Amazon.com
Best known for the provocative and powerful novel, Midwives (an Oprah Book Club® Selection), Chris Bohjalian writes beautiful and riveting fiction featuring what the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed "ordinary people in heartbreaking circumstances behaving with grace and dignity." In his new novel, The Double Bind, a literary thriller with references to (and including characters from) The Great Gatsby, Bohjalian takes readers on a haunting journey through one woman's obsession with uncovering a dark secret. We think Bohjalian fans will be thrilled with this compelling and unforgettable read, but just to be sure, we asked bestselling author Jodi Picoult to read The Double Bind and give us her take. Check out her review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Jodi Picoult
From the provocative and gut-wrenching The Pact, to the brilliant genre-bending The Tenth Circle, to her latest novel about a high school shooting Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult's riveting novels center on family and relationships, and bring to light questions and issues that remain with a reader long after the last page is turned.
I once heard a fellow novelist call writing "successful schizophrenia"--we invent people and worlds that don't exist; but instead of being medicated, we are paid for it. Although countless novels succeed in whisking the reader away on the heels of such fabrications, there are very few that pull the curtain away from the craft, allowing us inside the mind of a working novelist as he combines reality and fantasy. Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind is not just one of these; it's the finest example I've ever read of a book that tips its hat to both the beauty of the literary creation, as well as the magical act of creating.
Fact and fiction become indistinguishable in The Double Bind: The story centers on Laurel Estabrook, a young social worker and survivor of a near-rape, who stumbles across photographs taken by a formerly homeless client and tries to understand how a man who'd taken snapshots of celebrities in the 50s and 60s might have wound up on the streets. However, an author's note tells us that Bohjalian conceived this book after being shown a batch of old photographs taken by a once-homeless man; and the actual photos of Bob "Soupy" Campbell are peppered throughout the text. In another neat twist, Bohjalian's resurrects details from The Great Gatsby, which become "real" in the context of his own novel--Laurel lives in West Egg; part of her hunt for her photographer's past involves meeting with the descendants of Daisy and Tom Buchanan.
As a writer who counts The Great Gatsby as one of the books that changed her life, this inclusion was both startling and remarkable for me. Who doesn't want one's favorite characters to come to life--even if it's only within the constraints of another fictional work? But Bohjalian chose his text wisely: no discussion of The Great Gatsby is complete without alluding to missed opportunities and unreliable sources--critical elements in Laurel's quest. And therein lies Bohjalian's true double bind: all stories--even the ones we tell ourselves--are subject to our own interpretation, and to the degree we can make others believe them.
The Double Bind may flirt with the classics, but it's not your father's stuffy old tome: it's the sort of book you want to read in one sitting, and it packs a twist at the end that will leave you speechless. It also, worthily, spotlights the cause of homelessness in a way that isn't preachy, but honest and explanatory. Ultimately, what Bohjalian's done is offer his lucky readers another reminder of why he's such an extraordinary author: by creating characters that become so real we lose the distinction between truth and embellishment; by reminding us that the story of any life--whether fictional, functional, or marginal--is one to be savored. --Jodi Picoult
Book Description
Throughout his career, Chris Bohjalian has earned a reputation for writing novels that examine some of the most important issues of our time. With
Midwives, he explored the literal and metaphoric place of birth in our culture. In
The Buffalo Soldier, he introduced us to one of contemporary literature’s most beloved foster children. And in
Before You Know Kindness, he plumbed animal rights, gun control, and what it means to be a parent.
Chris Bohjalian’s riveting fiction keeps us awake deep into the night. As The New York Times has said, “Few writers can manipulate a plot with Bohjalian’s grace and power.” Now he is back with an ambitious new novel that travels between Jay Gatsby’s Long Island and rural New England, between the Roaring Twenties and the twenty-first century.
When college sophomore Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bicycle through Vermont’s back roads, her life is forever changed. Formerly outgoing, Laurel withdraws into her photography and begins to work at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of photographs that he won’t let anyone see. When Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel discovers that he was telling the truth: before he was homeless, Bobbie Crocker was a successful photographer who had indeed worked with such legends as Chuck Berry, Robert Frost, and Eartha Kitt.
As Laurel’s fascination with Bobbie’s former life begins to merge into obsession, she becomes convinced that some of his photographs reveal a deeply hidden, dark family secret. Her search for the truth will lead her further from her old life—and into a cat-and-mouse game with pursuers who claim they want to save her.
In this spellbinding literary thriller, rich with complex and compelling characters—including Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan—Chris Bohjalian takes readers on his most intriguing, most haunting, and most unforgettable journey yet.
Customer Reviews:
Long and winding middle of the road writing.......2007-09-29
Author Chris Plot Twist Bohjalian is at it again. As with his breakout novel, Midwives, The Double Bind is filled with twists and turns and things are never what they seem. Due to that fact, little that can be said without spoiling the plot. A young woman who has survived a harrowing ordeal lands a job at a homeless shelter. After being given a box of photographs belonging to a recently deceased client of the place, she tries to find out as much as possible about the man and his family. Although her coworkers, friends and acquaintances believe that she is going overboard in her quest, she is undeterred and doggedly pursues the truth. In a number of places, the reader will likely find him or herself wondering about certain coincidences and unlikelihoods, but if he or she is can just go with it - things will eventually become clear. Clever plotting aside, the book has its problems: it is long, long, long and the writing is not exactly compelling; there are two sections (within the prologue and again in the Chapter 28) that contain profanity and graphically described violence; except for some discussion of the fact that the homeless often suffer from mental illness and Laurel's encounter with a homeless man (during which she throws caution to the wind, telling her companions that she will escort the strange man to the shelter ALONE), the whole "homeless" angle of the story seems pretty sanitized; and anyone unfamiliar with The Great Gatsby is sure to have a tough time of it. The story's highlights can be found by reading the following (if you plan to read it in its entirety, don't read on): the prologue, page 200 (for "the double bind" explained), and chapter twenty-eight through the reader's guide. Best thing about the book - the surprises - worst - the writing. Midwives is a better choice.
