Friday, January 29, 1999
Essential Knowledge
BOOKS: True art afficionados ought to be familiar with a series
of books
on artists like Van Gogh and Dali
By Harshan Jeyakumar
Daily Bruin Contributor
A small book containing around 100 pages can seldom
comprehensively capture the life of a great artist. Discussion
about an artist’s work alone should conceivably be longer, let
alone that plus a synopsis of his or her life.
Nevertheless, the "Essentials" art book series ($12.95 each)
provides in each brief edition a quick but insightful overview of a
great painter with a concise biography and explanation of his
artwork.
Created by the Wonderland Press last year, each of four
pocket-sized books is devoted to a particular artist. Salvador
Dali, Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper and Vincent Van Gogh are the
first painters to be "essentialized" in the series.
Each book contains at least 50 illustrations of the painter’s
works. The authors spread pictures and the accompanying biography
material throughout the book in a loosely chronological order, thus
creating, a story book.
The discussion about the life of the artist is restricted to key
turning points and interesting anecdotes, split up into small
sections. Many key words and phrases are in bold, making it quite
simple to simply skim through the book.
Certain pages also feature revealing quotes made by or about the
artist.
"Dali is the only painter of LSD without LSD," says one of the
quotations of Dali’s eccentric works.
The illustrations of the works are found on almost every other
page, in varying sizes and mostly in color. Aside from small
sections in which the author digresses from the flow of the story
for an in-depth discussion of an artist’s major work or concept,
"The Essential" provides easy reading. The book is full of
information about the artist, his genre and how he affected the
time and artistic movement in which he lived.
It is apparent that the authors of "The Essential" were
interested in keeping the books short enough to keep the readers
enraptured, but they have also made a conscientious effort to
explain the artwork and its context to those who are (or wish to
be) more knowledgeable about art.
Whenever a major artistic movement is discussed, the details are
explained in separate sections that straddle the side of the page
or are set aside on their own page or pages. This is also done for
significant people, usually other artists, and institutions that
influenced the subject significantly.
For example, due to the Sigmund Freud’s huge influence on Dali,
this artist’s book includes a four-page section that discusses the
psychoanalyst’s work. The psyche, the unconscious, dream processes
and Dali’s own paranoiac-critical method are assessed in lengthy
fashion relative to the rest of the explanations found in the book.
This is followed by a one-page discussion on Dali’s major form of
art, surrealism.
This all suggests that the authors of "The Essential" wish to be
considered serious experts about their subjects and more than
simply people doing PR work for dead artists. Indeed, much can be
studied and learned from these biographies, but in no way can they
be substituted for textbooks for a serious study of art
history.
By choosing these four artists, "The Essential" has already
covered widely diverse topics such as impressionism, surrealism and
modernism. The three writers behind the first four biographies seem
to have the writing skill, along with a certain extent of
expertise, to adequately cover an artist. They do not unnecessary
praise the artists or express excessive awe of their talents; they
give a fair analysis of each painter’s strengths and weaknesses, in
both art and life. Plus, the readers are given a chance to think
for themselves and form an opinion about the artist’s works and
capabilities.
"So … was Dali great? You’ve seen his work and considered his
life. Ask your instincts; they will tell you," concludes Dali’s
biography, leaving readers to decide for themselves.
Overall, "The Essential" is effective in communicating basic
information about very complex artists. The strength of the books
lies in the way they are written, with audience as their top
priority. Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Comments, feedback, problems?
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