Category: Book Reviews
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Revisions: Francis Bacon in the act of painting
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in Book ReviewsMartin Harrison and Sophie Pretorius, the Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing, supported by Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation Monaco, in association with Thames & Hudson, London, 2024. ISBN: 978-0-500-96628-0. 167 pages, profusely illustrated. Hardback. £50. Review by Adrian Clark, November 2024. This beautiful book has been bound in the same way, with the same page…
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The Snail that climbed the Eiffel Tower and other work by John Minton by Martin Salisbury
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in Book ReviewsMartin Salisbury has produced a classic and he has been beautifully supported by the Mainstone Press. As an object alone, this book is a delight; knowing nothing about the artist, one could leaf through this production and gorge on its quality. There can be no better way to remind the art world that they diminish…
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Geoffrey Clarke Sculptor. Catalogue Raisonné.
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in Book ReviewsGeoffrey Clarke had a very long career as a sculptor. This book lists 900 works spread over 63 years, from 1949-2012. Both the work and this catalogue represent substantial achievements and, like all books of this type, the contribution made to a proper understanding of the artist’s career is formidable.
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The Art of John Piper. David Fraser Jenkins and Hugh Fowler-Wright
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in Book ReviewsWriting about the entirety of John Piper’s career presents a formidable challenge. It lasted a long time and encompassed a great variety of types of work. Describing it requires a very fine balance between detail and overview. The authors here on the whole make a good job of getting that balance right.
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Francis Bacon. Catalogue Raisonné.
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in Book ReviewsBeautifully and meticulously produced, these five volumes are a magnificent work. Martin Harrison and Rebecca Daniels have laboured for many years to produce them: the result is surely a model of what a dedicated team can do if given sufficient time and resources. High quality catalogues of this type underpin the ability of scholars to…
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Stanley Spencer and the English Garden, Compton Verney/Exhibition at Kunsthal, Rotterdam
Stanley Spencer and the English Garden, edited by Steven Parissien, London, 2011. ISBN 978-1-907372 12 4. (First published in conjunction with an exhibition at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 25 June-2 October 2011).Exhibition of Stanley Spencer at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, 17 September 2011-15 January 2012. Compton Verney is really to be congratulated for putting on such…
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William Nicholson. Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings by Patricia Reed.
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in Book ReviewsAnyone wishing to assess 20th century English artists objectively will recognise Sir William Nicholson as one of the greats. This book fully supports that status and is itself a great book.
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Rina Arya. “Francis Bacon. Painting in a Godless World”
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in Book ReviewsNot all writers about Bacon have been able to write so clearly. But the interpretation of Bacon’s paintings is not a task where “success” is possible. The task facing the author of trying to analyse works created intuitively was never going to be easy. As ever with a great artist, we are left with the…
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Face to Face. British Self-Portraits in the Twentieth Century
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in Book ReviewsBy Philip Vann, Sansom & Company Bristol, 2004, £45, ISBN 1-904537-08-1Review published in the British Art Journal, V, 3, Winter 2004 This study of British 20th Century self-portraits, including the 100 works collected by Ruth Borchard between the late 1950’s and early to mid 1960’s, is an extremely interesting book written, on the whole, with…
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Graham Sutherland. Landscapes, War Scenes, Portraits 1924-1950; Bacon and Sutherland; Francis Bacon’s Studio
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in Book ReviewsGraham Sutherland. Landscapes, War Scenes, Portraits 1924-1950 by Martin Hammer, Scala, 2005, ISBN 185759404 5Bacon and Sutherland by Martin Hammer, Yale University Press, 2005, £25. ISBN 0-300-10906-7Francis Bacon’s Studio by Margarita Cappock, Merrell, 2005, £35. ISBN 1 85894 276 4Published in the British Art Journal, VI, 3, Winter 2005 The Sutherland book accompanied an exhibition…
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Painter Pilgrim. The Art and Life of Tristram Hillier
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in Book ReviewsJenny Pery, Royal Academy of Arts, 2008, £25, ISBN 978-1-905711-18-5Review published in the British Art Journal, IX, 2, Autumn 2008 A short book on an individual artist who is probably not widely known beyond a narrow circle should try to sketch out the artist’s life; it should resist the temptation to be too hagiographic; and…
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Welsh Art patrons: Winifred Coombe Tennant and Gwendoline and Margaret Davies
Books such as these start to give us an opportunity to see the Welsh art world of the mid-century in greater detail. This is important – not, I hasten to add, because it will suddenly make us all think that the Welsh art scene was more ‘important’ than we had ever realised – but because…