WOW........2007-09-27
I am rarely as enthralled with a book as I was this one...couldn't put it down, and I will recommend it to many people! Very different, brilliantly creative, and breathtaking. READ IT.
A Painful Reality.......2007-09-17
No matter how lurid, misunderstood, violent or repugnant the subject, Chris Bohjalian wrests his themes from the daily news, fleshes them out with realistic details and spins a compelling tale that both enchants
and educates the reader. His latest book, The Double Bind, deals with the aftermath of a brutally senseless attack on a compassionate young social worker.
The author aced this one, and I will never again see a young woman pass by on a bicycle without reliving in my mind the horror of a cruel encounter on a bright fall day along a Vermont country lane. The event and the subsequent unfolding of the residual pain are told with
compassion and a surreal weave of reality and fantasy. It's hard to imagine where this talented writer will take us next!
Izzie Hayes, avid Bohjalian fan
A literary game not played by fair rules.......2007-09-17
I have to give Mr. Bohjalian 5 stars for chutzpah. How many authors would so tightly link their own work to one of the American classics of the 20th century--perhaps the Great American Novel itself--forcing any reader to compare Bohjalian to Fitzgerald? I can assure you that, if this work is representative, Mr. Bohjalian is no Fitzgerald; they hardly speak the same language.
But wait, the chutzpah gets even more extreme! It is possible that Mr. Bohjalian has deliberately given us this rambling, slack style--sometimes seemingly deliberately hanging with Spanish-moss-like clumps of unfocused, clicheed phrases that only a nonwriter would dare have appear under his own name--for a literary purpose. Without revealing too much--and the book is all about the series of relevations that progressively emerge--I think I can safely suggest that Mr. Bohjalian may be dropping a (perhaps massive) clue about where the story is heading by writing in such a slack, nonliterary style. Chutzpah indeed to set himself up so close to a master stylist like Fitzgerald just to make himself look like a bad writer to advance his own plot.
Or maybe not. Maybe the book really isn't that coherent. It teems with references to The Great Gatsby on many levels. It invites the reader to hear these references in multiple voices speaking in the primary narrator's voice. But for the life of me, I can't distinguish where one voice starts and another leaves off. Shifts appear to occur in the middle of paragraphs. Or at least, the story can be viewed as coherent only if this is going on. As a reader, I feel like one of the early German scholars of the Bible trying to sort through the distinct voices present in the text and wondering what scribe could have edited these voices together in such a haphazard patchwork. What was the scribe trying to do?! What is the author trying to do here?
I can't be more detailed without revealing key elements of the story. Let me say simply this. I came to the book with great expectations. I actually lived in F. Scott Fitzgerald's dorm room in college and had a classmate who saw himself and his girlfriend as the reincarnations of F. Scott and Zelda. (Sounds like part of some alternative take off on Gatsby, but this one wasn't fiction ;-)). I felt a literary mystery story unfolding through the pages of The Double Bind and my expectations rose. I love a good literary game. But as the revelations unfolded, I couldn't make them hold together. Other readers I have spoken to have had the same reaction. At the end of the day, I can't tell what the author actually intended us to believe happened in his story. More than anything, I felt as though he had not played fairly by any set of rules he had set for the game. Or maybe more mercifully, the game didn't have coherent rules to begin with. Takes Mr. Bohjalian off the hook, but it takes any fun out of the game. I came away frustrated and disappointed.
Couldn't Put It Down.............2007-09-11
"What a ride! _The Double Bind was a "couldn't-put-it-down" book. Now I have to read it again with a different perpsective. I loved the first, and am now looking forward to the second journey with Laurel. Thank you for such a provocative book."
Book Description
ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE is a spectacular visual biography of the life and career of Andy Warhol.Weighing in at 15 pounds, this enormous book is packed with 2,000 images and documents, many rare or previously unpublished.Taking its inspiration from Warhol's over-the-top nature, ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE depicts the major events, people, works and moments in the artist's life told in chronological order by subject.As Warhol almost never threw anything away (from restaurant receipts to postcards), the featured material in the book has been painstakingly compiled.As the publisher of The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonn+, Phaidon was granted unprecedented access to an array of public and private image and memorabilia archives and collections, including the Andy Warhol Foundation in New York and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh as well as the holdings of many Warhol collaborators, friends, and photographers of the period.The large-format of ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE enables the reader to explore in detail hundreds of fascinating photographs, letters, personal correspondence, art works, film stills, tickets, receipts, celebrity head shots, notes, press clippings and ephemera all featured in this one of a kind publication. The book also features illuminating texts by insiders Bruno Bischofberger, Ronnie Cutrone, David Dalton, Kenneth Goldsmith, Ivan Karp and Peggy Phelan.What is unique about ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE is that it provides fascinating insight into the public and private life of Warhol and in many cases also reveals the stories behind his art works.The book provides amazing comparisons between his work and his life that have never been demonstrated visually in such a way before.For example, it not only features Warhol's famous "Mao" series, but also includes ephemera from a 1982 trip to China (his passport, boarding pass, a souvenir from his hotel, etc.) alongside a photo of Warhol standing in front of the Forbidden City in Beijing with an official Mao portrait in the background. This important new publication includes a staggering quantity and array of colorful material including: Warhol's birth certificate, citing Andrew Warhola' was born on 8/6/28 in Pittsburgh; childhood photographs of his family; the magazine tear sheet showing the first article he illustrated for Glamour when he arrived in New York in 1949;numerous photos of Warhol with his mother; artworks for gold shoes he created in the 1950s; a letter from the MOMA dated 1959 in which the Director of the Museum's Collections rejects a work of art Warhol offered them as a gift; photographs of Warhol posing with Edie Sedgwick in a New York fashion shoot; personal letters from Mick Jagger and Liz Taylor; pictures of Warhol in the office working on Interview; pictures of Warhol private views; a series of shots of Warhol in drag; the program from his Memorial Mass on 4/1/87 and his gravestone.ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE is the only publication available that features Warhol's entire life, work and words in one book.The visual biography offers a behind-the-scenes look at the New York art scene of the 1950s to the 1980s, and provides a new perspective on an artist who continues to be endlessly fascinating to those inside and outside of the art world.
