. Adorably naughty!

Excellent Product!

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-01

In line with the quality & delicate illustrations of her previous books, Sara Midda delivers yet another gem which showcases her signature style.

The book is produced on quality paper & printing. The illustrations are lush and colourful.

Highly recommended to all followings of Sara Midda's work.

Jackson Pollock: Veiling the Image

Published in Hardcover by Parkstone Press (2006-05-01)

Author: Donald Wigal

List price: $39.95

New price: $23.89
Used price: $23.70

Average review score:

Pollock Unveiled

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-08-12

I must confess to having litle appreciation of the work of Jackson Pollock before reading Donald Wigal's "Pollock: Veiling the Image." This was surely due in large part to my bias in favor of representational art--a bias that endures. But this book has brought me to a genuine appreciation of a major artist. A light went on when I read: "Several artists stress the theme about Abstract Expressionism in theory, but some acted it out less convincingly in their work. Likewise, other artists observe the effect paint has when dripped on to a surface, but none before Pollock developed it into the brilliant visual polyphony he made happen" (94). That phrase, "brilliant visual polyphony," was the light switch. I suddenly realized the kinship between abstract impressionism and music. I would never have demanded that a concerto have an identifiable subject. Thanks to Donald Wigal and to the marvelous reproductions in this book, I now recognize that Pollock is at his best when he is least representational, and that Pollock at his best is brilliant.
It occurs to me that there is a polyphonic quality to Wigal's text that mirrors the subject: There is, within a clear organization, a polyphonic overlay of cultural history, biographical fact, psychological observations, and critical insights, that is ingeniously suited to the complexity of the subject. Here art criticism reaches a high artistic level in its own right, and I find myself personally enriched.
If "Jackson Pollock: Veiling the Image" can do for others what it has done for me, it should be a valuable and enduring contribution to art criticism.

Joseph H. Wessling

Overarching new vision of Pollock for today

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-01

Wigal's "Veiling the Image" is a new vision of Pollock -- something completely grand & overarching as nothing else I've read & reinvigorates things for today's minds. It's complex, incredibly interesting, imaginative & makes one desire to re-engage with it's sense of contemporary relevancy & beauty. The text is fascinating & compelling -- actually awesome & totally readable. It examines Harris's film & moves forward to 2005 including interviews about my own yet to be released www.Pollocksquared.com indie feature.

Wigal's incredibly researched all of this not only philosophically but poured it all out in more fresh ways than one can imagine with wonderful fresh vignettes not only about Pollock in great detail but his milieux including Ruth Kligman, DeKooning, Agnes Martin, Frank O'Hara, Larry Rivers, includes references to many artists & critics of today including fractal scientist Richard Taylor. It even explores the market as related to Pollock's prices. The perfect unified one in all book for any Pollock lover or for people who never got it before -- because they will now. Does what other books can't. It looks like publisher Parkstone spared no expense in every aspect of quality control with this wonderful & beautiful production. It makes sense for today's modern audience.

For myself as an artist the vast number of large Pollock reproductions & their clarity of color & sharpness surpass by far the best I've seen of any Pollock's before. They're in a class by themselves. Many images were also completely new to me & very appreciated. Wigal's made it all happen, every aspect, coming totally alive in fresh imaginative ways in dimensions I've never remotely seen explored before.
I'll be exploring it for a long while.

Bill Rabinovitch
rabinart@aol.com
www.Pollocksquared.com

Dazzling unveiling

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-22

The author does with words what Pollock did with paint. Don Wigal hurls and drips facts around simple organizational concepts. Comments about an actress' Brooklyn accent sit within a larger skein of Pollock the rebel cowboy. Besides being enjoyable, these slipping-in-from-the-side factoids, they present a continually changing perspective on Pollock. These fresh viewpoints make it easier to understand Pollock as a real person.
It would have been better if the illustrations of Pollock's work were more related to the text. They are very well done, however. You can see the texture of the paint.
Wigal places Pollock, his genius and his personal failings, in the fabric of both his own time and larger questions of science, philosophy, and history. The book sent my head spinning after several pages; it is best read a bit at a time, then savored.

A looking and reading pleasure

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-06

What a delight this book is. Pollock's paintings are presented in their historical and cultural context. The text drew me more and more into Pollock's world, making me eager to look, really look, more and more at the spectacular paintings. In the reading and the looking I felt like I was traveling the path of this unique American artist in his process of self-discovery and artistic expression. This book is a real pleasure! I'm going back to read and look again!

James Croak

Published in Hardcover by Harry N. Abrams (1999-04-01)

Author: Thomas McEvilley

List price: $45.00

New price: $11.90
Used price: $6.50
Collectible price: $81.17

Average review score:

My favorite art book

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2002-09-06

The first time I saw the cover of this book, I fell in love with this artist's work. In "Pegasus with Chevy," I could feel his dynamic spirit. In the "Dirt Man" series, I saw his secure skill, while in his "Dirt Babies," I felt his unique talent. Especially, in "Hand Series," I felt his warm heart. James Croak uses a variety of materials such as latex rubber, tar and dirt. I think it is this challenging spirit that makes him a truly original artist. I enjoyed the book a lot. Moreover, this book is so beautiful that I display it to decorate my room.

a beautiful artbook

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1999-08-17

This book gives James Croak the credit he earnes for his work.It shows a good review of his work for the last three decades.The context Thomas Mc Evilley places his work in I found very interesting.

A beautiful book about a unique artist

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1999-04-12

This book is a singular survey of this unusual artist. His "dirt pieces" are without precedent in the history of art and are rapidly becoming influential as we sum up our century. They literally appeared out of nowhere. Much of Croak's work is in stunning detail despite the oddity of the material. Thomas McEvilley's essay is ground-breaking as the book jacket claims inasmuch as there is tremendous amount of art of the figure today and the reasons for it are spelled out here. A beautiful and informative book !

An unusual artist at the height of his talent

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1999-03-16

James Croak's work is extraordinarily beautiful and often sinister. This book does an excellent job of pulling together the past 20 years or so of his sculpture. The production on this book is also first rate with beautiful photos and design.