American Realist [Hardcover]

Stevan Dohanos (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: F&W Pubns; 1ST edition (May 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891340270
• ISBN-13: 978-0891340270
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,725,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He filled in the details, January 24, 2010

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Realist (Hardcover)

I don't suppose there will be portfolio of Stevan Dohanos work published now, he died in 1994 and this book from 1980 looks like it will have to suffice. A pity really because I thought his work, especially covers for the Saturday Evening Post, revealed him to be one of America's finest mid-century commercial painters. Rockwell is rightly regarded as the top SEP artist (Lyendecker is probably next but his last cover was 1943) so I would place Dohanos next followed by John Falter and Mead Schaefer.

Look through Jan Cohen's fascinating Covers of the Saturday Evening Post (ISBN 0670849626) with thumbnails of every cover and the Dohanos ones pop up every few weeks and he says in the book he painted two hundred. His super-realist style really delivers because he crams in so much detail that other artists would leave as an empty colored area of a composition.

The book has twenty-one SEP covers in color and six in black and white. Also included are designs for USPS stamps, woodcuts, calendar art, several beautiful still-life paintings and a selection of other commercial work. It's the SEP covers that I bought the book for but unfortunately the rather soft reproduction (with a 150 screen) means that all the work shown lacks a crispness so that the quality of Dohanos work really doesn't come across and the landscape format of the book reduces the art to nine inches deep.

This American realist deserves better.

***LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.