Customer Reviews:
Very Impressive. Great coffee table book!.......2007-07-03
While I admit I have not read this book cover to cover yet, it is a great book to own if you are a fan of pop culture, POP art, or any of the characters from the Factory. There is a lot of biographical text, but far more pictures and insight into the art, so it is really quite fascinating. I am a huge fan of pop culture during the sixties and of Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick. My husband is not. He loves this book, too, though as it quite nice for the coffee table, and a conversation piece. It provides exposure to the world of Andy Warhol and the Factory without the overt homoerotic tone that some of the other books have. I would definitely recommend this book.
Good for Killing Alot of Space.......2007-06-26
The main attraction of "Giant Size" is just that it is physically giant sized. I have the book set on one of my display cases and is just way to cumbersome to read. It's chronological layout of Warhol's life and work seem very accurate even though I have not been able to read this book rather a good skimming. Interesting documents of his life are displayed throughout including photos of his childhood.
I recommend this book for anyone who needs an enormous coffee table book, or is a fan of Modern Art or just loves Andrew Warhola.
very very Important.......2007-03-09
Wahol.......
This book is the whole of him
Awesome pictorial of Warhol.......2007-03-06
In a word Awesome.
Its a huge, heavy and visually spectacular overview of Andy Warhols career. The perfect Coffee Table book. First rate photographs and reproductions of Andy's work. One of the best available.
awsome purchase.......2007-02-23
This book is worth every penny, the photography is incredible, It's perfect!!!!!!!!!!
Amazon.com
In Dani Shapiro's captivating new novel, a mother struggles to protect her young daughter from the dark secrets of her past. Haunting and insightful, Black & White explores the notions of family and motherhood, inspiration and obligation, and is sure to appeal to fans of Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve. Find out more about Shapiro's artistic practices and influences below. --Daphne Durham
10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Dani Shapiro
Q: What is your writing process like? Has it changed from book to book?
A: As I was doing my usual flailing around before I began to write Black & White, I found that I had some questions in mind that I hoped to explore, if not answer--and those questions very much came out of my preoccupations as a writer and as a mother of a young child: is it possible to be as fully absorbed as one needs to be to produce good, strong art--and be equally fully absorbed in the raising of small children? What happens when that delicate balancing act teeters? And also, as someone who has written quite a bit of personal non-fiction, I wondered: where is the line--or perhaps it's less of a line and more of a murky gray area--when it comes to writing about the personal stuff when there's this little person who's involved, a person who will grow up and read it some day? These ideas began to really preoccupy me, and finally the novel started to form itself around them. When I begin the first draft of a book, I write longhand. I've become quite attached to these particular spiral-bound notebooks that can only be purchased in my in-laws' hometown, and so whenever they come to visit I ask them to bring me a pile. I think most writers indulge in magical thinking when it comes to the process, and many of us require talismans; mine are these notebooks. I used to only write on the computer, but I've found, in the last number of years, that I feel much freer to have no idea where I'm going when I'm writing by hand. There's something very neat--perhaps too neat--about the blank computer screen, and the ease of cutting and pasting, moving whole blocks of text around. For me, it's infinitely more satisfying to scribble and cross things out and make big sweeping arrows and asterisks as I'm working on drafts. It looks messy and complicated--it looks like what it is. On those early pages I feel like I can see a map, or a diagram, of my process.
Q: What author/s have inspired you?
A: In the big, enduring ways, as a literary backbone: Tolstoy, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Philip Roth, Joan Didion, Saul Bellow, Grace Paley. And while I was writing Black & White, Alice Munro's stories in Runaway and Ian McEwan's novel Saturday were immensely important in my grappling with understanding how to create a close third person narrative without losing the periphery.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm trying to start a new novel. Viriginia Woolf wrote this great passage in her diary, after she finished The Waves: "I must hastily provide my mind with something else, or it will again become pecking and wretched." I'm a much nicer person when I'm working on a book. When I begin I have so little to go on--a feeling, a sense, an image or two. It's like coaxing shadows out of the corners.
Book Description
From the author of Family History (“Poised, absorbing . . . a bona fide page turner”—The New York Times Book Review) and the best-selling memoir Slow Motion, a spellbinding novel about art, fame, ambition, and family that explores a provocative question: Is it possible for a mother to be true to herself and true to her children at the same time?
Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to fourteen. The Clara Series, which graced the walls of museums around the world as well as the pages of New York City tabloids that labeled the work pornographic, cast a long and inescapable shadow over its subject. At eighteen, when Clara might have entered university and begun to shape an identity beyond her sensationalized, unsought role in the New York art world, she fled to the quiet obscurity of small-town Maine, where she married and had a child, a daughter whom she has tried to shield from the central facts of her early life and her damaging role as her mother’s muse.
Fourteen years later, Ruth Dunne is dying, and Clara is summoned to her bedside. Despite her anguish and ambivalence about confronting a family life she has repressed and denied for more than a decade, Clara returns. She finds Ruth surrounded, even in her illness, by worshipful interns, protective assistants, and her conniving art dealer.
Once again, she is Clara Dunne, the object of curiosity, the girl in the photos. Except this time she has her own daughter to think about—a girl who at nine looks strikingly like the girl in Ruth’s photos—and she yearns to protect her, to insulate her from the exposure that will inevitably result when her two worlds, New York and Maine, collide.
As Clara charts a path connecting her childhood with her adult life, Shapiro’s novel weaves together past and present in images as stark and intense as the photographs that tore the Dunnes apart. A brilliant examination of motherhood—a novel that pits artistic inspiration against maternal obligation and asks whether the two can ever be fully reconciled—Black & White explores the limits and duties of family loyalties, and even of love. Gripping, haunting, psychologically complex, this is Shapiro at her captivating best.
Customer Reviews:
Very similar to another book...........2007-09-11
First things first, I have not read this book.
I was at the library today and picked it up. While reading the inside cover, I was overcome with a "haven't-I-read-this-before type feeling." The premise of the book is alarmingly similar to Miranda Beverly-Whitmore's "The Effects of Light"...down to the famous photographer's first name. Too many similarities for my liking.
Characters Hard to Believe.......2007-08-19
The main character is not developed enough to generate any real sympathy for her. The plot is superficial; there is no great depth or substance to it.
Relationships are Never Black and White.......2007-07-15
I loved this book. Other reviewers have sufficiently explained the story line, so I will stick with what more of a thematic review. The overarching principle of the book is that there is no such thing as simple black and white (right/wrong, love/hate) in relationships. Life is nuanced, as are our decisions and motivations. It would be simple to write off Ruth as a horrible selfish mother who didn't love her daughter, but SHapiro avoided the easy, cliche characterizations and offered us a family that had love despite the tensions that tore them apart.
Shapiro wrote vivid, accessible characters -- they are not simply good or bad either. For instance, Peony (Ruth's assistant) drove me crazy but I could also understand that she acted out of loyalty to Ruth. Clara's hurt and anger towards her mother was understandable, but there were still times when I wanted her to just get OVER herself. Every character, with perhaps the exception of Clara's father, had a carefully balanced character. (as a side note, Clara's husband and father are perhaps the most idealized characters. This is very much a book about mothers, daughters and sisters, more so than about the men who love them.)
The one weakness I found in the book was that the dates are not accurate. Clara is in 4th grade in 1982 (two years after John Lennon was killed) but then is in September of 7th grade when the iconic Vogue cover featuring the Lacroix jacket and faded jeans comes out. THat issue was actually Anna Wintour's first issue as EIC and came out in November 1988 -- Clara would have been in 11th grade in 1988.
Emotions Run High in this Family Drama.......2007-07-06
I thought "Black & White" was a very excellent book. The characters were well developed and Shapiro's descriptions of the various scenes, especially the photo shoots, were exceptional. I could easily imagine the characters and the scenes in my mind. There are many reviews on this book so I won't clutter up the page with more detail except to reveal that the story focuses on the relationship between the mother, Ruth Dunne, a noted photographer and her daughter Clara. And then there is the conflict between Clara and her sister, Robin. Clara runs away from home vowing never to return; starts a new life, gets married and becomes a mother, herself. Later in the novel the mother becomes very ill and Alone, Clara makes the difficult trip to New York to see Ruth. There is an attempt for reconciliation and forgiveness and toward the end of the book emotions run high in this family. I found this part very intense. Overall I enjoyed the novel very much and I thought Dani Shapiro created an excellent story.
Another great Women's Fiction novel I believe you would enjoy is Gathering of Cans by Robert L. Saunders. Don't Miss this One! The story is unbelievable (all 530 pgs) when you consider it revolves around 47 year old Zoie Baker gathering aluminum cans to raise money for a swimming pool. The author is an excellent storyteller, and worthy of your attention.
Great story potential, not fully achieved.......2007-06-25
Great storyline, but I expected more from the writing/writer (maybe that is the problem with being a big fan of one of the writer's previous books,Family History: A Novel, also a novel about mother/daughter relationship). I gave it three stars because of the great characterization of Ruth Dunne and for the story line. Couldn't give more because I couldn't stand the number of question marks in each page: everything Clara thinks/does is preceded by a question the character puts to herself (you could just remove all these questions and still have the same feeling about the doubts/questions in Clara's mind).
Book Description
Over the past three decades, Vancouver artist Jeff Wall's large color transparencies have won international acclaim. Wall has created a unique, seductive and complex pictorial universe by drawing upon philosophy, literature, nineteenth-century painting, Neo-Realist cinema and the traditions of both Conceptual art and documentary photography. Organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Wall's 2007 American traveling retrospective will include all of the artist's major works to date. In addition to color plates and illuminating details, the exhibition catalogue includes an essay by Peter Galassi that explores the full range of Wall's artistic and intellectual interests and offers fresh perspectives on one of the most adventurous creative achievements of our time. The essay is followed by an interview with the artist by James Rondeau, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, where the exhibition will be on view during the Summer of 2007. Also available from The Museum of Modern Art, New York: Jeff Wall: Selected Essays and Interviews.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Companion to the Exhibit.......2007-07-09
If you are interested in Jeff Wall's work this is an essential accompaniment to the 2007 retrospective exhibit being shown in NY, Chicago, and SF. It has a great deal of interesting background information that attendees will not otherwise receive.
So if you're a Jeff Wall fan see the exhibit if at all possible. No book can replicate the experience of seeing these enormous transparencies. But even if you can't see the exhibit get this accompanying catalog.
The ultimate publication in contamporary art and culture.......1999-01-19
A great book about a great artist, in a great series of "Phaidon" dedicated to contemporary art. Not easy to read, but worth it. The debate about Jeff Wall's art (in which wall himself is an importent participent) encompasses many fundamental questions and notions regarding new art history, post-modernism and society at the end of this century. A must for contemporary art lovers.
Average customer rating:
- Lucian Freud in conversation with models, canvas and paint
- A Window into the Privacy of the Creative Mind of Lucian Freud
- If you like Freud's work, you'll love this
- Absolutely Essential
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Freud at Work: Lucian Freud in Conversation with Sebastian Smee
Bruce Bernard , and
David Dawson
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Freud, Lucian
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Portraits
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General
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General
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Photo Essays
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Lucian Freud
ASIN: 0307266001
Release Date: 2006-11-07 |
Book Description
Freud at Work is a rare glimpse into the life of one of the most celebrated—and most private—artists working today. Though in his eighties, this great figurative artist continues to paint with undiminished energy and discipline.
In 120 revealing black-and-white and color photographs taken in Lucian Freud’s London studio, and in a fascinating in-depth interview, we come to understand the stages of the artist’s work and the intensity of his interaction with his subjects—whether fellow artist David Hockney, the Queen of England, or performance artist Leigh Bowery, among others.
Two remarkable photographers have been recording Freud at work over the past twenty years . The artist, uncharacteristically, allowed Bruce Bernard, the acclaimed picture editor, to photograph him in the studio, especially during the years he was working with Bowery as his model. Following Bernard’s death in 2000, David Dawson, the painter’s assistant, began photographing the daily life of the studio, showing us the progress of Freud’s paintings, his models—some naked, some famous—and the painter himself caught in moments of intense concentration.
Though Freud has always been reluctant to give interviews, talk about the painters he admires, or discuss how he works, his conversation here with the Australian writer Sebastian Smee is frank and revealing.
Unlike any other book we have seen about Freud—comparable to David Douglas Duncan’s books of photographs of Picasso—this important document invites us for the first time into the secret domain of the artist.
Customer Reviews:
Lucian Freud in conversation with models, canvas and paint.......2007-05-09
magnificent view on the painter as painter.
A Window into the Privacy of the Creative Mind of Lucian Freud.......2007-04-27
Lucian Freud seems to gain in importance as a painter and as provocateur with every exhibition (or even frequent monograph) that appears - an d for good reason. Freud continues the tradition of figure painting, but clearly in his own language. His canvases are dense with detail of both body surface and psychic message. His tendency to find rather physically grotesque models (such as Leigh Bowery) and then paint canvas after canvas of those models, each work revealing even more bizarre statements about the sitter, has made him one of the most interesting painters of our day - and the gentleman is in his eighties!
Infamously reclusive, Freud paints everyday, producing huge canvases and diptychs/triptychs with what appears to be the greatest of ease. But this very fine book allows us to see the artist's struggle with the creative muse by admitting us into the studio, courtesy of interviewers David Dawson and Sebastian Smee and photographers Dawson and Bruce Bernard, a friend and admirer now gone who captured some of the more sophisticated views of the artist at easel and photographic images of the models along side the painted version from Freud's hands, imagination and talent.
Even for those who have collected museum catalogs and other monographs of the work of Lucian Freud these richly reproduced color photographs of Freud's paintings, given the new vantage of moving from the museum wall into the studio of origination with the additional images of the painter at work, constitute a superior art monograph of a current genius. The book is a conversation with a living genius, a painter who is far more interested in the paint and brush than he is with the observer - until now. Highly recommended for art collectors, educators, art students, and for those who remain fascinated with the human figure. Grady Harp, April 07
If you like Freud's work, you'll love this.......2007-01-27
If the so-called School of London is your thing, here is a unique opportunity to watch the grand master at work. Not as good as a video, as possible with Auerbach and Bacon, but you take what you can get with the famously reclusive Freud, who clearly relishes enhancing his own reputation for eccentricity. (Remember the Snowdon photo of a wild-eyed Freud in his youth standing in front of his vintage Rolls Royce while wearing work clothes, like a scene right out of the 'sixties film Blow Up?)
Here we see the work of two photographers, both old friends, who were allowed to capture Freud at work over more than 20 years, as he painted single- and multiple-subject portraits of widely varying sizes, with subjects ranging from The Queen to Leigh Bowery. Most interestingly, this format allows us to see a large number of his paintings at various stages of completion, thus showing his process in a reasonable amount of detail.
Start with a sketch by Cezanne and adapt it to two models, then add a third, to make a contemporary painting. An earlier work starts with a nude model perched somewhat precariously in the cubbyhole high up on the wall. Her portrait on the easel below reveals just how brutal Freud can be in portraying the figure. When we saw the painting at Acquavella Gallery, we wondered if he actually had the model positioned in a nook in the wall. Now we know.
We see how the oil portraits of subjects such as Lord Fellowes and David Hockney start with oil sketches and go through development to the finished painting. The talented young British artist Tai-Shan Schierenberg, whose portraits of John Mortimer and Lords Sainsbury and Carrington are already in the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery, is one of several artists who paint in a style very similar to Freud's, but close-ups of Freud's smaller portraits show the particuarly intensive reworking which make his work unique. He lays on paint heavily like Auerbach or Kossoff but with his own style, which, in the end, is inimitable.
Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles in full dress uniform makes a glamorous subject. We also see Freud painting a horse and his dog Pluto, and his latest young female admirer. We also see Freud developing the plates for his masterful etchings, some of the best work being done in that medium today.
A 30-page interview by David Dawson and Sebastian Smee is interspersed with the late Bruce Bernard's color photographs and David Dawson provides over 100 additional color photographs of the painter at work. It seems that there is a new monograph on Freud every eighteen months or so; this is one of the few works which focuses on his process.
Absolutely Essential.......2006-12-07
If you are an admirer of Lucian Freud's work, this book should definitely have place in your library. It essentially comprises of 3 parts, opening with a very frank and insightful interview with Freud by Sebastian Smee. Followed by two collections of colour and b&w photographs by Bruce Bernard and David Dawson. They cover all aspects of Freud in the studio - photos of Freud larking around as a Henry Moore sculpture, works in progress (often including the model), finished paintings, his studio, his dogs, horses, foxcub, etching plates and resulting prints, series of WIP paintings showing the stages involved in their creation. Over 120 photos in all, with the vast majority being in colour. Lavishly illustrated.
Smee, Bernard, and Dawson all had/have a close association with Freud and for me that's what makes this book so special. Throughout, Freud is just going about his business which is captured wonderfully by the photos. Bernard wanted to take carefully considered photos but Freud was having none of that, to the point of literally doing headstands. Bernard died in 2000, around the time that Freud was working on his Cezanne piece. Dawson picks up the plot from there, with photo's through to 2006.
For anyone interested in Freud's painting process, either out of curiosity or as an artist, the photo's provide a wealth of information. The adage "A picture is worth a 1000 words" could not be more apt. The Work in Progress photos range from the raw drawing on canvas through to finished pieces. A number of WIP photos also include the model, allowing for comparison between the flesh and the oil. Etching plates and the resulting prints are also shown.
Smee's interview reads like a couple of guys chatting over a pint down the pub. Over his career (and long may it continue!) Freud has met and hung out with numerous famous figures - Picasso, Giacometti, Bacon, Hirst, Auerbach, Bergmann, Balthus, Bowery, Queen Elizabeth II, even gambling with the notorious Kray Twins (1950/60 gangsters from London's east end). The interview is liberally populated with wonderful anecdotes. Freud also talks about the painters through history that he admires - Cezanne, Matisse, Corot, Chardin, Toulouse-Latrec and why. He touches upon living in London and anti-semitism, what led him to paint pictures of his mother, his grandfather Sigmund Freud, being sat at the bar and finding out that someone else was impersonating him - was he upset? Not really, he ended up painting the man's portrait.
For someone who is reknowned for his privacy this book is exceptional. I'm sure Freud had a huge say in how the book would look and its contents. His pride in a job well done is most evident.
If Freud is on your artistic radar, even as the merest blip, then do yourself a favour and own this book. Essential. 10 stars!
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- Amazing photos - great complement to the DVD "Rivers and Tides"
- Nature inspiration
- What a work of creative and artistic genius!
- Another superb look at Andy Goldsworthy's ephemeral art
- Mature Work by a Great Artist
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Time
Andy Goldsworthy
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
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Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature
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ASIN: 0810944820 |
Amazon.com
Whether measured in minutes or eons, time is a good friend of British artist Andy Goldsworthy's. He spends long, solitary days outdoors in all kinds of weather, doing things like piecing together many, many yellow leaves to create a brilliant band of color at a river's edge in upstate New York or stacking small pieces of ice on the Nova Scotia coast to build a sculpture in the compact shape of an ancient stone monument. Threatened by a strong gust of wind, the incoming tide, or a sudden rise in temperature, these are fugitive works comfortably in synch with the natural rhythms of growth and decay.
Other works of his are longer-lasting. In walls made of stacked stones with hollowed-out oval "chambers" the size of his body--which he began building in 1999 in Lancashire, England--Goldsworthy makes reference not only to the shapes of graves in a nearby church but also to his personal history in the region and the enduring qualities of a rugged landscape.
Goldsworthy is the rare artist who can describe what he does in simple, concrete terms that nonetheless reveal his larger vision. Time is a very satisfying collection of 500 photographs, nearly all taken by him, that document the creation and subsequent mutations of his work. These evocative images are illuminated by excerpts from the diaries he kept as he created five projects in Europe and North America in the '90s. He discusses what it's like to explore an unfamiliar landscape, assess how the elements will work for and against him, and perform what are essentially a set of experiments. Success means making work that is, as he writes, "completely welded to its site." --Cathy Curtis
Book Description
In his first major book in four years, internationally acclaimed artist Andy Goldsworthy presents a wealth of new work informed by the passage of time. Goldsworthy, who works with stone, leaves, grass, branches, snow, and other natural materials to create intensely personal artworks, uses time almost as a medium in his art: on a snow-covered Scottish hillside a huge rectangle of compacted snow becomes ever more visible as the surrounding snow melts away; clay walls dry out and crack, revealing previously invisible forms embedded within them; a sculpture of re-formed icicles is made to catch the morning sunshine. In the spectacular color photographs seen here, Goldsworthy celebrates the many ways his art is about, or evokes, the passage of time.
Presenting exciting works not seen in previous books, along with revealing excerpts from Goldsworthy's working diaries, this perceptive overview-which includes an extensive illustrated chronology by Terry Friedman-will become the definitive reference on Goldsworthy's art.
ANDY GOLDSWORTHY's books include Abrams' Stone, Wood, Arch, Wall, Hand to Earth, and Andy Goldsworthy: A Collaboration with Nature. His work is regularly exhibited in Britain, France, Japan, and the United States. This new book comes in the same year that his first permanent installation in an American museum, at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York, has its official unveiling. Goldsworthy lives with his family in Scotland.
TERRY FRIEDMAN is an architectural historian who curated the first major retrospective of Goldsworthy's work.
"Movement, change, light, growth, and decay are the life-blood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work." -Andy Goldsworthy
More than 250 photographs in full color, 111/2 x 10"
Customer Reviews:
Amazing photos - great complement to the DVD "Rivers and Tides".......2007-05-11
I had viewed the DVD "Rivers and Tides" which is a tour of Andy Goldsworthy's artistic endeavors. It is very compelling and left a lasting impression. I wanted more and discovered, to my delight, that a large number of Andy's creations shown in the DVD were documented in the book "Time". There had to be photographs of Andy's work since most of them are not permanent in either time or space. In the DVD, we see the creation process as it occurs and then it may dissolve or move. In the book, it is "frozen" in time and space and can be appreciated as a work of art. I recommend seeing the DVD first so the book's contents can be appreciated even more.
Nature inspiration.......2006-08-10
Andy Goldsworthy's work inspires me to look at nature in a very deep way.
His use of the environment and natural materials provokes me to look at how I can
incorporate more natural materials into my own work. I am in awe everytime I open up the book and look at the images. I especially like red clay and the way it went through it's own process through time.
a gem, a timeless exploration of our natural world!
What a work of creative and artistic genius!.......2003-04-18
What a work of creative and artistic genius!
What to say about such an amazing work? For the first few times I
mainly absorbed the photos of his works, with only reading the
little captions and it wiped me off my feet. After a few rounds
of these I decided to read all of the writing in the book that
accompany the works he made and it totally blew me away. This
book has definitely altered something deep inside about the way
Ilook at nature, change, the seasons and time in general.
Time, as the title of the book suggests is the main topic of the
book and Andy Goldsworthy's art in general or at least his
approach and intention towards it. The body of work presented in
numerous photos and with corresponding writing in the form of a
journal covers the whole range Goldsworthy's work. For example
works made from stone, wood, leaves, snow, ice,...
As a result it gives an excellent overview and introduction of
his work and via the numerous writings a very deep, personal and
detailed insight into how he approaches different places, how he
reacts to change and works with the weather. The writing is on
par with his work. Very clear, direct, honest and poetic.
His insight into the concepts of time and change and seasons and
nature is truly breath taking. The introduction he wrote for the
book is a wonderful example illustrating this. Part of it can be
read by using the "Look inside the book" feature of Amazon.
Spending time with this book really cracks ones mind wide open
about time, change, nature and seasons and how to look at it and
perceive it.
And honestly I don't know what's more amazing. These amazing
and unbelievable pieces of art. Or the incredibly crisp and poetic
writing, deepening so much ones understanding of the works and
give insight into Goldsworthys view and approach and thoughts. Or
simply that out there somewhere a human being is walking this
earth with such an amazing understanding of time and nature and
able to transform this into amazing art an writing.
If the idea of Goldsworthys work is for him to work with time and
change and nature and to further his awareness of these concepts
and make sense of them in the most beautiful way then that is
exactly what this book excells marvelously at for the reader.
Another superb look at Andy Goldsworthy's ephemeral art.......2002-09-04
Andy Goldsworthy's artwork is utterly ephemeral and fleeting, and perhaps because of this, utterly transfixing. There is something of the ancients in the way Goldsworthy puts together stone, or wood, or leaves--or even in the way he lays himself down on a dry patch of ground in the rain so that when he gets up, we see a sort of reverse shadow of his body. There is an astonishing intellect at work here, and a soul which sees the value in what some art snobs might term "mere beauty."
Goldsworthy's many mediums are covered in "Time," which features sumptuous photography by Terry Friedman. We see perfectly constructed stone cairns--some pyramidal, some only half done and all the more startling for what isn't there as for what is. We see ruddy sandstone arches four times the height of a man. But Goldsworthy's most consistently inviting work is done not in stone, but in the ephemera nature leaves for him everywhere he looks. Goldsworthy's work is sometimes so fleeting as to question the very nature of whether it constitutes art when it lasts only minutes or hours. The frost shadows, for instance, are simply photographs of the still-iced patches of grass over which Goldsworthy stood in the early morning, then stepped aside so that a photograph could be taken. Of course these are gone within minutes as the sun warms the now-exposed grass. Is this art? Merely the fact that you question it shows your engagement with the work--Goldsworthy fosters a kind of subtle dialogue between reader and artist and the dialogue is consistently engaging. Another heat-destroyed piece is the thinnest imaginable sheet of ice, laid against a moss-covered rock, and Goldsworthy's handprint visible on it. As it thawed, it buckled and disappeared and we see its disappearance in the photographs. It's lovely, it's witty and it is, improbably art.
Other things disappear, too, but not from the sun's warmth. There is a "stick hole" Goldsworthy built early one spring which he and Friedman came back to photograph throughout the summer until the final photograph shows it utterly covered with the lacy ferns which grew up around it. There are the perfectly circular or perfectly ovoid leaf rafts Goldsworthy stitches together, then sends on their way down a meandering stream, having their path photographed before they disappear. There are the piled of rocks he constructs leading into the ocean so that the tides swallow them up--each stage meticulously recorded on film.
Perhaps the most transformative art in the book is the mud wall displayed on the cover. Goldsworthy applied mud to walls and floor in such a way that when the mud cracked and dried, it showed the meandering, snakelike pattern he'd put into it. It has become something entirely different solely through the passage of time. This book is filled with surprises and delights, and will have you utterly absorbed, charmed, and astonished. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Mature Work by a Great Artist.......2001-10-09
This is perhaps Goldsworthy's most elegiac and moving book, a profound meditation on time and change. If you like his work, you won't be disappointed. This volume and "A Collaboration with Nature" are wonderful and permanent sources of inspiration.
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Ed Templeton: The Golden Age of Neglect
Manufacturer: Drago
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ASIN: 8888493026
Release Date: 2005-02-15 |
Book Description
There are teenage smokers and drinkers. There are those whose despondence reads clearly as they confront the camera with vacant eyes. This, quite simply put, is The Golden Age of Neglect--a classic example of Ed Templeton's work which is deeply anchored in street life and street style, music (rock, punk, and rap), and graphic culture (wall paintings, murals, tags, and graffiti). This is the vision of an artist who crosses the realms of art, sports, sex, drugs, violence, fashion, and youth. A fixture of the Los Angeles skateboarding scene, Ed Templeton has been producing photographs, documenting a real story of his life, international tours, and encounters in the skateboarding world for over 10 years. Fuelled by incredible raw energy, irreverence, and spontaneity, his work is comprised of an extraordinary number of photographs and canvases, as well as a body of graphic work from drawings, sketch books and collages to montages and correspondence. This book is the reprint of the original version, which quickly rose to cult status shortly after its first printing in 2003.
Book Description
Dora Maar, born Henriette Théodora Markovitch in 1907, was a talented artist in her own right. While studying painting, she soon found a passion and gift for photography, and became a prominent member of the Surrealist movement. This catalogue traces her relationship with Picasso, from the time of their first meeting in late 1935 through 1937. Picasso expert Anne Baldassari demonstrates how those years were critical for both artists, and how their interaction provided mutual inspiration through the mid-1940s. The relationship is set within the context of major historical events, from the Spanish Civil War and the Popular Front, to the rise of fascism and World War II.
This chronological account brings a legend to life, allowing the reader unique access to two artistic minds. Maar s photographs, alongside Picasso's drawings, paintings, and poems, serve as a guide through the critical period in which these two figures influenced one another. Preserved in her studio archives, Maar's negatives and contact prints allow us to analyze in detail the intimacy of the life she shared with Picasso in all of its states, as well as the evolution of his art, including the colossal Guernica.
This exquisite volume features green-gilded pages and personal mementosâincluding notes scrawled on matchboxes and small sketches, which are produced on onion skin paper throughout. This book sheds light on the profound mark left upon Picasso and his work by their dynamic relationship.
Book Description
For the past thirty years Judy Pfaff's challenging and imaginative installations have set the pace during a dynamic and changing period in contemporary art. This richly illustrated book offers the first thorough look at the career of this influential artist who helped bring the revolutionary liveliness of the late 20th century to the walls and spaces of galleries and museums.
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- Not What I Thought It Was
- The unusual world of M.C Escher
- Just gives us what we need, and that's good
- Eschers Graphic Work
- Escher Is the World's Greatest
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M. C. Escher
M. C. Escher , and
Maurits Cornelis Escher
Manufacturer: Taschen
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M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work (With a Fully Illustrated Catalogue)
ASIN: 3822858641 |
Customer Reviews:
Not What I Thought It Was.......2006-10-28
I thought I was buying a wall calendar, and instead received this engagement book. However, it is a very nice item. It is spiral bound, with sturdy, cardboard type pages. It contains both weekly pages and monthly pages. The monthly pages have squares too small to write anything in except a word or two. The weekly pages have enough room to write down projects, assignments or reminders. I am not educated in art - the only thing I know of M.C. Escher is optical illusions, but this book contains drawings, wood engravings, watercolors, etc. The pictures are spectacular and Escher has a new fan. I bought this as a gift, and thought of returning it, but I think the teen artist I bought it for will like it more than a wall calendar.
The unusual world of M.C Escher.......2006-06-16
Many words come to mind when attempting to describe the work of Dutch artist M.C Escher: surreal, haunting, mysterious, dream-like.
Escher is best known for his exploration of the boundaries between art and reality ("Drawing Hands", "Reptiles", "Print Gallery"), and for his distortion of everday objects and mathematical experimentation with geometric shapes, patterns and perspectives (too many of his paintings to number). His best and most characteristic works, including "Depth" (1955), "Stars" (1948), and (naturally), "Other World" (1946) are highly imaginative, creating a fantastic and indescribable dream-universe all their own, one which must ultimately be experienced in order to be fully appreciated.
Just gives us what we need, and that's good.......2004-04-25
M.C. Escher is one of those artists that editors and art critics can't help but spew nonsense about. Taschen's collection of Escher's work is remarkably sparse on editorializing and allows the works to do what they have always done best: draw the viewer into the magical and hypnotic realm of M.C. Escher. The prints are extremely crisp and thoughtfully arranged, unlike other collections that throw works together in a hodge-podge fashion.
No other artist of the 20th century has had such wide approval and acclaim as M.C. Escher, and this slim volume perfectly expresses why that is so without resorting to pages upon pages of discussions on deconstruction, reality vs. illusion or image vs. icon, and all the other blah-blah-blah that you'll find in other collections. This collection just allows you to turn the pages and enjoy, which I did and you will too.
Eschers Graphic Work.......2004-03-27
Just as the title suggests this book contains The Graphic Work of M.C. Escher. In the beginning of the book there are short descriptional insights about each of the pieces. The rest is filled with Eschers work. If you're an artist and need inspiration or like Eschers work this is a great book. Out of about 90 pages, 70 contain full page prints of Eschers work.
Escher Is the World's Greatest.......2000-12-29
The copies of the prints in this calendar are magnificent. The detail and artistry that escher puts into his works is the most beautiful I have ever seen. Escher is the greatest artist of all time. I recommend this to everyone.
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